The Dangerous Duty of Delight

Recently, I've been reading a book by John Piper entitled "The Dangerous Duty of Delight". I have only begun the book, but already, I have been hugely impacted on how much we as human beings are too easily satisfied. We are too easily pleased. In this book Piper quotes C.S. Lewis and says,

"When infinite joy is offered, we are like an ignorant child who wants to go
on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Our purpose on this earth is to glorify, honor, serve and proclaim God's name! We are able to accomplish this purpose by delighting and rejoicing in God. Piper says that,

"God created you so that you might spend eternity glorifying Him by enjoying Him forever...Worship is not added to joy, and joy is not the by-product of worship. Worship is the valuing of God. And when this valuing is intense, it is joy in God. Therefore, the essence of worship is delight in God, which displays His all-satisfying value."

God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him. We want Christ to be glorified in everything. Paul writes in Philippians 1:20-21 that Christ will be exalted in His body, whether by life or by death. He goes on to say that for him to live is Christ and to die is gain. Should it not be the same way with us? God will be glorified through our death if we look at it as gain, but we exalt Christ in life by experiencing Christ as our all-surpassing treasure. John Piper states that,

"...life and death, for a Christian are acts of worship-they exalt Christ and magnify Him and reveal and express His greatness - when they come from an inner experience of treasuring Christ as gain. If Christ's honor is our passion, the pursuit of pleasure in Him is our duty."

Christ is praised by being prized. We are commanded, not just to make decisions, but to have feelings; to delight in Christ and to have a personal relationship with Him. A lot of people believe that feelings don't count when following Christ, so just do it. But we need to understand that, yes, it is our duty to delight in serving Him, but He is more glorified when we actually find pleasure in delighting and serving Him. Serving the Lord, increases our joy in the Lord, so we shouldn't pity ourselves, especially when serving the Lord. We should DELIGHT in doing good. The pursuit of pleasure is not recommended - it is mandatory.

"We don't pity or excessively praise those who are simply doing what will make them the most happy...The only way to glorify the all-sufficiency of God is to come to Him because in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasure for ever more."
~John Piper

The pursuit of true gain is an essential motive for every good deed. Genuine love always relates to God as gain. The nature of genuine love can be seen in four things according to Piper:

1. Love is a work of divine grace. - 2 Cor. 8:1
2. This experience of God's grace fills us with joy - 2 Cor. 8:2
3. This joy overflows in generosity to meet the needs of others.
4. This results in giving even your smallest possessions. - 2 Cor. 8:3-4

Shouldn't we strive continuously to live for Christ, delighting in Him? It is my desire to do so.

Caborca '06

Wow! I just returned from a mission trip with my church to Caborca, Mexico. We had a team of around 29 people and it was awesome to see how God unified us over the week that we were there. On this trip, I was reminded at how sovereign God is. We had a huge response from the people of Mexico and it was amazing to see so many people seeing their need for Christ and salvation from their sins. We also had 7 people come up from Mexico and we really were able to accept them as part of our team and even though there was a language barrier between us, we were able to overcome it. The body of Christ was so evident when someone was struggling; everyone would just begin to pray for comfort and healing for their brother or sister in Christ. Our goal and purpose was to serve Him, glorify Him, and make His name known. To the best of our ability, we strived to do this. We do missions because worship does not exist in certain areas of the world. God's name was extended and through this trip, many people came to know Him in a personal relationship. Praise God!

My 2006 Discoveries concerning Life

Life is difficult. Sometimes you think that you have it down and you know what's going to happen but...you never do. There have been a lot of times over the past year that I felt like just giving up, but I didn't. I kept going. Christ always gave me the strength to get through the trials and struggles in my life and He was faithful to His promise that He will never leave me or forsake me AND that He will never give me more than I can handle. What a comforting promise for those that love Him! Throughout my whole life, I have been able to see first-hand, how he fulfills and follows through with His promises. When I was younger we (my family) decided to go to Mexico as missionaries. Although there were times that we struggled with not having some of the bare necessities, Christ always was with us and He brought us through those times of difficulty. God IS faithful!!! So even though life gets hard and we go through many times of trials and hardships, God is able and capable to bring us through those times, and He gives us times of great joy. How can we enjoy the good times, if we have not gone through the down times?

Who I am

My name is Amy. I am a believer in Jesus Christ, the one true Savior and reigning King. I believe that He died to save his elect from eternal suffering, apart from God. Jesus is my all in all, He is my everything and without Him...I am nothing. My purpose in life is to make His glory known and to honor and praise and worship Him alone. This makes up me, who I am, and He is who I continually strive to be like. Because of these things, He strengthens me and therefore, even when times get rough and I think I can't go on, I am able to choose joy. I am also so thankful that even when I mess up and I sin, He still loves me and His work in me will not stop until completion. Wow, how awesome is it to know that someone loves you no matter what happens, and that when I leave this earth I will get to spend eternity in heaven with Him...forever. Anyways, in a few words, this is who I am.