I count it a privilege to have studied systematic theology under Bruce Ware at Southern Seminary.  At Mars Hill Church in 2007, Ware gave three talks on the subject of the providence of God. (HT: Justin Taylor).   The first talk discusses two views, those of Process Theism and Open Theism, the second that of Arminianism, and the third the view of Reformed Theology (or Calvinism).

Session 1: Uncertain Hands of God and Men: Providence in Process Thought and Open Theism – Bruce Ware

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• PDF Handout

Session 2: Independent Hands of God and Men: Providence in Classic Arminianism – Bruce Ware

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• PDF Handout

Session 3: Coordinated Hands of God and Men: Providence in the Reformed Tradition – Bruce Ware

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• PDF Handout

I liked this. It was simple: Doxoblogy: TULIP For Dummies

Hey, who is he calling a dummy?

There are things you should know before becoming a Calvinist (hat tip: Rick Ritchie): The Mechanical Contrivium: Trivia about Calvinism

Michael Haykin has a wonderful post “Puritan Balance About Coming to Christ” in which he shares an insight from John Flavel on how God accomplishes his salvific will without obliterating man’s personality:

Coming to Christ shows the voluntariness of the soul in its motion to Christ. True, there is no coming without the Father’s drawing; but that drawing has nothing of compulsion in it; it does not destroy, but powerfully and with an overcoming sweetness persuades the will. It is not forced or driven, but it comes; being made willing in the day of God’s power. Psalm 110:3. [The Method of Grace (New York: American Tract Society, n.d.), 201].

This makes me want to read Flavel for myself. Which, I am sure, is exactly what Haykin intends.