Santa Poco

A fellow blogger (Timmy Brister at Provacations and Panting)offers this insane challenge as 2008 unfolds:

Commit to reading one Puritan Paperback a month. You can do this by blocking out 30 minutes each day (~10 pages) after personal Bible reading as supplementary to your spiritual growth. To make it easy for you, I have created a sample monthly reading list below.

January: The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes (128 pp)
February: The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel (221 pp)
March: The Godly Man’s Picture by Thomas Watson (252 pp)
April: Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks (253 pp)
May: Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ by John Bunyan (225 pp)
June: The Mortification of Sin by John Owen (130 pp)
July: A Lifting Up for the Downcast by William Bridge (287 pp)
August: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (228 pp)
September: The True Bounds of Christian Freedom by Samuel Bolton (224 pp)
October: The Christian’s Great Interest by William Guthrie (207 pp)
November: The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter (256 pp)
December: A Sure Guide to Heaven by Joseph Alleine (148 pp)

There are several other great Puritan paperbacks, but I chose these because I wanted to have a different author each month (Owen, Bunyan, Watson, and Brooks have multiple paperbacks). I have front-loaded the reading schedule with some of the more readable Puritans and tried to balance out the topics throughout the year. Outside the Scripture, there is perhaps nothing better for your own soul than to invest in your personal sanctification by developing a reading plan of Puritan paperbacks! (Other books include: Thomas Watson, All Things for Good, The Doctrine of Repentance, The Lord’s Supper, The Great Gain of Godliness; John Owen, The Holy Spirit, The Glory of Christ, Communion with God, Apostasy from the Gospel, Temptation: Resisted and Repulsed, The Spirit and the Church; Thomas Brooks, Heaven on Earth, The Secret Key to Heaven; Richard Sibbes, Glorious Freedom; William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying; John Bunyan, All Loves Excelling, Prayer, The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, The Acceptable Sacrifice; Ralph Venning, The Sinfulness of Sin, Learning in Christ’s School; Robert Traill, Justification Vindicated; and Samuel Rutherford, Letters of Samuel Rutherford.)