Knowing & Doing

Tom Schwanda completes his three part series on “Growing in Intimacy with God” by digging into the role that experience plays in that process. The tension between knowing and doing, sometimes polarized to unhealthy extremes, is examined with an appreciation for both head and heart, doctrine and experience, thought and emotion.

Read this article online.

Recommended Reading:

Stephen J. Nichols, Jonathan Edwards: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Edwards-Guided-Tour-Thought/dp/0875521940

In this episode Tom Tarrants considers the question, “How do we navigate around the seductions of this fallen world and faithfully follow Jesus in daily life?” He argues that the key is in and with our heart’s desires.

Recommended Reading

Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification by Sinclair B. Ferguson (Banner of Truth, 2016)

Purchase online from Banner of Truth or Amazon.

Ruth Lovejoy, a Fellow in our C. S. Lewis Institute Fellows program, shares how seeing the gospel and the goodness of God more worshipfully can set us free from our love for and idolatry of efficiency. With one eye on the scripture’s story about Mary and Martha and another eye on her to-do list, Ruth helps liberate us from the tyranny of the urgent.

Recommended Reading:

Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Thomas Nelson, Revised, Updated edition, 2017). Order on ChristianBook.com | Amazon

Learn more about the Fellows Program.

Jesus’ disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In this episode, Pastor Bill Kynes takes us to the heart of Jesus' response and helps us learn how to pray to the Father.

To read this article on Growing in Prayer, please click here.

Recommended Reading:

Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God (Penguin Books, 2016)

A life of prayer is something to which we are all called and to which we should all aspire. Dr. Bill Kynes discusses what it would mean for us to devote ourselves to prayer, to ‘pray continually’ as instructed by the Apostle Paul.

Recommended Reading:

Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem (Crossway, 2013)

Purchase your copy at: https://www.crossway.org/books/crazy-busy-tpb/

In this two-part series addressing vocation and calling, Mark Talbot discusses the importance of a biblical view of calling and the value of spending time each day in God’s written word.

Read this article online by clicking here.

Recommended Reading:

Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Thomas Nelson, 2003)

Are you confident that you know and are fulfilling God’s purpose for your life? Tom Tarrants observes that God’s purpose for our life has two major aspects: His purpose in the world to come, and His purpose in the present world. These are intricately intertwined, and it is important to approach our need for guidance in the pressing affairs of the present world, which seem so urgent, in the context of God’s larger, eternal purpose. Once we situate ourselves in this framework, we can more readily discern and embrace God’s particular plans in the unique circumstances of our lives. . . Read this article online.

Recommended Reading:

Discovering God's Will by Sinclair Ferguson (Banner of Truth, 2013)

Discovering God’s Will draws out fundamental principles by which God guides us, applies them to practical situations like vocation and marriage, and underlines many important biblical counsels. It shows that the guidance God gives comes primarily through knowing, loving and obeying him.

Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper (Crossway, 2003)

In this best-selling book, John Piper makes a passionate plea to the next generation to avoid the dangers of a wasted life, calling us to take risks and make sacrifices that matter for eternity—with a single, soul-satisfying passion for the glory of God that seeks to make much of him in every sphere of our lives.

What is it that motivated C.S. Lewis, a comfortable academic with more than enough to do, to direct so much of his time writing and speaking towards the conversion of the unbelieving of the world? What made him sacrifice not only the regard of many of his colleagues but his own academic advancement to defend the faith? . . .

Learn more in this episode of Knowing & Doing featuring the writing of Christopher Mitchell, PhD., Director of the Marion E. Wade Center and Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Wheaton College.

For the full article from Professor Mitchell, please click here.

The biblical writers frequently draw parallels between physical and spiritual life, and in many cases the parallels are close. The physical maturity of a child can be measured with the aid of a tape measure and scales; the child’s intellectual development can be gauged by examinations and tests. Likewise our own growth in maturity can be measured. J. Oswald Sanders shows us how Maturity Can Be Measured.

To read the full article, please click here.

Dr. Gerald McDermott gives us a thorough and very helpful overview of Islam, the second biggest religion in the world. Read the full article from the CS Lewis Institute here.

Recommended Reading:

Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity (Zondervan, 2014). Purchase on Amazon.