4/23/2010

Some Reflections after reading portions of Desiring God by John Piper

Please do not confuse this blog as only what John Piper has been or is saying, I have been doing some of my own research and adding in my own thoughts and emotions. This blog also is not actually about the full contents of Piper's book; just the issues of interest picked out and elaborated on by me.Yesterday we saw how the chief end of man is to glorify God. Today I am going to dive into what Piper says is the chief end of God. Piper (in his book, Desiring God) says that the chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever.This is very much similar to the chief end of man as the end result is to honor and glorify and enjoy God.When we think about God enjoying Himself a lot of thoughts come to mind.
Some people are confused. Why or how would God enjoy Himself?
Others people will be intrigued. Curiously wondering what this is all about?
To some this is the only logical conclusion.For most of us at first glance, thinking about God glorifying Himself sounds pretty odd. It is an unfamiliar thought. We as humans are pretty self centered and typically imagine the world evolving around us. Sure God is out there but God is there for us, to redeem us, forgive us, and to save us. This is a usual and normal thought process, but it may not be absolutely true.God was around before man and God wanted to be happy before man. He planned creation and executed it to His own liking. Everything that has happened, is happening, and will ever happen, in the end, will have happened according to the will of God.When we are bringing up issues of the chief end of man and now the chief end of God we are digging into a theological discussion of God's Sovereignty. I can (and will soon) spend an entire blog on the topic of Sovereignty alone simply because it is a complex issue and many people have a lot of emotions and thought when it comes to that topic.I am not out to explain away anything nor do I claim to have all the answers but I find this topics fascinating and worth discussion and thought. I inevitably could possibly say something wrong or offensive, please correct me if you see fit.Obviously I did not answer the question fully. In fact there is much left to think about and wonder upon but I have reached my stopping point for today. This is a deep issue that can be examined quite deeply. I am only looking at a few aspects today in this blog, but for the next week or so I will be picking it a part, piece by piece and getting at the difficult and interesting issues. There is more to come!