No, not the lovable team of freedom-fighters from the popular 1980’s TV series.

For the next month or so I’ll be writing posts for The A-Team Blog. If things go well, I should be posting twice or thrice a week, so make sure to check back often. I’ll probably still post here as well, but not as frequently.

Many thanks to Roger and Amy for inviting me! I’m really looking forward to it.

Check out the brief introduction that Roger wrote for me here.

Abraham Piper has written an excellent post on Desiring God’s blog about being a “kinder Calvinist.” He acknowledges that, regardless of how most Calvinists might actually be, or who they are “on the inside” so to speak, the majority of non-Calvinists percieve them as being arrogant, cold, and generally difficult people. What should a Calvinist’s response be to such a prevalent notion? Mr. Piper has some insightful answers.

Read the post here.

Despite what our culture would like us to believe, there exists a love far more powerful than simple romantic love.  In some ways, romantic love is the easiest love, but not the deepest, nor the truest.

So here it is, a concise definition of TRUE love, from a much older and wiser man than I:

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

– John 15:13

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

– 1 John 3:16

This is the love that moves the stars. 

So, I stumbled across a random blog tonight in which the author listed 10 reasons why he felt he should stop posting on a personal blog. In summary, his reasons boiled down to three things: (1) Accountability, (2) Pride and (3) Time.

(1) On a personal blog, you can just say whatever you want whenever you want. You can be quick to speak and slow listen. Whenever a random a thought hits you, you can immediately sit down at the computer and intellectually vomit without even thinking about what you’re saying. Although this author didn’t mention group blogging, I’m assuming that would be the solution he has in mind. When there are other people who also have their names associated with your blog, you will (hopefully) be less likely to say random things that could get your fellow bloggers in trouble, as far as their credibility goes. I was reminded recently that in the future, whether I’m applying for some sort of internship, a PhD program, or even a job, they will google my name and everything I’ve ever written on my blog will be right there for them to read.

(2) Let’s face it, we all think we have something of some importance to say, or we wouldn’t be blogging. No matter how humble we might feel at times, or how inadequate we might think we are, if we really didn’t believe that our thoughts were worth reading, in at least some way to someone, we wouldn’t post them on a public forum and tell all our friends. We also wouldn’t post links to our blog on myspace and facebook and then check every 5 minutes to see if someone commented (not that I personally know anyone who has ever done that or anything…). The author specifically mentioned that he felt his pride to be unwarranted. He was, after all, only a college student, and there are a lot smarter, more articulate writers out there that people should be reading. I just wrote something on the movie 300 that I (mostly) felt was (maybe) worth reading, but one of my friends wrote a much better, deeper review of the film. Why should I think anyone should read me?

(3) When you’re checking for those comments every 5 minutes, I think it’s pretty safe to call that a waste of time. Two things the author was concerned with were spending more time on schoolwork and spending more time with his wife, both of which rang true for me. I feel more and more inadequate the more I try to engage some of my peers in discussions on theology, philosophy and so on. Maybe if I spent more time reading and working on my own opinions before I tried arguing for them on my blog, I’d be able to argue for them much better than I can now. I might also get my work done in a more timely fashion and have more time to spend with my beautiful wife. Man, it sure sounds like I should give up blogging.

Well, here’s my take on it all (as I’m quick to speak, not thinking about my fellow bloggers and doing this instead of homework!): I’m technically part of a group blog now (although you wouldn’t know it, haha), and I’m not usually an offensive-sounding writer, so hopefully I don’t have to worry too much about that aspect. As for pride, I think I can honestly say that I’m writing on this blog more for my own benefit than anyone else, but at the same time I do think I occasionally have something worthwhile to say, and at the very least I’d like some feedback from my friends, even if it’s to tell me that my post sucked and I’m a bad writer! This also ties in with the third thing. Yeah, sure, I can spend all my time reading instead of blogging, but maybe I need to get my thoughts out in writing so that I actually can figure out my own views better and be able to better articulate them. Ok, I’ve convinced me, the blog stays.

But there’s still an important truth for everyone who’s reading this right now to walk away with, you really shouldn’t take me too seriously. I’m still a Junior in college. I want to talk about Reformed theology, but if you’re interested in that too you should really be reading Sproul. I really want to talk about Philosophy and apologetics, but you should really be reading Craig and Moreland. If I get my PhD at Oxford someday and I write a book that sells more than 30 copies (all of which will have probably been purchased by my mother) then maybe my blog would deserve serious attention. Until then, just consider your reading and commenting on my blog as doing me a favor, helping me to grow, and showing a little Christian patience when I become too big for my britches.