Why I appreciate Sam Storms…

A reader of this blog inquired about my frequent references to Sam Storms.  Sometimes an individual or ministry resonates greatly with me.  Both the person of Sam Storms and his ministry – Enjoying God – are encouragements to my soul.  What makes Sam so unique is that by his own admission, he is a mix of theology and practice that haven’t traditionally gone together too well in the past.  As he puts it, he is a Charasmatic Calvinist.  He has even written a book on the subject entitled Convergence:  Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist.  I have read parts of the book but have listened to the seminar he did on the same topic at Bethlehem Baptist several times.  I greatly appreciate his irenic and biblical disposition when it comes to speaking to the divergent camps.

As Sam mentions on his website: 

One doesn’t often hear of someone defending the centrality of Scripture and the sovereignty of God, on the one hand, and the importance of the spiritual gift of prophecy and the affections of the heart, on the other. Sam unashamedly embraces both and demonstrates from Scripture and his own spiritual journey how their convergence is essential for Christian living today.

Over the past several years, I have moved from being a cessassionist to believing that the gifts are still for today and that it is not at all wrong to want to be biblical and fulfill the desire of Paul who states in I Corinthians 14.1:

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (ESV)

I can’t say that the Holy Spirit has permitted me to speak in tongues, prophesy, or even know something about someone that had been concealed.  But I have been around enough Christians to know that these kinds of things are still happening today.  I do believe that a God supernaturally involved in the lives of believers and using supernatural gifts (even the “extraordinary” ones) to accomplish His purposes in His people is the biblical model and find it tragic that many believers have come to the conclusion that God simply can’t and won’t work that way in the life of the church today. 

I am a firm believer in the sufficiency of Scripture as well as its inerrancy and inspiration but believe that there is a misunderstanding amongst some believers when they say that because the Scriptures are sufficient that God will never speak and communicate with His people through immediate means.  At the root, I think this diminishes the kind of relationship we can have with God.  I also think it weakens the biblical expressions where the soul is said to experience God.  I talked about this in a previous post.   Of all the people who should believe in the ongoing expression of all the gifts, I believe theologically and biblically it ought to be Calvinists.  This is in part because the keystone doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the fact that all that happens and transpires in this world is due to His providential hand moving mightily through the Spirit to accomplish His purposes. 

In Sam Storms, I have found a guide, a mentor to help me better understand the convergence of Word and Spirit. (I could mention other individuals as well).  I find him to be very balanced, extremely biblical, and he works very diligently not only to embrace sound doctrine but to reveal how sound doctrine informs sound practice.  I’m not saying that Dr. Storms is infallible, just that of all the people I read or listen to, he consistently makes much of God while distilling the truth whether one side or the other agrees entirely. 

I would heartily recommend some books of his that I have read.  Convergence I have already mentioned.  I would also include Chosen For Life (one of best treatments on election I have read), One Thing: Developing a Passion for the Beauty of God (my favorite of his books), and Signs of the Spirit (a great treatment of J. Edwards’ classic, The Religious Affections.)

My own spiritual journey is just that… a long trip in which God has brought people and circumstances into my life to challenge me, rebuke me, remind me that His purposes are greater than my own.  I even have found that like Jacob, I have been wrestling with God, and He has graciously set my hip out of joint so that He could get me to stop struggling and rest in Him.  I am over 40 years old now.  I want to increasingly find that my life is a movement from independence to dependence on Jesus… that I am growing more and more to understand what it means to serve a Sovereign God… that in my every day life I am expecting God to show up and use me as He sees fit… that even though I am not where I thought I would be at 40 (nor doing what I thought I would be doing) that I can be o.k. with that because God has worked to get me to this point…

So, I appreciate Sam Storms because he seems to care more about what God thinks of him rather than what others think of him.  I’m sure he has his days where he’d rather not relive them – but overall, I think he lives in light of the fact that a relationship with God is irresistibly pleasurable and because of that Sam is “devoted to the pleasure of reveling in Him and all He has done.”  

May Sam’s pleasure in the Lord increase greatly!

Tributes of Thanks

I had a chance to watch some of the Football Hall of Fame enshrinement on Saturday evening.  The Class of 2008 included Fred Dean, Darrell Green, Art Monk, Emmitt Thomas, Andre Tippett, and Gary Zimmerman.  As I watched I was struck by the fact that to a man, these great ballplayers, while physically gifted, never considered their success to be an individual accomplishment.  As a matter of fact, the three speeches I did hear were basically tributes to family, friends, and teammates who helped them to become the players they had become.  And the two words from these speeches that stick out the most in my mind are simply:  “Thank you.”

There were thank yous to coaches and owners, teachers and mentors, parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, grandchildren, cousins, fans, friends, and spouses.  Thank you after thank you went out to people who either gave them a hand up, a shoulder to stand on (maybe even to cry on), or perhaps a much needed, kick in the pants.  For the most part, these men had the necessary physical assetts, but there are many players who have great talents and never amount to much…  These men not only succeeded (I would submit that anyone who makes it to the pro level in a sport has succeeded at their trade) but became “great” (isn’t that part of the definition of a Hall of Famer?  someone who was “great” at their position?) And they did so because they had people who loved, encouraged, touched, and buoyed them when no one else would.  At the end of the day, the only fitting tribute to give to someone like that is a word that wells up from the heart… “Thank you.” 

In some small way, this blog is supposed to point people to the fame of the God who is worthy of praise.  As I listened to these speeches, I found myself thinking that my journey toward God is also really nothing short of a journey of thanks.  Some of the Hall of Famers talked of improbable odds.  I’m no Hall of Famer (in any category), but as a sinner (Rom. 3.23) and one time enemy of God (Eph. 2.3), it is only fitting for me to speak of impossible odds.  The Bible is clear that without faith, it is impossible for me to please God (Heb. 11.6).  The Bible is clear that without being radically tied into Jesus, it is impossible to have a life that produces a Jesus kind of fruit (John 15.4-8).  The Bible is clear that left to myself, it is impossible for me to chose Jesus or even seek after Him (Romans 3.10-12; Ephesians 2.1).  The Bible is clear that without the Spirit, it is impossible for me to comprehend the plan (wisdom) of God (I Cor. 2.7, 14).

That’s why I am so thankful for a God who specializes in the impossible.  The Bible is clear that with man these kinds of things are impossible, but “with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19.26).  My life was faithless but Ephesians 2.8 tells me that faith is the gift of God and I have it now.  I was like a branch severed from the life giving vine of Jesus but Colossians 3.4 tells me that now, Christ is my life.  I wasn’t even looking for God, but Ephesians 1.4 tells me that God was looking for me and chose me before the foundation of the world and now I am His.  I was blinded by Satan who was keeping me from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, but God said, “Let light shine out of darkness,’ and He has shone into my heart to give me the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4.6). 

When I let the weight of the glory of these statements press down on me, I find myself with a thesaurus of words to appeal to, but capable of using only two that really captures what my heart truly wants to say… “Thank you.”