Pursuit of Happiness

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Can you have happiness without peace? Can you have faith without peace? Does joy then flow from faith? Gurnall implies we must have peace as the base of happiness (joy).

Peace is both indispensable and comprehensive. You cannot be happy with anything less than peace but you do not need anything more than peace to fill you with true joy. Of all the varieties on God's spiritual menu, His serving of peace can least be spared. If you take this away the feast is spoiled, even if a brightly garnished outward peace replaces it at the center of the prince's table.

Piper has greatly influenced my thinking in the last couple years on the fight for joy -- "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!" (Ps 34:8). I think Gurnall adds a component to reflect on for that fight and understanding the peace we have through the gospel.

Autonomy

Monday, August 6, 2007

Reading through Future Grace I find it absolutely wonderful how Piper opens up the idols preventing future grace ("all-satisfying admiration" [p97]) particularly pride.

Every turning from God--for anything--presumes a kind of autonomy or independence that is in essence of pride. Turning from God assumes that one knows better than God. Thus pride lies at the root of every turning from God. It is the root of every act of distrust toward God. Or, more accurately, pride is not so much the root as it is the essence of unbelief, and its remedy is faith in future grace ("all-satisfying admiration").... In Jeremiah 9:23 God says, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches". In those three phrases God names his great competitors for the boast of the human heart. [p87]

In the next few days I'll be digging deeper into each of those.

When Tragedy Strikes

Thursday, August 2, 2007

John Piper has a Christ centered perspective on the terrible events (Minneapolis bridge collapse, 9/11) we experience.