When I Don't Desire God, ch. 1

I have started reading, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy, by John Piper. I really appreciated the foreward and first chapter. Piper writes in an even more personal and pastoral style than usual. Here are some sentences that stood out to me:

"When all is said and done, only God can create joy in God. This is why the old saints not only pursued joy but prayed for it (Ps 90:15). To be satisfied by the beatuy of God does not come naturally to sinful people. By nature we get more pleasure from God's gifts than from himself. Therefore this book calls for deep and radical change--which only God can give. But if I didn't believe God uses means to awaken joy in himself, I would not have written this book" (page 9).

"Christian Hedonism is a liberating and devastating doctrine. It teaches that the value of God shines more brightly in the soul that finds deepest satisfaction in him. Therefore it is liberating because it endorses our inborn desire for joy. And it is devastating because it reveals that no one desires God with the passion he demands. Paradoxically, many people experience both of these truths. That certainly is my own experience" (page 13).

"My indwelling sin stands in the way of my full satisfaction in God. It opposes and perverts my pursuit of God. It opposes by making other things look more desirable than God. And it perverts by making me think I am pursuing joy in God when, in fact, I am in love with his gifts. I discovered what better saints than I have found before me: The full enjoyment of God is my ultimate home, but I am still far off and only on the way" (page 14).

"Conversion is the creation of new desires, not just new duties; new delights, not just new deeds; new treasures, not just new tasks" (page 16).

"The misunderstanding of this book that I want most to avoid is that I am writing to make well-to-do Western Christians comfortable, as if the joy I have in mind is psychological icing on the cake of already superficial Christianity. Therefore let me say clearly here at the beginning that the joy I write to awaken is the sustaining strength of mercy, missions, and martyrdom" (pages 19-20).

"I am addressing the question: 'How can I obtain or recover a joy in Christ that is so deep and so strong that it will free me from bondage to Western comforts and security, and will impel me into sacrifices of mercy and missions, and will sustain me in the face of martyrdom?'" (page 20)