Worship is the display of the surpassing worth of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Suffering in the path of Christian obedience, with joy—because the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life (Psalm 63:3)—is the clearest display of the worth of God in our lives. Therefore, faith-filled suffering is essential in this world for the most intense, authentic worship. When we are most satisfied with God in suffering, he will be most glorified in us in worship.
John Piper, The Hidden Smile of God, pp. 168-169.
Archive for the ‘Quotes’ Category
How to display the worth of God in our lives.
Posted in Quotes on February 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The best thing about heaven
Posted in Quotes on February 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The best thing about heaven will not be running or walking, touching or holding. The best thing about heaven will be a pure heart no longer weighed down by sin and selfishness. And I can say that from this wheelchair. Glorified bodies? Hey, bring it on. But a pure, glorified heart? That’s the best!
Joni Eareckson Tada. A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty, Kindle Locations 1650-1652.
“Such a gift would be worth a thousand blind lifetimes.”
Posted in Quotes on February 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I know he just posted it, but Jon Bloom’s reflection last Saturday on Jesus and the man born blind gets so much right it is worth reading again.
For example:
Let us be very careful in interpreting God’s purposes in suffering. The man born blind reminds us that our perceptions and God’s purposes can be very different, even opposite. If we are going to be skeptical, it’s best to be skeptical of our perceptions.
And he reminds us that when Jesus finally reveals the real purposes, we will find them more glorious than we ever dreamed, and his reward so overwhelming that there will be no trace of bitterness, only overflowing gratitude.
Jon Bloom, If We’re Going to be Skeptical, Be Skeptical of Our Perceptions, posted at DesiringGod.org, January 28, 2012.
Do not treat God’s supreme creation with contempt, any of them.
Posted in commentary, Quotes, Sermons on January 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »
From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
Psalm 8:2-5 NASB
Some argue that rationality and self-awareness are necessary for a human being to be considered a person. That leaves out all kinds of people with certain kinds of disabilities.
Pastor John points out something a little different – human dignity is not granted based on rationality, but granted by the one who created them! And though this is not specifically about little ones with disabilities, the connection is clearly evident:
Why is it that what comes out of the mouth of these little humans has such strength that it can overcome the enemies of God? I think the answer is, at least in part, given by verse 5—these little ones are made by God. Job said in Job 31:15, “Did not he who made me in the womb make him [my servant], and the same one fashion us in the womb?” Little infants and sucking babes are each made by God in the womb.
Moreover they are made in the womb, like no other being, a little less than the angels, and they are made in the womb by God and crowned with glory and majesty. In other words, their supreme place in creation under God (or the angels) is so profound even at the stage of being sucklings that when they open their mouth to cry or to coo or to babble as a human being, they are bearing witness to their unspeakable dignity in creation and therefore to the majesty of God’s name in all the earth. God does not wait until a sucking babe is rational and independent to ascribe to him the glory and majesty of verse 5—he doesn’t have to be a NASA scientist. When the suckling opens his mouth, God is praised, strength is established by the sheer truth that a human creation in the image of the majestic God is here.
Let all the adversaries of God take note and tremble. If they treat God’s supreme creation with contempt, they will lose. They will be silenced.
And so I appeal to you, do not join with the adversaries of God in killing unborn children or scorning any race of human beings. Because the truth of this text stands sure: You cannot worship and glorify the majesty of God while treating his supreme creation with contempt.
John Piper, What Is Man?, delivered January 16, 1994.
Victory! Up next, Paradise!
Posted in Quotes on January 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Paul successfully swallowed a large pill the other day, and has taken them without much complaint ever since. You might recall Hannah got him to swallow a small pill some months ago. This one was at least four times larger.
The first success wasn’t easy or pretty. Dianne had to work carefully to get the pill positioned in such a way as to encourage him to swallow, without at the same time getting bitten. He may not chew anything, but his teeth work just fine.
He managed to work it out of his mouth a couple of times. Then he swallowed.
We rejoice in small victories like that, especially when the medicines in those pills might actually help him! We don’t take too much for granted with him. And we long for it to be better for him, and for us.
For some reason, that reminded me of Pastor John’s closing to Momentary Marriage. This investment in Paul is worthwhile because God made him and gave him to us as he is. But it also isn’t going to last for very long.
So it is with marriage. It is a momentary gift. It may last a lifetime, or it may be snatched away on the honeymoon. Either way, it is short. It may have many bright days, or it may be covered with clouds. If we make secondary things primary, we will be embittered at the sorrows we must face. But if we set our face to make of marriage mainly what God designed it to be, no sorrows and no calamities can stand in our way. Every one of them will be, not an obstacle to success, but a way to succeed. The beauty of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church shines brightest when nothing but Christ can sustain it.
