Are You Wielding Your Own Sword, Or Borrowing From Someone Else?

I have been reading Desiring God by John Piper. Can I just say that Piper is awesome??? I first read When I Don’t Desire God and loved it. It made me want more of his writing. (I know I can read lots of his stuff on his website. Call me old-fashioned, but I really like books, the kind with pages.) So, imagine my surprise when I found a store in Guntersville that had Desiring God for ONLY $5.00!!!!!! I was little girl giddy!!!

This book has been eye-opening, inspiring, uplifting and toe-stomping, all at the same time. Just when I think it has gotten as good as it can possibly get, it gets better. The whole premise of the book is being a Christian Hedonist. I don’t really like the term hedonist. The image that comes to mind in my head of a hedonist is not a Christian. The way he explains it though is that our ultimate joy should come from God. God should be what we desire. (Hence the name Desiring God) Piper even says you don’t have to like the term to be one. Touche.

He has chapters on several different aspects of the Christian Hedonist lifestyle. One such chapter is titled Scripture: Kindling for Christian Hedonism. Piper writes:

Satan’s number-one objective is to destroy our joy of faith. We have one offensive weapon: the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (Ephesians 6: 17). But what many Christians fail to realize is that we can’t draw the sword from someone else’s scabbard. If we don’t wear it, we can’t wield it. If the Word of God does not abide in us (John 15: 7), we will reach for it in vain when the enemy strikes. But if we do wear it, if it lives within us, what mighty warriors we can be! “I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2: 14).

Wow. Those were toe-stomping words to me. I am so guilty of saying, “Maaaaaaarrrrrrk!! Where’s the verse about_____________? Or “Where’s a verse that goes along with _____________? Mark has actually asked me if I thought he has the whole Bible memorized. (maybe he does not have it all memorized, but he does have a lot!)

We have somewhat of a strange relationship. I remember doctor’s appointments, phone numbers, useless trivia, things of that nature. He remembers all the important stuff. He can remember sermons from when we were teenagers. So he’ll come to me and ask for the doctor’s phone number, I’ll ask him what verse should go along with my children’s message. It kind of works. I say kind of, because sometimes I need a certain verse and he’s not around. Or it is not prudent to ask. Like if we are in public and someone makes me mad or hurts my feelings and I want to retaliate with something meaner than what they said but I know there is a verse about not taking vengeance for ourselves (Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Romans 12:9 {Mark is not here,btw, I found it by myself!!}) Or, this is even more important than just remembering something for a lesson or to keep me from sinning: Sometimes people come to me needing help or advice. If I do not have God’s word abiding in me, I can’t help them. If I do not know what God says on a subject, I am very liable to tell someone the wrong thing. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19 (once again, I read this on my own tonight, no help) I do not want to be guilty of giving bad advice. I do not want to to lead someone into sin because I was not studied.

I have been reading more of the Bible. Sometimes it is tough to find quiet time. Do not disturb signs don’t seem to work around here. Whether  I have to stay up late, or get up early, or even both, it is worth it. This morning everything seemed to go awry. The boys were whiney, they did not want to do their schoolwork. It was one of those days where nothing went right. I had promised Mark that some challah and Annemarie cookies would be waiting for when him he got up. My intention was to get a certain amount of school done, mix the challah, have lunch, then bake the cookies and wake up Mark. HA! The challah dough was an icky, sticky mess. The lunch got got eaten at 2:00. Mark got up around 2:00. So I went to make the cookies. I got out two sticks of butter, softened them in the microwave and went about getting the other ingredients out.  Oops, I had used all the brown sugar for the Dutch Baby I made for breakfast. (not that it was enough to make the cookies anyway)   At this point, not even half of the school day had been done, no cookies and I was not sure how the bread was going to be. Oh, and I had forgotten to get the chicken out of the freezer until maybe 11:00, so it was still frozen hard as a brick. I was ready to just cry. Mark said he would stop by to get some brown sugar on the way home in morning and why don’t we just order pizza. Then he starts talking about how he really likes his new Bible reading plan that he has started. I said I liked it, too…only I didn’t actually read this morning. Hm…. it hit me then. My day goes much more smoothly when I begin with the Word. What happened today? I didn’t get up late. I didn’t spend hours in the kitchen making some elaborate breakfast. But nothing went according to plans. I need to make sure that God has first place in my life. I need to be a Christian Hedonist. I don’t have to like the term or even use it, I just need to treasure God above all else and let everything else just fall into place. Otherwise, my life spins out of control in mass chaos.  Here’s a funny video that Mark says describes me: