God's Glory

Many thanks to a friend of mine for reminding me of these great truths spoken by John Piper in his book Don't Waste Your Life:

On God's love:

"For most people, love is to be made much of... we are taught that love is increasing someones self esteem. Love is making someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees. This is not what the bible means of love. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not what is best for us. It is, in fact a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savour God, and in savouring him, to be supremely satisfied and thus spread in all of the world the worth of his presence. Not to show someone the all satisfying God is not loving them."

On God's glory:

"No thing can satisfy the soul. The soul was made to stand in awe of a person- the only person worthy of awe. All heroes are shadows of Christ; we love to admire their excellence. How much more will we be satisfied by the one person who conceived all excellence and embodied all skill, all talent, all strength and all brilliance. God loves us by liberating us from the knowledge of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever. The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not moments of self satisfaction but moments of self forgetfulness. The universe is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself." (emphasis mine)

Secular humanists can put that world view in their pipes and smoke it!

You can download a free copy of the book here.