Jeff Bridgforth :: Webcraftsman

I Want to Make Much of You, Jesus

April 19, 2006

Books · Spiritual Musings

On Mon­day, I started read­ing John Piper’s book, God is the Gospel. My first impres­sions is that it is chal­leng­ing, refresh­ing and I am look­ing for­ward to get­ting more into it. My prayer is that it will cause me to view the gospel with a fresh won­der and be refreshed by the good news.

Here is a chal­leng­ing pas­sage from the book:

“The acid test of bib­li­cal God-centeredness — and faith­ful­ness to the gospel — is this:

• Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy mak­ing much of him forever?
• Does your hap­pi­ness hang on see­ing the cross of Christ as a wit­ness to your worth, or as a way to enjoy God’s worth forever?
• Is God’s glory in Christ the foun­da­tion of your gladness?”

From God is the Gospel by John Piper, pages 11–12

As I begin this book, my heart’s cry is that I would make much of Him, make much of Jesus. I think about the song,Much of You, from Steven Cur­tis Chapman’s last album. Piper’s writ­ings inspired this song and it is the desire of my heart that I would live my life to make much of Jesus not look to be made much of myself. The chal­lenge the book has brought forth in my mind is, in what ways do I desire to be made much of by God and how do I desire lesser things above the all-satisfying gift of God Himself?

Read­ing this book is one more step in the jour­ney I have been mak­ing in con­sid­er­ing God’s glory and what is means to live for His glory. John Piper has been a big part of that jour­ney and another book, Rev­o­lu­tion Within, has been very help­ful in under­stand­ing on a very prac­ti­cal level what it means to live for God’s glory (see ear­lier blog entry for more about this).