William Petruzzo

If John Piper wrote a book about a mystical journey to rescue a doomed kingdom, it’s unlikely that I would read it. But, lucky for all of us, he doesn’t write books like that. The Pleasures of God nearly sums up the benefit we all enjoy. Even though this book is hard to read, Piper’s thoughts are too important to miss.

The Pleasures of God is self-describing. It’s about the pleasures of God. Plain and simple.

The book is broken down into ten chapters; The pleasure of God in His Son, the pleasure of God in all he does, the pleasure of God in his creation, the pleasure of God in his fame, the pleasure of God in election, the pleasure of God in bruising his son, the pleasure of God in doing good to all who hope in him, the pleasure of God in the prayers of the upright, the pleasure of God in personal obedience and public justice, and the pleasure of God in concealing himself from the wise and revealing himself to infants.

Each chapter is an extended treatise on one of God’s specific pleasures. Each chapter is an exegetical endeavor over a single verse, from which Piper explores an impressive expanse of scriptural thought.

The first four chapters deal directly with God’s complete self-sufficiency. Or, God’s pleasure in himself, to be brief. Then, over the next two chapters, he begins to explore God’s pleasure in his interaction with us. Finally, in the last four chapters, Piper moves into God’s pleasure in his people. The breakdown, says Piper, is crucial because before we can rightly be affected by God’s pleasure in us, we must understand and appreciate God’s pleasure in himself.

The Pleasures of God explores many of the same concepts as Desiring God does, but it approaches them with a eye to more thorough theology. At least partially at the fault of Piper’s writing style, The Pleasures of God took nearly twice as long for me to read as did Desiring God. But, that complaint should be taken with a grain of salt because I believe the extra effort was absolutely worth it. Piper approaches with passion and integrity concepts that many attempt to keep under the carpet.

As with Desiring God and most of Piper’s literature, his style can feel somewhat cumbersome at times. Light readers, or readers without very much resolve, will probably find themselves frustrated by his style, and The Pleasures of God is no exception. In fact, it’s probably even more prevalent. To get through this one, a commitment to learn from Piper’s teaching will be necessary. Although, in my view, the benefits are invaluable.

The Pleasures of God is an indispensable work that the church today needs to hear. However, most will have difficulty with this one. Therefore, for the average reader, I suggest they seek first Desiring God. If after they, a fire has set beneath them to continue, The Pleasures of God is a must. If however, you’re a more ambitious and committed reader, go right for The Pleasures of God. You won’t regret it.

I’m a big fan of Puritan literature, Puritan theology, and the like. I’m pretty often asked what it is about Puritan stuff that I like so much. So, I thought tonight I’d take just a few minutes and touch on my reasons for liking Puritan writing more than contemporary writing.

Here are three basic reasons why I like the old works of the Puritans more than most new works today:

1. They never seem to divorce what is emotional and what is practical from what is true.

I mean to say that they don’t have this dividing wall between their theology and their lives. The profound and deep theology explored in much Puritan literature is never just left as information, bouncing around in people’s heads. It’s always treated with respect. It’s nearly always treated as God’s truth that ought to profoundly affect the various facets of people’s lives.

That isn’t something you’re used to finding in modern writing. In modern writing you tend to find people saying, “theology doesn’t matter”, then putting great emphasis on people’s lives being transformed. Or, you find them going through great treaties on the Word with little or no attention paid to how or where exactly these beautiful truths flesh out.

Most of the Puritan theology I’ve read from gracefully combines these two camps, making for some very challenging writings.

2. They’re constantly quoting scripture.

Any work of Christian literature is only good in as much as it says what the bible says. I mean in a sense to say, there is nothing profoundly, eternally important to be said, that isn’t implicit in the Word of God. So, if you’re going to write about God, but not write what God has written, you may as well not write at all.

It seems to me that the Puritans knew this. Almost every piece of Puritan literature I’ve read is nearly half quoting and have commentating.

3. They never seem to dance around their topic.

In the Word are themes that are both comforting, as well as challenging and uncomfortable for us. The tendency of many writers, as well as pastors and preachers, today is to tip-toe around difficult subjects. Either not to address them at all, or perhaps to address them only very briefly, or in some cases to address them all together incorrectly.

