Chris Tomlinson's Blog: Crave Something More, page 4

Just Gimme One Verse!

Sometimes, 140 characters need more explanation…

Tweet: I tire of debates about Calvinism and Arminianism; then I tire of growing tired of them. Truth, in love, does matter.

One chapter of the new book I'm writing deals with the sovereignty of God, so I've been searching the Scriptures and reading others' thoughts on how God's sovereignty works, specifically in the salvation of His people.  I tend to read Reformed authors with a high view of God's sovereignty, but I know that if I am to answer my own question, I need to read the Bible for myself and read other people's thoughts on a different side of the issue.

So one of the things I read through was a long line of testimonials of people who have "left" Calvinism to see why they feel the way they feel.  And while I noticed some trends across these testimonies, many of which would be well known to folks who have engaged on these matters for some time, the comments ended with a man who posed this question:

"I have repeatedly asked [Calvinists]…to give me just one scripture, get this, only ONE scripture that implicitly states that God died ONLY for a particular group and said to hell with all the rest.  Just one.  Needless to say, I haven't received that verse yet.  Wonder of wonders, don't you think!!!"

With a desire to be helpful, I wrote him this response, which I've reprinted, with some edits for clarity, for your consideration and encouragement.

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I haven't taken the time [here] to share my experience with growing up Arminian, later tending towards Calvinism, and continuing to wrestle with Scripture and questions along the way.  But as a brief response, here are a few verses you might consider as an answer to your question—whether Christ died only for a particular group and said to hell with the rest.

I know few followers of Jesus, Calvinistic or otherwise, who would say it in this way, and you of course reject it as well on good grounds!  If it's acceptable [to you], I'd ask your question this way:  Did Jesus' death accomplish something specific or general; if specific, did it accomplish something for some or for everyone; and if for some, is the attitude of God towards the rest "to hell with them," or a grieving over the sin of man?

Here are a few verses for you to consider, with an eye towards Jesus' death accomplishing something particular for some.

Christ's blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9).  This shows that only some here are ransomed, though this verse in isolation does not yet say that individuals are in view.
The promise to Mary was that her son would save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21).  The life, and death of Christ, promised here to Mary, had a particular outcome, and that was the salvation of some (his people).
Jesus laid down his life for His sheep, sheep not only of the fold of Israel, but sheep from the rest of the world as well (John 10:15-16).  Jesus laid down his life for His sheep, not all, and they are particular, for they hear his voice and He knows them (v. 27).
Jesus made many to be accounted righteous in his death (it was the will of the Lord to crush him), and he bore their iniquities…and the sin of many (Isaiah 53:11-12).
For our sake (Paul to the church), God made Christ to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (1 Corinthians 5:21).
Christ died (decisively) for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).
We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son while enemies (Rom 5:10), such that being justified by faith (v. 1) is the result of our being reconciled by His death (the for in v. 6 explains the reason why we have been justified and now have peace with God and why God's love has been poured out to us through the Holy Spirit (vs. 1, 5).

There are others, but perhaps these will suffice for the one verse you were looking for.

Bind these together with the glorious truths, that "God desires all men to be saved," that Jesus is the Lamb who "takes away the sin of the world," that "whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life," and I come up short in being able to explain in full how God works in the hearts of men, choosing to express with Paul:  "Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways!  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be glory forever."

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If there be any encouragement to you, let it be this:  This stuff does matter.  Theology matters.  Right thinking about God leads to right relating to God which leads to right living for God.  But unity matters as well, and Jesus as the head of the body matters too, and living at peace with one another, in the bonds of love, matters.  And perhaps most of all, abiding in Jesus matters.

So if you are intimidated by what you consider to be harder theology, there is grace for you to grow in understanding.

If you are contentious over matters of truth, there is grace for you to learn how to speak the truth in love.

If you are self-righteous in your wisdom and understanding, there is grace for you in which to grow humble.

If you are frustrated by seemingly endless divisions in God's church, there is grace for you to grow in unity.

