The Hidden Smile of God
Overview
Bunyan. Cowper. Brainerd. 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. 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.”-John Bunyan. He suffered imprisonment for twelve years, even when a simple promise to cease preaching would have gained him freedom. But Bunyan’s steadfast belief that God ordered every trial would not allow him to relent, and moved him to rely even more upon “Him who is invisible.” Even when his own sky was filled with clouds of dread, Cowper’s poetry was a reflection of the sustaining character of God. So great was Brainerd’s desire to honor God that he joyously cried, “Oh for holiness! Oh, for more of God in my soul! Oh this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God.” Through the loneliness of wilderness ministry and the agony of tuberculosis, he pressed on, transforming the world missions forever.
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Product Details
- Title: The Hidden Smile of God
- Author: John Piper
- Publisher: Crossway
- Publication Date: 2001
- Pages: 170
About John Piper
John Piper, pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1980, is a widely respected theologian and bestselling author. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Piper attended Wheaton College where he majored in literature and minored in philosophy. He completed his Bachelor of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he studied under Dr. Daniel Fuller. Piper received his Doctorate in Theology from the University of Munich and taught biblical studies for six years at Bethel College.
His preaching and teaching is featured daily on the radio program, Desiring God. His books include The Passion of Jesus Christ, Desiring God, The Pleasures of God, Life as a Vapor, and the Gold Medallion Award-wining Pierced by the Word.
Top Highlights
“Mental health is, in great measure, the gift of self-forgetfulness. The reason is that introspection destroys what matters most to us—the authentic experience of great things outside ourselves.” (Page 112)
“Periodic self-examination is needed and wise and biblical. But for the most part, mental health is the use of the mind to focus on worthy reality outside ourselves.” (Page 112)
“‘To live upon God that is invisible.’ He learned that if we are to suffer well, we must die not only to sin, but also to the imperious claims of precious and innocent things, including family and freedom. While in prison he confessed concerning his wife and children, ‘I am somewhat too fond of these great Mercies.’4 Thus we must learn to ‘live upon God that is invisible,’ not only because God is superior to sinful pleasures, but also because he is superior to sacred ones as well. Everything else in the world we must count as dead to us and we to it.” (Page 43)
“We should be slow to judge the needs and possibilities of another person’s mental health. But at least I suggest that Cowper would have benefited by less retreat and ease and contemplation and more engagement with suffering people who needed help.” (Page 114)
“Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Galatians 6:14, rsv). Death to the world was the costly corollary of life to God. The visible world died to Bunyan. He lived on ‘God that is invisible.’ Increasingly this was Bunyan’s passion from the time of his conversion as a young married man to the day of his death when he was sixty years old.” (Page 43)
- Title: The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd (SANS 2)
- Author: John Piper
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2001
- Logos Release Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Theologians › Biography
- ISBNs: 9781581342475, 1581342470
- Resource ID: LLS:HIDDNSMILEGOD
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:30:52Z
John Piper (b. 1946) is a widely respected theologian and bestselling author who serves as founder and lead teacher at Desiring God and is chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, Piper served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He has authored more than 50 books, and more than 30 years of his preaching and writing are available free of charge at desiringGod.org. Piper resides in the Minneapolis area with his wife of 51 years, and has five children and 14 grandchildren.
Piper attended Wheaton College where he majored in literature and minored in philosophy. He completed his Bachelor of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he studied under Dr. Daniel Fuller. Piper received his Doctorate in Theology from the University of Munich and taught biblical studies for six years at Bethel College.
In 1994, Piper founded Desiring God Ministries, which provides Piper’s sermons, articles, and information on titles he has authored. One of his bestsellers, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, prompted the name of the ministry.
Several of Piper’s books have been Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Christian book award winners including What Jesus Demands from the World, Pierced by the Word, and God’s Passion for His Glory. The Crossway John Piper Collection (39 vols.) includes 39 titles from Piper, including Love Your Enemies and A Hunger for God. His preaching ministry of more than 30 years is available in the John Piper Sermon Archive (1980–2014).
Hear how Piper uses Logos for his Bible Study.
