The Tulip Driven Life

This was originally posted at The Voice My journey to Calvinism is an unusual one. I went to a Presbyterian (PCA) church my whole life, went to a Christian school, and yet never learned the doctrines of grace. If they were taught to me at all as a child in my church, I do not remember. Once, as a senior in high school, I remember our new pastor talking about the five points of Calvinism. We went through them briefly, but for various reasons, including the lightness with which we studied the points and my own failure to see their importance and understand what was being taught, no real impact was left on me. ​ Evangelistic Methods Hit Rock Bottom A few months after that, my senior class went on what can best be described as a senior trip where we do some ministering to the locals in the Dominican Republic. We fed them some, played with them for an hour or so, sang silly songs, did a few silly skits, gave a testimony or two, and then gave an invitation for the ...

  Luke 9: 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, [ a ] and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. These words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ should not be taken lightly. The life of the Christian is one of spiritual warfare, denying ourselves and our sinful fleshly impulses for the sake of Christ and His righteousness. The way we do that, of course, is by the power of the Holy Spirit, for we cannot find the goodness to obey Christ and take up our cross in and of ourselves. This is why Christ took up the cross for us. We are simply following in His footsteps...