Very soon the shadow will give way to Reality. The partial will pass into the Perfect. The foretaste will lead to the Banquet. The troubled path will end in Paradise. A hundred candle-lit evenings will come to their consummation in the marriage supper of the Lamb. And this momentary marriage will be swallowed up by Life. Christ will be all and in all. And the purpose of marriage will be complete.
To that end may God give us eyes to see what matters most in this life. May the Holy Spirit, whom he sends, make his crucified and risen Son the supreme Treasure of our lives. And may that Treasure so satisfy our souls that the root of every marriage-destroying impulse is severed. And may the marriage-watching world be captivated by the covenant-keeping love of Christ.
John Piper, This Momentary Marriage, p. 178.
Let us look clearly at the power of Jesus Christ
Posted in Quotes on January 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »
It is good for all men to have clear views of the Lord Jesus Christ’s power.
Let the sinner know that the merciful Saviour to whom he is urged to flee, and in whom he is invited to trust, is nothing less than the Almighty, and has power over all flesh to eternal life. (Rev. i. 8; John xvii. 2.)
Let the anxious inquirer understand that if he will only venture on Jesus, and take up the cross, he ventures on One who has all power in heaven and earth. (Matt. xxviii. 18.)
Let the believer remember as he journeys through the wilderness, that his Mediator, and Advocate, and Physician, and Shepherd, and Redeemer, is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and that through Him all things may be done. (Rev. xvii. 14; Phil. iv. 13.)
J.C. Ryle, Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, pp. 209-10.
God never stops!
Posted in Quotes on January 4, 2012| 1 Comment »
God never stops doing good to his covenant people. And if an enemy is temporarily given the upper hand, we can say, straight into the muzzle of the gun, “You mean evil against me, but God means it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Since God is sovereign and has promised not to turn away from doing good to his covenant people, we can know beyond all doubt, in tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword, that we are more than conquerers through him who loved us (Romans 8:35-37).
John Piper, The Pleasures of God, p. 184.
Suffering preaches God’s love and justice!
Posted in Quotes on December 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I decided my office needed a good purge before we enter 2012, and I uncovered a gem of a little booklet by Paul Tripp, Suffering: Eternity Makes a Difference.
Trials and suffering explode the myth that the goal of life is to get as much as I can. They remind me that the best earthly situations and experiences can pass away, sometimes quite suddenly.
Trials also help me realize who God is and the meaning of the gospel of Christ. Rather than challenging the truths of the love and justice of God, trials and suffering preach them! It is because of them that God will not let me believe the lie that life is found in the things of this world.
God’s love calls me back from hope in the world to hope in him. And in his love he is preparing me for the real thing, eternal glory that far outweighs any pain in this present life.
Paul Tripp, Suffering: Eternity Makes a Difference, p. 23.
“I can now see the magnificence of our Savior” – Tony Reinke
Posted in Quotes on December 28, 2011| 2 Comments »
I”m surrounded by prolific readers who make helpful recommendations. So when I heard several recommendations for Tony Reinke’s book and then was given it, I looked forward to reading it.
But I wasn’t expecting a book about books to knock me flat on my face to worship!
I can now see the magnificence of our Savior. He is fully God and fully man. He is the Lion and the Lamb – the Sovereign and the Sufferer. He is the Prophet, Priest and King – speaking, dying, and reigning. He is Light to the blind, Health to the sinfully sick, Strength to the spiritually weak, Food for the spiritually famished, Joy for the sorrowful heart, Comfort for the despised, Deliverance for lost souls, Drink for the thirsty soul, and Triumph for the abused. He is my Savior, my Shepherd, my Friend, my Lord, my Life, my Way, my End.
Tony Reinke, Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books, p. 35.
All conference audio and video for The Works of God: God’s Good Design in Disability are now available at Desiring God!
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Let them see disability everywhere
Posted in commentary, Quotes on February 5, 2012| 1 Comment »
Russell Moore has a tremendous response to the outrage this week over Susan G. Koman Foundation for the Cure and Planned Parenthood in his Christianity Today article, The Pink Ribbon and the Dollar Sign.
I was particularly grateful that he included disability:
We look at the issue of disability, disease and suffering almost every day here, and I am grateful for others who have that same emphasis.
But the larger change in the church and eventually the culture comes when disability is part of the common story, when people see it everywhere and not just as a special emphasis.
Especially when, as Dr. Moore did, they rightfully refer to all people as gifts and not burdens.
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