John Piper is a constant encouragement to me in my walk with the Lord. And it is his thoughts on Christian biography that have molded my post for today. When I first became a Christian my junior year of high school, men like Jim Elliot were my source of inspiration as I poured over his biography and journals, inspired by his intense devotion to Christ and his passion for the lost. As God continued to grow me through His Word, He kept bringing more men who have long since departed from this world, men like Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, Henry Martyn, Adoniram Judson and more recently John Paton. These men were so “God-besotted” [I stole this phrase from some man after God’s own heart, Piper, Pastor Dan at Five Points, who knows, sorry I can’t cite it properly], that by just reading a paragraph in any one of their biographies, challenges me, convicts me, causes me to desire God more than I had a moment before.
Piper says in his book, When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy that “when you read Christian biography you get to see a person fight for joy over a lifetime. This is tremendously helpful. It gives guidance in the warfare. It gives inspiration because of triumphs of grace. It gives humility and hope because of failures and recoveries. And sometimes there are glimpses of what is possible in relation to God that set a reader to praying and longing as never before” (133). That has been my experience time and time again. I want to see and know deeply within me what it takes to go hard after Jesus for the rest of my life. I count these men of God as my dear friends, the men who have inspired me to go harder after God than I knew was possible. They have showed me what it means to live a life of uncompromising allegiance to Christ and I long to live as they did. I thank God time and time again that I can have these biographies in my own language, just as I have the Word of God because after all, “a Christian life, whether past or present, is a demonstration of the truth of God’s Word and a display of God’s grace” (Piper 132).
So I press on in my reading of Christian biography and I have to conclude by once again quoting Piper, “For the sake of your joy in Christ read Christian biography. It will take you out of yourself and put you in another time and another skin, so that you see Jesus with eyes more full of wonder than your own. Find some Bible-saturated, Christ-exalting, God-centered saints from centuries gone by and learn from them how to fight for joy” (134) in Christ.
2 comments:
Have you read any of the biographies in "From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya"? It's been really encouraging for me to read because it's a bunch of short (and I mean really short) biograhies of missionaries. They've been my friends lately too. It's really nice because if I want to know a little bit about this missionary P Jay keeps talking about, I can usually find them in this book and read a short clip of their life. It's also a good taste tester for biographies you want to read.
I look forward to reading your blog and being encouraged by it! Plus, it's great to read everyone's blogs while I'm off at CMU.
You are now probably the third or fourth person that has told me I need to read that book! I think it's time I bought it. :-) Many thanks for the recommendation!
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