The Tulip Driven Life

By: Thomas Clayton Booher 2 Pet 1:3 A s His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue . Salvation is from sin. Since man fell, all of God’s work in relation to him has centered around the saving of the soul from sin. A. W. Pink may have been the one who popularized the tri-faceted nature of our salvation by describing it as deliverance from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. His observation serves to keep the whole matter of salvation in perspective. Often as a child, the preaching that I heard stressed only how God saves us from hell. Not from my pastor, Clayton Howard Gray, who was the greatest pulpit preacher I’ve ever heard. Such preaching did not come from him, but others. I remember one speaker at a youth camp located in Erie , Pennsylvania . He preached this way. Granted, there were several in our midst who were interns of George Junior Republic (we...

By: Thomas Fletcher Booher I have been a Calvinist for about four and a half years now. I grew up in a little PCA church, and have a Dad who graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Despite this, I wasn't reformed, because neither the church nor my Father taught me Calvinism. The Christian school I went to was not Calvinistic, it was your typical say a prayer to get saved type of Christian school. I was influenced by them, but got just enough from my church and Dad to know that was a suspicious way of evangelizing and discipling. In short, it wasn't until I heard a sermon by Paul Washer (The Shocking Youth Message) in my first semester of college that I became a Calvinist and specifically understood the issues of the Christian school that I graduated from. I was angry, righteously and probably somewhat unrighteously as well. I went on the charge on Facebook against the Christian school I went to from K-5 through high school. I talked with th...

By: Thomas Fletcher Booher I am privileged in so many ways. I have the privilege of studying books on theology and the Bible itself in a Bible college. Right now, studying the Bible and learning theology is my job. I have family and a wife who is helping provide food, shelter, and clothing. Yet even I, the one who believes he is called to be a pastor, doesn't read his Bible enough. Why is this? Well, it is because I, and most of us, don't put Bible study at the top of our priority list. What do we put ahead of that? Usually work. Why do we put work ahead of Bible study? For some it may be because they love their job more than their Bibles, but for most it is because they think if they don't make work the top priority they won't be able to provide for themselves and/or their families. After all, doesn't Paul say he who does not work shall not eat (2 Thess. 3:10)? Indeed, he does. But the question is not whether or not we should be working at all. Certainly,...