Thursday, March 5, 2009

Warm-Up for this Weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Andy,
I watched this video and a question came to mind. I understand the concept of rejoicing in suffering but what I question is does the bible state that we should desire or want suffering? I realize that by having suffering in our lives, we are refined and God can use us in those times but as a human, how can we possible "desire" suffering? In this video, John Piper prayed that the Christians across America might suffer? Do you think he is saying that he hopes we have personal suffering in our lives such as death or illness of family members?

Anonymous said...

The picture that immediately comes to mind from Church-history is of a man sentanced to die as a believer who could not get the lions interested in eating him because they had had their fill of Christians already, so he taunted the animal eventually grabbing it and forcing his head in the lion's mouth. The lion then obliged him. I don't think this is what Piper is advocating, but rather when we face suffering that is inevitable - that we have a faith in place that will sustain us and not collapse entirely under the weight of the pain. I will talk more about this on sunday during the Q&A
Thanks