The idea that had a great impact on me came in the first 4 sentences of the book. It says
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.
God’s supremacy over man and all the other created order is a biblical idea that Piper is bringing to light in his own words. He is passionately serious about pushing forth this biblical idea into the forefront of the minds of every Christian on the face of the earth. It is obvious that
The beginning of chapter 4 puts this idea into slightly different words. Piper states, “The aim of missions is the ‘bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations’ (Rom. 1.5)” (Piper 111). The Bible is very clear that God empowers His people for the sake of His name. It is for no other purpose than to bring glory, honor, happiness, and joy to the heart of the Father. It is for His name’s sake that missions exists.
I fully agree with everything Piper writes in this book. Although the ideas that he espouses are sometimes hard to understand or even like, I find that Piper is more biblically based than any other preacher or author who I’ve ever been influenced by. When he says that God is ultimately interested in having people worship and extol Himself, I was offended at first. However, as I began to understand this concept better, it dawned on me that God is the only being in the universe whose selfishness works to the good of all of creation. It is exactly opposite for those of us who are part of the created way of existence. When we are selfish, it works to the detriment of our fellow creatures. But when we are focused on God’s glory, everyone wins. This is true.
Another ah-ha moment that had came when Piper quoted
We have to make the preparation now, before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything. You are undressed and given a prisoner’s suir. No more nice furniture, nice carpets, or nice curtains. You do not have a wife any more and you do not have your children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand (Piper 79).
Wurmbrand was imprisoned and tortured for the sake of
As I stated before, I can think of nothing that I disagreed with him about. He is a solid Christian who walks with God, which comes through in his writing and in his preaching. The only thing that I suggest for this book is to not get so bogged down with lists of prooftexts for an idea. Place the scriptures in the front or the back of the book, but place them all together in order to know where these scripture references are located. If they had been bunched together, it would have made organization much simpler. It would have made the flow of the book a little more streamlined, which means that it would have been easier to read, and then to read it again.
I am recommending this book to all of my family and friends. I want them to know the reasons for missions, as well as our purpose as Christians. I want them to know what I am learning through the diligent and responsible exegesis of the text of God’s Word.
This book made me nod my head in agreement. This book made me cry. But most importantly, this book motivated me to leave it all for the sake of