The trouble is that the whole council of God is important. If God felt in necessary to share such and such a subject, then we ought not shrink away from it. But, that’s just what many authors do today. We end up with a half portion of teaching and a seriously mal-nourished church.

This is also something mostly foreign to the earlier church writers. I have yet to see a difficult or offensive subject appear before one of my Puritan writers, in which they’ve shrunk from their duty. I believe this is telling and it gives me a certain confidence in their writings.

My Conclusion:

I think more folks, especially the Spiritually thirsty, should give some time and thought to the saints who have gone before us. They have shared their thoughts and feelings and we have a great deal to learn from them. So, get online, purchase some books, and give it a shot.

Here’s a great place to start reading: The Sinfulness of Sin by Ralph Venning
Here’s a great place to look for resources: www.banneroftruth.org

I’m pretty confident in my assertions. Both our affections and the objects of our affections define our religion as true or false. Or at least that’s what I’m expecting to discover while reading Jonathan Edward’s Religious Affections.

I’ve had my eye on this work for some time now to pick up and read. I’ve been told it’s challenging (for language and for content). Well, it came in the mail today, so I’m going to attempt to trek through it and see what wisdom and insight Edwards has for me. With Edwards being one of the great saints before me, and John Piper’s model, my hopes are pretty high.

Wish me luck, there are about 400 pages of tricky old English language ahead of me!

I went to church with a friend this morning. After a long time of worship, it was followed by an (extremely) long set of announcements and then a guest speaker taught from Romans 8:15-30 on the necessity of hope in a life of suffering.

He was careful to explain suffering, so that his hearers would understand that suffering is promised, this side of death. Not just righteous-persecution type suffering, but really all afflictions that come forth as a direct or indirect result of sin. We all experience suffering, almost all the time.

He was also careful not to trivialize the profound sufferings of many Christians, persecuted and martyred for Christ.

The gist of the sermon was that the sufferings this life perpetually serves up calls for a constant and steadfast hope in the work of Christ. Not only that, but hope is not something we have to work to muster, but hope, even hope, is a gift given to us from God as a direct result of Christ’s finished work on the cross. He sure, complete, perfect and sufficient work on the cross.

The speaker ended with a quote from The Heidelberg Catechism:

Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?

Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, (a) am not my own, (b) but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; (c) who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, (d) and delivered me from all the power of the devil; (e) and so preserves me (f) that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; (g) yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, (h) and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, (i) and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him. (j)

“That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ…” Dang. Seriously, dang.

I immediately thought of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:19-20:

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

Dang. Dang. Super dang.

Paul’s word’s are, in one sense abrasive. Something like, “don’t you get it? You belong to God. He bought you. You were very costly; Quit sinning! Do your job and honor him!” But when we look at Paul’s other words, namely those in Romans 8, he clearly has another tone which I often fail to recognize:

God made a very expensive purchase, and besides my own regular failure to protect his purchase He intends full well to do so.

This is the theme of Romans 8. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)… For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)”

Hope is an absolute necessity in finishing this “race”. But the good news is, God will be protecting his investments and proving all the hope necessary.

UPDATE: Thanks to a helpful reader the iCal link and public google calendar are both now up to date. Unfortunately though, the Microsoft Scheduler link is dead now. So, it’s been removed. Happy studying folks!

A few days back, a friend of mind posted a blog talking about the value of using a bible reading plan. It’s correct to assess that this generation does not embrace the bible reading plan quite like some of the older generation. It’s true that many, if not most, look on the idea of a bible reading plan with distaste. We tend to see it as inorganic (oh, God forbid) or unauthentic.

As if the only value of God’s word is found when you spontaneously come across some incredible revelation amongst candles and finger-paints.

How do I know this? Because I’m less than a year out of those waters.

I see now the great potential value of a plan for reading the bible. God’s word is God’s word and it behooves us to listen to it regularly. Among the most important lessons I’ve learned so far as a Christian is that consistent bible reading is an absolute must. Even if it’s only one chapter a day. It’s absolutely imperative that a believe be daily in the word.

