The Tulip Driven Life

A little perspective never hurt anyone. That's not true, but having no perspective except your own does nothing but hurt. What is perspective? It is a mental view or outlook, and I am convinced the more we can get outside of ourselves and see the world around us, the less our cultural bias will taint everything we think and feel and do. By seeing the world around us I mean attempting, as best we can, to understand other cultures, at the very least the ones that are pouring into the Great Melting Pot known as the United States. Certainly I refer to different ethnicities and subcultures even within each ethnicity, but beyond that, I also refer to those who are the "rich" of this nation, the "dirt poor," and everyone in between. The way to do this is simply by interacting with people from various ethnicities and backgrounds, cultures and climates. Or, read a book if you prefer. The important thing, however, is to grasp the underlying philosophy of those aroun...

I am listing these, not in order of most impacting or important, but chronologically. To say which was most important would be far too difficult, they have all been invaluable to me. 1.) THE Shocking Youth Message (Paul Washer)  I know several Calvinists who became Calvinists directly from this sermon preached by Paul Washer to 5,000 youth back in 2002. If sermons can be considered classics, this one will be when we look back 15 years from now and see young Calvinists teeming across America proclaiming the true gospel and denouncing the Charles Finney, Billy Graham decisionism that has plagued this nation for nearly two centuries. If you come out of the non-Calvinist, Baptist youth group setting like I did, and if you went to Christian school, this message will especially resonate with you. I had never heard preaching like this when I first heard it. I didn't know there was such a thing. It is an hour long, and I listened to it three times, back to back, i...

So, as many of you know by now, I got sunburnt on Thursday. I was at the beach with a bunch of friends swimming in the ocean, playing frisbee, and hanging out. I had no intention initially of swimming and figured I'd just keep my tank top on the whole time to avoid the sun, but a couple of friends decided to toss me into the ocean. At that point I decided taking the tank top off and swimming would be a good idea. I was having so much fun that I didn't really even think about applying sunscreen. I would have had to dry off (and I didn't bring a towel), then apply sunscreen, then wait twenty minutes for it to soak in, and then start playing again. After about an hour or so in the ocean I dried off a bit with a towel that someone graciously lent me and put my tank top back on. I sloppily applied some sunscreen on my shoulders, thinking that would suffice, but within about ten minutes we started a game of ultimate frisbee, and I couldn't really resist that and didn...

Reformation Bible College God’s Ignoble Gambit: How Free Will Destroys the Cross Doctrine of Christ By Thomas Booher Sanford, Florida May 2012             No matter how you dice it, the fall of man necessitated the death of Christ if God were to provide salvation. While the argument over the means of receiving salvation has often centered on free will versus election, most have opted to take some route through the Bible that has God allowing man to fall of his own free will, hoping to get God off the hook for the entrance of evil into humanity. If He creates man with the ability to choose obedience or disobedience, the choice itself is entirely up to man. This allegedly keeps God free of the charge of being an evil architect. Closer inspection will reveal that it is when God is not the first cause of evil’s existence that His goodness is lost. It i...