by Darryl on March 4, 2010
Maybe you, like me, can relate to what Chris Tomlinson writes:
I have always loved God and enjoyed learning about the Bible…But this was the sum total of my Christian faith: reading my Bible, going to church, staying out of trouble, and going on mission trips. It sounds like a good upbringing, and it was, but I didn’t have anything that came close to a life filled with an all-consuming desire for God.
Tomlinson has written a book out of his frustration with his own heart. He finds God, but then walks away. He believes he has the world’s greatest information – the gospel – but rarely tells anyone about it. He believes in a relationship with God but finds prayer difficult.
If you’ve ever been dissatisfied with the disconnect between what you believe to be true, and how you live, then I think you’ll relate to this book. Tomlinson writes with brutal honesty about his struggles and even his attempts to overcome his weaknesses. He disarms you with his honesty, and I found myself enjoying his sometimes quirky stories.
But he’s sneaky. Just when you’re enjoying a story, you discover that he’s delivered a payload of truth into your heart without you even realizing it. There’s theological depth in this book, but Tomlinson sneaks it all in through the back door. It’s a technique that Jesus used, and we probably need to use a lot more.
Crave is really a book that explores our need for more of God from a right-brained perspective. If you are linear and logical, you may find this book a stretch. But if you are creative, or willing to be stretched in how you think of some key issues, I think you’ll find this book helpful.
Tomlinson’s quest for more of God leads somewhere. He learns from his foibles and discovers some profound and counter-intuitive truths about the Christian life.
“I’m grateful you’ve joined me on this journey,” Tomlinson writes, “but to tell you the truth, the journey has just begun.” The journey to more of God is one that we all need, and I appreciate Tomlinson’s help in showing us the way to satisfy our deepest cravings with God.
More from Amazon.com | Harvest House | CraveSomethingMore.com
This book was provided for review by Harvest House Publishers.
by Darryl on March 1, 2010
I love this quote from George Whitefield:
Before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must not only be troubled for the sins of your life, the sin of your nature, but likewise for the sins of your best duties and performances. When a poor soul is somewhat awakened by the terrors of the Lord, then the poor creature, being born under the covenant of works, flies directly to a covenant of works again. And as Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the garden, and sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, so the poor sinner, when awakened, flies to his duties and to his performances, to hide himself from God, and goes to patch up a righteousness of his own…
But before you can speak peace to your heart, you must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best prayer you ever put up; you must be brought to see that all your duties – all your righteousness – as the prophet elegantly expresses it – put them all together, are so far from recommending you to God, are so far from being any motive and inducement to God to have mercy on your poor soul, that he will see them to be filthy rags…
I do not know what you may think, but I can say that I cannot pray but I sin. I cannot preach to you or any others but I sin. I can do nothing without sin; and, as one expresses it, my repentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the precious blood of my dear Redeemer. Our best duties are as so many splendid sins. Before you can speak peace in your heart, you must not only be made sick of your original and actual sin, but you must be made sick of your righteousness, of all your duties and performances. There must be a deep conviction before you can be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of our heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you had o righteousness of your own, if you never felt the deficiency of your own righteousness, you cannot come to Jesus Christ. There are a great many now who may say, Well, we believe all this; but there is a great difference betwixt talking and feeling. Did you ever feel the want of a dear Redeemer?
Did you ever feel the want of Jesus Christ, upon the account of the deficiency of your own righteousness? And can you now say from your heart, Lord, thou mayst justly damn me for the best duties that ever I did perform? If you are not thus brought out of self, you may speak peace to yourselves, but yet there is no peace.
by Darryl on March 1, 2010
What an amazing game yesterday. Nice to see the excitement on both sides of the border. As my son said, it was anyone’s game. But I’m glad we won it in the end. We’ll be talking about that overtime goal for years.
Congratulations to Team Canada!
by Darryl on February 26, 2010
On April 24, 2010, The Gospel Coalition Ontario Chapter will hold its first conference in Canada. The theme of the conference is the centrality of the gospel in authentic Christian ministry. The purpose of the conference is to bring pastors and Christian leaders into an awareness of their responsibility for gospel-centered ministry and to challenge them to be faithful in exemplifying this in their ministries.
While the conference is aimed at pastors, leaders and students of pastoral ministry, all are welcome to attend.
Please join us at West Highland Baptist Church, 1605 Garth Street, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
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by Darryl on February 24, 2010
If you haven’t listened to this MP3 of J.I. Packer yet, it’s well worth your time. Phoenix Preacher writes:
J.I. Packer is on one last crusade. He wants the church universal to recover the need for catechesis…life long learning of the doctrines and practices of the historic church.
According to Packer, we will not experience or sustain the renewal and outreach of the church unless we recover this lost practice. It’s that important.
Why? Packer argues that Christian belief and behavior are foreign and have to be learned. Not only this, but the fact that Christian belief and behavior are foreign is itself a foreign concept.
Catechesis has been part of the church’s practice, particularly in the patristic and Reformation eras. Every time our culture has become nominally Christian, the practice has been lost, which has led to all kinds of problems. Now that we live in a post-Christendom culture, catechesis is more important than ever.
