Jon Swerens

“Our people don’t so much need to have their heads stored as to have their hearts touched and they stand in the greatest need of that sort of preaching that has the greatest tendency to do this.”

– Jonathan Edwards

Until midnight on Thursday, every book and study guide at John Piper’s web site are only $5. That includes hardbacks.

I already have three Piper books, “Desiring God,” “Don’t Waste Your Life” and “What Jesus Demands From the World.”

If I had to recommend only one Piper book, this would be it. In fact, what’s always been great about Piper’s ministry is how unselfish it is. For example, the entire text of “Desiring God” is online, and in an easy-to-read-online format.

Note that the subtitle for “Desiring God” is “Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.” In the book’s introduction, Piper states five convictions upon which he builds his philosophy of Christian Hedonism:

1. The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.
2. We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.
3. The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God.
4. The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.
5. To the extent we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: the pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue. That is, The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever.

It’s a great book that cannot be too highly recommended.

Oh, and their servers have been very, very busy, so you may want to wait and order later in the evening or early in the morning.

Related: We Want You To Be a Christian Hedonist!

From “Against Christianity” by Peter Leithart:

Worship is Political Science 101. … Every worship service is a challenge to Caesar, because every Lord’s Day we bow to a Man on the throne of heaven, to whom even great Caesar must bow.

I’ve been reading through Peter Leithart’s “Against Christianity” and decided to post a few quotes that I thought deserved some airing.

For some context, Leithart is an ordained minister in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America. In this book, you quickly realize that he is not fighting Christ, but particular beliefs about the Christian religion popular in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Formally, the Bible is not a “theology text” or a “catechism” that arranges doctrines in a systematic order. … Paul was not a university theologian calmly writing from a safe haven above the fray. Like the Lord he served, Paul entered the fray. He taught truths about God, but they were taught in the context of conflict and deployed in the form of weaponry.

I happened upon this quote at JollyBlogger, who referenced Justin Taylor’s blog, who in turn thanks Desiring God’s Bill Walsh, who was quoting from James Galvin’s book “Faith Alone.” Ah, the hyperactive hyperlink.

But it’s from Martin Luther, and it’s good medicine for me:

People don’t earn God’s approval or receive life and salvation because of anything they’ve done. Rather, the only reason they receive life and salvation is because of God’s kindness through Christ. There is no other way.

Many Christians are tired of hearing this teaching over and over. They think that they learned it all long ago. However, they barely understand how important it really is. If it continues to be taught as truth, the Christian church will remain united and pure

I am in the business of putting fiber into the backbones of wimps.

From the audio of his sermon titled Staying Married Is Not About Staying in Love, Part 1.