Let's embrace the hardness of Scripture with a life-long view towards God's unveiling of His truth to our eyes, in the time He chooses, as we seek Him above all other things, but let's also embrace the beautiful person of Jesus, who is head of one body, and who loves us and tells us to love others with His kind of love.

Question:  Have you gotten deep into theology before, only to become frustrated?  What have you found to be helpful in response?

Taking Calvin Off The Shelf

My bookcase is filled with hundreds of books.  I have not read all of them; in fact, I've probably read only half of them.  Some are there because I was overambitious in my book purchasing.  Others are there because I still intend to wade my way through them over time.  Still others are there because, sometimes, it's just easier to impress people with books on your bookshelf than to actually read them.

One such book is Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin.  The way I've thought about it, it's a really thick book, which he wrote when he was maybe six years old, and it's had more of an influence on Western thought than perhaps just about any other book, so I assumed it was a book written by a genius meant to be read by geniuses.  Honestly, if I want to know what Calvin wrote about, I can get the basics from Wikipedia.

But I'm working on a book now, and I cracked open the Institutes for a little research.  And by the time I'd read two pages, I realized these were two really good pages.  In fact, there's a section on God's sovereignty that I just want to reprint here for you in order to awaken your wonder at the beautiful way in which God worked for His glory in creation.

The context is this:  Calvin is making the case for the sovereignty of God, specifically pointing to God's role as creator and sustainer of all things meaning that nothing occurs outside of His providence (what he calls the secret counsel of God).  And to those who would suggest that God has acted in creation to make everything out of nothing, and to infuse it with the energy and natural cause to run apart from His sustaining work, he offers this:

"No created object makes a more wonderful or glorious display than the sun.  For, besides illuminating the whole world with its brightness, how admirably does it foster and invigorate all animals by its heat, and fertilize the earth by its rays, warming the seeds of grain in its lap, and thereby calling forth the verdant blade!  This it supports, increases, and strengthens with additional nurture, till it rises into the stalk; and still feeds it with perpetual moisture, till it comes into flower; and from flower to fruit, which it continues to ripen till it attains maturity.  In like manner, by its warmth trees and vines bud, and put forth firs their leaves, then their blossom, then their fruit."

Now here's the kicker:

"And the Lord, that he might claim the entire glory of these things as his own, was pleased that light should exist, and that the earth should be replenished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before he made the sun.  No pious man, therefore, will make the sun either the necessary or principal cause of those things which existed before the creation of the sun, but only the instrument which God employs, because he so pleases."

It's true.  I looked for myself.  I knew there was light before the sun, but I never made the connection as to why this may be.  Calvin offers an interpretation, but it's one that bows my knees in awe at the marvelous providence of God, working for His glory, which He will give to no other, and how this working is the greatest gift we could ever receive.

Question:  What's one book sitting on your shelf that you've always meant to read but haven't yet?

I've Decided To Pray In Church Of All Places

As I have been contemplating prayer of late, I've found my times of prayer to be growing in both occasion and place.  I find myself before God in prayer as I face a decision that needs to be made, or to ask Him wisdom as I read His word.  Or I find myself offering bursts of praise as I see His hand in a sunrise, or asking Him for grace when I need help with a hard conversation.  But I have also realized there is one place where I'm pretty certain to not be praying:  church.

You'd think this is all mixed up, and you would have a point.  But our church doesn't have a specific time for congregational prayer.  We have corporate prayer, but I can just listen to a pastor pray over the service or the congregation without doing much of anything other than listening to him pray over the service or the congregation.  We also have prayer over the Word, and prayer over our singing, but again, I find it far too easy to watch rather than pray.

But Paul tells us to pray without ceasing, and I want to connect more deeply with God, so I've decided that I'm going to pray at church.  And short of disrupting everyone throughout the service with constant, outspoken prayers, I've realized there are plenty of opportunities to be praying.

