"Let The Nations Be Glad" Book Report
In his book, Let The Nations Be Glad!, John Piper explains, through many methods, the supremacy of God in missions. Piper hit on many topics that I had personally never thought of. Growing up I defined missions as, a trip out of the state/country that would allow one to show the love of Christ through good deeds. However, as I grow as a Christian I have begun to question many of the same topics that Piper writes about in this book. Piper shows how to make God supreme in missions by focusing on: The purpose, the power, and the price; the necessity and Nature of the Task; and the Practical Outworking of Compassion and Worship.
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is.”(Piper, 17) When I first read this sentence I read it with my “Southern Baptist” eyes not my Jesus eyes. I was thinking of worship as what we do on Sunday mornings. However, Piper defines worship as, “… an inner spiritual treasuring of the character and the ways of God in Christ. It is a cherishing of Christ, a being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ.” (Piper, 227) Once the author defines worship through missions he shows the reader the importance of prayer through missions. Piper defines prayer as; “… the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing.” (Piper 58) and “… the power that wields the weapon of the Word, and the Word is the weapon by which the nations will be brought to faith and obedience.” (Piper 63) After defining prayer, the author shows the supremacy of God in missions through suffering. Suffering exists on different levels and comes in different forms. As Piper states, “He (Jesus) is calling every believer to ‘renounce all he has,’ to ‘hate his own life’ (Luke 14:33,26), and to take the road of obedience joyfully, no matter the loss on this earth.” (Piper 74) Some will suffer through martyrdom and others will suffer very little throughout their life. But, no matter what the amount of suffering we must realize that it is in...