Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201832 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Theologically robust, pastorally liberating
This is a book people will either love or despise. I love it. I love its uncompromising affirmation that God is sovereign over suffering. Indeed, that God wills suffering for his glory and for the good of his people. Piper says: `the ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering.' (p. 82) Christ was slain before the creation of the world - not as some hastily concocted plan to cope with the unexpected intrusion of sin into God's world.

It enters into some of the philosophical debates to show this affirmation is intellectually robust (especially Mark Talbot's chapter `"All the Good That Is Ours in Christ": Seeing God's Gracious Hand in the Hurts Others Do to Us' and John Piper's `The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God').

But it is never mere abstract reasoning. All the contributors are sufferers in some way and the theology outlined is pastorally liberating. This is especially the case with Piper's chapter `Why God Appoints Suffering for His Servants' and David Powlison's contribution, `God's Grace and Your Sufferings'. Powlison's chapter offers a great pattern not only of pastoral theology, but pastoral writing. He enters into the experience of suffering with empathy and love, bringing the robust, life-giving comfort of the gospel. He says: `No matter how many times you've heard it, no matter how long you've known it, no matter how well you can say it, God's answer will come to mean something better than you could ever imagine.' (p. 146) How true that is. We rarely find comfort in `new' truths (truth we did not know before), but through God's grace we find comfort in old truths that take on new significant for us. Piper and Powlison were diagnosed with prostate cancer within two months of each others. In an appendix they reflect on their experience, offering ten principles for responding to cancer (and other forms of suffering) so that we do not `waste' the experience.

Stephen Saint's axiom that `sufferers want to be ministered to by people who have suffered' seems so obvious (`Sovereignty, Suffering, and the Work of Missions'). But think about it a bit and you realise what a profound and far reaching statement it is. It enables us to view suffering not as a grief to be held tightly, but a gift to be used for God's glory (2 Corinthians 1).

Theologically Sound, Pastorally Rich
The book collects together the talks from the conference, and throws in a couple of relevant appendices, 'Don't waste your cancer' (Piper and Powlison) and Justin Taylor's interview of John Piper. Since it is a collection of several people's thoughts on a wide range of topics, at times a chapter seems a bit disjointed. However, there is not a weak chapter and the variety helps increase readability. I'm going to touch on a few of the highlights for me.

Mark Talbot lays down the theological girders of the conference, that God ordains but doesn't do evil. An excellent chapter, sensitive and both biblically and philosophically solid. John Frame in Doctrine of God deals with the same questions in similar ways at length. Well worth reading.

In the third chapter, John Piper bashes the glory of the cross and Christ's suffering into us time after time. A great bit of symphonic theology as you see each of God's designs for the cross weave in and out of each other. This is a God-centered view of suffering, and has helped me to see God's glory in the design of suffering.

The seventh chapter is written by David Powlison, and gets deep and personal with your own sufferings. I've listened to the talk of this chapter about three times, and read the chapter once, and it's full of rich, wise, pastoral insight. This is a hugely valuable chapter through which God has strengthened me tremendously.

Dustin Shramek's chapter is wise counsel for when the darkness is not lifting. A really simple but powerful and helpful chapter. And Joni's chapter at the end on hope is simply wonderful- it's painful and it's sad but it's full of Christian hope and about the most powerful in the whole book.

The book is rounded off with a helpful short article entitled 'Don't Waste Your Cancer' written by John Piper and added to by David Powlison, and an interview of John Piper by Justin Taylor, which are helpful additions to the book. This is followed by several indexes, including a scripture index. You'll be glad to hear that this book has an 8 page, two column Scripture Index referencing 55 of the 66 books of scripture. This book is saturated with well-used scripture.

This book will be a great help to anyone going through a dark period of their life. But more than that, it'll be just as useful for those who are close to those who suffer. Most of all, it'll help those who know nothing about suffering, for hard times will come, and the truths and counsel in this book will help enormously.