Christian Hedonism

A few years ago I picked up a book that I had heard about many times. I hadn’t read and in fact I knew very little about its content.

The name of the book was Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. It was written by a pastor whose name was becoming more and more well known in certain circles – Dr. John Piper. Prior to reading the book I was perplexed by the message of the title.

As someone who has a college degree in philosophy, I had read extensively about hedonism. As such, everything I understood about hedonism told me that it was a bad thing. Hedonism, as defined in the secular sense, is the doctrine that pleasure is the highest good and therefore all of life should be devoted to pursuing pleasure.

What then is Christian Hedonism? To put it in simple terms, it is the understanding that the greatest pleasure/joy/happiness in life can only be found in the presence and glory of God. Therefore we should base our lives on the pursuit of the greatest pleasure – God Himself.

I was reminded of this life changing truth as I was reading through the Psalms this morning.

Psalm 16:11
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

I pray that you will live a life of unbridled hedonism – true hedonism – Desiring God.

So how does God feel about this? Look for a future post to answer that question.

A Fundamental Question

There is a fundamental question that a Christian must answer. Not that they owe the answer to others. In fact, it is a question that must be answered in one’s own heart or it is no answer at all.

The question is this:

Is my faith the result of me inviting Christ into my life OR is my faith the result of Christ inviting me into His?

The answer to that question will be the foundation on which all of life will be built.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

Some of you will recognize the title of this post from the Jimmy Buffet song. There can be a lot of truth in those six words. One thing that I have in mind when I refer to that is this blog.

Prior to moving to Lake Placid I wrote a lot. In fact, I wrote everyday. The majority of that writing took place on my blog. Since I moved to Florida, however, my writing pattern has changed. That is if you can call not writing a pattern.

I have been thinking a lot about this over the past few days and I think I know the reasons behind this. One major reason for this was that my writing often served as an outlet. My previous place of service brought with it some difficult challenges and I found writing to be therapeutic. Another major reason for the silence from writing has been that I have been so busy in the work here in Lake Placid that it just hasn’t been a major priority. The people here have been so great to serve with and there is always something to be busy with that I found much greater joy away from the writing desk.

In many ways I say all of this as a new beginning. I have been here in Lake Placid for almost a year and things have been falling into place quite nicely. I am once again desiring to write. My motivation this time isn’t negative pressures or challenges but all of the things that God is flooding my heart and mind with as I serve in this great church and town.

I look forward to the words to come. I know that they will benefit all three of us that read the blog.

Tough Stuff

The past few months have been fairly silent on the blog front. I have been busy. But more than that, I have been emotionally drained. Over the past couple months I lost my grandmother and grandfather as well as numerous smaller things that have left me scratching the bottom of the bucket emotionally. It’s not good for your heart’s tank to run low when you are tasked with pouring into the hearts of others.

It is for that reason, perhaps, that I am a little more grateful that Christmas is here. It is a time that I will be able to slow down a little and process the events that my family have recently experienced. More than that, however, Christmas is a time to remember that it was into our emptiness that God came. He wrapped Himself in flesh and lived in our neighborhood. He experienced all of our trials and burdens and then took upon Himself the weight of our shortcomings, failures, and sin. He who had never sinned became sin for us that we might be righteous. He poured Himself out for us.

He still pours into us. As Psalm 23 promises, he is eager to “restore our souls.” He takes us in our weariness and breathes new life into us.

I pray that you have a Merry Christmas, that your stockings are full, and your hearts are renewed.

Dared to Move

Our church has been in the sermon series Dare You to Move through the month of November. I have been speaking to our church about hearing from God, choosing to step out in obedience, and holding on to His promise. I have preached these messages with a sense of expectation. I have expected people to step out and make decisions to trust God. What I didn’t expect was to experience this series in such a personal way.

Over the past few weeks, God has been speaking to me about some things that need to happen in my own life and ministry. They are things that I can see that He has been preparing me for. So the words that I spoke to our church a week ago must apply to me as well:

Life change steps of faith happen when conviction seizes the opportunity to move in faith.

I will be talking more specifically about what these things are in the weeks to come. The point of all of this is, however, that my expectation for God to move amongst our church must begin with the expectation for God to move in me.