Blogging, Reforming, and Baseball

I have become very interested in the phenomenon of blogging and at the prompting of friends (especially G-Funk @ gdeakin.blogspot.com) have decided to throw in my two cents worth. Although I have long be disgusted with many forms of internet communication, i.e. instant messenger, myspace, etc., I have found that blogging provides an excellent format for people to express ideas and engage in meaningful conversation without the ridiculous fractured thoughts or blatant self-advertisement that other venues seem to encourage. It is promoting more people to express themselves through the written word as well as to keep a record of their daily lives and thoughts, both practices that I'm sure most would agree have become all to uncommon.

My hope for starting this blog will be that it will help me foster some of these positive habits and perhaps be a starting point for some constructive dialogue. My passions are first and foremost focused on the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the church that He has established and continues to build through the promptings of his Holy Spirit. I have come to believe that the most faithful way to express this devotion and to better understand the ways of God in light of Holy Scripture is through the Reformed Tradition. The truths of Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, and Soli Deo Gloria, the Doctrines of Grace as expressed through TULIP (the five points of Calvinism), the understanding that salvation is received by grace through faith on the account of Christ alone, and the proper understanding of God's Word as comprised of Law and of Gospel, are truths that have truly transformed the church at one point in history, and certainly can do the same again. However, these wonderful doctrines will fall on deaf ears if the Church does not have a powerful encounter with person of the Holy Spirit and the gifts which he brings.

It may sound silly, but in some way I believe that blogging may have a part in this. As Christians from every tradition and background come into greater communication with each other, there is room for a better understanding of what Christ is doing throughout His body. We can see truths that others may have latched onto that our particular tradition has lacked. We can learn from each other and correct each other as we begin to see the vast and various things that God is doing in His kingdom. Hopefully, we will be humbled, but we will surely be surprised. One way we may be surprised is to see the way that the Holy Spirit uses blogs and other internet formats to aid in bringing about the visible unity of Christ's Church. Who knows? But enough with these grandiose ideas. I'm simply going to try to be faithful to continuing posting (at least on a semi-regular basis). My posts will include thoughts on books I'm currently reading, the Church, theological and philosophical topics in general, and probably the occasional rant about the current condition of the injury plagued yet still winningest team in the Major Leagues, the St. Louis Cardinals.