Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Five Conclusions about Material Possessions

by

Here’s how D. A. Carson introduces Craig L. Blomberg‘s Neither Poverty Nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions (ed. D. A. Carson; New Studies in Biblical Theology 7; Downers Grove: IVP, 2001) in the series preface (p. 9):

Dr Blomberg’s volume is an extraordinary achievement. With remarkable compression, this book not only guides the reader through almost all the biblical passages that have a bearing on poverty and wealth, but weaves the exegesis into a biblical theology that is simultaneously faithful to the historic texts and pastorally sensitive to the immense issues facing today’s church. Dr Blomberg cannot simplistically condemn wealth: he has learned from Abraham, Job and Philemon. Nor can he exonerate acquisitiveness: he has learned from Amos, Jesus and James. The result is a book that is, quite frankly, the best one on the subject. It will not make its readers comfortable, but neither will it make them feel manipulated. Read it and pass it on.

[Read more…] about Five Conclusions about Material Possessions

Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid

by

That’s the thesis of Randy Alcorn‘s The Purity Principle: God’s Safeguards for Life’s Dangerous Trails (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2003).

I read through this little 94-page volume in one sitting this evening. It’s outstanding. Alcorn’s approach to the issue of purity is biblically informed, sobering, wise, refreshing, and motivating.

Related: Alcorn lists the following resources on his website:

  1. The Purity Principle Study Guide
  2. articles on sexual purity: page 1 | page 2
  3. Alcorn’s MP3s, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentation on sexual purity
  4. Guidelines for sexual purity (Alcorn originally prepared this for his daughters.)
  5. Links to resources for sexual purity
  6. Selected Scriptures related to sexual purity

Two Piper Illustrations

by

Two illustrations from John Piper‘s four-part series on Ruth (September 2008) are noteworthy:

1. Don’t plan your life.

In part 2, Piper gives a six-minute autobiographical sketch (10:20–16:45 in the MP3). It includes how he met his wife, went to seminary, and became a professor and then a pastor. The author of Don’t Waste Your Life here underscores another theme: Don’t plan your life because God already has! One could add qualifications to this (e.g., don’t inflexibly plan your life), but I think the main point is sound. (Indeed, Piper qualifies this in part 3.)

2. Learn to see the hidden hand of God when it looks like he is dealing you bitterness day after day.

In part 3, Piper recounts in 4.5-minutes (2:20-6:50) a dark cloud in the pilgrimage of Bethlehem Baptist Church. In 1993, Piper heard a romantic recorded message from one of the BBC staff members to another on staff. After a “hellish” six weeks, the male staff member finally confessed to seven years of adultery. The upshot was that 230 people left the church, which merely survived and didn’t grow for three years. “It was horrible, and the Lord’s hand was on us for good.”

Fireproof

by

Last night Jenni and I watched the film Fireproof, which came out on DVD this week. I was intrigued for at least two reasons: nearly every review I’ve read has been positive, and a wholesome movie with a $500,000 budget has already grossed about $33.5 million!

We weren’t disappointed. Rather, we were surprised how well done and edifying the movie is. Highly recommended, especially for married couples.

One of the best lines illustrates how counter-cultural this film is: “Don’t just follow your heart. You gotta lead your heart.” That’s one reason I think that this film is great for singles to watch, too. So many other films (starting with Disney “classics”!) promote exactly the wrong message (i.e., a self-serving, follow-your-heart, do-whatever-you-think-will-gratify-you approach).

About

  1. official site (includes more videos, pics, resources)
  2. Wikipedia
  3. Kirk Cameron: “I’ll only kiss my wife”
  4. trailer:

Reviews

  1. Phil Johnson (read this one first)
  2. Baptist Press
  3. Tim Challies
  4. Alex Chediak
  5. Christian Spotlight
  6. Christianity Today
  7. Joy McCarnan
  8. Plugged In
  9. James White

Abortion

by

I just listened to Justin Taylor’s Sunday morning sermon on abortion that he preached at his church on January 18, 2009. Three words come to mind:

  1. Sobering
  2. Convicting
  3. Motivating

After listening to Justin’s sermon, I have the kind of feeling that I might have felt if I could have watched Schindler’s List while living near Nazi concentration camps while WWII was still in progress. How can this unspeakably horrific evil legally be happening all around me? What am I doing about it?

