A wasted life john piper how to#
A wasted life john piper series#

Chapter 4: Magnifying Christ Through Pain and Death The way we honor Christ in death is to treasure Jesus above the gift of life, and the way we honor Christ in life is to treasure Jesus above life’s gifts. Chapter 3: Boasting Only in thr Cross, the Blazing Center of the Glory of God And you will make a difference that lasts. Chapter 3: Boasting Only in thr Cross, the Blazing Center of the Glory of Godīut whatever you do find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. 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. Chapter 2: Breakthrough-the Beauty of Christ, My Joy What was once foolishness to us-a crucified God-must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world. Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it, as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples. God created me-and you-to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion-namely a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all spheres of life. Chapter 1: My Search for a Single Passion to Live By And the lasting measure of that life is Christ. As Paul said, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If you are still breathing, then you can still repent and live for Christ. I recommend this book to all Christians, young and old. And encouraged me to make my life count for Christ. And I appreciated Piper showing us how we can make the most of our 9-5 jobs.ĭon’t Waste Your Life made me see the futility of a life filled with vain pursuits. Though God calls everyone to ministry, it doesn’t have to be a vocational ministry. I loved that Piper illustrates how we can make the most of our lives in secular jobs.

A wasted life john piper how to#

In the preface, he said, “ this is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life.” Piper illustrated that with the lives of the saints who suffered for Jesus’ name and are now in glory. He repeatedly emphasized that living for Christ involved sacrifice and suffering. Piper is not trying to sell us a delusional lie that all will be well. He reminds us that our best life is not this one, but the next. Whereas the world and even “Christians” encourages us to live our best lives now, Piper does the opposite. It came at a timely moment in my life when I was unsure of what to do next.

The last chapter is, “My Prayer-Let None Say in the End, ‘I’ve Wasted It.’” It’s Piper’s heartfelt prayer for his readers and beyond not to waste their lives. The sections are: “Boasting Only in the Cross,” “The Blazing Center of the Glory of God,” “Magnifying Christ through Pain and Death,” “Risk is Right-Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It,” “The Goal of Life-Gladly Making Others Glad in God,” “Living to Prove He is More Precious Than Life,” and “Making Much of Christ from 8 to 5.” Then in chapters three to nine, Piper explains how not to waste our lives. In the first two, “My Search for a Single Passion to Live By,” and “Breakthrough-The beauty of Christ, My joy,” Piper shares his story of how God awoke in him a fear and passion not to waste his life.

Our callings may look different, but we are all called to live and even lose our lives for Christ.ĭon’t Waste Your Life has ten chapters. The message of this book is for all Christians. Even if it cost us dearly because “treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy.” And we shouldn’t live in vain pursuit of worldly things, but to risk it all for Christ. Piper wrote this book to remind us that as Christians, we are not our own. It led me to Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life.ĭon’t Waste Your Life is inspired by the Seashell message.

A wasted life john piper series#

I found the sermon through Tim Challies’s Great Sermon Series a little later and watched it for the first time a few weeks ago. What affected her and 40 000 other students was John Piper’s famous sermon, “ Boasting Only in the Cross,” a.k.a, the seashell message. The conference had such a profound impact on her that seventeen years later, she still carried a bracelet from that day and spoke of it with a gleam in her eyes. It was the Passion One Day 2000 Conference. She told us of a conference that changed her life when she was in our shoes. And midway through the semester, we had a guest speaker for an all women’s study night. When I was in college, I attended a large on-campus Bible study every week.