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.

If you’re like me, and I’m sure that at least some of you are, prayer is not something that comes easily. I don’t mean the act of opening your mouth and speaking to God, I mean the discipline to pray for things until you see them answered.

You probably hear of that person who faithfully prayed for so-and-so for 10 years until finally the Lord answered the prayer and saved them, or healed their cancer, or reunited their marriage, or whatever. If you’re like me, you’ve probably looked on those people with a sense of wonder, curious about how exactly they’ve been so faithful, but at the same time thinking in the back of your mind that it’s just isn’t going to be you.

Personally, that is my experience. Or, at least it was as a younger believer. Early on, it became clear from reading the Word and Church history that prayer was profoundly important. I respected people that prayed and who were, in part at least, identified as “a person of prayer”. I knew that it was virtuous, it was important, and that God answered prayers. But, never could I grasp the action in the ways that some seemed to be able to.

I went through many different seasons of prayer practice, all of which would be beneficial, but eventually fade.

There were times when I would pray, almost exclusively in groups. There were times when I attempted to focus on constant prayer–praying during every day activities. There were times when I would attempt to spend very extended periods of time in prayer (This one was profoundly affecting, but it wasn’t too long before burning out). There were also times when I would try and put my prayer life in my car, or other moving exercises–like taking walks.

All of these faded out. Sometimes I would try and combine them, mix them, or do them exclusively. I would try and keep prayer journals, or lists. Still, it always faded out.

But, in all of these experiences, I think that I’ve begun to pin point the (practical) corner stones of a fruitful prayer life. (Please remember, I’m speaking in a practical sense. There are spiritual foundations that must be in place before a believer can hope to see real, faithful and fruitful progress in their prayer life.)

1. Consistence

In all areas of our lives we plan ahead. When we want to get in shape, we plan time to be at the gym. When we want to excel in school, we plan time to study. I don’t think a person’s prayer life is much different in that respect. So, consistence is a major key. You’ll never get in shape if you only go to the gym when you feel like it and when you happen to have the time. So it is with our prayer lives. So consistency is absolutely foundational.

Time daily should be designated for prayer. The decision to pray should not be made based on the moment’s desire to pray (although, I believe that desire will come) or not to pray, but based on the decision and commitment made to the Lord. Therefore, there will be times of prayer that feel hollow, or mechanical, but this is necessary, I believe, as it softens the heart and paves the way for more natural prayer in the future. But likewise, there will also be wonderful, heart gushing times of prayer as well.

2. Persistence

Say you got a job 30 minutes away. The first day of your job, you got in your car and started driving, not knowing exactly where you’re office is or how to get there. You might have a general idea, but nothing concrete. You end up driving around for a few hours until you eventually stumble on it. The next day, you do the same thing. Uncertain of where you’re going, you spend a long time driving around until eventually you show up. Every morning, you go through the same thing, over and over again. At this rate, you’re going to burn out. Constantly forgetting where you’re going and forgetting how to get there will take a toll on you.

Prayer, I think, is a lot like that. We should approach prayer with a plan. Know what you’re going to pray for, know who you’re going to pray for. Plan for it. Don’t get burned out trying to navigate through all the different things in the world you could possibly pray for. Know what you’re going to be praying for, plan to pray and be persistent in those prayers. Don’t be chained to only those prayers, but be chained to them, none the less.

My Strategy

Although these are some of the keys saints have approached prayer with for hundreds of years, there are lots of ways these things can flesh out in a persons life, I think. Thanks to a good friend’s suggestion, this is what I’ve been doing:

I bought a white board. I divided the white board up into 7 days. Each day I have written the things I pray for daily. Then, spread out over all seven days are the different concerns of my life and the lives of friends, family and the church. Then, when a new concern arises, I can quickly add it to the plan for a day, a week or longer. In this way, I have a plan for approaching prayer. I do not forget different people’s concerns, nor do I become overwhelmed with more prayer than I can handle at one time.

This method also offers some personal accountability. Each day of the week, I can mark whether or not I prayed that day, in order to help build consistency. So far, it’s proving effective.

Here is a snapshot of my board:

Some things on the board are erased each week, some are never erased. This method forces me to devote specific time to prayer, but keeps me focus and on track, without preventing me from going beyond what’s there.

If you’re seeking a prayer method, you might consider cloning mine or using and modifying it to best suite you. White board supplies will run you about $20 - $30 if you can find them new, but significantly less if you can find them at a garage sale.

So, don’t let yourself make excuses for not praying. Let’s make it a truly regular part of our lives!

