Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Prosperity
Glenn Lucke at CGO recently put up a video excerpting John Piper on the "prosperity gospel." It caught me a bit unawares as I viewed it just a bit after my father's death in an auto accident. That fact made the piece's impact on me personally very significant, and very deep.
Piper's thesis, that God is most glorified not by the prosperity He gives us, but by the comfort He gives us in suffering. God's greatest glory is not when things are good, but the fact that He cares for us when things are bad. I agree, but I want to challenge Piper's semantics a bit.
God's greatest glory is not that He comforts us in suffering, but that He makes victory of suffering. Piper would no doubt counter that such phrasiology is where the prosperity gospel sneaks in, but I don't think so, because part of that process is that God redefines victory.
Because Piper talks about finding God in a auto accident, I am thinking about my father's death in this a lot. What victory is there in that most awful of circumstances? There are a number of "little things," ranging from how my father raised me to handle the circumstances to the blessings of the exteneded family that was there to the absolute power and helpfulness of my wife.
But there is one major victory in all of this, pulling the plug was the easiest decision I have ever made - it was the hardest ever to execute, but the easiest to make. Two things made it easy to make - the first was my father had always made his desires clear. The second; however, is far more important. I knew these words, and I knew their TRUTH:
And God has that handled too. You see, God tells me that if I am His man then I should put what is best for my father before what is best for me. God tells me that He will provide, and He has.
My father's death was victory. It was God's victory over sin so that He could welcome my father into His arms. It was victory because on that day, and on every day since, I have had to rely more on God's strength and less on my father's, and for that I am a better man. It was victory because it left me no place to stand but in the presence of Him who defines victory.
God's glory is not in comfort in suffering, but that He and only He can make suffering victory.
Related Tags: John Piper, victory, suffering, prosperity
Piper's thesis, that God is most glorified not by the prosperity He gives us, but by the comfort He gives us in suffering. God's greatest glory is not when things are good, but the fact that He cares for us when things are bad. I agree, but I want to challenge Piper's semantics a bit.
God's greatest glory is not that He comforts us in suffering, but that He makes victory of suffering. Piper would no doubt counter that such phrasiology is where the prosperity gospel sneaks in, but I don't think so, because part of that process is that God redefines victory.
Because Piper talks about finding God in a auto accident, I am thinking about my father's death in this a lot. What victory is there in that most awful of circumstances? There are a number of "little things," ranging from how my father raised me to handle the circumstances to the blessings of the exteneded family that was there to the absolute power and helpfulness of my wife.
But there is one major victory in all of this, pulling the plug was the easiest decision I have ever made - it was the hardest ever to execute, but the easiest to make. Two things made it easy to make - the first was my father had always made his desires clear. The second; however, is far more important. I knew these words, and I knew their TRUTH:
1 Cor 15:53-57 - For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.I knew that my father was gong to a better place, that made the decision easy. The execution was hard not becasue of what it meant for my father, but because of what it meant for me. It meant the lose of the man that shaped me, it meant the lose of my friend, it removed a great deal from my life, but oh how it enriched his.
And God has that handled too. You see, God tells me that if I am His man then I should put what is best for my father before what is best for me. God tells me that He will provide, and He has.
My father's death was victory. It was God's victory over sin so that He could welcome my father into His arms. It was victory because on that day, and on every day since, I have had to rely more on God's strength and less on my father's, and for that I am a better man. It was victory because it left me no place to stand but in the presence of Him who defines victory.
God's glory is not in comfort in suffering, but that He and only He can make suffering victory.
John 14:27 - "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.The message of the cross is that Christ's death was the ultimate victory.
Related Tags: John Piper, victory, suffering, prosperity