A bible reading plan can either be a great stumbling block or an incredible encouragement and source of motivation and accountability. Unfortunately, most bible reading plans fall, for the average person, into the former category.

A reading plan for the rest of us

Where most bible reading plans err is in the failure to acknowledge people as inconsistent creatures. We have times of great devotion and consistency and other times of utter failure. In the right conditions any bible reading plan can provide excellent structure to keep a believer organized and on track. But in most hands, folks get discouraged when they miss a day and fall behind then the sheer size of the bible scares them away from picking it back up right away.

The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan takes that into consideration.

DJBRP (whew; long acronym) is an standard reading plan, with readings each day from the Old Testament, poetry, Gospels and Epistles and gets you through the whole bible in one year.

What makes it different though is that each month only has scripture assigned to 25 days. The rest of the days are left blank in order to encourage people not to walk away. If you find that you’ve fallen behind, Didn’t have time for some reason, or by chance, were taken hostage, there are several extra days so you don’t fall any more behind.

For many (including me), that’s just the little extra nudge of encouragement they might need to stick with it.

I started using the plan a short while back and it’s been an excellent mix of scripture. I find that the assigned reading ends up being right around 20 minutes. What’s also nice is the Gospel and Epistle readings are granular in size, but contain much more in a small space than you’d imagine when you slow down and take it bite by bite.

Some extras make DJ ultra convenient and easy to use

DJ is available in a few different ways making it very easy to keep track of where you are and where you’re supposed to be. Here are five.

PDF Format
Designed to be printed on two sides of one sheet of paper. Stick it in your notebook.

Online
Keep track of where you are on this website.

iCal File
Load your calendar into you iCal or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Public Google Calendar
This one here is my handy work. If you use google calendar or gmail, you can susbcribe to the calendar and get daily notifications on what the daily reading is. It’s pretty sweet.

So get on with it!

This an excellent plan that I (and apparently John Piper) are using. Through it, the Word of God stands to transform you. So get on with it; lets see what God will say to us when we listen!

I’ve read other blogs where the authors write about their personal study habits. I’m not particularly sure why they do that, but I suppose it’s useful on some level. So, I thought today that I would do my edition of Study Routines thinking that perhaps you might have some good ideas for me, or perhaps I will have some good ideas for you. Either way, encouragement is good.

I didn’t used to actually have study habits—or at least not good ones. When I was a younger Christian, I didn’t have very much discipline at all and it would be a good week if I got more than 25 – 30 minutes of bible in (not including church/para-church stuff). So, at some point I developed or was given (I’m still not completely sure) just an enough discipline to plant my feet in the Word. That was kind of the beginning of my study habits. A foundation for me has been, almost legalistically, to read from the word every single day no matter what. Sometimes that’s meant reading for several hours a day, at other times it’s meant only reading for a few minutes; so long as every day I was reading from the bible.

I’ve been fortunate enough to build on top of that foundation in some ways that have produced some really great fruit in me. At some times in life it’s looked more experiential and emotional, while other times it’s been more intellectual and thoughtful; both have been good in different ways at different times so long as I remained in the bible daily.

More recently, other things have been added to that discipline, such as daily prayer. I’m uncertain of when exactly it happened, or what exactly produced it, or perhaps what means it was produced with, but I developed a longing for prayer almost a need for it. I’ve found it to be an indispensable bridge between the intellectual and the emotional (while I can’t really explain that too well, it’s kind of true). As I read through scripture and perceive it with my mind, I attempt to pray it with my heart.

As of most recently, I’ve added to my discipline study and writing. While I attempt every day to spend time in the Word, and simultaneously in prayer, I also try to be sure to read some extra-biblical literature too. Among my favorite right now is English Puritan literature. The writing I have found fulfills a need for me to produce something. Almost as if it’s helpful for me to pour out information as I am pouring information in.

Keeping these various disciplines has generally produced good fruit in my fight against sin.

So, today, my study habits consist of four disciplines: Daily read the Word, daily pray the Word, daily read the Saints and daily write as I learn and think. Perhaps you have some thoughts or insights to share; I would love to hear them.