The Pleasures of God
Perhaps one of my all time favourite books is ‘The Pleasures of God’ by John Piper. I love John Piper. He makes me feel normal. His obsession with God is boundless. If you have an appetite for books, for God, if you love thinking about what makes God God, run and buy this book. I have read and re-read and revisited it over the years and it is still fresh. Like most of John Piper, you may need to chew on it a little, think it through, but i guarantee, it will freshen your perspective.
You may not be Calvinist, of any shade or hue, you may not believe in election, but if you love and enjoy God, you will love this book. Piper’s whole premise is on the joy that God has in being God, it talks about His delights and pleasures. And he says this happy phrase that absolutely thrills me ‘What the church and the world need today, more than anything else, is to know and love God – the great, glorious, sovereign, happy God of the Bible’. In the tradition of Henry Scougal and Jonathan Edwards, he emphasises the satisfaction of the soul in gazing upon the Person of God, an absolute treat.
mal à l’aise
‘… l’attitude de l’Église ces derniers temps a été, “si je ne suis pas à l’aise avec quelque chose, ce n’est certainement pas de Dieu.” Cette attitude a conduit à l’émergence de gardiens auto proclamés du temple, qui empoisonnent l’Église avec leurs propres craintes. La faim de Dieu cède ainsi la place à la peur de l’erreur. En quoi ai-je le plus confiance, en ma capacité à tomber dans l’erreur ou en la capacité de Dieu à me garder de l’erreur?’ Bill Johnson
return of the evangelism linebacker
Pour les anglophiles, enjoy this video! someone thought of a way to get Christians to get out there and talk about this wild faith of ours, with the zeal of Peter, the love of John, the courage of Paul and the wisdom of Solomon. Fancy being tackled by the linebacker. watch out, he is lurking in the most unexpected places.
the honour of being chosen to serve
I am glad that God called me to serve Him. As I meditated on God’s word today, something of a sense of the awesomeness of God hit my soul and I just felt glad, honoured to be called of God. I used to, like many others, hate the idea of doing ministry. I did not want to be stuck spending my life dealing with irritating, selfish people who eat Pastor for breakfast. I don’t suffer fools gladly and I had other things to do with my life. But as God has dealt with me over the years, I have come to consider it a supreme honour to be called by God to speak on His behalf. It frightens and delights me. We have also come to understand that we are all called to ministry, every sphere of our lives is meant to reflect Jesus and draw men to Jesus. It is a strange thing, and it is a beautiful thing, yet it is a frightening thing that the Almighty will entrust the advancement of His kingdom and the salvation of men’s souls to us.
It makes me wonder, who does God think we are? And it makes me determined to become all that He desires me to be before I take leave of this earth. It is an honour for you and I to be called to serve God. That truly is the way I feel, not only as a minister but as a believer.
And that’s the ethos I want to promote around me; we must always feel priviledged that God would ask us to, say, clean His church, take the offering, usher, that He would give us the opportunity to speak on His behalf to people in the metro, on the bus, and on the streets.
It is a priviledge to serve God. I have never been able to get away from something Oral Roberts’s mother said to him as he began in ministry, ‘Stay small in your own eyes’. Yet pride is not the exclusive preserve of the ‘anointed man of God’; anyone can fall prey; if you ever find yourself with a skill your church desperately needs, don’t preen, just be grateful God chose you to be there in this season and serve with joy and gratitude, remembering that God is not short of staff; He has several billion in reserve. When we let our pride come in the way of God’s work we can easily get sidelined and replaced.
My cry is that God will keep me at the centre of what He’s doing in the earth, I do not want to miss out. I will stay small in my own eyes and not compete with God. I just enjoy being chosen.
AUTHOR
pastor bola olivia ogedengbe,
The Theophilus Company,
ABBA HOUSE, Paris,
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