Here's the question we must answer:
Do you feel more loved by God simply because He makes such a-do over you... because God, at great cost to His Son, frees you to enjoy making much of Him forever? Honestly, what's your answer.
Deep within the core of your existence, how do you answer it?
The aim of the question is not to deny the fact that God do make much of us. I am so thankful he does. The goal of the question is to get your thoughts in queue with hopes you will easily source of your joy - the decisive foundation of their joy - from self to God.
As John Piper notes in his book titled, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, the biggest concern faced: nominal hell-bound Christians who feel loved by God.
John Piper (as we all should) feels a "special burden for the millions of nominal Christians who are not born again and who believe God loves them and yet are on their way to hell. And the difference between them and a born-again believer is this: What's the bottom, the decisive foundation, of their happiness? As you penetrate down deeper and deeper to the core, or the bottom, of what makes you happy?
Millions of nominal Christians have never experienced a fundamental alteration of that foundation of happiness. Instead, they have absorbed the notion that becoming Christian means turning to Jesus to get what you always wanted before you were born again. So, if you wanted wealth, you stop depending on yourself for it, and by prayer and faith and obedience you depend on Jesus for wealth. If you wanted to be healthy, you turn from mere human cures to Jesus as the source of your health. If you wanted to escape the pain of hell, you turn to Jesus for the escape. If you wanted to have a happy marriage, you come to Jesus for help. If you wanted peace of conscience and freedom from guilt feelings, you turn to Jesus for these things.
In other words, to become a Christian, in this way of seeing things, is to have all the same desires you had as an unregenerate person-only you get them from a new source, Jesus. And He feels so loving when you do. But there's no change at the bottom of your heart and your cravings. No change at the bottom of what makes you happy. There's no change in the decisive foundation of your joy. You just shop at a new store. The dinner is still the same, you just have a new butler. The bags in the hotel room are still the same; just a new bellhop." excerpt from Brothers, We Are Not Professionals by John Piper
Do you feel more loved by God simply because He makes such a-do over you... because God, at great cost to His Son, frees you to enjoy making much of Him forever? Honestly, what's your answer.
Deep within the core of your existence, how do you answer it?
The aim of the question is not to deny the fact that God do make much of us. I am so thankful he does. The goal of the question is to get your thoughts in queue with hopes you will easily source of your joy - the decisive foundation of their joy - from self to God.
As John Piper notes in his book titled, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, the biggest concern faced: nominal hell-bound Christians who feel loved by God.
John Piper (as we all should) feels a "special burden for the millions of nominal Christians who are not born again and who believe God loves them and yet are on their way to hell. And the difference between them and a born-again believer is this: What's the bottom, the decisive foundation, of their happiness? As you penetrate down deeper and deeper to the core, or the bottom, of what makes you happy?
Millions of nominal Christians have never experienced a fundamental alteration of that foundation of happiness. Instead, they have absorbed the notion that becoming Christian means turning to Jesus to get what you always wanted before you were born again. So, if you wanted wealth, you stop depending on yourself for it, and by prayer and faith and obedience you depend on Jesus for wealth. If you wanted to be healthy, you turn from mere human cures to Jesus as the source of your health. If you wanted to escape the pain of hell, you turn to Jesus for the escape. If you wanted to have a happy marriage, you come to Jesus for help. If you wanted peace of conscience and freedom from guilt feelings, you turn to Jesus for these things.
In other words, to become a Christian, in this way of seeing things, is to have all the same desires you had as an unregenerate person-only you get them from a new source, Jesus. And He feels so loving when you do. But there's no change at the bottom of your heart and your cravings. No change at the bottom of what makes you happy. There's no change in the decisive foundation of your joy. You just shop at a new store. The dinner is still the same, you just have a new butler. The bags in the hotel room are still the same; just a new bellhop." excerpt from Brothers, We Are Not Professionals by John Piper
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