John Piper - Life as a Vapor: Thirty-One Meditations for Your Faith

John Piper remains a trustworthy and faithful voice, urging Gods people to behold, partake of, delight in, and live for the glory of God. With rare purity and passion, Pipers writing causes the reader to think less about the author and more about the object of his affection, his glorious and sovereign Lord.

S TEVE G REEN

John Piper has helped me to see the Lord. He has been a broken vessel who has pushed me to pursue deeper pleasures. And I now live life and read Scripture through the filter of delighting myself in the Lordfor His gloryand for my joy.

S HANE B ARNARD

God has blessed my whole family through the writings of John Piper. From his books, we have learned about a sovereign God whose goal is His own glory and the joy of His people. Piper continues to help us recover a biblical view of God.

E D N ALLE , GLAD

I am honored to know John as a pastor and a friend. He has been both to me since the founding of the Passion movement. So much of his godly wisdom and teaching have been a lighted path for me in the increasingly hazy days we live in.

C HRIS T OMLIN

Very few people have inspired us in quite the same way that Piper has. His shameless preaching of the truth always kicks us in the teeth, challenging us to evaluate our lives, our worldview, and our understanding of God.

C AEDMON S C ALL

Not only has my spiritual walk been encouraged by Desiring God, but also by so many of John Pipers writings and sermons. I will forever live my life trying to remember the important message I have learned from Pastor Piper to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

M AC P OWELL , T HIRD D AY

John Pipers writings consistently draw me to cherish all God is for us in Christ. His insistence that God intends us to passionately pursue joy in Him alone has influenced not only the way I lead worship and write songs, but the way I live my life. When I first met John I told him, Your books have caused me to love the Savior more. For that reason, I thank God for John Piper.

B OB K AUFLIN , D IRECTOR OF W ORSHIP D EVELOPMENT , S OVEREIGN G RACE M INISTRIES

John Pipers books continue to renew my sense of wonder at the mystery and wildness of our Creator God. I am thankful for his sensitivity to both the head and the heart of the gospel of Jesus.

C HARLIE L OWELL , J ARS OF C LAY

LIFE AS A VAPOR
published by Multnomah Books

2004 by Desiring God Foundation

eISBN: 978-0-307-56386-6

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other Scripture quotations are from:
New American Standard Bible ( NASB )
1960, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation
Revised Standard Version Bible ( RSV )
1946, 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
The Holy Bible, New King James Version ( NKJV )
1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Italics in Scripture quotations indicate emphasis added.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

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v3.1

The Pleasures of God

Desiring God

The Dangerous Duty of Delight

Future Grace

A Hunger for God

Let the Nations Be Glad!

Seeing and SavoringJesus Christ

The Legacy of Sovereign Joy

The Hidden Smile of God

The Roots of Endurance

The Misery of Job and the

Mercy of God
(with photography by Ric Ergenbright)

The Innkeeper

Recovering Biblical

Manhood and Womanhood
(edited with Wayne Grudem)

Whats the Difference?

The Justification of God

Counted Righteous in Christ

Brothers, We Are NotProfessionals

The Supremacy of God inPreaching

Beyond the Bounds
(edited with Justin Taylor and Paul Kjoss Helseth)

Gods Passion for His Glory

A God-Entranced Vision of All Things
(edited with Justin Taylor)

Dont Waste Your Life

The Prodigals Sister

A Godward Life

A Godward Life, Book Two

Pierced by the Word

To the children
whose funerals I have done
with gratitude for the painful lesson that,
short or long, life is a vapor

You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

J AMES 4:14, NASB

The Son of God is not a vapor. He is solid reality, with no beginning and no ending. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. He looked His disciples in the eye and said without irony or exaggeration, Before Abraham was, I am.

But what about us? Once we were not, and now we exist? With the conception of all five of our children, that stunned me. Suddenly my wife is pregnant. A human has come into being. For how long? Forever. Either in heaven or in hell. There is no going out of existence. For that would not be joy for those who love God nor punishment for those who dont.

You exist forever. There is no use protesting that you did not ask to exist and would like not to. That is not an option. You and God are both in the universe to stayeither as friends on His terms, or enemies.

Which it will be is proven in this life. And this life is a vapor. Two seconds, and we will be goneto heaven or to hell. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone (Psalm 103:1516).

Jesus Christ came into this worldthis fleeting, fallen, fickle worldand did the greatest thing that will ever be done. As the perfect Son of God, He died in our place, absorbed the wrath of God, paid the penalty for sin, provided the righteousness of the law, and rose invincible from the deadall in a vapors life of thirty-three years.

Because of that, we have something firm to grasp. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (Isaiah 40:78). The gospel is firm and lasts forever. My prayer is that these meditations on the Word of God will link you with eternal joy, and make the vapor of your life an everlasting aroma of praise to the glory of Christ.

John Piper

Life is too short to spend time and energy worrying about what others think of us. Or should we care about what others think precisely because that really matters in this short life? Should we be radically free from what others think, so that we dont fall into the indictment of being a second-hander or man-pleaser, a slave to expediency? Or should we keep an eye out for what others think of what we do, so that we dont fall into the indictment of being boorish and insensitive and offensive? The answer is not simple. Some biblical texts seem to say it matters what others think. Others seem to say it doesnt.