Pray as we drive in to church:  God, do a work in your people this morning, to open our eyes to Your glory and to awaken our affections for You above all other things.
Pray as we walk in the door:  God, may I be a minister of grace to someone in need, and may You bring someone to minister to my needs as You see fit.
Pray as the band begins to play:  God, grant us to worship you together with united hearts of praise and adoration for Your name!
Pray as we begin to sing:  [Insert song lyric, and mean it rather than mouth it].
Pray as we shake each other's hands for 15 seconds:  God, love this person through me right now.  Give us words to build a relationship of mutual love and encouragement.
Pray as the pastor prays for our service:  [As he prays], God, may this be so.  Do this, for Your glory and our joy.
Pray as the teaching pastor walks on stage:  God, grant His lips to speak and our ears to hear the wisdom and beauty of Your word, and awaken our minds to understand and our hearts to feel the weight of Your truth.
Pray as the Word is being taught:  God, shine the light of your Word deep in my heart; show me my sin, reveal to me Your grace, teach me Your truth, and do this for all who are here.
Pray as the gospel is being shared:  God, awaken faith in those who don't know You.  Help them to see their sin and delight in Your mercy, and help them to respond to the gospel and receive Your Son as their righteousness, their Lord, their Savior, and their Treasure.
Pray as we give:  God, I give because You own everything I have.  Multiply this offering to expand Your kingdom and the reach of Your name.
Pray as we leave the sanctuary:  God, give me eyes to see friends to encourage and loners to befriend before I reach the door to leave.
Pray as we talk to a friend in need:  [Stopping to pray during a discussion rather than saying "I'll be sure to pray for you."]
Pray as we walk out the door:  God, consecrate this day for Your sake.  Help me to rest in You, obey Your Word, follow Your lead, and love others today while I have breath.

Pray with me this Sunday. And each day until then.  May God help us to see our need for Him throughout each day, and may we be found in unceasing prayer before His throne.

Question:  When do you pray at your church gathering?

Why I Decided To Go To Seminary…Or Not

I have decided to go to seminary. Or not.  And this is a big step for me.

You see, I'm cautious, and I care too much about how I'm perceived, and I'm fearful of not hearing God's voice clearly, and I've long held a wrong view about the nature of Christian service and ministry.  And this wrong kind of view is something that God has been working on within me for years.

This wrong view can be understood by imagining a ladder of spirituality, where each successive rung marks an increasing commitment to and love for Jesus.  At the bottom was a businessman, an occupation I've held for the past 10 years.  Next in line was service to God in the form of parachurch ministry.  Above this rung was a local pastor, then church planter, then stateside missionary.  Further up the ladder came the foreign missionaries in developed nations, then foreign missionaries in developing nations, with frontier missionaries, carrying the gospel to unreached people groups, crowning the ministers of grace within the body of Christ.

I sought to climb to the highest point on this ladder, believing that wanting God above all other things meant taking the greatest risk for God.  But God was not in this desire.  As I stepped down this spiritual ladder, pursuing some of the rungs in thought and prayer, while pursuing others more fully through research, training, and conversations, I inevitably returned to my job as a businessman feeling as though God was pleased to use me there.  It was a humbling process, and a frustrating one, as I grieved the loss of dreams of a life I thought merited the glorious salvation I had received from God.

Intellectually, I believed in the priesthood of all believers, and the gifts of the Spirit to all believers, and the need for each member of the body to fulfill his or her role under the headship of Jesus, and the sanctity of all professions done for the glory of God.  And I never would have acknowledged believing in this internal hierarchy, but in God's providence, I now see what I did not see for so many years:  that not all gifts are equally profitable to the church (1 Corinthians 12), but the use of all of these gifts can be equally pleasing to God.

We do well when we desire to be profitable to God's people, but we do better when we desire to please God, because in doing so, He receives more glory and we receive more joy.  And in a way that only God can work, He makes us most profitable to His people when we seek to please Him above all else.  This is a profound truth, and it's having a big impact on the way I delight in and obey my King.