When I first came to the Lord and started reading scripture regularly, something that was always perplexing to me was the Israelite’s conduct under stress. For example, God had just lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Not even in any kind of mistakable way either. I mean, a major body of water divided in front of them and they crossed on “dry ground”.

But, it seems like in no time at all they’re offering up their gold and precious metals to make “new” gods. What they heck is up with that?

It’s hard to be an honest Christian for very long without gaining sympathy for the Israelites disposition. It seems like just about every month on queue I forget all about God’s faithfulness to me in the past and I run off to look for alternatives to trusting Him. Weird right?

Why do I bring this up today?

Well, this morning I had an appointment I was anxious about. But, as as usual, God came through and provided in huge ways. But within hours another challenge of a different nature arose. In the face of the new challenge, God’s recent faithfulness went out the window and I sought relief elsewhere. It really is silly.

Praise the Lord that he gives greater grace.

Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the weak man, to the hurt.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the addicted, to the questioner.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the poor, to the homeless.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the drug dealer, to the prostitutes.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To Iraq, to Afghanistan.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To Africa, every country in Africa.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To all across the world, His creation is His.
Life flows from God, flows from God.

-Charlie Hall, “You Are God”, from Passion 2007

If you’re still breathing, then God has specifically, personally, purposefully caused it. If you’re heart is still pumping, then the Almighty has sovereignly commanded that organ not to stop. If blood still flows through your veins, then the Rock of Ages has decreed from all eternity that, this moment, nothing stand in its way.

Every inhale, every exhale, every blink, sniff, cough, sneeze, itch and ache, is a persistent, driving mercy and grace from a good God, who’s infallible intentions for his children are good and Always Good.

Life does indeed flow from God.

From his book The Holiness of God, in the chapter dealing with God’s justice, RC Sproul discusses Uzzah’s sin of touching the Arc of the Covenant. You can read the whole story of Uzzah in 1 Chronicles 13. Uzzah was the priest who, while transporting the Arc, touched it when it appeared to become unstable and threatened to fall to the ground. Immediately when Uzzah touched the Arc, God struck him dead. To many, this appears to be a twisted sense of justice. Sproul has this to say:

“[Uzzah’s act]…an act of holy heroism? No! It was an act of arrogance, a sin of presumption. Uzzah assumed that his hand was less polluted than the earth. But it wasn’t the ground or the mud that would desecrate the ark: it was the touch of man. The earth is an obedient creature. It does what God tells it to do. It brings forth its yield in its season. It obeys the laws of nature that God has established.”

Sproul doesn’t stop there in his explanation, but for my attention now, this is the section that caught me. I have always had trouble reading these passages about Uzzah. I can’t help be see a fatal accident and an overreacting God. But as Sproul points out, it was not simply a momentary sin that resulted in Uzzah’s death, it was a heart condition of arrogance that contented itself that way well before the physical offense.

Uzzah had to assume, deeply, that his hands were "less polluted" than the ground. All of God’s many, many explicit commands would fall by the wayside in Uzzah’s mind, because Uzzah arrogantly presumed his worthiness.

Now, for me, I see a couple of things that stand out.

1. Reading into God’s word with "eisegetical" eyes is a dangerous practice. Uzzah reinterpreted all of God’s commands not to touch the Arc, based on one single presumption that his hands were not as filthy as the ground. He was wrong and paid dearly for it. So similar is the person who turns a deaf ear to the Gospel because he knows he’s a good person and he knows God doesn’t send "good" people to hell. God’s word must speak for itself; we cannot tell it what to say.

2. The death of Jesus is magnified even more in Uzzah’s death. God instantly poured his wrath out on Uzzah and his blasphemous gesture. In a split second, we get to see God’s holiness and his terrifying commitment to uphold that holiness. Uzzah’s death reminds us that we’ve all arrogantly reached out and blasphemed God, yet Jesus has taken upon himself all of that wrath which was due to our sacrileges and bore them on the cross. So, even today, while we continue to reach out and touch the proverbial Arc, Jesus continues to plead our case on the grounds of his spilled blood.

John Piper writes this in The Pleasures of God:

“When sin as treated as though it is inconsequential, then the glory of God is treated as inconsequential.”

This is a compelling statement worth meditating on. What was really at stake on the cross? Mankind, partially. But, the glory of God, completely. And the balance in the act is stunning. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was a dealing with sin in the most serious degree. The only act worth of the equally serious glory of God.

That’s pretty hard to wrap up in.

