Don't Waste Your Life, by John Piper.....continued

Well, I've continued my reading and as expected, continued my learning (and conviction!).
In an earlier blog, I shared that Piper (along with Tripp, in Quest for More) has challenged my thinking in the area of my focus and where it lies.....that he made a very good case for how NOT to waste your life......that he realized that God's purpose for his life was that he have a passion for God's glory and that he have a passion for his joy in that glory....and that these two are ONE passion. He went on to discuss the cross and how it is so intimately tied in with the glory of God.
"The opposite of wasting your life is living life by a single God-exalting, soul-satisfying passion." (pg 43) He stresses the importance of 'single'.....how everything we do (eat, leisure, relationship, etc) are all to tie into the glory of God. "Living for the glory of God must mean living for the glory of Christ crucified. Christ is the image of God. He is the sum of God's glory in human form" (pg44). Piper uses Paul's quote from I Corinthians 2:2 as his primary text....."I decided to know nothing more among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." That is a powerful verse and I know I have never seen it in this light before.....and I am sure I am not living to this standard. I know lots of things....I'm not a genius in any area, but I know enough about a few subjects to get by. But Piper says it well when he says, "The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.......you have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things - or one great all embracing thing - and be set on fire by them." And i agree with that completely. One of the things I think I know a little bit about is the Bible (and I dont' say that in a bragging way, because I know there are SOOOOO many things I have yet to learn about the Bible....but I have studied it to some extent)....but the question I ask myself is WHAT do I know about the Bible and am I set on fire by it? ouch.....
Philippians 3:7-8 says, "Whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." Paul seemed to have it down....a wonderful testimony of a life not wasted. Another example of his commitment is in Galatians 6:14....."Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Again, I haven't really looked at that verse from this perspective before or so intently.... sure I boast in Christ, but is it the ONLY thing I boast in? no way! i boast in lots of other things, namely myself.....what a waste! I am seeing more clearly now that the cross has to be the central focus in order to truly glorify God. "because for redeemed sinners, every good thing - indeed every bad thing that God turns for good - was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart fro the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment.......everything that you enjoy in Christ - as a christian......is owing to the death of Christ. And all your rejoicing in all things should therefore be a rejoicing in the cross where all your blessings were purchased for you at the cost of the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ." (pg 51) I do understand that, but I don't always live with the mindset of glorifying God as the end result. I'm appreciative of the work of Christ on the cross and the blessings that come as a result, but I am not always truly turning it back to God in a way that glorifies Him. I know so often that I take things for granted.....breath, life, family, etc.....again, what a waste.
Piper shared what God told him, right before he entered into full time ministry....."God's mandate: So live and so study and so serve and so preach and so write that Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen God, be the only boast of this generation......to live and speak in such a way that the worth of Christ crucified is seen and savored by more and more people. It will be costly for us as it was for him" (pg 54-55). I have adopted that as my own mandate as well.....although I know I will fail often, but know that it is what is required of me as a servant of God. The way to accomplish that can be found back in the Galatians 6:14 verse. There is much to say about how we are 'crucified' and have to die to self.....how we are to be dead to sin and alive in Christ.....that is a hard balance, to be dead and alive at the same time. We have to be 'alive' in the world, it is true....but "the world is no longer our treasure.....it's not the source or our life or our satisfaction or our joy. Christ is" (pg 57). We are dead to the world but we still have feelings and emotions tied here.....that in itself is not wrong, but if we don't ultimately turn those emotions toward Christ and the cross, that is where we fall short. ".....every legitimate pleasure in the world becomes a blood-bought evidence of Christ's love, and an occasion of boasting in the cross" (pg 57). Lord, help me to always turn my gratitude, my joy, my boasting to you!!!
I know I have quoted a lot and have really just rambled....but I want to share all that I am learning....I hope some of it is coming through......I am not a very good communicator....especially when my brain is overflowing!! :)
I want to leave you with one last quote by CS Lewis......
'"I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was th emost striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.
Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, ninety-odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences.' The sunbeams of blessing in our lives are bright and of themselves. They also give light to the ground where we walk. But there is a higher purpose for these blessings. God means for us to do more than stand outside them and admire them for what they are. Even more, he means for us to walk into them and we see the sun from which they come. If the beams are beautiful, the sun is even more beautiful. God's aim is not that we merely admire His gifts, but, even more, his glory."
"Thus a cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-satureated life is a God-glorifying life.....the ONLY God-glorifying life. All others are wasted" (pg 59).