You may recall that I lost my job in September of 2010.  Well, I spent 10 of the months since that time finishing the building of our first house.  And now that the house is done, I'm at a fork in the road.  Do I continue down the path of business, or do I respond to a longing I've felt, strongly at times, weaker at others, to teach God's people His word?

This goes back to my being cautious.  When I encounter this kind of question, I find myself at a standstill, waiting, I tell myself, on direction from God.  But what I'm really doing is entertaining my fears.  One fear is telling people I'm going to do one thing and then end up doing something else (this goes back to caring too much about how I'm perceived).  Another fear is doing what I think God is telling me to do and then finding out I was following my own voice (this goes back to being fearful of not hearing God's voice clearly).

But God has been gracious to me this past week, and through the ministry of friends and family, I've come to see that, sometimes, waiting on the Lord means standing still and listening.  And sometimes, waiting on the Lord means walking and listening.  Either way, waiting on Him means believing Him, exercising faith in the hope and expectation that He will act on my behalf, for my good, and in a way that brings Him glory and brings me joy.

So I'm waiting in faith by applying to business jobs and applying to seminary.  I will soon walk down one of these paths, or one of hundreds of other paths I'm not yet considering.  But there's movement in my soul and in my steps, and it feels good to stretch my spiritual legs again.  Pray for me, that God will humble me in the process, and teach me to trust in Him, even if it costs me my pride and my fear.

Question:  How have you waited on God in big decisions?

The Realness of God

I have been contemplating prayer recently.  By contemplating, I mean I've been thinking much more about prayer than actually talking to God about prayer, which of course would be praying and might just help the whole situation.  But here I find myself, wondering why something so central to this faith we share is such a mystery.

Here's what I do know about prayer.  It's hard.  It's important.  It's much simpler than we care to make it.  And it's far more complex than we understand.

I also know that pretty much every Christian thinks his or her prayer life isn't all that great.  When you ask a Christian if Jesus died for their sins, they will say yes. When you ask a Christian if communion wafers are too dry, they will say yes.  And when you ask a Christian if their prayer life could be better, they will say yes.

I am no different, but I'm also tired of lamenting this fact.  I can see spending the next forty years dipping my toes into the shallow pools of God while shouting over my shoulder that's it's just too far to jump into the deep end.  But who wants to stay in the shallow end shouting all the time?

As I consider why my prayer life "isn't as good as it could be," I have to acknowledge the reason this is so: because my experience in prayer hasn't been worth the effort.  By this I mean that the reward hasn't been worth the cost.  While there are a hundred other reasons I don't pray more earnestly, or more fervently, or more expectantly, or more willfully, or more joyfully, the ground-level reason is because I don't think it's worth my time.

I say this with conviction because I believe that tasting the sweetness of God and seeing the beauty of God will lead to the savoring of God over anything else, because He is the greatest of all realities.  And I'm coming to see that taking hold of this truth, that God is real, with all the strength I can muster, is necessary if I'm ever going to change my mind and see that time spent with God is absolutely time best spent.

It sounds silly to say God is real.  Of course we believe God is real.  We'd take a bullet to show that God is real.  We'll give our money and our time so that more people will see that He is real.  We're committed our lives to following Jesus, and worshipping God, and serving Him, and repenting from sin, and sharing the gospel, and all sorts of things that pour from a well-deep belief that God is real.

But if God is real to us, why do we cut Him off mid-sentence? God, I pray for our group tomorrow, that you would work…oh shoot, I forgot to send out that email about the time change.

If God is real to us, why do we continue to teach when we pray in front of a group we just taught? God, help us to see, that as you say in your word in the passage we looked at today, that actions speak louder than words, that we need to let go and let God, that the knowledge we gained today should change our hearts and sink down into the roots of our soul, which will bring forth the fruit that will evidence the change in our hearts and [fill in any other bullet points you might want to reinforce from the message].

