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The Hidden Smile of God by John Piper (Hardcover)
, $12.99 (https://www.trinitybookservice.com/the-hidden-smile-of-god-by-john-piper-hardcover/))
Product Description
Publisher's Description
We read their stories and wonder how they endured. How does one survive twelve years in a dank prison cell? How does one survive month after month of a depression so debilitating that death seems the only hope? How does one endure tuberculosis? Or cancer, or emptiness, or death, or loneliness, or divorce? Whatever the trial may be, how does one endure without the soul shriveling up and blowing away with the breeze? In the lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd, we find the strength of soul that not only endures hardship, but honors God in the midst of it. The Giver and Sustainer of life enabled them to worship through all their suffering. That's why their affliction bore so much fruit. The story of their suffering, their perseverance, and their passion is one that can inspire the same hunger for the supremacy of God in your life. John Piper invites you to read their stories, consider their lives, and be encouraged that no labor and no suffering in the path of Christian obedience is ever in vain. Even the bleak hill of Golgotha was a skull with a frown of affliction on its face. But "behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face." Just as Bunyan's, Cowper's, and Brainerd's suffering produced the worship and humility that is essential to Christian living, we too can look to God for great privileges to come from our own pain. And we too can remember, "The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower."
About the Author
John Piper (DTheol, University of Munich) is the founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and the chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for 33 years as the senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God, Don’t Waste Your Life, This Momentary Marriage, Bloodlines, and Does God Desire All to Be Saved?
Endorsement
In our day of self-help and "feel good" religion this may seem a strange book to many. Through the looking glass of the lives of John Buyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd, John Piper reminds us of something the Purtians called "The frowning providence of God."
This is the second in a series of books called, The Swans are Not Silent. Each book in this series takes a theme and then examines that theme in the Scripture and the lives of believers of the past. The theme of this work is suffering and affliction.
As always, Piper stretches our faith well beyond the normal comfort zones of evangelical thought. One can feel hid sorrow as Buyan parted from his family to spend 12 years in prison. It was in that prison however, that Pilrgims Progress was born. Piper carries us with William Cowper into the darkness of an insane asylum where in utter despair he finally found the grace and mercy of God. From that darkness Cowper broke into glorious light, writing that great hymn, There is a Fountain Filled With Blood. We are transported back to the apparent failure of David Brainerd as he was expelled from Yale for questioning the salvation of an instructor. We walk with Brainerd through his short years as a missionary to the Indians. Piper reminds us that none of us know what waves will spread out from a pebble dropped into the ocean of God's will.
The Hidden Smile of God is the kind of book that you won't put down once you open it. This is a much needed book in our day. So-called Christian broadcasting is beaming a message around the world of feel-good easiness. It may be a hard word to embrace but it is true. God's people are not spared from affliction and trouble. They are brought through these things in the grace and mercy of God.
