I have always wondered why God demands our worship. God, who is self-sufficient, does not need the praise of humans. He created people not because He needed them, but because He wanted to create something in His own image to share in the joy of His creation. What I never understood until now is the meaning of praise. Praise “not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment” of God (Piper, p 249). When people praise God, they are expressing their joy in an outward fashion. What they do pleases God and shows how much they love Him. When someone delights in something, they will naturally praise it from the overflow of their heart. This only makes sense, because Christians who are satisfied in God will not go searching after other gods to fill the void in their heart. If a man is happily married and loves his wife, he will not go seeking after other women, because he is committed to his wife.
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The joy that he finds in his wife is manifest in the fact that he is faithful to her and delights in all that she does, whether that be raising the children, cooking meals, or spending time with him. In a similar fashion, when people say that they are Christians but do not actually follow the commands of God, they break His divine law, thus showing their true allegiance to the things of this world. Instead of loving the creator, they love creation, and sell themselves out to temporary pleasures of the world. Even though these passing fads never create lasting joy, people search after them their entire lives because they never truly worship God. They may go to church, and they may even feel the Spirit of God moving in the service, but when they walk out the door they remain unchanged. When God get a hold of someone, He will change and shape their heart to be more like Him, which will manifest itself in joy, which can only be found in God. When people abide in Christ, they experience the fullness of God that nothing in the entire world can replace. I love the clarity of Piper’s explanation, which shows why and how people need to worship Christ. The acronym BAM stands for “Kingdom Business Ventures,” and it represents “the highest potential for effecting sustainable, transformation, holistic kingdom impact to a hurting world” (Moreau, p 240). What is amazing about this venture is that it can be done by anyone. If someone has a bachelor’s degree in business administration, they can get a job working in Raleigh managing a small factory. This is a good thing, but it is hard to leverage your faith for Christ without intentionality, and tentmaking changes the mentality of many workers. The tentmaking phenomenon creates intentionality where professionals purposely relocate their families to places where they can leverage their skills for Christ. They move to places like Dubai or Shanghai to manage factories, and in doing so they can lead people to Christ through developing relationships. The government welcomes people like this, and it positively impacts everyone involved. The workers who are under the leadership of a Christian businessman see Christ lived out in a tangible way. I love how Moreau explains this, because it shows just how easy it can be to make disciples of all nations. Persecution and spiritual warfare
The joy that he finds in his wife is manifest in the fact that he is faithful to her and delights in all that she does, whether that be raising the children, cooking meals, or spending time with him. In a similar fashion, when people say that they are Christians but do not actually follow the commands of God, they break His divine law, thus showing their true allegiance to the things of this world. Instead of loving the creator, they love creation, and sell themselves out to temporary pleasures of the world. Even though these passing fads never create lasting joy, people search after them their entire lives because they never truly worship God. They may go to church, and they may even feel the Spirit of God moving in the service, but when they walk out the door they remain unchanged. When God get a hold of someone, He will change and shape their heart to be more like Him, which will manifest itself in joy, which can only be found in God. When people abide in Christ, they experience the fullness of God that nothing in the entire world can replace. I love the clarity of Piper’s explanation, which shows why and how people need to worship Christ. The acronym BAM stands for “Kingdom Business Ventures,” and it represents “the highest potential for effecting sustainable, transformation, holistic kingdom impact to a hurting world” (Moreau, p 240). What is amazing about this venture is that it can be done by anyone. If someone has a bachelor’s degree in business administration, they can get a job working in Raleigh managing a small factory. This is a good thing, but it is hard to leverage your faith for Christ without intentionality, and tentmaking changes the mentality of many workers. The tentmaking phenomenon creates intentionality where professionals purposely relocate their families to places where they can leverage their skills for Christ. They move to places like Dubai or Shanghai to manage factories, and in doing so they can lead people to Christ through developing relationships. The government welcomes people like this, and it positively impacts everyone involved. The workers who are under the leadership of a Christian businessman see Christ lived out in a tangible way. I love how Moreau explains this, because it shows just how easy it can be to make disciples of all nations. Persecution and spiritual warfare