one of my rarer theological glimmers
onto my real reason for posting today: because i'm a thinker, not a stinker. really, i've been tossing some stuff around in my head that's just bound to confuse and baffle me to death. juggling around the idea of free will and how it comes and goes, plus looking at the positions i take in regard to my own beliefs, i've been examining my "hypo-calvinist" leanings to see where they fall short. my most recent train of thought, prompted (as always) by a listen to one of many caedmon's call cds: ok, so grace is a gift from God, right? and faith is a gift from God, right? according to the tenets of hardcore calvinism, grace and faith are absolutely unattainable through any merits or attempts on our own part; they are 100%, no way around it, His gift to whosoever He chooses to give them to.
next: faith comes in different proportions, measures, amounts, etc., right?
my train wreck: looking at the account of Jesus' admonishment toward His disciples in matthew 8 ("ye of little faith"...), doesn't it kind of seem odd that if God is the one who gives us our faith, and Jesus is God, that Jesus scolds the poor fellas for having little faith if what little faith they had came from God? it seems almost like if my dad gave me scissors to cut the front lawn, then came out to check on me 5 minutes later and said, "son, why haven't you got the yard done yet?," and then i'm like, "dude, dad, you gave me scissors, what do you expect, man?!"
i'm not on the edge of some revolution or anything, i'm just coming up with some weird questions lately. i can't help that the Word of God itches my mind so.
just some thoughts. and yes, john piper is still my hero, even though my girlfriend hates when he yells (i'm not big on screaming preachers either, except for once when brian burkett screamed and didn't even know it. that was some good screamin').
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