Am I wasting my life?

How's that for a title?

John Piper begs us not to waste our lives in his 2007 book by the title of "Don't Waste Your Life". Over the next five weeks at Second Mile Church, our pastor Luke Simmons is teaching on such subjects as:

• "Life is Short, Don't Waste It"
• "Life is Short, Pursue God"
• "Life is Short, Think Eternally"
• "Life is Short, Work Hard"
• "Life is Short, Invest in People"

Although I had never read Piper's book, it immediately came to mind when I read the title of Luke's first sermon for next weekend. Let me tell you, the book is phenomenal!

I have two pages full of quotes that I could list here already, and I am not even 1/2 way done. Here is one that really gets me thinking:

"You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing."

Finished "The Prodigal God" tonight

I have been a poor reader of books... I read tons of articles, blogs... Facebook and Twitter status updates too - but rarely do I read a book cover-to-cover.

Pastor Luke Simmons of Second Mile Church, encouraged everyone to "go out and buy this book TODAY after you get home." So I did just that, thinking it would be good for me... and he said he was able to read it in a couple of days...

It was an OUTSTANDING book. I highly encourage the "common community of sinners" (ie all of us) to pick it up!

Some of my favorite phrases from the book are:

• "It is impossible to forgive someone if you feel superior to him or her."
• "the fundamental cause of evil in the world - the radical self-centeredness of the human heart"
• John Newton: "Our pleasure and our duty, though opposite before, since we have seen His beauty are joined to part no more"

Keller contrasts Religion and the Gospel:

• Religion: "I obey - therefore I am accepted by God"
• Gospel: "I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ - therefore I obey"