Real people having real conversations speak in a certain way, and people praying to a God they aren't deeply convinced is listening speak in a different way.  Now this may be a reality of our faith, that the process of being made into the image of Christ comes with stretching and growing and yearning, and that's OK.  But as one preacher says, "It's OK to not be OK.  It's just not OK to stay that way."

So this is my prayer today for all of us:  God, be real to us.  Help us to pray, hear us, speak to us, and give us a heart that desires you most.

Question:  How's your prayer life?

The Hedge Test

It has been said that the true character of a man is what he does when no one else is looking.  I might amend that to say:  the true character of a man is what his heart is inclined to do, and what he does, when no one is looking.

I realized this yesterday as I was helping my mother-in-law trim her hedge.  I've never trimmed a hedge before, but it didn't look all that hard, so I volunteered.  And it wasn't hard in a mountain-climbing, desert-crossing kind of way, but it wasn't something I'd typically do on a relaxing vacation either.

Using old-school hedge shears and a small platform ladder, I took to the top and the side of this long, overgrown hedge, and over the course of the next hour or so, I made good progress in the 90 degree heat.  I wanted to do a good job, doing my work with excellence, making a good impression on the in-laws, and doing my work for the glory of God.  So I took special care to round the top corners and get clean lines along the sides, you know, making the hedge look like it belonged with the best of hedges.

But before long, I realized I needed to go around to the neighbor's side of the hedge to complete the project.  And there is where I found a test of my character, waiting in the shade of cascading fruit trees.  Sure, this side of the hedge needed trimming as well, but it was the neighbor's side after all, so my in-laws wouldn't really see it.  And the hedge was mostly hidden from view by the trees, so maybe the neighbors wouldn't really see it either.  So I thought about skimping on the work, offering a few token cuts with the shears on a side no one would notice.

But that's when the refrain echoed in my mind:  the true test of a man's character… I realized that if I really meant to work for the glory of God, to cut this hedge for His glory, as it if were His hedge I was trimming (which it was after all), then it meant doing all of the work as if all of it could be seen.

Jeremiah tells us that our God, "who judges righteously…tests the heart and the mind" (Jeremiah 11:20).  Jesus tells us that "I am he who searches mind and heart" (Revelation 2:23), and that "nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known" (Luke 12:2).

I decided to cut the entire hedge as if it were God's, and I'm grateful to Him for testing and revealing the hidden things in my heart.  My prayer for all of us is that He would continue to test us, and change us, and shape our hearts and minds and hands so that all the things we do will be for His glory alone, and that our character, as we're being conformed to the image of Christ, would be sharpened by the shears of His Spirit, so we might be presented to Him as perfect and holy.

Question:  What is one of your stories of character-testing?

Convicted On Judgment Day

You might have recently heard about Harold Camping. A California-based radio broadcaster, he has made news for his end of days predictions and his influence over thousands of followers who have given to and supported his claim of the coming Judgment Day.  Camping predicted that the end of the world would be ushered in last Saturday, May 21, 2011, and that 200 million Christians would be raptured amidst global earthquakes.

Many have written in jest or condemnation or love about this topic, but what struck me most was a thought I had on Saturday morning.  Knowing that Camping's Judgment Day had arrived, and assuming it was another false prophecy consistent with a ministry rife with false teaching, I still wondered what it would be like for Christ to return that day.  As I contemplated this Second Coming, here's what I thought:  I'd really like to finish the house first.

You see, we've been building our first home for the past year, and we've poured ourselves, our time, and our money into finishing this project.  The process has gone much slower than we've liked, or even thought possible, and we have found ourselves "2 weeks away" from being done for about 3 months now.  As of today, I think we're about two weeks away =).

In all this, I'm reminded of a question John Piper poses in God Is The Gospel:  "If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauty you ever saw….could you be satisfied…if Christ was not there?"  The question I ask myself today is similar:  What do I want most today—Jesus, or something else?

