I really am reformed. Really really. However, I never went out of my way to become reformed. I'm just kind of bad at understanding the Bible as it is 2000(+/-) years old, so full of customs and people I just don't get as a 20th century woman. (I know it's the 21st century now, but I grew up on the 20th century, and don't want to plunge fully into this century yet. lol) So I read from trusted scholars. (I call them my Dead Guys.) And, trust comes with age, and these books have stand the test of age, and sure enough, they're mostly reformed.
Reformed isn't a new diet fade. It's just a systematic way of seeing the whole Bible as one book about God without constantly getting tripped up because Joshua went off and said "choose this day" and Paul tells us that God chose to love Jacob and hated Esau. What gives with who is choosing whom? Reformed simply puts it all together.
I fear you're going at this as if you've decided to get rid of your old wardrobe and feel a need to pick out new wardrobe. But it's not about wardrobe. It's not what do we look like. It's who is God and what does he want?
You showed up in the parking lot of an adult bookstore. Good for you. I've been lost and showed up in the parking lot of a strip bar. It gets funnier than that. lol No big deal, we were simply driving somewhere we didn't particularly mean to go. Going in would have been a problem. (My problem would have been learning how many shades of red I can become. lol)
That said, if you want our basics, how about a nice catechism or two? Westminster's Catechism. Copy paste those words into Google and you get to decide if you want the shorter one or longer one. lol)
Or how about our confessions? Westminster Confession of Faith. <---PDF version. There are non-PDFs if you rather not do the PDF thing.
And if you want Foundation in don't-need-to-be-brilliant-to-understand mode, try Foundations of the Christian Faith by Boise. (I can understand him. I can't understand Calvin.)
But really, we don't get nervous over trying to turn around in a parking lot. That just comes under the usual whoopsie of getting lost in the car. You don't have to become one of us. It's not like a new wardrobe. It usually happens before the person even realize it is happening, simply because we're studying God's word with help from Dead Guys.
Our change started with a philosopher, not a Bible scholar. (Well, he was both, but he was really a Christian philosopher.) His name was Francis Schaeffer. Long way from catechisms and confessions.
Reformed isn't a new diet fade. It's just a systematic way of seeing the whole Bible as one book about God without constantly getting tripped up because Joshua went off and said "choose this day" and Paul tells us that God chose to love Jacob and hated Esau. What gives with who is choosing whom? Reformed simply puts it all together.
I fear you're going at this as if you've decided to get rid of your old wardrobe and feel a need to pick out new wardrobe. But it's not about wardrobe. It's not what do we look like. It's who is God and what does he want?
You showed up in the parking lot of an adult bookstore. Good for you. I've been lost and showed up in the parking lot of a strip bar. It gets funnier than that. lol No big deal, we were simply driving somewhere we didn't particularly mean to go. Going in would have been a problem. (My problem would have been learning how many shades of red I can become. lol)
That said, if you want our basics, how about a nice catechism or two? Westminster's Catechism. Copy paste those words into Google and you get to decide if you want the shorter one or longer one. lol)
Or how about our confessions? Westminster Confession of Faith. <---PDF version. There are non-PDFs if you rather not do the PDF thing.
And if you want Foundation in don't-need-to-be-brilliant-to-understand mode, try Foundations of the Christian Faith by Boise. (I can understand him. I can't understand Calvin.)
But really, we don't get nervous over trying to turn around in a parking lot. That just comes under the usual whoopsie of getting lost in the car. You don't have to become one of us. It's not like a new wardrobe. It usually happens before the person even realize it is happening, simply because we're studying God's word with help from Dead Guys.
Our change started with a philosopher, not a Bible scholar. (Well, he was both, but he was really a Christian philosopher.) His name was Francis Schaeffer. Long way from catechisms and confessions.