Calvin and Hobbs, er Armenian?

So...I was forwarded a blog last week and I had to create reply. I wasn't sure anyone read it, and it makes no sense here, without the context but here it is anyway...

If you wish to see the original blog go here...
Johnny Hunt 4 Prez


I stumbled upon this blog (and question how many have done the same...for fear that this may be too public a forum for those outside the faith and those who are young in the faith to resolve as healthy discourse).

I am not a seminary student/alum (and this blog may have ruined it for me), but attend (er, have my "membership") a SBC church in Georgia (perhaps my church could be called a mega church in recession, in the process of dyeing or being reborn depending on the offering that sunday) but not Woodstock FBC. BUT, I have all but given up on the SBC church as an over-governed corporation and not the bride it is called to be. I have no friend posting here and basically no ax to grind (yeah right). I have come to grips that I am not a 5 point Calvinist, but don’t place me neatly in your “Armenian” box either.

I heard my first sermon from Caner last month (in fact, I heard two but I found them to be quite the same) and respect him as a teacher who reaches some who need to hear Christ thru his method. (Which is just another way of saying Caner’s teaching style is not the style I prefer). But, I will dare not judge his doctrine and I will not judge Johnny Hunt’s doctrine. (Contrast that to the prosperity preacher of the moment, who I publicly decry for lack of orthodoxy).

I do not know Johnny Hunt personally, but the line of questioning that he does not know 100, or even 10 in his flock and does not knock on the doors of his neighbors and community…for shame!

My ax grinds here…do not think that a “mega church” cannot be any more relevant, or “healthy” or local, as is implied repeatedly in these posts, than a smaller congregation. Spirit bears witness and not the size.

There I said it (I bargain that this falls on deaf ears due to the number of posts).

To the posts with personal attacks on these men a warning, out of the same mouth blessing and cursing!

To those who are spurned to action, ACT!

There are too many wordsmiths, of which I am one; let us be doers also (yea, Lord change me)!

Soli Deo Gloria
Solo Christo
Sola Gratia
Sola Fide
Sola Scriptura

Open letter to a friend...

(this was a response to a very thoughtful letter from a friend seeking...)

Don’t be so hard on your self…you sound just like Paul (Romans 7:14-24)…



14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

We all struggle with what Paul calls our sin nature. I get so aggravated at church because people think that they are good because they go to church, but that is not what God says. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That doesn’t change because of going to church or even accepting Christ as your savior. We still are imperfect people.



The pastor who’s sermons I have been sending you, John Burke, has a book I just finished and in it he wrote that Jesus says he is the living water (John 4) and when we try on our own efforts to be follow the rules (morally) we get spiritually dehydrated. Only God can make changes that stick and have value, this is a mystery that most Christians don’t get. What John Burke says we can do is “intentional practices” which is reading the bible and praying. And over time, God changes our desires to not want to do, to having the strength to avoid, to overcoming the struggles we have. It’s a journey and the most important thing is the direction we are headed (either toward a close relationship with God or away from God). But all of this is predicated by accepting Jesus as our savior (Who will save me from this body of death, praise God is it Jesus Christ).



I hope this isn’t too heavy, but I got real excited a few weeks ago when I read this and something clicked. Because I want to want the right things but sometimes I think it would be nice to do what is wrong and I feel so ashamed about it. But the fact that I can’t change me, is a relief and weight off my shoulders. I anticipate the day that I can make all the right decisions and not because I made them but Christ in me.



I could go on…