Cf. these posts on abortion by Justin Taylor and John Piper this month:

Justin Taylor’s Recent Posts on Abortion

  1. Number of Abortions Since 1973
  2. How Support for Abortion Became Kennedy Dogma
  3. Conversation on the Gospel, Abortion, and Politics
  4. World Magazine on Abortion
  5. On Abortion and Gay Rights, Evangelicals and Liberals Join to Advise Obama
  6. Why I Hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
  7. An Open Letter to Barack Obama
  8. Life
  9. A Sermon on Abortion
  10. Roe No More
  11. One Simple, Practical Way You Can Make a Difference for Women and the Unborn
  12. The Case for Life, Around the Web
  13. Four Reasons You Might Be Aborted
  14. Abortion and the Early Church
  15. Moral Accountability
  16. Abortion and Obama’s First Few Days
  17. Amusing or Sad?
  18. Piper Responds to Obama on Abortion
  19. Being Pro-Life in a Culture of Death

John Piper’s Recent Posts on Abortion

  1. Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President
  2. Lincoln’s Logic on Slavery Applied to Abortion
  3. Holding A Miracle
  4. Fifteen Pro-Life Truths to Speak
  5. The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy

See also John Piper’s resources on abortion.

Tim Keller: Preaching to the Heart

by

On October 19, 2008, Tim Keller presented two lectures at Oak Hill College on “Preaching to the Heart”:

Here’s how Oak Hill College describes them:

Jonathan Edwards believed that the ultimate purpose of preaching is not only to make the truth clear, but also to make it real—affecting and life-changing. This is usually covered under the topic of “application”, though framing the subject in that way often results in a “tack-on” of practical advice after a dry, academic exposition.

How can we preach the text from first to last in a way that exalts Christ, changes heart motivations, produces wisdom and wonder, persuades the sceptical and results in real life change? In his two lectures, Tim Keller explores these challenges to the preacher.

Challenges for 21st-Century Preaching

by

I just noticed that the following article is available online:

D. A. Carson. “Challenges for 21st-Century Preaching.” Preaching 23:6 (May–June 2008): 20–24.

Introduction

I have visited many parts of the world in which the challenges to the 21st-century pulpit look rather different. So part of the purpose of the rest of this essay is modest: to stimulate thinking that will help others flesh out this list and modify it for different cultural locations.

Six challenges that DAC fleshes out

  1. Multiculturalism
  2. Rising Biblical Illiteracy
  3. Shifting Epistemology
  4. Integration
  5. Pace of Change
  6. Modeling and Mentoring

Concluding Reflections

Preachers cannot responsibly ignore these things, for they stand between the speaking God and the listening people—people who are not empty ciphers but culturally located men and women who must be addressed where they are, even if our hope and prayer is that they will not remain where they are, but begin by God’s grace the march down the King’s highway, the narrow road that leads to life.

Our motivation to understand and address people in the 21st century is not to domesticate the gospel by constant appeal to cultural analysis, but to prove effective ambassadors of the Sovereign whose Word we announce. For one day the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever (Rev. 11:15). It is precisely because we are anchored in eternity that we are so utterly resolved, like Paul, to address lost men and women who must one day meet their God.

Read the whole thing.

Look, Lord. See my shells.

by

John Piper‘s Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 2003) includes this convicting paragraph (pp. 45–46):

An American Tragedy: How Not to Finish Your One Life

I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.

(Don’t Waste Your Life and the study guide are available for free as PDFs.)

I just became aware of a related 32-page booklet:

John Piper. Rethinking Retirement: Finishing Life for the Glory of Christ. Wheaton: Crossway, 2009.

Rethinking Retirement is already available for free as a PDF. (I must have missed it when Desiring God highlighted this on October 7, 2008.)