Scripture is hard to accept

I struggled for a long time with the Spirit-filled words of Romans 9:14-24:

'What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”

Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?'

After lots of wrestling and struggling with God I had to accept these words. I can't ignore it or call it obscure and without relevant meaning. If you believe this paragraph of the Bible you will start to expereince God as bigger and more precious than you ever imagined.

One of the best books on the Sovereignty of God by A W Pink: Buy, read online.
Scriptures proving the Sovereignty of God here.
A simple definition of the Sovereignty of God here.
Piper resources on the Sovereignty of God here.

Creative Calvinism

Visual learners love diagrams. Take a look at this one I found on reformationtheology.com

Nice isn't it? I'm a firm believer in the doctrines of grace. Sometimes the TULIP is known as 'Calvinism'. This makes me a little annoyed. Mainly because I don't believe that Calvin (even though he was a good Bible teacher) should get the credit for what is clearly taught in scripture. As a result of Calvin being so closely linked with 'Calvinism' people think that he was a guy who ranted on about election and the sovereignty of God all the time. Mike Reeves states (in a series of mp3's on Calvin's book 'The Institutes of Christian Religion') that there is very little in the institutes on election. Instead Calvin's main purpose of writing the book was to attack the heresy of the Catholic Church. MP3's available here. They're very good. Well worth a listen.

As you can see the diagram shows that all of the doctrines point to God's love and glory. With this said some people are angry Calvinists. Boo to them. They make Calvinism their all in all. Calvinism isn't Jesus, we can't worship it! We have to enjoy doctrine but not make it our God. We must fight for truth but not at the expense of love. We fight for truth with love as the primary motivation-love for God and people.

It's easy to let doctrine make us proud (1 Cor 8v1) that's why we need humble orthodoxy. A dedication to guarding, preserving, and fighting for clear objective truth. And a humility that constantly explains the message as people who are rescued not just 'right'...

...I got that last line from Josh Harris. It's not my own!