Rip Tide: John Piper
This next man is probably the most popular of all my influences. John Piper is the pastor of preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and his personal ministry spawned the free resources of Desiring God. God has used this man mightily to ignite a love and passion for Himself in the younger generation through two themes. First, that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him” and the whole counsel of God. Early in my faith in Jesus, no one influenced my theology and understanding of God more than this man.
God is the Gospel
“And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.”(John 17:3)
I read his book “Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ” when I first got to Texas State University-San Marcos and it was a breath of fresh air to my spirit. I thought God’s gift to me in Jesus was heaven and eternal life but what Piper showed me in the Bible was that God’s gift to me was himself! That the good news of Jesus Christ is that he saved me so that I could delight in him forever, not just gain heaven and lose hell. That our longings and desires were God given, not to be denied but rather satisfied and overwhelmed through knowing and experiencing God in Jesus Christ.
God of the Bible
“For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”(Acts 20:27)
My knowledge of the bible was anemic at best. The bible was definitely important but reserved for the pastors and scholars, not regular folk. On top of this, the church I grew up in had weak theology, but Piper showed me the great God of the whole Bible who was the untamable ruler of the universe. My world was flipped upside down by the texts where God made it clear that everything is for His glory (including my salvation), the authority of the Bible, that He was sovereign over everything, that He was the most happy being in the universe and that He chose me to be saved by his good pleasure. At first these things were difficult for me to accept because of my man-centered theology, but by the grace of God these truths have become a place of rest, fuel for worship, and ballast in my ship.
Passion
As great and bible saturated as his theology is, what ties it all together is his genuine delight and passion for God. He writes and speaks in a way that indicates he has been humbled and enamored by the God who loved him in the cross of Christ. (Click here for example) He reminds me of what I have already experienced, that obeying God is so much sweeter than anything else. I thank God for his ministry and I look forward to letting him know all that God did through his life for my benefit when we join together around the throne of Jesus.