Packer suggests that we need to adapt our methods, particularly when catechizing adults. The format of programs like Alpha and Christianity Explored may be useful.
We discussed this at Monday’s Theology Pub, and I’m convinced we need to get on this. Listen to Packer’s talk and see if you don’t agree.
The next step is harder: actually doing something about it.
by Darryl on February 22, 2010
What do Tim Keller and Brian McLaren have to do with each other? Both have addressed similar issues in recent days. The differences in how they deal with these issues couldn’t be greater.
Brian McLaren has released a new book. He suggests that we read the Bible as an inspired library that records “an ongoing vigorous conversation with and about God.” It’s more of a messy conversation with an evolving view of God than a final authority. McLaren also takes issue with the concept of a violent God, arguing that we’ve moved away from primitive understandings of a tribal deity. We need to read Scripture differently, and we need to get past our outdated issues of a wrathful God.
Tim Keller preached a sermon on February 14. This series was planned in advance, and I doubt that Keller was thinking of McLaren as he preached. From the passage, Keller showed that Christ’s view and use of Scripture is higher than ours. He also spoke on the doctrine of God’s wrath, explaining that this view of God is more loving and leads to greater concern for social justice.
I’ve read many reviews of McLaren’s book, but this one sermon by Tim Keller would be enough. And yet there’s no indication that Keller was even thinking of McLaren. Maybe we don’t need more reviews. Maybe we just need a better grip on theology clearly communicated from our pulpits on a regular basis.
If you’re a preacher, like me, we’d better take this seriously. Let’s not wait until a book comes out before we give our people an understanding of important issues like the doctrine of Scripture and the nature of God.
But let’s also be encouraged. Keller just preached the text in front of him and it was covered. Of course, Keller knows the issues in our culture that the text addresses. As we stick to the text and allow it to speak to our culture, many of the important issues will be covered.
Maybe we don’t need more book reviews. Maybe we just need better preaching.
by Darryl on February 22, 2010
Later this week I’ll be reviewing Crave: Wanting So Much More of God. Some blurbs for the book:
“Tired of fluffy books on the spiritual life? Chris Tomlinson has written a biblical, God-centered antidote. Crave takes us on a frank and honest journey through the challenges of the Christian walk in today’s world. It is at once a wise, practical, and readable guide, useful for those who recognize spiritual mediocrity in themselves but want to grow beyond it.” (Duane Litfin, President, Wheaton College)
“Written with an enjoyable and attractive vulnerability, this book will draw many to places we’ve wanted to go in our relationships with God but have struggled to find because of the clutter of life. I love how Crave challenges cultural and comfortable Christianity, both in how we internally experience the reality of Christ and externally express the gospel to the world around us.” (David Robbins, Campus Crusade for Christ, Regional Director)
Want a free copy? I’m giving away one copy, thanks to Chris Tomlinson and Harvest House Publishers. Fill out the form below.
Rules: You may only enter the draw once. As soon as the winners have been chosen, all names and addresses will be immediately and permanently erased. The giveaway closes Thursday at midnight.
Update: Congratulations to Sam Haist. The book is on its way to you.
by Darryl on February 20, 2010
by Darryl on February 19, 2010
It’s easy and dangerous to forget that Christianity is subversive. Early Christians subverted the power of Caesar, believing that Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord. The Caesars of Rome are long gone, but other Caesars have taken their place, clamoring for the worship that should belong to Jesus. In Holy Subversion Trevin Wax asks:
What would it look like today if we reclaimed the subversive nature of Christian discipleship? How would the royal announcement that Jesus is Lord change our mind-sets with regard to our churches, our families, our jobs? How can our allegiance to Jesus as King be subversive once again?
Wax applies these questions to six areas: the Caesars of self, success, money, leisure, sex, and power. Each of the Caesars are good in themselves, but can become idolatrous. Wax examines each area to help us understand where we can go wrong, and how we can push these good gifts back to their rightful place under the feet of Jesus. He then explores how our understanding of the subversive nature of discipleship should transform our evangelism.
As I read each chapter, I found myself marking lots of pages. Wax has the ability to be simple and profound at the same time. This is my favorite type of writing: one that blends theological insight with sharp pastoral application. Wax reminds me of some of my favorite Puritan writers, not so much in his writing style as in his ability to apply the gospel to life. They called the Puritans “physicians of the soul” because they were good at diagnosing and remedying ailments of the soul. That’s exactly what Wax does in this book.
We also benefit from the fact that Wax has lived and worked in Romania. This has given him an ability to identify cultural idols in North America that may not be as obvious to some of us.
I especially appreciate his insight into areas of idolatry that don’t get enough attention. We’ve all probably heard about the dangers of the idols of success, money, and power – although Wax is worth reading here as well. But I haven’t read a lot about the idol of leisure. I also appreciate that he deals with these issues at the individual and corporate levels. He pushes us to identify how these idols or Caesars can come to dominate our churches, and how we can subvert them before a watching world.
Holy Subversion a great book to read alone, but it would also be useful for groups to work through as well. It’s a good compliment to Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods. I highly recommend it.
More from Amazon.com | Crossway | TrevinWax.com
