More from the Pleasures of God by John Piper. This is a must read for Christians.

What if you discovered (like the pharisees did), that you had devoted your whole life to trying to please God, but all the while had being doing things that in God's sight were abominations?

...God has no needs that I could ever be required to satisfy.

God has no deficiencies that I might be required to supply.

He is complete in himself. He is overflowing with happiness in the fellowship of the Trinity.

The upshot of this is that God is a mountain spring, not a watering trough. A mountain spring is self-replenishing. It constantly overflows and supplies others. But a watering trough needs to be filled with a pump or bucket brigade.

So if you want to glorify the worth of a watering trough you work hard to keep it full and useful. But if you want to glorify the worth of a spring you do it by getting down on your hands and knees and drinking to your heart's satisfaction, until you have the refreshment and strength to go back down in the valley and tell people what you've found.

My hope as a desperate sinner, who lives in a Death Valley desert of unrighteousness, hangs on this biblical truth: that God is the kind of God who will be pleased with the one thing I have to offer- my thirst.

That is why the sovereign freedom and self-sufficiency of God are so precious to me: they are the foundation of my hope that God is delighted not by the resourcefulness of bucket brigades, but by the bending down of broken sinners to drink at the fountain of grace.

If we do not have this foundational vision of God in place when we ask how we can please him, it is almost certain that our efforts to please him will become subtle means of self-exaltation, and end in the oppresive bondage of legalistic strivings.

Some passages from Piper's book that have been stirring my heart by revealing more of God's character that we sometimes neglect.

The great ground of hope in all the God-centered servants of the Lord has always been the impossibility that God would let his great name be dishonored for long among the nations. It was inconceivable. This was bedrock confidence. Other things change, but not this-- not the commitment of God to his "great name."

The great ground of hope, the great motive to pray, the great wellspring of mercy is God's awesome ocmmitment to his name. The pleasure that he has in his fame is the pledge and passion of his readiness to forgive and save those who lift his banner and cast themselves on his promise and mercy.

O how we need to feel the passion for God's fame that rings through the Bible!

"ll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23, Paul means that sinners have fallen short of prizing the glory of God. We have exchanged the glory of God for something else; for images of glory, like a new home or car or VCR or computers or vacation days or impressive resumes or whatever makes our ticker tick more than the wonder of God's glory.

Why did God bruise his Son and bring him grief? He did it to resolve the dissonance between his love for his glory and his love for sinners...It was not for his own sin that the Father bruised the Son. It was because he wanted to show us mercy. He wanted to forgive and heal and save and rejoice over us with loud singing. But he is righteous. That means his heart was filled with a love for the infinite worth of his own glory. But we were sinners. And that means that our hearts were filled with God-belittling affections. So to save sinner, and at the same time magnify the worth of his glory, God lays our sin on Jesus and abandons him to the shame and slaughter of the cross.

The God-centeredness of God is the foundation of his grace to the ungodly. If God were not committed first to vindicate the worth of his own glory, there would be no gospel and no hope, for there would be no glorious God.

Our reference point is not territorial or church growth aggrandizement, but building a kingdom that is not of htis world, yet which will fill the earth as a contrasting alternative society. We need to return to the concpt of a pilgrim Church, the church that will be hated, rejected, despised, persecuted, yet incisive, deciseve, victorious minority which one day soon, will be ready for its heavenly Bridegroom as the perfected Bride- Patrick Johnstone

The Pleasures of God - John Piper

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea.

Habakkuk 2:14

I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problems recognizing me - my banner will be clear!