The goal of our creation was not simply that we might be happy but happy in appreciating God's own glory. Not in reviewing our own accomplishments or in the enjoyment of our own sensual appetites. Not in the development of a healthy self-esteem or in the acquisition of a four-bedroom home with a three-car garage. We were made to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Nothing is more important than understanding this truth. This inspiring work helps us see that beauty has the power to convince the inquiring mind of truth. The soul's contact with God's beauty elicits love and forges in us a new affection that no earthly power can overcome. Enjoying God in the revelation of his beauty is the solution to our struggle with sin, the catalyst for substantive and lasting change and is the soul's satisfaction, with which no rival pleasure can hope to compete. So what is it about God that when known and seen and experienced empowers the human soul to feel sickened in the presence of sin and satisfied in the divine embrace? That word again: Beauty. Apatheism affects not just those outside the church but those inside the church who can't be bothered with their own religion let alone someone else's.
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About the Author
Sam Storms is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Dallas Theological Seminary and the University of Texas at Dallas. After pastoring churches and teaching in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri for 25 years he joined the faculty at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, where he taught Historical Theology. After four years on the Faculty he made the decision to resign in order to establish Enjoying God Ministries (www.enjoyinggodministries.com) which exists "to proclaim the power of truth and the truth about power."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderfully Powerful Book!,
By
This review is from: One Thing (Paperback)
Sam Storms serves us well again with this book! His "Pleasures Evermore" should be the first you read, but then get this book. It is well worth the $10 you will pay to own it. God is breathtaking and Storms takes us to the edge of the cliff to gaze at His beauty. Go ahead and add this to your cart. You won't regret it!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breathtakingly Beautiful,
By Brian G Hedges (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews
This review is from: One Thing (Paperback)
Taking his cue from Psalm 27:4, which says, "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple," Sam Storms has written a compelling book that will move you to worship and holiness.
Chapter one, "`A Christian Theory of Everything,'" lays the God-centered foundation for the rest of the book, drawing heavily from the writings of Jonathan Edwards. Echoing John Piper, Storms says, "The benevolent fullness of divine delight overflows in creation so that we might joyfully share, to God's eternal glory, in God's admiration of himself" (23). The following chapters develop concepts like beauty, grandeur, majesty, and pleasure with insightful exposition of key texts and powerful illustrations from history ("What Handel Saw," chapter four) and nature ("Galactic Grandeur" and "Microscopic Majesty," chapters five and six). Wonder takes on new meaning when you consider the power of God evident in neutron stars, which are quite small, yet so heavy that "one teaspoonful of this matter weighs 3 billion tons . . . the equivalent of stuffing a herd of 50 million elephants in a thimble!" (98). Chapter seven tells the incredible story from Greek mythology of Ulysses, Jason, and the Sirens, illustrating two ways of fighting sin: bind yourself with external duties, the way Ulysses bound himself to his ship in order to resist the seductive, but suicidal song of the Sirens; or, be satisfied with a sweeter song, as Jason overcame the Sirens through the music of Orpheus. Other stories, about figures such as St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, are sprinkled throughout One Thing, making it a delightful read. The final chapter, "Joy's Eternal Increase," contains one of the most stunning portraits of heaven that I've ever read - again drawing on Jonathan Edwards, while expounding Revelation 21, verses 4, 8, and 27. Storms stretches language to its limits in his effort to describe for us the reality of eternal joy. In short, One Thing is true to its title: a powerfully focused invitation to develop a passion for the beauty of God.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not "Pleasures Evermore", but wonderful none-the-less...,
This review is from: One Thing (Paperback)
Have you tried to get a friend to read John Piper but they just couldn't swallow it? Then give them this book. Storms paint an awe-inspiring picture of the God of the Bible from a Reformed-Charismatic-Evangelical perspective that will simply take your breath away. Not Sam's best book (I've read most of them, now), as that would be "Pleasures Evermore", but still a very good, encouraging, and inspiring read.
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