Wednesday, April 11, 2007

It's Not My Fault That I'm A Christian!!!

I'm excited to announce to you that I am in the process of writing my first book that I hope to see published. I've toyed with the idea for a long time and have finally decided to take the leap. I have several idea's for books that I would like to write and I have mentioned some of them here before, but I have settled on a topic for my first book, and I have entitled it: "It's not my fault That I'm A Christian!!!"

I'm sure it will come as a shock to everyone, but I have decided to write on the topic of the gospel. It will include much of the material that I have used here dealing with God's sovereignty and His work of Salvation. I intend to expand upon some of the idea's that I have presented here through the various posts. I also plan to include a chapter on how we should view evangelism in the light of the doctrines of grace.

The book will be an apologetic defense of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and meant to challenge those who believe that we choose Christ and that salvation was made for all men rather than the elect. I hope the book will challenge evangelical Christians to rethink the gospel in the light of Scripture, and challenge unbelievers with who God is and how He saves.

The title of the book indicates the idea that I am not a Christian because I chose Jesus, but because Jesus chose me.

I appreciate your prayers as I undertake this endeavor.

In Him -Jacob

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa Pastor dude. I am indeed praying for you. You have taken up quite a task. I love the subject. I tell you once I understood the sovereignty of God and how salvation is all up to God evangelism took on a whole new course. It is freeing to know that someones salvation does not hinge on how convincing I am to another. It is God who does the work and He allows me to be the vessel to bring them the gospel.

May God's grace bring you the words to write, God's future grace.

risen_soul said...

I can't even begin to tell you the affect the doctrines of grace have had on my view of God and the gospel. It bothers me that I had never even heard of the doctrines of grace until about 2 years ago. All that time I spent in church and I never even knew that there might be more to the story. It's for that very reason that I want to reach this upcoming generation of Christians with these doctrines that revolutionize our perspective of Christ and His gospel. I appreciate your prayers, I really want to do a good job and be faithful to the word. My friend Pat Abendroth said he would be willing to read it and critique the book. He has his masters from the Masters Seminary where John MacArthur is president and is a sharp guy. I'll be glad to have someone like him read it and give me his thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Wow Jacob. We must be living some parallel lives. I had not heard of the doctrines of grace and the sovereignty of God until about 4 years ago. I grew up in a Christian home but didn't trust in Christ until I was 20. I sometimes regret all the years spent without the "new to me" knowledge of this doctrine. But it was my laziness for not seriously searching the scriptures that caused the wasted time. I have only gotten serious about theology in the last couple of years.

Do you have friends who you knew before your new found knowledge? Do some of them think you've jumped off the deep end? The reason I ask is it happened to me.

BTW, Pat Abendroth is my senior pastor. I love him and I also call him friend. It is indeed a small world.

risen_soul said...

Barry,

I have friends that though I jumped off the deep end years ago when I stopped being a charismatic. Nowdays, it's more family members than anything who seem to think I've gone a bit crazy.

You should read the comments in the very first post of this blog, I'm fairly certain I know who wrote those anonymous comments.

But luckily, I have gained stronger and new friendships over the last year or so with people who in love with God's word and truth and agree with me on varrying levels.

I sure enjoyed having your pastor here. He is a great man, and a worthy mentor for me to follow as he is for you as well I'm sure. It's a pleasure to have older brothers in the faith to look up to like Pat.