Friday, February 20, 2009

book recommendation?

i just started reading piper's new book on marriage This Momentary Marriage. i've barely finished one chapter and i already want to post a quote. i hope that's ok. i love to read and listen to piper and sometimes what he says or writes just makes me want to stand up and cheer...

"the magnificence of God (will) seem unintelligible in a modern Western culture, where the maid idol is self; and its main doctrine is autonomy; and its central act of worship is being entertained; and its three main shrines are the television, the Internet, and the cinema; and its most sacred genuflection is the uninhibited act of sexual intercourse. Such a culture will find the glory of marriage in the mind of Jesus virtually incomprehensible...The natural man does not have the capacities to see or receive or feel the wonder of what God has designed for marriage to be. I pray that this book might be used by God to help set you free from small, worldly, culturally contaminated, self-centered, Christ-ignoring, God-neglecting, romance-intoxicated, unbiblical views of marriage."

as Mark Driscoll says: "hard words make soft people, soft words make hard people."

i appreciate Piper and Driscoll speaking the truth about sin and my (our) preoccupation with self...i need to be confronted with my selfishness and Christ's grace and mercy daily.

2 comments:

Kevin and Tara said...

love this book! I've already read it and Kevin is almost done reading it - good stuff!

CityStreams said...

Great quote! I'll add that to my list of wanta-reads. Thanks!