Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist Author: Visit Amazon's John Piper Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1601423101 | Format: EPUB
Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist Description
Review
"Mind hammering and heart warming." – Os Guiness
"A must read for every Christian and a feast for the spiritually hungry." – John MacArthur
About the Author
John Piper is pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has written over forty books, including Desiring God, A Godward Life,Don’t Waste Your Life, and The Pleasures of God. John and his wife, Noel, have five children and an increasing number of grandchildren. Learn more about his ministry at DesiringGod.org.
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- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Multnomah Books; Rev Exp edition (January 18, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1601423101
- ISBN-13: 978-1601423108
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
This is a paradigm altering book. I don't say that about many books. But I'm going to start this review by saying exactly that: this book will change your view of the Christian life and faith. It certainly has mine. Now, I know this sounds rather cheesy-alarming, even. I, too, tend to stay away from descriptions like "revolutionary" and "life changing" because they sound rather gimmicky. But I hope you understand, then, the height of the regard in which I hold this book.
What does one do with verses such as "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Ps. 34:8a) and "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice" (Phil. 4:4)? Surely, having been commanded these things, we ought to do them. But what do these commands really mean? What is it to "rejoice" in the Lord, to take joy and pleasure in Him? These are the kinds of questions John Piper tackles in this book. And if, as Piper claims, "[t]he chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever" (18), then every Christian ought also to know the answer to these questions. To understand these answers is to glorify God on a whole new level, and to live the Christian life in a different-satisfying-manner.
In his introduction to the book, Piper talks about how he became a Christian hedonist, giving readers the same verses and convictions that led him to his current beliefs. In the first chapter, he sets forth the principle that "[t]he chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever" (31). He shows that "God is absolutely sovereign over the world, that He can therefore do anything He pleases, and that He is therefore not a frustrated God, but a deeply happy God, rejoicing in all His works (Psalm 104:31) when He considers them in relation to redemptive history" (41).
Thousands of books are published every year but among those thousands very few will be a remembered after a year of their publishing, and even fewer still will be remembered twenty or thirty years after its first publishing. Desiring God by Dr. John Piper is a book that has been held in high regard by many Christians for a very long time. I first read Desiring God when I was a teenager and read it again several years later. After many years of reading Desiring God I was excited when last year the Revised Edition of Desiring God came out.
Desiring God has been a paradigm shifting book. By that I mean that it has made a deep impact on how I live out the Christian life. Piper in this book teaches that there is no need to choose between duty and delight in the Christian life. Desiring God teaches that for followers of Jesus, delight is the duty, because Christ is most magnified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him. Piper time and time again draws his readers backs to the Scripture by showing why pursuing maximum joy is essential to glorifying God. By going into the implications this has on conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions and suffering he convincingly demonstrates the integrated nature of what a Christian life looks like when Christ is most magnified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him.
Desiring God will turn your Christian life upside-down by giving you a vision of the glory of God and the beauty of Jesus Chris. I recommend you read Desiring God but be prepared to be confronted and challenged with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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