Velvet Steel by John Piper

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Beyond the tough love of covenant-keeping is a warmth and tenderness that can’t be denied. So while John Piper’s This Momentary Marriage focuses on the theological meaning of marriage, its companion volume, Velvet Steel, reveals the rich, emotional dimension.

Within these pages Piper shares a series of poems written for his wife, Noël, during the first forty-two years of their relationship, starting from the day of their engagement. In it he provides readers with a taste of one man’s tender affections for his wife—poems that he hopes will fan into flame readers’ affections for their own spouses and ultimately for the Maker of marriage.

What John had to say about Velvet Steel:

“In fact, the point of that book was that covenant-keeping, not the affections of being 'in love', is the main point of marriage. But I also emphasized that tough-minded covenant-keeping is the best soil for the long-term flourishing of tender affections. Therefore, it seemed helpful that I give some tastes of what those affections were like over the last 42 years.”

ABOUT JOHN PIPER

John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, where he first sensed God's call to enter the ministry. He went on to earn degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.) and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem. John is the author of more than 30 books and more than 25 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and an increasing number of grandchildren.

To learn more about John or his ministry, visit desiringGod.org or click the link below.

MY REVIEW

Poetry is such an amazing way to express feeling. You don't have to use complete sentences. You can express how you really feel inside.

I love poetry but in all honesty, Velvet Steel did nothing for me. I read through the poems, chronologically ordered from Engagement to Death, but I didn't much out of it.

Some poems were beautiful. Each poem was both different in style and content. No two poems were alike.

All in all, the poems are great, but I feel that they are for John and his bride, not the rest of the world.

*This book was provided by CrossWay Publishing free of charge in exchange for my honest review. This did not sway my review and opinion of this book in anyway.