John Piper: 1. Do you love the thought that you exist to make God look what he really is — glorious? Do you love the thought that you exist to reflect and display the glory of God? Does that bring joy to your heart and make you tingle with awesome historical destiny? I am on planet earth to make God look glorious, because he is. 2. Do you love the thought that all creation exists to display the glory of God? “The heavens are telling the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). Are you glad about it? When you see spring just trying to come in Minnesota — soon the branches will get little bulges and you’ll say, “Come on; come on.” When they come in, the heads that you chop back so far, you wonder if it’ll ever come back, it gets the little green things on it and you say, “God is real and living.” Are you glad that it’s about
Glorifying God
God is Happiness
Sam Storms: Charles Spurgeon, though on occasion depressed and despondent, held firmly to the truth that joy or cheerfulness or happiness must be the aim of every Christian. There are several reasons why he believed this to be true. Here is the first: “Working Christians should, as far as possible, be cheerful of countenance, happy in manner, and merry in heart; and there are several reasons why I think so. They should be happy, BECAUSE THEY SERVE A HAPPY GOD. It enters into the essential idea of God that he is superlatively blessed. We cannot conceive of a God who should be infinitely miserable. . . . As it is true that ‘God is love,’ so is it equally true that God is happiness. Now it would be an exceedingly strange thing if, in proportion as we became like a happy God, we grew more and more miserable. . . . Congruity is to be studied everywhere, and it
Glorifying God Through Spirit-Filled Reliance
From Kevin DeYoung: 1 Peter 4:7-11 …whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies- in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. (v. 11) Pentecost is the Sunday where the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit that we read about in Acts 2. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to give gifts to the church. According to 1 Peter 4, there are roughly two kinds of gifts. There are speaking gifts (e.g., teaching, preaching, knowledge). And there are serving gifts (e.g., administration, mercy, giving). Every Christian has spiritual gifts. But if God is to be glorified through our gifts, we must rely on him, which can be hard, especially when it comes to our strengths. When you lead your Bible study, do you wing it because you are intelligent and quick on your feet, or do you commit
Glorifying God
Two posts from Kevin DeYoung: Glory of God: Fruit from the Root John 15:1-11 “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (verse eight) Talk is cheap. Anyone can say he is a Christian. In fact, Jesus tells us that on the last day many will say “Lord, Lord” who never really knew Jesus. We must do more than say we are Jesus’ disciples. We must bear fruit like we are Jesus’ disciples. The Bible is very clear about this: we are saved by grace, but the grace that saves also transforms. It is joyfully and mercifully true that we don’t have to merit a good standing before God. Justification is by faith alone. But everyone who is truly justified–declared righteous–will also be sanctified–made more and more into Christ’s image. Bad trees bear bad fruit. Good trees bear good fruit. Bearing good fruit brings God glory. When we look and
Piper on glorifying God at work
From Desiring God.
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