We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the deep significance of Christ's sufferings in relation to both positive and negative experiences in life.
John Piper's quote reflects on the idea that the foundation of all goodness, as well as the transformation of adversity into good, is rooted in the sufferings of Christ. He suggests that a deeper contemplation of this truth can lead to a more Christ-centered life, enabling believers to appreciate the divine purpose behind all experiences.
In practice
During a church sermon about perseverance, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of understanding suffering in a spiritual context.
God will not turn away from doing you good. He will keep on doing good. He doesn't do good to His children sometimes and bad to them other times. He keeps on doing good and He never will stop doing good for ten thousand ages of ages. When things are going bad that does not mean God has stopped doing good. It means He is shifting things around to get them in place for more good, if you will go on loving Him.
You donβt have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.
Do all things without grumbling. Why? You have a sovereign God who is on your side, who works everything together for your good.
Christ did not die to make good works merely possible or to produce a half-hearted pursuit. He died to produce in us a passion for good deeds. Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good.
The key to Christian living is a thirst and hunger for God. And one of the main reasons people do not understand or experience the sovereignty of grace and the way it works through the awakening of sovereign joy is that their hunger and thirst for God is so small.
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't.
The simple statement, 'God is for us', is in truth one of the richest and weightiest utterances that the Bible contains.
Ironically, the first thing that appealed to me about Islam was its pluralism. The fact that the Koran praises all the great prophets of the past.
Routine is a declivity down which many governments slide, and routine says that freedom of the press is dangerous.
In any society, fanatics who hate don't hate only me - they hate you, too. They hate everybody.
Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he canβt touch and see.
It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.
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