GOD’S WORD FOR MAY 13
GOD’S WORD FOR MAY 13 ~ ~ Matthew 17:5 ~ ~ “While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
For a while, I’m going to be quoting excerpts from John Piper’s book, “The Pleasures of God ~ Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God.”
These will be excerpts, not continuous reading, and the only additions will be possibly additions by myself for clarification and marked (*)
I pray it blesses you as it does me, and I pray that you either have received Christ, or will be led to Him by this, and that you’ll be able to understand what the Holy Spirit is saying, and benefit from it in all areas.
Today ~ ~ “The Pleasure of God in His Son.” Part 1
“…the happiness of God is first and foremost a happiness in His Son. Thus when we share in the happiness of God we share in the very pleasure that the Father has in His Son. This is why Jesus made the Father known to us. In His prayer in John 17:26, He prayed: ‘I made known to them Your name, and I will make it known, THAT THE LOVE WITH WHICH YOU HAVE LOVED ME MAY BE IN THEM, AND I IN THEM’
He made God known so that God’s pleasure in His Son might be in us and become OUR pleasure also!!!
Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded energy and passion forever. This is not now our experience. Three things stand in the way of our complete satisfaction in this world.
1) Nothing has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longings of our hearts.
2) We lack the strength to savor the best treasures to their maximum worth,
3) The third obstacle to complete satisfaction is that our joys here come to an end. Nothing lasts.
But if the aim of Jesus in John 17:26 comes true, all this will change. If God’s pleasure in the Son becomes our pleasure, then (*and He means that for this life, not only eternity)
- the object of our pleasure, Jesus, will be inexhaustible in personal worth. He will never become boring or disappointing or frustrating…
- Our ability to savor this inexhaustible treasure will not be limited by human weaknesses. We will enjoy the Son of God with the very enjoyment of His Father. God’s delight in His son will be in us and it will be ours.
- This will never end, because neither the Father nor the son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.
When God declares openly that He loves and delights in His Son, He gives a visual demonstration of the Son’s unimaginable glory. His face shown like the sun, His garments became translucent with light, and the disciples fell on their faces (Matthew 17:6) the point is not merely that humans should stand in awe of such a glory but that God Himself takes full pleasure in the radiance of His Son.
He reveals Him in blinding light and then says, “This is My delight!”
Who can look upon the sun shining in full strength? The answer is that God can. The radiance of the Son’s face shines first and foremost for the enjoyment of His Father. “This is the Son whom I love; He is MY pleasure. You must fall on your face and turn away, but I behold My Son in His radiance every day with love and never-fading joy.”
I thought to myself, surely this is one thing implied in John 17:26—that the day is coming when I will have the capacity to delight in the Son the way the Father does. My fragile eyes will get the power to take in the glory of the Son shining in His full strength just the way the Father does. The pleasure God has in his Son will become my pleasure, and I will not be consumed, but enthralled forever.”
Live in the Light of Our Lord 