Becoming Book Club starts TODAY!!
Becoming Book Club Introduction from Cari Trotter on Vimeo.Hello and welcome to the very first Becoming Online Book Club!! I have been so very excited about getting started with this and have actually been counting down the days to sharing this INCREDIBLE book by John Piper with you. The title of our summer book is "When I Don't Desire God" by John Piper and when I first picked it up I will be honest with you....it felt intimidating. However, once I began to dive in I couldn't put it down. The fight to have Real Joy. If there is one aspect of my life as a follower of Christ I have fought MOST aggressively to maintain it is the desire to know and experience Real Joy.The back cover of the book had me.
"We all want to experience liberating, love-producing, risk-taking satisfaction in God. But the reality is that we often struggle to find, and hold onto, true and lasting joy - even when we have embraced the good news of God's grace. So we face a crucial question: What should I do when I don't desire God?"
Because if you are TRULY giving yourself fully to the life you are living I cannot imagine you wouldn't come up for air sometimes to process life and wonder two things..
- What do you do when you know you LOVE God, but have a hard time desiring God when life just seems so excruciating?
- Am I willing to fight for Real Joy in Jesus?
Those are our discussion questions today as well as journal prompts for this week. I want us to chew over those as we read through the introduction and the first two chapters. This book will make us ask ourselves good questions. Pause long enough to answer them. And PLEASE leave a comment below to share two things....
- What city you are in and...
- Who you are reading the book with!
I'll close today's post with John's prayer in the opening...
"Father, I pray that all who've read this far will have the motivation and the strength to read on to the end at least as far as would be helpful to their faith. I pray that they would read with understanding. And may they be discerning so that, if I have blundered, they would be sure to see the error and not follow me. Protect them from the evil one who would distort and then deceive. Give great assistance from your Spirit, and may they see more truth than I have seen. Oh, that the eyes of their hearts might be bright with the glory of Christ through these pages! Remove every blinding obstacle, and show them your glory! And thus give them more joy than all the gladness that the world can give. And by this joy in Jesus Christ, fit them to love and serve and sacrifice. And by this joy, with which they bear their cross, Lord, cause the earth to know what you are truly worth. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen."
