Another Bad Review
A bad review because I am not good at reviewing books, not because the book was bad. The book was, in fact, excellent.
I am referring to Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. An exceptional book. It has shifted my understanding of my purpose as a believer living here on earth and fanned the flames of my joy in Christ.
To give a brief description of the book, I will simply quote Piper:
Someone might say, "But isn't the Gospel about finding forgiveness of my sins and getting the hope of eternal life and being filled with the Spirit of holiness and being changed into the image of Jesus so that I am a better mom or dad or son or daughter or friend or employer or citizen?" The answer, of course, is yes. But if that is all we focus on in our walk with God, we miss the big picture. We miss the bigger point of it all. We are like batboys at Yankee Stadium who think the great point of the World Series is to hand the players a bat.
This excerpt comes near the end of the book after he has already illuminated what that "bigger point of it all" really is: primarily, finding our joy in "making much of Christ."
Of practical importance are his thoughts about:
- specific things that pull us away from God and numb us to living out his purpose
- asking the right questions when faced with decisions: not "is this right or wrong?" but "does this help me make much of Christ in another person's life?"
- the "war time" mindset as it relates to our commitment to Christ's purposes
- the necessity of having Christians in both secular and "spiritual" careers, and some ways to determine which we will pursue.
The only part that I didn't like about the book was its slow start. It took about three chapters before really getting to the meat. But once there, I found this book was encouraging, challenging, and practical.
Believe it or not, I am planning on reading it again.
I am referring to Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. An exceptional book. It has shifted my understanding of my purpose as a believer living here on earth and fanned the flames of my joy in Christ.
To give a brief description of the book, I will simply quote Piper:
Someone might say, "But isn't the Gospel about finding forgiveness of my sins and getting the hope of eternal life and being filled with the Spirit of holiness and being changed into the image of Jesus so that I am a better mom or dad or son or daughter or friend or employer or citizen?" The answer, of course, is yes. But if that is all we focus on in our walk with God, we miss the big picture. We miss the bigger point of it all. We are like batboys at Yankee Stadium who think the great point of the World Series is to hand the players a bat.
This excerpt comes near the end of the book after he has already illuminated what that "bigger point of it all" really is: primarily, finding our joy in "making much of Christ."
Of practical importance are his thoughts about:
- specific things that pull us away from God and numb us to living out his purpose
- asking the right questions when faced with decisions: not "is this right or wrong?" but "does this help me make much of Christ in another person's life?"
- the "war time" mindset as it relates to our commitment to Christ's purposes
- the necessity of having Christians in both secular and "spiritual" careers, and some ways to determine which we will pursue.
The only part that I didn't like about the book was its slow start. It took about three chapters before really getting to the meat. But once there, I found this book was encouraging, challenging, and practical.
Believe it or not, I am planning on reading it again.
posted by 
at 11:31 PM
4 Comments:
I don't know where you got the idea that you give bad reviews. I thought it was very helpful in determining whether or not you liked it and why.
Thanks for the tip. I like John Pipers books. A.W.Tozer writes good ones too!
I also thought that this was a good review. It told me why I should read it, but didn't give too much away (which I hate--especially with fiction reviews).
I had heard this book mentioned over a year ago, and thought it sounded great, and now that you brought it up again, I remembered that I "needed" to read it.
It's that good, huh? I'll be putting it on my Christmas wish list. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Post a Comment
<< Home