Entries by Don Whitney

The Boys in the Boat

I recently finished The Boys in the Boat, and I enjoyed it from stem to stern. One part Seabiscuit, one part Unbroken, and one part Chariots of Fire, it’s the story of “Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.” In summary, it’s simply a good tale well told. The story […]

Interview with Justin Taylor about My Family Worship Book

You’re invited to watch as author, blogger, and Crossway Books president Justin Taylor interviews me about my Family Worship book. Timestamps 00:00 – What is your own personal history when it comes to family worship? 1:45 – Was family worship a regular part of your childhood? 2:56 – What have you found historically and biblically that […]

Why Every Christian Can Evangelize

Suppose an earthquake seriously damaged a high-rise building your were in. But a friend from that building who’d made it out safely called to check on you, and guided you to a stairwell in a particular corner of the building from which he had escaped. After emerging into the light and open air, you become concerned […]

Why Every Christian Can Evangelize, part 2

You can read the first part of this article here. In part one I asserted that if a person has understood the Gospel of Jesus Christ well enough to believe it savingly, then he or she should be able to communicate the Gospel to others. Obviously they can’t be expected to share the Gospel beyond their […]

The Christian Life Isn’t Meant to Be Effortless

When we’re born again from above by the Spirit of God, the Lord makes a “new creation” of us (2 Cor. 5:17). But when He accomplishes that radical, regenerating transformation of us, He does not eliminate our minds, our bodies, our emotions, our will or anything that’s a part of what makes us human. God’s grace doesn’t eliminate any […]

Read One Page Per Day

When life gets too complex, one of the first parts of a healthy spiritual life to decline is reading. I talk to well-intentioned Christians almost every week who confess to growing piles of books by their “reading” chair, desk, nightstand, and other places, but who never have time to read. Reading for sheer enjoyment was […]

A Collection of Tributes to Jerry Bridges

I did not know Jerry Bridges as well as those who wrote these tributes, though I wish I’d had that blessing. I was honored to speak at a couple of conferences with him. Other than a couple of letters or emails perhaps, this was the extent to which I knew him personally. But each time […]

Jonathan Edwards’s “Fast Days”

A “Fast Day” in Jonathan Edwards’s time was day designated by an individual, congregation, town, or colony as a day to engage in the biblical practice of fasting, that is, abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. Usually “the work of the day,” as Edwards put it in a Fast Day sermon, was “repentance and humiliation […]