The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell

That desiring to be happy is sinful.īut the problem with the human race is not that we want to be happy. Yet so often the idea has crept into the church that somehow it is bad to want to be happy. This is what the Scriptures command (Psalm 37:4 Matthew 6:21 Philippians 4:4 Psalm 97:12) and model (Philippians 3:8 Psalm 43:4 Hebrews 12:2). It follows from this that joy is not simply icing on the cake. Here’s how we put it: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. He is shown to be great (which is the purpose of life, by the way) and worthy of praise. Likewise, when we rejoice in and treasure God – rather than remain neutral or devoid of any emotional response – He is honored. But she is honored if I say to her, “I love being married and I’m so glad it’s our anniversary.” The things of God are very great but this greatness is not reflected if we remain neutral about God or carry on as if nothing is different.įor example, if I bring my wife flowers on our anniversary and say “no big deal, Heidi, it’s my duty,” she is not honored. Further, his supremacy is most clearly seen not simply when we know truth about him, but when we also delight in Him. We believe that God is supreme in everything. Why does DG exist? What are its chief goals and key emphases?ĭesiring God exists to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. He is the best at telling this story, and was recently interviewed by Tim Smith of Mars Hill church in Seattle on how DG started. Jon remains the executive director today.

Jon Bloom became the first person on staff and things continued to develop from there. John Piper said, “That’s a great idea! We could call it Desiring God Ministries.” The name of the ministry comes from John’s foundational 1986 book Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, which basically articulates the core concepts that we are about. So after a few days of praying and pondering these things, he went to John Piper and suggested that they create a coordinated, proactive strategy for using resources to spread the vision of God that so many of us have come to love through John’s preaching and writing. These requests were all being handled by different staff members. So John Piper went to his ministry assistant at the time, Jon Bloom, and said “I’d like you to take over the tape ministry.”Īs Jon Bloom gave this some thought, it stood out to him that more and more people were contacting the church requesting John Piper’s books, sermon tapes, articles, and other resources. But in 1994, they suddenly decided to retire. An elderly couple had been in charge of the weekly sermon tape ministry since John Piper began preaching in 1980. Sponsor Show Your Support Become a Patronĭesiring God as an organization began in 1994.

The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell