Chris Tomlinson's Blog: Crave Something More, page 5

25 Things I'd Rather Do Than Pray

Based on the way I've been spending my time the past few weeks, here are 25 things I've found that I prefer to praying.

Sleeping.
Eating toast.
Laying in bed thinking.
Watching John Daker on You Tube.
Thinking about my future.
Mentally rehearsing conversations (over and over) I need to have with my builder.
Spending time with my wife.
Reading a book.
Cutting vines out of trees on our property.
Avoiding doing what I wrote what I would do in the book I'm writing.
Watching Iron Man 2.
Researching chairs and fabrics online for our new house.
Watching Beauty and the Beast and wondering why little kids aren't scared more than they are.
Reading my Bible.
Snoozing.
Reading espn.com
Checking my Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Reading other blogs.
Hanging out with my baby.
Wondering (to myself) why I don't want to pray.
Watching NCIS.
Leaving early to lay tile at our house.
Flipping on the radio in the car.
Sitting on my couch thinking.
Writing this blog post.

I've also realized a few things about these time choices: Some are worthwhile, others less so, most are self-serving, and nearly all are less important than spending time talking with and listening to my God.

God grant me, and us, the grace to have deeper affections, more faith, more patience, and a greater love for time with you in prayer.

Question:  Do you have a hard time praying?  If so, why?

Trust Me Because…

I have a hard time trusting people. This is not new; I think I have been this way for a long time.  But it's new to me, because I've just realized it.  If I meet someone at the office, or on the street, or at church, or in my neighborhood, and I'm not sure what they want from me, then I'm holding back.  They're not getting all of me—at least not until I know what role I'm supposed to be playing in this relationship.

I should clarify.  I have a hard time trusting people that I'm not sure I can trust.  Which means that I can trust, sometimes fiercely, those who have proven to be faithful and trustworthy.  But if the track record isn't there, I'm hesitant to let go of my heart.

I spoke with Renee Johnson, the Devotional Diva, this morning, and we got to talking about God's faithfulness in our lives in terms of His provision.  She brought up the idea of a little kid asking his parents each day if they were going to feed him tomorrow.  She said the parents would surely say:  "Yeah…and duh."  I love it; of course any child should trust his parents, but then the same could be said of us.

The trouble with not trusting others is that I find myself struggling to trust God as well.  That doesn't mean that in order to trust God, we must first trust others.  But it does mean that a foundational, deep, abiding trust in God will free us to trust others more readily.  Paul said this succinctly in saying, "If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).

We all struggle to trust God.  Renee wrote about the same topic today, and it's an issue I've been facing for the 4 months since I lost my job.  But we're both finding that God is faithful to provide for us in soul-satisfying, heart-leaping kinds of ways.

Jesus says "yeah…and duh" in this way:  "Your heavenly Father knows you need [all these things].  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).  He implies trusting God here, basically telling us not to worry about the small stuff—what we're going to wear, how we're going to eat.

He could have simply restated Proverbs 3:5-6:  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean in your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths."  But He makes God's faithfulness even more explicit, and He makes our response even more pressing.  Trust in the Lord because He know you need these things.  And aknowledge Him by seeking first the kingdom of God.

So when we find ourselves struggling to trust God, we should preach to ourselves this truth:  Trust Him.  He is good.  He is faithful.  He knows what we need.  And He will take care of me.  But without taking away from this truth, we should add to it by saying:  And seek first His righteousness!

Seek Jesus.

Abide in Him.

Search out His word.

Search out His heart, and your heart, in prayer.

And for me, understanding my role is as His beloved, as His child, as a temple for His Spirit, as an inheritor with Christ of all things, makes me far more able to trust God.  Not simply because I know who I am in Him, but because of who is He is for me.  So now God is getting all of me—because He is trustworthy.

So let us say with David:  "Those who know your name put their truth in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you" (Psalm 8:10).  And let us put our faith in a God who knows our every need—and is pleased to give us all things!

Question:  Do you have a hard time trusting people—and trusting God?

When Narnia Awoke In My Backyard

I'm really writing this post to tell you one truth I discovered about God today. But I'm going to tell you a story first.

Last week, our skies brought six inches of snow to our rooftops and yards and trees.  It's been great.  I love the snow.  And the snow has stayed, although it's moved from a soft blanket of powder to an rigid ledge of ice in recent days.  But today, the skies opened once more, this time with rain, and the snow began to melt from the trees and the ground.

I decided to take a walk through the woods this afternoon, after the rain had gone, and I came upon the intermittent stream that runs through our property.  For days now it has been silent with still, icy strains, but today, quiet melodies of laughter rose from its wet banks.

I felt as if I were in Narnia, when Aslan came and broke the spell of the White Witch, and spring covered the cold, white winter with the warmth of joyful greens.  I walked along the water's trail, ducking under tree branches and side-stepping fallen logs.  My little dog, Bear, was hopping around the edges of the stream, dipping her toes into the cool water and barking at the small waterfalls that spilled over sticks and leaves.  Water dripped from tall, green trees.  The sunlight broke through branches and needles in a mosaic of light.

My heart filled with great joy, and I began praising God.  Who am I to live this beautiful kind of life, a life where I can know my Creator and be loved by Him?  Who am I to behold such wondrous beauty in a world He meant for our joy?  Who am I to get to live in this place, with this wife, with this daughter, with this family, with these friends?

And then these words came from the lips of my heart:  God, I love your gifts.  They are so good and precious.  But even more, I love you apart from your gifts.

This is a truth I want to live out more fully. It means seeing God's gifts as for my good, whether those be gifts of blessing or gifts of loss.  It means rejoicing in those gifts, because God means for us to find great pleasure in them.  And it means always treasuring the Giver above the gift, because He is our greatest pleasure.

I'm reminded of a heart-stopping, mind-bending question from God Is The Gospel.  John Piper asks, "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?"

May it be so in my life and yours, that we could answer no in a real and heartfelt way.  May we find pleasure in the thousands of gifts of blessing and loss in our own lives.  And may we find our greatest joy, not in His gifts, but in Him.

Question:  Do you find that you primarily love God, or His gifts?

Be Overwhelmed

You remember the passage in Genesis 18 where Abraham petitions God over and over? God has come to "see whether [Sodom and Gomorrah] have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me," and He hangs behind as the two angels go down towards Sodom.  This is where Abraham approaches Him to inquire:

"Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city.  Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?  Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked!  Far be that from you!  Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?"

And God responded:

"If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

This goes on and on, with Abraham petitioning God five more times, until the point where God has promised that He will not destroy the city of Sodom if only ten righteous people are found within its walls.  Of course, you know the rest of the story, that not even ten are found, and in His mercy, God saves Lot and his wife (for a time) and his daughters, and that these two great cities are completely destroyed.

As I consider this passage, a few observations come to mind:

God's foreknowledge does not preclude His listening, and even responding to, His people whom He knows.  In fact, His foreknowledge enables it.  God knew that not even ten would be found in the city, yet He permitted Abraham to petition Him six times on the city's behalf, in order to show Abraham, and us by observation, something about His nature, such that…
…God's love overcomes His wrath.  Our perfect God is just to show His wrath on sinful people like us who have not kept to His perfect standard.  Yet His mercy overcomes.  His mercy overcomes so much that God was willing to spare an entire city, full of people who were long in rebellion to Him, if only to be merciful to even ten of His people.  That's because "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials," (2 Peter 2:9), because…
…There is a kind of righteousness that comes in believing God.   "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3)."  And Lot believed God as well through Abraham, as he went with him to this distant, promised land.  Even though Lot was a man of mistakes, some quite grievous, he knew enough about God so that he was "greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)" (2 Peter 2:8), which reminds us that…
… "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

So when you feel overwhelmed by your own sin, be more overwhelmed by God's mercy and love, which we see most clearly at the cross.  He listens, and rescues, and gives us His righteousness, and loves us more deeply than we know.

Question:  Do you experience a lot of guilt about your own sins?

Did God Not Say That?

It's better to meditate on what God's word actually says, but it can also be useful at times to meditate on what God's word does not say.

Here's what I mean. Recently, I borrowed Anna's Bible and happened upon a note (from a Beth Moore Bible study I believe) she had handwritten beside Philippians 4:6-7.

This is how the verse appears in Scripture:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

This is how Anna's note, casting the verse in the negative, appears:

"Do not be calm about anything, but in everything without prayer and without humility, without any thankfulness, do not tell God what you need.  Then, you will not have any peace, nor understanding or clarity, so your heart will be open to all and your mind will be like the sea tossed to and fro by the wind."

God's word, as inspired by His Spirit, is like a jewel. It is a wonder to behold, but turning it can give another perspective that's beautiful as well.  I think that's what's going on here.  The Spirit meant every word He inspired, so we do well to pour over each word and think deeply on what He meant.  But there are times when we can benefit by thinking over what He did not say as well.

Question:  What does your favorite verse look like in the negative?

When Real Is Better Than Imaginary

Imaginary is always better than real, right?

For example, our family recently went on the public tour of the White House.  I have seen this building for years in pictures and from afar in person, and I have imagined it as a house that is grander, more romantic, and altogether different from any other.

Given its history and proximity to power, it is different from other homes.  But I noticed the paint strokes on the trim, and a creak in the floors, and the fact that the insides aren't quite as big as I thought.  So in that sense, it's not that different at all.

Or the time my friends and I went to a taping of Price Is Right.  We were all in the Air Force, so we wore our dress uniforms, knowing that one of us would be picked as a contestant (and our friend Brooke went on to win the Cliffhanger game).  I had seen the show on TV and imagined the studio as a cavernous space, but in reality, it was like being in a small community theater.

Perhaps this is why we love fantasy worlds like Narnia or Hogwarts so much—there's a bit more luster to an imaginary world.  And this yearning tells us something about ourselves.  CS Lewis hints at this reality:  "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world."

In my own life, reality often leads to disappointment.  What I mean is that I have certain expectations or hopes or dreams that often run headlong into the wall of reality.  When my satisfaction is tied to those expectations, and they don't play out, then I find myself frustrated, discouraged, and wondering why I am still unfulfilled.

But there's One who does not lead to disappointment.  In His "presence there is fullness of joy; at [His] right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).  At His back is a trail of blinding glory.  His Son is the lamp that gives eternal light to the holy city, New Jerusalem.

And here's the thing about God:  the reality is infinitely greater than the imagined.  So let's delight in Him and His promises and look forward with eager longing for the day we can bask in the glory of His presence.  And let's allow the reality that His reality is far greater that our imaginations to spur us on in faith to love Him more fully today.

Question:  When have you found the reality of a place or situation to be a shadow of what you'd imagined?

Change You Can Believe In

Change is good. Except when it's change for the sake of change.  Then it's short-sighted, ineffective, and not entirely useful to anyone.

But real change, deep change, heartfelt change, individual change, is its own revolution. And I don't mean to use the term revolution too lightly.  This kind of change is nothing short of a miracle.

Here's what I have in mind when I talk about this kind of deep, heartfelt change.  Paul was a religious man who set out to destroy the church of God (so he hoped) in order to please God (so he thought).  And one day, he encountered Jesus.  Here's what he said:  "Who are you, Lord?"

Paul goes on to be saved, begins preaching in the synagogue, goes to Arabia, goes back to Damascus, ends up in Jerusalem, and begins his missionary journeys.  Thirty years go by, and here is what we find him now writing:  "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain…My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better [than remaining in the flesh]" (Philippians 1:21, 23).

Since we have the whole Bible and know Paul's story, we overlook this change as no big deal.  But the change here is stunning.

"Who are you, Lord?"

…to…

"My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."

So I wonder at what can produce this kind of change in a man.  I said earlier that this kind of change is a miracle, because a miracle involves the supernatural piercing the natural.  And that's precisely what happened with Paul.  "But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles" (Galatians 1:15-16).

According to the testimony of Paul, it was the calling of God by grace through the revealing of His Son that changed him.  This was his miracle.  The Spirit confirms this through Luke:  "I am Jesus, who you are persecuting" (Acts 9:5).

And this is our miracle as well.  If God is in us and for us, then He has called us by His grace through the revealing of His Son as well.  "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God" (1 John 4:15).  And we are changed people because of it—may we never forget it!

Question:  How has God changed you most since He called you by His grace?

Top 10* Things We Can Do To Treasure Jesus More Fully In The Area of Stewardship

A few weeks ago, I spoke to our men's group at church about my testimony in the area of stewardship.  I talked about how I was raised in a family that taught Biblical principles of handling money—and how I saw stewardship as an end rather than a means for many years.

I spoke the next week on the top 10 things we can do to treasure Jesus more fully when it comes to handling money.  There were 12 items on the list.  Here's the summary:

Study the Bible for ourselves to see what God has to say about money.
Make the connection between the gospel and our use of money (see 2 Cor 8:9, Phil 2:7-11).
Make a budget…to the glory of God.
Never make an emotional financial decision (see Luke 14:28-30).
Limit, or eliminate, our exposure to debt (see Deut 28:1, 12-13, 15, 44, Prov 22:7, Rom 13:8).
Learn, with Paul, to be content (see Phil 4:11-13).
Work to the glory of God, and understand it is the Lord who prospers (see 1 Cor 10:31, Col 3:23-24, Gen 13:1-12).
Teach our children to be good stewards (Prov 22:6).
Give generously.
Give wisely (see 2 Thess 3:10, Mt 5:42, 1 Tim 5:8, 1 John 3:17-18, 1 Tim 5:17-18, Lev 19:9-10).
Be courageous when you encounter God's teaching (see Ezra 7:10, 8:21-23).
Use your money to make God look glorious (see 1 John 2:16, Mt 6:28-30, 33).

For the details, you can listen here.

Question:  With a new year approaching, what can you do with regards to money to treasure Jesus more fully?

We Don't Agree, But I Love You

I recently heard two people say this: "I don't get along with _____ because I don't agree with him."  You might find this to be entirely natural, and I can say there is a part of me that understands this well because I've thought it myself.  But just because something is natural doesn't mean it's necessarily good.

We might think that the basis for a friendship or a relationship of some kind should rest upon common experiences or common beliefs.  And to some degree, this is true.  We do tend to gather with others who are like-minded, which is how we get clusters of people in a religion, or a club, or a denomination,

There is something deep within us that brings us close to one another, and this same something gives rise to our greatest conflicts.  This something is our system of beliefs—beliefs about life, and God, and morality.  If none of us believed anything, then we'd probably get along more easily.  It's the differences that separate us.

This brings us to the question I'd like for us to consider:  How, and when, should we get along?

At times, I've wondered why God didn't make belief, and subsequently the getting along, easier on us.  The simplest model to govern a belief is one with a strong, central authority.  When a belief system can be controlled from the top, then internal alignment will naturally ensue.  This is the model for any number of cults today.

However, the Bible doesn't set up the church in a command-and-control kind of structure, where leaders of the church act as the arbiters for belief.  Instead, the Scriptures make priests out of all believers, give leaders to shepherd and train and guide those believers, and set Jesus as king over all of us.  In structural terms, the church becomes flat.

The trouble with this, if you want to call it trouble at all, is that flatness leads to diversity.  If I get to read the Bible and tell you what it means, then we're likely going to agree with one another because you don't know any better.  But if you and I can both read the same Bible, and we can come up with different perspectives, then we're going to be at odds on some things.

I don't mean to make this an ecumenical or interfaith call. Protestants disagree with Catholics on the nature of justification.  Christians disagree with Muslims on the nature of Jesus.  Monotheists disagree with polytheists on the nature of God.  And theists disagree with atheists on the existence of God.

These differences are important, because they mean something vital.  If there is a God, and our sin separates us from Him, and this life is but a vapor, and there's a way, but only one way, to be made right with Him, and He divides the world into those whom He is for and those whom He is against, then it's vital that we know specifics about this God.  And it's vital that we agree on these things.

But beyond these vital differences, the solid blacks and whites begin to gray to varying degrees.  There are other beliefs to die for, but they are smaller in number than we might believe.  There are others to debate over, but again, they are probably smaller in number than we might think.  And there are still others to forebear, which are probably far greater in number than we would like to admit.

God knows this.  He saw fit in His infinite wisdom to make it so.  By giving us a book and sending us His Spirit and commissioning His people to carry out His commandments, He is running the risk that we're going to botch some things and fight a bit more than we should.  Which brings us back to our question:  How, and when, should we get along?

Paul gives us some help here:  "Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3).

Much can be said, but for the sake of this discussion, we can just say that the call to unity is predicated on the calling of God.  God calls us to be His own, and as His people, He commands us to eagerly maintain the unity of the Spirit.  It's interesting to see the how that follows the what of this command.

Be humble.

Be gentle.

Be patient.

Bear one another in love.

By these actions, we are to maintain unity with one another.  If we disagree with an enemy, Jesus tells us to love them and pray for them.  If we disagree with a brother or sister in Christ, the Spirit tells us to maintain unity with them in the bond of peace.

