Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist Author: John Piper | Language: English | ISBN:
B004DEPEO6 | Format: PDF
Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist Description
Experience the Lifelong Pleasures of Knowing God!Satisfaction…Happiness…Joy. According to John Piper, the pursuit of pleasure in God is not only permissible, it’s
essential.
Desiring God is a paradigm-shattering work that dramatically alters common perspectives on relating to God. Piper reveals that there really is no need to choose between duty and delight in the Christian life. In fact, for the follower of Jesus, delight is the duty as Christ is most magnified in His people when they are most satisfied in Him.
Constantly drawing on Scripture to build his case, Piper shows why pursuing maximum joy is essential to glorifying God. He discusses the implications of this for conversion, worship, love, Scripture, prayer, money, marriage, missions, and suffering.
Piper beckons us to approach God with the hedonist’s abandon. Finally, we are freed to enjoy Jesus—not only as our Lord and Savior, but also as our all-surpassing, soul-satisfying Treasure.
Desiring God may turn your Christian world upside down. And that will be a good thing, for the glory of God, and for your deepest joy.
Includes a study guide for individual and small group use.
From the Trade Paperback edition.- File Size: 1510 KB
- Print Length: 368 pages
- Publisher: Multnomah Books; Rev Exp edition (January 18, 2011)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004DEPEO6
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,616 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #10
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- #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian Living > Discipleship - #26
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Reference > Theology - #36
in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Evangelism > Discipleship
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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