Sam Storms on Scripture and Affections

This excerpt by Sam Storms is from his book Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist.

"Hear me well. Just as certain as that rose will turn brown and brittle and lose its allure, so too will our souls if they are not deeply and securely rooted in the soil of Holy Scripture. We may flourish for a season, perhaps even impress people with the color of our spirituality or the fragrance of our good deeds and the tenderness of our love for others. But in the absence of a continual supply of truth and knowledge and devotion to cultivating a mind aflame with the revelation of who God is in Christ, we will become like a wilted rose. Affections such as joy and love and hope and peace are essential to true Christian living, the sort of living that honors and glorifies and exalts Jesus. But they cannot long survive if severed from the rich soil of truth and doctrine and ever-expanding understanding in the mind of the splendor and majesty of God." (Convergence, p234-5)

Summer of Sam

With the official start to summer just past and a fresh sunburn giving me a lesson in the consequences of negligent skin-protection choice, I decided to name this season the Summer of Sam.


If you have heard of the Summer of Sam before you are probably thinking of 1999 crime-drama directed by Spike Lee. I never saw the movie but wikipedia tells me it was based around the Son of Sam serial murders. That sounds very morbid and I deny any similarity between my Summer of Sam and the movie or the serial killings.

My Summer of Sam has to do with the pastor, theologian and author Sam Storms. If you don't already know about Sam Storms you can see his bio here which is at his ministry's website; Enjoying God Ministries. This is an excellent website with many profitable resources that Dr. Storms has made available to the public. I have come to appreciate Dr. Storms' teaching and writing through various mp3 downloads and the aforementioned resources at his site. I also highly recommend the audio downloads from the Clarus 09 conference that he and Ray Ortlund Jr. ministered at this past spring.

However, let's get on to why this will be the Summer of Sam. I have decided to read a large portion of Dr. Storms' books. Last winter I did a similar endeavour with another author; J. I. Packer. I bought 6 Packer titles and read them consecutively. I found it very enriching and edifying and so I thought I would try it again with a different author.


The three other bloggers at this site and myself had decided to read Storms' book Signs of the Spirit along with The religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards. Dr. Storms is a recognized Edwards-expert of sorts and Signs of the Spirit is something of a interpretation/introduction/companion to Edwards' classic work on religious affections.

That decision spurred me on to order 2 more Storms titles: Convergence and Chosen for Life. Convergence has some autobiographical material that I thought would be helpful for starting out. His journey from being a cessationist to a 'charismatic-Calvinist' will be fascinating and educational I'm sure. Chosen for Life is a book recommended by Desiring God ministries and that alone was recommendation enough for me.

I'm not sure what books of Dr. Storms I'll go to from there but I think that will be a good start to the Summer of Sam.