So when we're tempted to say we don't get along with someone because we disagree, it's probably more accurate to say:  I don't get along with him because I'm prideful; or I don't get along with her because I'm not willing to love her.

Instead, let us be the kind of people who are humble, gentle, patient, and willing to bear with one another in love.

Question:  Why is it hard to maintain peace with someone with whom we disagree?

Come to the Edge of the Canyon

No other book, besides the Bible, has had a greater impact on my theology, faith, and life than Desiring God by John Piper.  Which is why I wrote the following essay for a book called Besides the Bible: 100 Books That Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture, which my friend Jordan co-authored.

Besides the Bible is a collection of essays from authors, bloggers, and filmmakers on the books they feel every Christian should read.  As the book states, you may not agree with every selection, but it may reignite your passion for reading.

Here is the essay, courtesy of Besides the Bible and its publisher, Biblica:

There is a way to think about God that is like rafting the Colorado along the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  The canyon's interior seems close, while the river plays gently in spots, churning in others.  The immediacy of the surrounding world narrows perspective, as sightlines are crowded by walls and eyes drawn to the peculiarities of the landscape.  Life is spent busily navigating down the river, all with only a faint awareness of the greater beauty just beyond reach.


There is another way to think about God that is like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon.  Still air and awe fill this view.  Awareness of self fades into the silent blue hues that bathe the plateaus at dusk.  Time slows and perspectives enlarge.  One feels small at the edge, but immensely grateful.


I have spent most of my spiritual life at the bottom of the canyon.  I had heard of the canyon's greatness, and I suspected there was more truth and beauty in the world than I could see. But the abundance of my thoughts and actions came in navigating and traversing and peeking at this greater beauty rather than beholding it.


Reading Desiring God by John Piper brought me breathlessly close to the edge of the canyon for the first time in my life.  The God of John Piper, C. S. Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, Augustine, the apostle Paul, and hundreds of thousands of other saints, was a different God than mine—beautiful, terrifying, grand, intimate, passion-filled, full of grace and wrath, and eminently glorious.  The sight of this God was stunning and soul stirring.


But standing at the edge is meant to give us perspective so we can better maintain a place to live. This is where Piper shines—translating grand thoughts about God into our own spheres of living. He brings us to the canyon's edge, telling us to come here often, but he tells us that we must step down into the canyon as well.


Piper begins this work by developing a case for Christian Hedonism, defining the term as a philosophy of life built upon five convictions. In summary, these convictions state that all humans long for happiness and pleasure, and that this impulse should be nurtured, not suppressed, toward finding our greatest happiness in God, with love being an outpouring from this place of joy. He goes on to apply this concept to various aspects of our faith, including worship, Scripture, love, prayer, mission, marriage, and money, all with an orientation toward how the Christian Hedonist should view or express faith in each of these various facets.


Piper's core statement of Christian Hedonism, that "the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever," and its corollary, that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him," saturate every word in Desiring God. The book's theology is God centered and Christ exalting. Or to say it another way, its bias is theocentric rather than anthropocentric. Accordingly, Piper takes aim at the notion we are at the center of God's affections, that God's design is ultimately to redeem the world and save sinners, rather than saying God's redemptive purposes are toward a greater end: the enjoyment he has in glorifying himself. So Piper says, "The bedrock foundation of Christian Hedonism is not God's allegiance to us, but to Himself."


These thoughts may sound strange to the postmodern, Western ear, and Desiring God has its share of critics. Proponents of a more liberal theology find the conservative undertones of this book to be too restrictive in our understanding of God. Others suggest Piper reads a staunchly Calvinistic theological bias into his source texts; after all, Christian Hedonism isn't a framework explicitly taught in Scripture.


But Piper is an expository preacher, and he's also an expository writer. The best way to read this book is with a Bible in the other hand; otherwise, the reader will fail to invite divine truth from God to shine on these statements of truth about God.


Ultimately, Desiring God is most appealing because it allows for deep thoughts about God to share space with deep affections for God, and it taps into a desire within each of us to search out the satisfaction for our soul's deepest longings. Read Desiring God to learn why dour Calvinists miss the heart of their theology and why happy Calvinists are so enamored with the sovereignty and glory of God. Or read it because you find a deep longing in your own soul to behold and treasure God above all else and because you need a guide down into the canyon.

Question:  Have you read Desiring God, and if so, what were your thoughts?