Issue Number Twenty-Two

Book:
A God Entranced Vision of All Things

The Center for Biblical Spirituality announces the release of a new book edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, and it contains a chapter written by Don.

A God Entranced Vision of All Things is published by Crossway. Don's chapter is "Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards."

Other chapters are written by John Piper, Stephen J. Nichols, Noël Piper, J. I. Packer, Mark Dever, Sherard Burns, Paul Helm, Sam Storms, Mark Talbot, and Justin Taylor.

For more information, including ordering information, click here or order by phone: 800-405-3788.

Don's Schedule

Please pray for these ministry opportunities in February and March.

  • The Master's Seminary
    Sun Valley, CA
  • Crossroads Community Church
    Palm City, FL
  • Northwestern College
    Roseville, MN
  • First Baptist Church
    Pittsburg, TX
  • First Baptist Church
    Fort Mill, SC
  • Harrison Hills Baptist Church
    Lanesville, IN
  • Evangelical Theological Society Regional Meeting
    Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    Kansas City, MO
  • Kearney First Baptist Church
    Kearney, MO.

Sample Chapters Written
by Don Whitney

Do You Thirst for God?
from Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

Silence and Solitude
from Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

Why Join a Church?
from Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church

A Spiritual MindSet
from How Can I Be Sure I'm A Christian?

Rest for Your Souls
from Vanity & Meaning

Featuring Don's Book

Simplify Your Spiritual Life

Below is one of the chapters
from Don's book

Simplify Your Spiritual Life.

with Discussion Guide included.



This chapter is available as a pre-formatted bulletin insert. Click the Bulletin Inserts button at www.BiblicalSpirituality.org


Learn to Be Content with Christ

No one will satisfyingly simplify his spiritual life without developing contentment. Contentment is a Christian virtue that requires development, for it does not emerge fully-formed at conversion. Rather, as the apostle Paul's example reminds us, contentment is learned. "I have learned," he writes in Philippians 4:11, "in whatever state I am, to be content." And the source of his contentment "everywhere and in all things" (verse 12) was this: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (verse 13).

One of the ways Paul teaches us to learn contentment is to learn the true value of things. As we do, we'll learn that contentment cannot be based on them. That's how Paul learned to be content whether he was "full" and "abound[ing]" in material possessions, or whether he was "hungry" and "suffer[ing]" need" (verse 12).

But the main way Paul learned contentment was by learning the value of Christ.

Click here to finish reading this article.



Are You More Loving?

Jesus said that love is the clearest mark of a Christian. "A new commandment I give to you," He announced in John 13:34-35, "that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." If you are growing in your love for others—especially in your love for Christians—then you are growing as a Christian.

[Taken from page 41 of Don's book, Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. Find out more about this book here.]



Or order by phone: 800-405-3788





Give Praise to God

Earlier this year, Don contributed a chapter on "Private Worship" in a comprehensive and practical book on worship in memory of the late James Montgomery Boice. Give Praise to God is 515 pages with chapters from more than a dozen other writers including Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, Derek Thomas, Edmund Clowney, Mark Dever, Michael Horton and others.



Or order by phone: 800-405-3788


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Family News and Notes

Unlike many of you, here in Kansas City we've experienced a fairly typical winter. A handful of nights have dipped below zero. Snow has dusted the ground a few times; seven inches fell on one occasion, and amounts in between have accumulated on other winter days. I've worked by the woodstove for a few toasty evenings. (In fact, it's blazing away right now.) But between teaching two J-term classes last month, a mountain of papers to be graded earlier this month resulting from those January intensives, and dealing with the aftermath of the basement flood in late November, I've had far fewer opportunities to fire up the stove this winter than I'd hoped.

For the same reasons, I haven't published a newsletter in two months. We have simply been immersed in the basement flood-recovery process ever since the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Much of December focused on getting more than a hundred boxes of books, the shelves for those books, and other things moved to the garage. In mid-January the new carpet was installed. Since then we've been busy moving things bit-by-bit back down to the basement. Only this week did the hammering, mudding, and painting by the restoration workers cease.

Well, I won't bore you any more with those details. But that's been life at the Whitney hacienda. Suffice it to say that the past two months have not been the most leisurely in awhile. The worst part of the whole process has not been the material losses, but the disruption. Worst of all, the enormous writing project I needed to finish by the end of February has been further delayed. And basically I've written all the above to ask you this: please pray for an unusual outpouring of God's grace to enable me to complete this project and to do so as quickly as possible.

Caffy has started teaching "Personal Spiritual Disciplines" to the wives of twenty students at Midwestern Seminary. She really enjoys the interaction with them one night each week. This is in addition to the high school art class she teaches one afternoon a week at the school sponsored by our church. In between these and repainting the basement, she's continued to work on illustrations for a series of children's books. In her "spare time," Caffy has been sewing costumes for the Wizard of Oz production that Laurelen is participating in. Speaking of which,

Laurelen is back in CYT—Christian Youth Theater. This is a national organization with something like twelve chapters, including one here in KC. Her first experience with CYT was last fall as she participated in the production of Annie. At the end of February, she'll make her debut as a Munchkin in the Wizard of Oz. Things hardly get cuter than seeing your child playing the part of a Munchkin. Now if we could only get those Wizard of Oz songs endlessly sung around here out of our heads!

The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
2 Timothy 4:22

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