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    Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Revised Edition)
    Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Revised Edition)
    Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Revised Edition)
    Ebook117 pages2 hours

    Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Revised Edition)

    By John Piper

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    About this ebook

    Who is Jesus Christ?
    You've never met him in person, and you don't know anyone who has. But there is a way to know who he is. How? Jesus Christ-the divine Person revealed in the Bible-has a unique excellence and a spiritual beauty that speaks directly to our souls and says, "Yes, this is truth." It's like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light, or tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet.
    The depth and complexity of Jesus shatter our simple mental frameworks. He baffled proud scribes with his wisdom but was understood and loved by children. He calmed a raging storm with a word but would not get himself down from the cross.
    Look at the Jesus of the Bible. Keep your eyes open, and fill them with the portrait of Jesus in God's Word. Jesus said, "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority." Ask God for the grace to do his will, and you will see the truth of his Son.
    John Piper has written this book in the hope that all will see Jesus for who he really is and will come to enjoy him above all else.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossway Books
    Release dateOct 27, 2004
    ISBN9781433517310
    Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Revised Edition)
    Author

    John Piper

     John Piper is founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for thirty-three years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God; Don’t Waste Your Life; and Providence. 

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    Reviews for Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Revised Edition)

    5/5

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    • 5/5
      This short book is helpful for those looking for proof and assurance about Christianity and the Bible, and more importantly, about Jesus himself. I encourage anyone seeking such confidence to invest the time it takes to read and ponder the 13 short chapters and Bible verses quoted within.
    • 5/5
      I was looking to obey Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. I would like to walk like Jesus Christ walked on earth and depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance to glorify God our Heavenly Father. Do you know Jesus Christ personally?
    • 5/5
      The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attractive place at the center (of our soul). (p.15) There is no one who doubts there is something that needs healing in the human soul. But the proposed cures are many, even in Christianity. The fact that American Christians are largely just as dysfunctional as unbelievers is testimony that we largely haven't gotten the cure of the soul right. To overuse a cliche', maybe we haven't kept the main thing the main thing. The main thing is Jesus Christ. God created our souls to see and savor the glory of His Son. That is what John Piper helps us to do in Seeing & Savoring Jesus Christ. In 124 pages Piper gives us portraits of Christ's deity, His power, His wisdom, His sacrifice, His mercy. Unbelievers will be confronted with the truth and the beauty of who Jesus is. Believers will get to lovingly gaze at their Savior. Seeing & Savoring Jesus Christ is a wonderful book for personal devotions, group study, and outreach.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Excellent book! I've been reading it this Lenten season in the predawn when I do Bible meditation. It's been a blessing in helping me to see and savor Jesus the Christ.
    • 5/5
      This is a great book. The style of this book is typical of Piper's works. Very vivid and very Biblical. I really found the prayers that occur after every chapter to be great! It helps readers remind that while this book is for reading, it is even more so intended for a practical application to the Christian life. This is a great book to give to a seeking friend!

    Book preview

    Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (Revised Edition) - John Piper

    v

    OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

    The Supremacy of God in Preaching

    Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

    (edited with Wayne Grudem)

    What’s the Difference?

    Let the Nations Be Glad

    The Justification of God

    Future Grace

    Desiring God

    A Hunger for God

    A Godward Life, Book One

    A Godward Life, Book Two

    God’s Passion for His Glory

    The Innkeeper

    The Legacy of Sovereign Joy

    The Pleasures of God

    The Hidden Smile of God

    The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God

    The Roots of Endurance

    Counted Righteous in Christ

    Don’t Waste Your Life

    The Prodigal’s Sister

    Beyond the Bounds

    (edited with Justin Taylor and Paul Kjoss Helseth)

    The Passion of Jesus Christ

    t

    Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, Revised Edition

    Copyright © 2004 by Desiring God Foundation

    Original edition copyright © 2001 by Desiring God Foundation

    Published by Crossway

    1300 Crescent Street

    Wheaton, Illinois 60187

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

    Cover design: Josh Dennis

    All Bible quotations are taken from Holy Bible: English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

    All rights reserved. Used by permission.

