If after watching "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (which released in US theaters this weekend), you find yourself or your kids feeling drawn to Aslan with alarming emotion, don't assume it's just the result of some cinematic spell. Aslan had that effect even back when he was knowable only through words on a page.

A concerned mother once wrote C. S. Lewis on behalf of her son, Laurence, who, having read The Chronicles of Narnia, became concerned that he loved Aslan more than Jesus. In his response, Lewis offered this relief:

Laurence can't really love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that's what he is doing. For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the thing…

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There are some wonderful instances of ordinary Christians, not least the young, who are concerned to preach the whole gospel unabashedly and do good first to the household of God and then, as much as is possible, outside as well. That has got biblical mandate behind it. . . .

My warning would be to those who are coming along and talking a lot about, “I want to be faithful to the gospel, but I also want to do social justice and good works.” My warning would be: it is not just what you do, it is what you are excited about.

If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of …

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An ironically encouraging post by Sam Crabtree about the things you will never accomplish in life.

Jonathan Edwards, from Miscellanies #188:

The best, most beautiful, and most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each other, is by music. When I would form in my mind an idea of a society in the highest degree happy, I think of them as expressing their love, their joy, and the inward concord and harmony and spiritual beauty of their souls by sweetly singing to each other.

Do you think he's right? Why or why not?

The perfect gift for that special someone.

(A little Christmas humor from our SGM friend, Mark Altrogge.)

Such was the love of the Son of God to the human nature, that he desired a most near and close union with it, something like the union in the persons of the Trinity, nearer than there can be between any two distinct [beings]. This moved him to make the human become one with him, and himself to be one of mankind that should represent all the rest, for Christ calls us brethren and is one of us.

How should [we] be encouraged, when we have such a Mediator! 'Tis one of us that is to plead for us, one that God from love to us has received into his own person from among us.

And 'tis so congruous that it should be so, and is also so agreeable to the Scripture, that it much confirms in me the truth …

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A month ago, Michael Oh wrote of an 18-year-old North Korean girl’s testimony at the Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, South Africa and the powerful impression it made on him. I too had the privilege of being present to see and hear her story and I remember it as one of the most powerful moments of the entire event. The video has now been posted and I urge you to watch it (see below).

In the midst of so many Christian leaders gathered from around the world, it is so like God to use someone, whom some would consider weak and insignificant, to display his glory. Her testimony exemplifies the power of the gospel to rescue, transform, and send out in mission. And this in the face of incredible s…

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Jonathan Edwards:

Though [God] hates sin in itself, yet he may will to permit it for the greater promotion of holiness in this universality, including all things and at all times. So, though he has no inclination to a creature's misery, consider it absolutely, yet he may will it for the greater promotion of happiness in this universality.

God inclines to excellency, which is harmony; but yet he may incline to suffer that which is unharmonious in itself, for the promotion of universal harmony or for the beautifying of the harmony that there is in the universality, and making of it shine the brighter. (Miscellanies #170, paragraphing added)

Not surprisingly, John Piper agrees with Edward…

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Rev. Ian Hamilton explains. What do you think?

Here's a taster:

This is what so many miss in their assessment of, or espousal of, Calvinism. It is not first and foremost a theological system; it is more fundamentally a “religious attitude”, an attitude that gives inevitable birth to a particular, precise, but gloriously God-centred and heart-engaging system of theology.

Before sovereign grace is a truth to defend, it is a captivating truth to glory in.

The Experiential Calvinist honours God’s unconditional sovereignty. How? By consistent prayer.

E. T. is back—at least he’s made a brief reappearance in this footnote gem from John Frame.

In his chapter “Christians in Our Culture” in The Doctrine of the Christian Life, Frame writes,

Steven Spielberg’s character E. T. is, I think, a genuine Christ figure: recall the themes of preexistence, growth, teaching, miracle, healing, death, resurrection, and ascension. Spielberg denied this parallel, but in my view it is objectively there, even if Spielberg was unconscious of it. The reason is that the human mind has a need for a gospel like that of the New Testament. Those who don’t accept that gospel often instinctively give to their idolatrous inventions powers parallel to those of Chris…

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