Video - It's What You Love That Matters

Here's another video message from John Piper that sheds some light on our reading for the week.

What can I expect from Chapter 3?

Here's some tidbits from chapter three to encourage you to read up.

1) "Can sex and cars and work and war and changing diapers and doing taxes really have a God-exalting, soul-satisfying unity?" (Page 43)

2) "Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: 'Look, Lord. See my shells.' That is a tragedy." (Page 46)

3) "Boast only in the electric chair. Only exult in the gas chamber." (Page 50)

4) "When our hearts run back up along the beam of blessing to the source in the blazing glory of the cross, then the worldliness of the blessing is dead, and Christ crucified is everything." (Page 59)

Prayer Request

Tomorrow is national See You At the Pole Day. Young people across the nation gathering at the flagpoles of their schools to pray and to make a public witness for their faith.

As part of magnifying God this week, please pray for these young people as do this courageous act in front of their peers and school administrators tomorrow morning.

Scripture in Chapter 3

Scripture (NIV) links in Chapter 3 and Lesson 4 are below, thanks to www.Biblegateway.com again.

Chapter 3
Page 43 - Isaiah 43, Psalm 90, Matthew 22, Revelation 3,
Page 44 - 1 Corinthians 2
Page 45 - Mark 8
Page 47 - Isaiah 26
Page 48 - Acts 20, Philippians 3
Page 49 - Galatians 6
Page 50 - Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 12, 1 Thessalonians 2
Page 52 - Job 1, Romans 2, Romans 3
Page 54 - Galatians 6 (again)
Page 55 - Galatians 6, Galatians 2, Romans 6
Page 56 - Galatians 2 (again), Galatians 6 (again)
Page 57 - 1 John 2, 1 Timothy 4

Lesson 4
Page 38 - 1 Corinthians 2
Page 40 - Philippians 3, Galatians 6
Page 41 - Romans 5, 2 Corinthians 12, 1 Thessalonians 2, Galatians 6 (again)
Page 42 - Galatians 6 (again)
Page 43 - Galatians 2
Page 44 - Philippians 3, Romans 3
Page 45 - 1 Corinthians 1
Page 46 - Luke 14, Mark 8, John 12
Page 47 - Galatians 3, 1 Peter 3, Colossians 2, 2 Corinthians 5, Galatians 1, Revelation 5
Page 48 - Romans 5 (again)

Extra Assignment this week

In the spirit of chapter 2 and Jonathan Edward's resolutions, we've all been assigned to magnify God every day this week in the way that Piper describes, the "Telescope" way. What does that mean?

I'm starting off the week with a prayer asking God to give me a mindset that will glorify him in even the mundane things that I have to do at work and at home, because Mondays seem to be the most mundane days of the week.

Please come with your personal examples next Sunday!

Assignment for Sept. 21-27

The assignment for the week of Sept. 21 is to read chapter 3 in Don't Waste Your life and complete lesson 4 in the study guide.

Recap of September 21 Class

Chapter Two/Lesson Three encouraged some lively discussion yesterday in class and I thought a recap of what we talked about would be useful to everyone (with a couple of extra thoughts from me). We all agreed that this was a challenging chapter.

The Pursuit of Happiness
This chapter specifically focused on the concept of happiness and the glory of God. What is happiness? All men and women seek after it. As Christians, we sometimes think that searching after personal happiness is selfish, or self-centered. Piper gives us the example of Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century American preacher who in his twenties wrote down some resolutions for his life, one of those being "to obtain for myself as much happiness...as I possibly can." (Page 29) Edwards was a committed man of God, and yet he saw the pursuit of happiness as a main focus of his life. Are those contradictory? What does this mean to us?

What does Scripture say?
Piper directs us to Scripture to find the answer about the pursuit of happiness. Again he reiterates that reading of scripture requires an objective perspective. We need to study scripture to determine what the Bible author was trying to tell the people he was writing to (scholars call this exegesis) and then find the meaning for us today (what scholars call hermeneutics). (Study guide: Question 13) If we turn to scripture we find that God is knowable through the life, ministry and death of Jesus Christ, and how important it is to use Christ's name when we speak of God.

Both Edwards and Piper come to the conclusion from scripture that God made the universe and all of its beauty for his own glory. Men and women find and enjoy amazing beauty in creation, such as the massive size of the Grand Canyon or the majesty of a mountain range like the Alps. No one visits these natural wonders and spends the entire time looking in a mirror. They spend the time marveling at the natural beauty and finding pleasure in it. God has created the beauty of the natural world for his glory. We find happiness in that natural beauty. You can almost write it out as a mathematical equation:

God + his creation = His Glory
God + his creation = Our happiness
God's Glory = Our happiness

We also discussed the painting gallery example on page 37 as describing this concept very well.

How do we define love?
The final element in this chapter is an explanation of God's love. How does the world define love? How does the Bible define love? The Bible defines it this way: love is doing what is best for someone. All the parents in the room knew this definition of love very well. To love God is to magnify him. But why does an all-powerful God need to be glorified? Isn't that egocentric? (Study guide: Question 7)

It would be egocentric for anyone but God to be loved in this way, especially considering the Biblical definition of love. Loving God and glorifying him is doing what is best for us. For many of us agreed with Piper's example on page 37: "No child complains 'I am being used' when his father delights to make the child happy with his own presence."

Whew! Thanks for reading and see you next Sunday, or sooner!

Susan