The most recent chapter of The Pleasures of God by John Piper was seriously outstanding. The chapter dealt with “God’s Pleasure in Election”. As you can probably guess, Piper uses the chapter to show and defend God’s glory in the reformed understanding of election.

I really wish I could share the whole chapter with you, but unfortunately that would be a copyright violation—not to mention a whole lot of transcribing. So, instead, I’ll share just a short excerpt.

When expounding on Deuteronomy 7:6-8, Piper says this:

This passage teaches again the freedom of God’s grace in loving and choosing Israel. Notice the question that verse 7 raises: Why did God “ set his love upon you and choose you”? Moses answers that it was not because of their greatness. They were very small, unlikely candidates for being chosen by God. Why then did God delight in them and choose them?

Verse 8 gives [the answer:] “It is because the LORD loves you.”  Now remember what the question was from verse 7. The question was: Why did God set his love upon you? So the… answer Moses gives is: “Because he loves you.” He loves you because he loves you. That is what I mean by the freedom of God and the freedom of electing love. He doesn’t set his love upon them because they qualify fro his love. He loves them because he loves them.

Many have trouble with the question of why God chooses some and not others. Many grasp for reasons why some might be chosen and others not. There’s a sense of “fairness” that seems to be lost when people ponder the God’s freedom in election. That’s just what it is, freedom. He is free to choose who he will for whatever reason we cannot know.

We ought to be thankful that our wills are not as free as we would be led to believe they are. If they were, then God would not be free as free is he really is and if God were not free we would have already perished by now.

Much like the Israelites crying for God to give them a king, the American people have spoken, and God has given them Obama. And, there seems little doubt in my mind that in the same way that the Israelites getting their king was a judgment from God, Obama is our judgement. Undoubtedly many unborn lives will be ended because of him. But, this is what the American people begged for, and this is what God has given them. So, I suppose I had a few thought that I wanted to share.

Wow…

This really is profound history—and we’re living to see it. The first black man in the history of our nation to be elected the President of the United States. That is awesome. I’m sure this will mean incredible things for the advancement of a group of people who, at large, have carried an victim-mentality (in many cases, justifiably so). With this historic event, there’s very real tangible hope that these people will be able to move foreword and prosper in very new and fresh ways.

That really is awesome; That is the silver lining of grace from God.

Personal Reform…

Over the past eight years, I quietly grumbled about Democrats complaining and condemning George bush—instead of simply disagreeing with him. Well, the tables have officially turned. It will be a big challenge for me (and most) to follow the biblical command and respect the new president, even in light of our many differences of opinion. However, over many issues, that’s exactly what we all need to do. There are some issues, though that our conscience will not allow us to accept—and if it does, we ought to pray that would be changed.

Abortion…

Many will certainly die because of Obama. Abortion is not a social issue for us to simply disagree about, it is a matter of life and death. It is a discussion of murder (about 4,000 murders every day). We have chosen a president who propones this practice. It is not the time to concede these issues, or move on from them. Perhaps the way we fight them must change, or how much we pray about them, but giving up is absolutely not an option.

Albert Mohler has written an insightful and important exhortation. I would suggest you read it.

Pray…

I must, we must:

… Pray for the lives of the unborn, in a culture that does not value them.
… Pray for the mothers who are taught not to love them.
… Pray for a culture and people who don’t believe in them.
… Pray for a president, indifferent to them.

… Pray for our own hearts, for honest compassion for them.

Remember…

We should remember, that we live under the only true sovereign. He gives and he takes away. He exalts and he humbles. All powers in heaven and on earth are chosen by him. If he has allowed to office a man who may “hurt” us, then perhaps we “ought to be hurt”.

Isaiah 58:1-2:

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
   or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation
   between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
   so that he does not hear.

Dang. There it is. Thank Jesus that now He does hear; now his hand in grace always stretches out to cover the iniquities of his people.

The past couple of days I’ve posted videos that I’ve come across on YouTube dealing in some way with Religion. Christianity, in specific (#1 & #2). I feel each video, whether funny, convicting or encouraging, holds some significance for the church and we ought to consider the underlying theme.

Many, I’m sure, have seen today’s video. It’s been around for some time. But no matter how many times I watch it, it never fails to boost my spirits and encourage me to keep seeking and trusting God. I originally saw this video at a conference several years ago, then rediscovered it earlier this year. Regardless of all the cheese, it’s worth watching every minute.

This is an excerpt from a SM Lockridge sermon set to music. Lockridge was a prominent Baptist preacher from 1953 – 1993. I can’t vouch for the man, his ministry or his theology, I can only vouch for the excerpt from this sermon.