    Note: Key words and phrases in Scripture quotations have been distinguished by italics (roman type in all-italics block quotations).

    First printing, 2004

    Printed in the United States of America

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Piper, John, 1946-

          Seeing and savoring Jesus Christ / John Piper.—Rev. ed.

             p. cm.

         ISBN 1-58134-623-9 (tpb : alk. paper)

         1. Jesus Christ—Person and offices. I. Title.

    BT205.P58 2004

    232'.8—dc22                                              2004008483

    VP           14     13     12     11     10    09     08    07    06     05     04

    15    14    13      12     11      10     9      8    7     6     5     4     3      2

    TO THE MEMORY OF

    C. S. Lewis

    and Clyde Kilby

    who taught me there is always

    more to see in what I see

    CONTENTS

    A WORD TO THE READER

    b

    Who was Jesus Christ? That’s the question I will try to answer. But my aim is not for you to be neutral about him. That would be cruel. Seeing and savoring Jesus Christ is the most important seeing and savoring you will ever do. Eternity hangs on it. So my aim is that you see him as solid truth and savor him with great joy.

    When I speak of seeing Jesus Christ, I don’t mean seeing with the eyes of your head, but the eyes of your heart. When he was about to leave this world and return to God the Father, Jesus said, You will not see me until you see the Son of Man . . . coming with the clouds of heaven (John 16:17; Mark 14:62). At that time people could see him with their physical eyes. But now , the Bible says, we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). He is not here to see physically. He is in heaven until he comes again to be seen by everyone.

    But the Bible does say that we may see Jesus in another sense. It speaks of the eyes of your hearts (Ephesians 1:18). It speaks of seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus himself spoke of two kinds of seeing. He said of the uncomprehending crowds, " Seeing they do not see" (Matthew 13:13). One kind is seeing with physical eyes, and the other is with spiritual eyes. When we see with our spiritual eyes, we see the truth and beauty and value of Jesus Christ for what they really are. Thus a blind person today may see Christ more clearly than many who have eyes.

    Everyone can read the stories of Jesus and see the portraits painted by the words of those who knew him. But not everyone sees truth and beauty and infinite value. Some see only myth. Some see foolishness. Some see offense. Seeing they do not see. It is as though a child should look at a Michelangelo and prefer a comic strip.

    Savoring Jesus Christ is the response to this second kind of seeing. When you see something as true and beautiful and valuable, you savor it. That is, you treasure it. You cherish and admire and prize it. Spiritual seeing and spiritual savoring are so closely connected that it would be fair to say: If you don’ t savor Christ, you haven’ t seen Christ for who he is. If you don’ t prize him above all things, you haven’t apprehended his true worth.

    The aim of this book is to help you see and savor Christ. The only way for this to happen is to use your physical eyes and ears to see or hear the testimonies to Jesus Christ told by those who knew him when he was here. That is why these chapters are permeated with Bible quotations. It is not my word that counts, but God’ s. He has borne witness to his Son. His witness is compelling. May he give you eyes to see and hearts to savor.

    The heavens declare

    the glory of God.

        PSALM 1 9 : 1

    God, who said, "Light shall

    shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts

    to give the light of the knowledge

    of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

    2 CORINTHIANS 4 : 6

    1

    SEEING AND SAVORING

    THE GLORY OF GOD

    The Ultimate Aim of Jesus Christ

    j

    The created universe is all about glory. The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God. The universe was made to show it, and we were made to see it and savor it. Nothing less will do. Which is why the world is as disordered and as dysfunctional as it is. W e have exchanged the glory of God for other things (Romans 1:23).

    The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). That is why all the universe exists. It’s all about glory. The Hubble Space Telescope sends back infrared images of

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