FOUND Part V: Faith is Blind... and Other Lies About Christianity 2

Pastor Dan's sermon from 3/16/2008
Scripture Reference: Acts 16:16-40
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As I was greeting my brothers and sisters at the door this past Sunday some of you commented on how you were encouraged to hear about the different elements of faith (knowledge, conviction, and trust). The elements are part of our mind, heart and will. Some of you had never heard these distinctions before.

Do you know that young people used to carry around pocket sized versions of John Calvin's institutes when he was first publishing them? I wonder what has happened in the past 500 years that we need everything in a magazine form now. Reading will challenge you to think deeper and to grow stronger in your faith.

I want to encourage all of you to go deeper in your faith and to study theology to a much greater depth. Theology is simply the study of God and his relationship to us and the world. There are some great books I would like to recommend that will take you past the normal Christian Bookstore readings and into a much greater depth. Some of these include:

Summaries of Christian Doctrine by Louis Berkhof. This is a short book and summary of his larger works "Manual of Christian Doctrine and the even larger Systematic Theology. This Summaries book is a great start to studying theology.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. It is interesting to me that many Christians find this writing to be "too deep". The title explains how these are the basics. Still Lewis takes us into a deeper understanding of our faith.

The Gospel for Every Day Life by Jerry Bridges. This is a great book that takes theology and speaks in every day terms. You will study the how's and why's of the Gospel as Mr. Bridges leads you into the edges of the theology of salvation.

Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray. This is another incredible small work that packs so much into so few pages. You could read a chapter a day and be completely blessed for the entire day.

These are just a few books to get started with. I hope that you might take me up on this idea and go a little deeper into the sermon series by reading some of this material. In the mean time, the Lord keep you and bless you this week.

PD