Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Why You Should Not Be Dogmatic about All of Your Convictions: Lloyd-Jones on Silk Stockings, Baths, Radios, and More

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David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the greatest English preachers of the twentieth century, and I esteem him highly.

But when he was 24 years old, he shared some convictions (i.e., firmly held opinions) in March 1924 in a way that I suspect he later regretted. This is instructive for the rest of us.

New Dispatches from the Front DVD: The Power of His Rising

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The newest film in the Dispatches from the Front series is episode 6: The Power of His Rising .

Trailer:

I love these DVDs because they widen my limited perspective on how God is working right now in other places in the world.

My family watched episode 6 a few weeks ago and loved it. It focuses on how a Christian family from South Carolina is spreading the gospel in a “closed” country in South Asia, gaining access with their business skills to operate an excellent coffee shop. Ingenious. [Read more…] about New Dispatches from the Front DVD: The Power of His Rising

Administration : Faculty :: Shaft : Tip of the Spear

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abellIn a recent chapel message at Bethlehem College & Seminary, Jason Abell explains why administration is important.

Jason is BCS’s Vice President for Administration. I am so encouraged by this message and by the interaction I’ve had with Jason and others at BCS. (I’m eager to join the team in several months.)

I’ve witnessed some situations where the relationship between a school’s faculty and administration is unhealthy. Not good.

Jason closes with a provocative analogy that I hadn’t heard someone (let alone an administrator) apply to administration and faculty before:

administration : faculty :: shaft : tip of the spear

That is, [Read more…] about Administration : Faculty :: Shaft : Tip of the Spear

Don Whitney: How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian?

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Perhaps this book has flown under your radar. I just read it for the first time last month shortly after learning about it, and I’m surprised that I don’t recall hearing others recommend it before.

Donald S. Whitney. How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian? What the Bible Says about Assurance of Salvation. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1994. 153 pp.

Here’s an extended outline of the book (not including the application questions at the end of each chapter): [Read more…] about Don Whitney: How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian?

Follow-up on That Encouraging Word for Mothers of Young Children

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Last week I posted “An Encouraging Word for Mothers of Young Children.”

It generated some friendly push-back in the comments as well as on some other blogs (e.g., Jim Hamilton’s wife, Jill, responds here).

I agree with Jill.

But I wonder if some who read those quotes by Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Don Carson may be missing the main (encouraging!) point: mothers with young children generally have less time for the type of Bible reading and study than they would have without young children. And that’s OK because God’s calling of wife and motherhood is high. That’s an encouraging thought, especially to mothers who are frustrated and/or bear a weight of unnecessary guilt. Those are the types of mothers of young children that this should encourage. [Read more…] about Follow-up on That Encouraging Word for Mothers of Young Children

An Encouraging Word for Mothers of Young Children

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Martyn Lloyd-Jones once spoke with a group of medical students who complained that in the midst of their training and the ferocious work hours they really didn’t even have time to read the Bible and have their devotions and so on. He bristled and said, “I am a doctor. I have been where you are. You have time for what you want to do.” After a long pause he said, “I make only one exception: the mother of preschool-aged children does not have time and emotional resources.” [Read more…] about An Encouraging Word for Mothers of Young Children

Don Carson on Assurance of Salvation

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Six resources by D. A. Carson on assurance of salvation (all available from TGC as PDFs or MP3s):

  1. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, Letters Along the Way: A Novel of the Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 1993), 15–25 (letters 2 and 3).
  2. D. A. Carson, “Johannine Perspectives on the Doctrine of Assurance,” Explorations 10 (1996): 59–97.
  3. ———. “Reflections on Christian Assurance,” in Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace (ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 247–76.
  4. ———. “The Johannine Letters,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner; Downers Grove: IVP, 2000), 351–55.
  5. ———. “The SBJT Forum: Granted that there are spurious conversions in the Bible, what criteria help us to discern that a profession of faith is genuine?” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 5, no. 1 (2001): 78–81.
  6. ———. Five-part sermon series on 1 John.

Carson: The most painful things I’ve ever borne are betrayals by Christian friends

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Here’s how Don Carson recently replied to a question about suffering during a Q&A. (This is a lightly edited transcript from 13:37 to 14:40 in the audio file.)

  • We grew up in some of the suffering of French Canada.
  • I’ve had typhoid because I went to Africa and came within death’s door.
  • I’ve had two or three other diseases that have almost taken me out.
  • My wife’s had cancer that has almost taken her out. She didn’t expect to live to 50; she just turned 59.
  • But that’s part of the stuff of life, isn’t it? And if you’re a Christian leader, then sooner or later you go through situations in churches and relationships that are really tough. The most painful things I’ve ever borne are betrayals by Christian friends.

  • [Read more…] about Carson: The most painful things I’ve ever borne are betrayals by Christian friends