Two favorite books, and why I don't even want to read them

Two of my favorite books right now are Pleasures of God, by John Piper, and Humility, by Andrew Murray.

I've read them both once, and am reading through them, very slowly, again. I love reading them, and the following is what I am learning in light of reading them, but mostly, the reason I said I don't want to read them, oftentimes, is because What I really want is the meat of the truths they contain, found in Scripture.

But here is just a teeny, tiny, bit about what they are teaching me. I'll post more later.


Life is all about God.

John Piper was one of the first people to explain to me that life is all about God, not us. The chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever, and Piper explains that God is the guarantor that man will do that. [either by being destroyed by His wrath, or trusting in Jesus]

So Man is always ultimately glorifying God.

You say, "Whoa, Ashley... easy there... I don't know about that." and I say, well, it's true. Every person's life is planned by the Lord, no one can change the Lord's plans, and all His plans are glorifying to Him. [Piper has an illustration of a wide-lens and narrow-lens view of the Lord's pleasure, in Pleasures of God I believe, so check it out]

Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps. [Ps. 135:6]

in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed [happy] God with which I have been entrusted [1 Timothy 1:11]

That last one is used by Piper to prove that the Lord is always being glorified, is always happy, always blessed, in the fact that He is enjoying Himself. He does all things, ruling all things, for His own sake.


That is why we can trust Him with our lives.

I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins. [Isaiah 43:25]

He is out to make His Name great. And that is our hope. That He means all He says in the Word, every promise in the Scripture, because Him being our hope and help is what makes Him glorified.