Paul contemplated this question and chose well.  "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Phil 3:8).  So while we live on earth, and work our jobs, and build our houses, and love our families, and fellowship with believers, and share the gospel with others, and enjoy God's goodness to us, let us also desire with Paul to see, know, and have Christ above all other things.

Question:  What in your life are you treasuring above Christ these days?

Another Update In Thoughts

These kinds of posts seem easier than explaining where I've been for 2 months.  Here is what I have been learning since we last connected.

People that are connected to God are never bored in their lives.
Pondering what God pondered as He considered creating the world is hard work.
I tend to think that paying someone to work on our house gives me license to treat them with less grace than if I wasn't paying them.
Ditra is way easier to put down than Durock.
The intensity of our fleshly desires always exceeds the satisfaction that comes in fulfilling those desires (Minter).
I think I'm an infralapsarian.
Painters don't paint the tops of doors or window trim, unless you ask them…six times.
God loves us through grace, and we love God through obedience.
I prefer days when the amount of voluntary time in front of a screen is kept at a minimum.
Feeding babies real food rather than milk or formula, um, changes things.
Waiting until ______ happens in my life in order to start ______ is a dumb way to live.
Debates about God's sovereignty in salvation ultimately center on the question of what God values most.
True thinking about God leads to truer worship of God.
My advice on handling well the self-promotion involved in writing:  throw yourself in, and confess your sins as they come up.
Duets like The Civil Wars are rare and exquisite.
The Sleeve Monster seems to victimize people who listen to conservative talk radio more than others.
Jesus is the means and the end of creation, redemption, and restoration.
Teaching older men who know more about the Bible than me is surprisingly pleasing.
Mother's Day and birthdays and the like are great excuses to celebrate someone worth celebrating.
We write to understand, and we publish to influence.
All things, including blessing, others, discipline, evil, suffering, and persecution, work together for our good, for those who love God and are called according to His purpose, because they serve in conforming us to the image of Christ, so He might be firstborn among many brothers and preeminent over all things.
Laying sod for a living must be incredibly hard work.
Psalm 27:4 and Philippians 3:7-8 both essentially talk about wanting the same thing.
If our end is not worship, then we study and think in vain.
Each day with Jesus, Anna, and Avery gets better than the last.

Question:  What have you been learning recently?

I Am God's Gift To…

I am God's gift…

…not to women.

…not to writing.

…not to business.

…not to my family.

…not to the world.

…but to Jesus.  "I have manifested my name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.  Yours they were, and you gave them to me" (John 17:6).

Let this stunning truth grip your mind and settle into your heart.  It's true to say that God gives us many gifts, and that our friends, or our family, or our co-workers are in one sense gifts from God for our enjoyment and our good.  But above all others, God gives us to Jesus.  Let the affections of your soul rise up at the thought of being a precious gift, given to Jesus, who loved us enough to lay down His life to gain us as His own.

Question:  What do think about being a gift God has given to Jesus?

*Thanks to Ray Shoaff for pointing out this verse and thought.

Don't Ignore…Submit

You may have heard a pastor say something like this in prayer during a service: God, help us to set aside the cares and concerns of this world and worship you. They say this to help us refocus our hearts and our minds as we come to worship God corporately.  And they are kind to do so; we're not only like sheep, but we're often distracted, worrisome sheep.

I don't mean to quibble, but this thought occurred to me the last time I heard this sort of thing in a prayer. We do well to set aside the cares and concerns of our daily lives when we come each week to worship God.  But we do better to bring those cares and concerns in submission to God in worship.

Paul tells us what this is like:  "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

The antidote to anxiousness is prayer, and the cured heart and mind will be guarded by God's peace.  That sounds like a cure I need each week—and each day.

So the next time you find your heart beating with worry or your mind racing with anxiety, don't simply push them aside to focus on God.  Bring them to God as a prayer and a request, all with a spirit of thanksgiving that He hears and heals.  And He will give us peace!

Question:  Do you find your mind racing and your heart worrying when you come to church—or each day?