Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

John MacArthur on Died-and-went-to-heaven-and-back Books

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heavenJohn MacArthur. The Glory of Heaven: The Truth about Heaven, Angels, and Eternal Life; With New Material Addressing the Current Debate and Issues. 2nd ed. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013.

One of the most talked-about books of 2011 was Heaven Is for Real, by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. The book recounts four-year-old Colton Burpo’s vision of heaven (as told by his father to Ms. Vincent). Colton claims he visited heaven during surgery a!er a burst appendix nearly took his life. His stories of heaven are full of fanciful features and peculiar details that bear all the earmarks of a child’s vivid imagination. There’s nothing transcendent or even particularly enlightening about Colton’s description of heaven. In fact, it is completely devoid of the breathtaking glory featured in every biblical description of the heavenly realm. That doesn’t deter Todd Burpo from singling out selective phrases and proof texts from Scripture, citing them as if they authenticated his son’s account. (p. 14) [Read more…] about John MacArthur on Died-and-went-to-heaven-and-back Books

How I Set Up My Desks: One for Sitting, One for Walking

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Updated on January 27, 2016

I spend most of my waking hours working on my computer. I do a lot of reading, research, writing, editing, emailing, and planning. And I do most of that at a desk.

I’ve customized my desk setup for what I do. Of course, this isn’t how everyone else should set up their desks, but my setup may give you some ideas for how to customize your desk for what you do.

My Desk for Sitting

Here’s my desk setup:

desk1

Perman_deskI had not given much thought to organizing my desk until Matt Perman published a series of blog posts on it in 2009. Matt recently revised and expanded his series into a handy little book: How to Set Up Your Desk: A Guide to Fixing a (Surprisingly) Overlooked Productivity Problem. Here’s my endorsement:

Matt Perman has served me so well in applying a Steve Jobs-like approach to my workflow: simple, intuitive, elegant, and efficient. I’ve followed most of his advice about setting up my desk (as well as processing my email), and it works beautifully.

Here are five components to my setup: [Read more…] about How I Set Up My Desks: One for Sitting, One for Walking

Be More Specific Than “Points” or “Things”

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McDill

Speakers and writers often say something like this: “My sermon has three points” or “I’d like to share four things.”

This book taught me not to do that:

Wayne McDill. 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching. 2nd ed. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006.

I took my first homiletics courses in college in the 1999–2000 school year, and the first edition of this book was one of my main textbooks.

That book has served me well over the last fifteen years. It taught me to use language precisely. [Read more…] about Be More Specific Than “Points” or “Things”

A Dramatic Reading of The Pilgrim’s Progress for Kids

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Charles Spurgeon read John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress over one hundred times. Many Christians today haven’t read it even once. That’s a tragedy!

The Pilgrim’s Progress is a favorite story at our home, and we’ve used several good resources for our children. We’re delighted to add one more: a dramatic reading for kids. This abridged reading is 1 hour and 44 minutes. Our kids love it.

Bunyan

(This abridgment, which J. I. Packer endorses, has corresponding curriculum that becomes available this month. I haven’t seen it, but I suspect that it’s good.)

Grudem: 5 Wrong Questions to Ask When Drawing Doctrinal Boundaries

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boundsWayne Grudem, “Why, When, and for What Should We Draw New Boundaries?” in Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity [free PDF] (ed. John Piper, Justin Taylor, and Paul Kjoss Helseth; Wheaton: Crossway, 2003), 369 (numbering added):

Some wrong questions to ask

It is important to add that there are some questions that should not be part of our consideration in deciding which doctrinal matters to exclude with new boundaries. These are questions such as the following:

    1. Are the advocates my friends?
    2. Are they nice people?
    3. Will we lose money or members if we exclude them?
    4. Will the academic community criticize us as being too narrow-minded?
    5. Will someone take us to court over this?

Such questions are all grounded in a wrongful fear of man, not in a fear of God and trust in God.