The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God

I first saw this book reviewed in the early 1990's. It aroused a double response of curiosity and suspicion. Like many a cynic I asked myself, "Now who's this guy and what's he spinning?" Against my natural inclination to dismiss it, I ordered POG. On receiving it I began reading and found my suspicions confirmed: here was another triumphal and insensitive adherent to the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Strangely, however, I couldn't stop reading. Despite months of scrawling angry counter-arguments in the margins of its pages I was drawn inexplicably to the sensibility of its core premise about God's delight in being God. To make this story short, I found myself, in the end, exhausted but surrendered to the portrait of God that Piper paints with the full palette of scriptural truth. And finally happy too, with the beginnings of the joy Piper wished for his sons in the Foreword. Salvation history testifies to the fact that a distinguishing evidence of the truth is that it is often hated - at first. The fact that POG eventually had such an unnatural (or supernatural) effect on someone like me - initially so inclined to resist and rebuff - speaks more to the validity of this book than if I had joined immediately in the chorus of deserved admiration. This is not a critical analysis of POG; others have provided that sufficiently on this page. Instead it's a personal account of the Irresistible Grace that against all nature drew a small and scoffing soul into undeserved open spaces where God's glory was seen...and is now sung.

The Pleasures of God is by far one of the great books of our generation. John Piper is not only a clear and easy to follow theologian, he has a zeal and enthusiasm for the Person of God that is contagious. The genre of this book is hard to peg. Its theology runs deep - very deep, yet it is at the same time devotional; it stretches the intellect but cuts straight to the heart. Piper's style is truly unique. His convictions are unashamedly Biblical.The essence of the book may be condensed down to this: God does just as He pleases. Yet this thesis opens a universe of implications and questions, some of which Piper addresses in the book's ten chapters. They are titled, "The Pleasure of God in His Son, The Pleasure of God in All He Does, The Pleasure of God in His Creation, The Pleasure of God in His Fame, The Pleasure of God in Election, The Pleasure of God in Bruising the Son, The Pleasure of God in Doing Good to All Who Hope in Him, The Pleasure of God in the Prayers of the Upright, The Pleasure of God in Personal Obedience and Public Justice, and The Pleasure of God in Concealing Himself from the Wise and Revealing Himself to Infants."The Appendix, "Are There Two Wills in God? Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved" is also worth reading and should be considered an eleventh chapter.Piper's God is the Sovereign God of the Bible. Although we can only understand what He has revealed, He makes no apology for being God nor for His nature; instead, He glories in Who He is. Because the believer is in union with Him through Christ, we are included in the great love felt between the Persons of the Trinity.Piper takes the reader through numerous theological and daily issues, like election, why a good God would allow evil, foreign missions, prayer, the holiness of God, the Sovereignty of God, the purpose of Christ's atonement - and a whole lot more.I found that this book stretched not only my mind but my soul. World Magazine rightly included this volume on its list of the top 100 books of the Twentieth Century. It will take you a while to journey through these 340 thoughtful pages, but it will be a journey you will long remember.

Amazing, the type of people wearing "WWJD" bracelets. Piper's premise is that you can't figure out WhatJesusWouldDo until you know WhatGodLoves. This is a PHENOMENAL book to be read with pen in hand. I've read every book that Dr. Piper has written (true confessions, I put down "God'sPassion..." for now - am I the only one? Thank you - I see that hand) and found this to be the PINNACLE. Not easy reading, but "raking is easy but all you get is leaves. Digging is harder, but diamonds are out there." Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a biblically-saturated journey into the heart of God Almighty!

I have to admit, when I first read this book, I wanted to throw it across the room. But earnestly searching scriptures (with the intent to prove the book wrong), I was forced to unhappily conclude that Piper was completely on the ball. Then the most amazing thing happened: as I reread the book with a heart of faith, my disturbed state of mind gave way to a liberating joy in the good news of the sovereign God who is infinitely worthy and glorious beyond our wildest imaginations. I've always known that God is big, but Piper's expositions have been the lynchpin to my realization that God is BIG; truly one whose ways are above our ways and whose thoughts are above our thoughts. And in light of this, the deep love of Jesus has become even more amazing to me: how such a God could love and die for sinners such as us. To God alone be the glory!

I have read practically all of Piper's books, including his classic Desiring God, and the Pleasures of God outranks all of them. Piper manages to accomplish something that very few theologians can: mesh theology and joyful devotion to God. Theology to Piper is by no means an end in itself; it is meant to direct God's people towards him with deeper understanding of his character. Piper is humble and yet strongly convicted in his apprehension of God and the ways in which he interacts with his son Jesus Christ and his people. He puts down all vying theologies with passion and scriptural weaponry. This book is not for the new Christian or someone trying to explore the character of God for the first time; it is for those who have meditated on scripture for some time but are looking to be impassioned by the Bible and apply its sublime truths in richer, more accurate ways. This book is like the Bible in that it prepares and motivates the reader for application, without w! hich it is meaningless.