A Book Recommendation from John Piper

John Piper, writing on Jon Bloom’s new book, Not by Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith (currently 48% off at Amazon):

These meditations are not your ordinary exposition. These are stories. Really good stories. They are rooted in what the Bible says. The creative additions never go beyond what really could have happened. The truths that Jon sees for our lives are based not on what might have been but on what was. The might-have-beens give added flesh to the bones of truth. They are touchable.

Jon is persuaded that if you know the truth, the truth will make you free. And truths about the greatness of Christ are the best ones for freeing us from unbelief. And to be freed from unbelief is to be freed from fear and greed and pride and anger and lust and despair and a hundred other permutations of life-ruining sins.

New Christians or old Christians, what we need in order to walk by faith and not by sight is glimpses. I know that sounds contradictory. We need sight not to walk by sight? But it’s not contradictory, because the sight we need is not a sight of what the day holds, but a sight of who holds the day.

And even that sight happens by looking through the window of the word. Which means we see with our ears. Yes, it sounds strange. But listen: “The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Sam. 3:21). So we “look” through the window of the word with our ears, and what we hear is a sight of God!

If that makes no sense to you, here’s a suggestion. Pick a chapter in this book whose title looks relevant for you. Listen as you read. Look through what you hear. And see if Jesus does not show himself to you in such a way that you trust him more.

That is what Jon Bloom desires. That is what we both are praying for—your joy of faith. So yes, I wrote this for my joy. And mine will be full if I hear that my happy commendations and Jon’s beautiful narrations awaken in you the gladness of walking by faith, Not by Sight.