In the winter of 2001, I was a sophomore at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.

In the previous year as a freshman, I got involved with this ministry called Campus Outreach,

and it's Reformed theology, which I did not grow up with.

Growing up, I heard talk about God being sovereign, but what I never lingered over was the

extent of God's sovereignty, that He was sovereign over all, over good and over evil, over

angels and over demons,

over beautiful sunny days,

and natural disasters,

over my good deeds and over my sin,

and then most uncomfortable of all,

over my own will and my choices.

But I believe the Bible, and so once I saw the verses and were dozens of them if not

hundreds I couldn't deny that the Bible taught God was sovereign over all, absolutely sovereign, no exceptions.

But what I also knew from two decades of human life at that point and from dozens, if not hundreds of Bible texts is that I was accountable.

I had thoughts and feelings. I had a will and I made real decisions that mattered and had consequences.

So how do you reconcile these two things?

Not just how you reconcile my experience and the Bible texts, but how do you reconcile Bible texts about God's sovereignty with

Bible texts about my accountability?

So that winter, 2001, had a campus outreach conference in Atlanta and this

pastor from Minnesota came to speak at the conference.

His name was John Piper.

Really enjoyed his preaching.

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