Issue Number Twenty-Four

CFBS News


Hear Don speak on nationwide radio (or via the Internet) on family worship on FamilyLife Today, August 29-30. For more info, click here.

Did you know the Whitneys have moved to KY and Don is now teaching at Southern Seminary? For more information, click here.


Don's Schedule

Please pray for these ministry opportunities in July, August and September.

  • Cedar Grove Baptist Church
    Shepherdsville, KY

  • Morningview Baptist Church
    Montgomery, AL

  • Hope Bible Church (Eagle Rock, CA) Family Camp
    Held at Palomar Christian Conference Center
    Palomar Mountain, CA

  • Millville Baptist Church
    Frankfort, KY

  • "Faith for Today, Hope for Tomorrow Crusade"
    c/o Parkwood Baptist Church
    Louisville, KY

  • Camp-of-the-Woods
    Speculator, NY

  • Adirondack Bible Chapel
    Piseco, NY

  • Southside Baptist Church
    Live Oak, FL


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

New in Audio


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


Verify Before You Simplify

The place to start simplifying the spiritual life is to make sure you have one.

Jesus frequently challenged the spiritual presumptions of His hearers. He did this constantly with an influential group of men known as the Pharisees. Because of the unusual depth of their interest in and commitment to the things of God (especially Bible study and memorization, prayer, and fasting), they and everyone else were sure that if anyone was right with God, it was these dedicated Pharisees. Jesus once devoted an entire parable to warn against the danger of the spiritual presumption of the Pharisees and people like them (see Luke 18:9-14).

Click here to finish reading this article.



A FALSE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

Having a false assurance of salvation is the worst mistake anyone can ever make. If a person is wrong about being right with God and going to Heaven, ultimately it really doesn't matter what else he or she is right about.

If your attitude has been, "Lord, I really do think You have given me evidence of Your Spirit's presence within me, but please don't let me be deceived," that speaks well of the integrity of your assurance. That's a humble and healthy approach to the possibility of false assurance. Princeton theologian A. A. Hodge wrote, "I think the first essential mark of the difference between true and false assurance is to be found in the fact that the true works humility." I'm concerned when people react to the subject of false assurance with apathy or anger. I'm encouraged when they respond with thought and humility.

[Taken from pages 115-116, and 131-132 of Don's book, How Can I Be Sure I'm a Christian?. 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

This is my inaugural newsletter since our move to Kentucky. Our first eight weeks have been as full as you might imagine. There's nothing like moving everything you own from one place to another—thank goodness! Someone said, "You don't think the Lord has blessed you with much until you have to move it all. Then you wonder, 'How did we get all this stuff?'" And I never dreamed there were so many places I had to notify of my change of address. Then there's locating a new doctor, dentist, barber, mechanic, bank, etc. I meet people who tell me they have moved something like ten times in the past twenty years. I don't know whether to admire them or pity them. I think I would have died or gone insane if I'd had to move that often. On several occasions I had to stop and remind myself, "As bad as this is, it's nothing compared to losing everything in the tsunami, a hurricane, or tornado." And though we still have a garage filled with boxes (e.g., I won't be able to unpack my library for weeks or months), the worst is over.

We are very happy with our new church home. We inquired about it carefully before we put an offer on the house. Since our lives revolve so much around our local church, we did not want to put unnecessary distance between us and our place of worship. We're pleased to be just half-a-mile from the meeting place, the closest we've been to our church since 1980 when we lived in a parsonage next door to the church.

I'm thrilled to be at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am honored to serve with such wonderful colleagues. If you or your child are considering college or seminary, come visit the campus in Louisville sometime, or check out the website at www.SBTS.edu.

Caffy is nestmaking in our new home, beautifying it as only she can. Some wallhangings have been tried on at least half-a-dozen walls. Some chairs have been pushed around the house like bumper cars. Just this evening I realized, "I haven't seen that chair in this room before." Lately she's focused on getting her art studio set up, all the while trying to get some smaller art projects completed. Despite our three-week drought, she's kept a couple of ferns thriving on one corner of the porch, each plant flanking a white wicker chair. Next month she'll start gearing up to teach an evening class for student wives at the seminary.

Laurelen has had her hands full with Roscoe. He's a black cat "we" (strictly speaking, I had nothing to do with it, rather it was the girls acting without my knowledge before I arrived in KY) adopted just before we moved into our new home. He's about three months old. His mother died delivering Roscoe's litter, so he was fed from a bottle. Not growing up around brothers and sisters to wrestle with, he thinks everyone and everything (including any passing foot) is a playmate. Lazy eight-year-old felines Samson and Taffetta rarely find him amusing. Laurelen has quickly made several new friends at church, and we're grateful she hasn't had to go through a lonely period following the move. Despite her involvement with church and friends, she's been motivated by a Louisville library reading program to read as much as a book a day in the past couple of weeks. Earlier this week she enjoyed The Bandit of Ashley Down, historical fiction about a young thief who encounters the great nineteenth century man of prayer and faith, George Mueller.

Please pray for us. Though we love our new home, we have a major water problem. Thankfully, it's a completely different kind of problem than we had in Kansas City. Still, it has the potential to be both stressful and costly. This is before us daily at present. Second, please ask the Lord's blessing on my new ministry at Southern, as well as my itinerant preaching/teaching (see the "Speaking Schedule" button on the homepage). Third, I need the Lord's help to resume and complete a major writing project. Finally, pray for the Lord's blessing on the nationwide broadcast of my message on family worship, scheduled for August 29 and 30 on FamilyLife Today. Go to www.FamilyLife.com, and then to the "broadcasts" link to find the station nearest you and the time of the broadcast.

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

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