I mentioned briefly yesterday on the blog about my ambitious reading study plans for 2017 but I think God wanted me to start earlier than I expected, which is fine.
I was researching Scriptural commentators and Fundamentalist books on Amazon last night, something I do regularly, and Matthew Henry's volumes came up. I have seen his name about but never paid much attention because I knew from his Wiki page that he is long dead and wrote in English I would not understand, Spurgeon is hard enough for me on bad days.
I was about to move on when my focus was caught on his 6 volumes in modern English which came up on Kindle. Something inside was urging me to try the sample at least so I did and from 1am to 3am last night I was with the Lord God Our Messiah and feasting.
I did not know how I was going to get on but I actually really enjoyed it and felt energised. When I saw he was talking/explaining about a verse and then recommended looking up 1-3 verses from all over Scripture I was worried. I thought oh no another text person cutting and pasting up the Bible to support his argument but it was not like that, it added to it emphasising that specific things are repeated and rementioned (not sure if that is a word - it is now).
I completed Genesis chapter one today first reading it through and then going verse by verse with Henry. I read what he had to say and looked up all the passages he suggested in order and wrote 8 pages of notes in my journal. It was a really fulfilling devotional exercise I am looking forward to chapter two tomorrow.
So I think the plan is to do that on weekdays and keep Spurgeon's sermons for the weekends so I have the benefit of explanations during the week and how to live it out practically over the weekend (Spurgeon explaining and encouraging how to live it out in my life in a practical manner not only to live practically over weekends and not the rest of the time).
I am still wanting to keep to my decision about not reading any books other than Christian ones for a 12 month period starting Jan 1st. I might possibly be buddy reading the Left Behind series with an elder church friend, with 12-13 books in the main series that could keep me going). I read the first book a few years ago but I was not as grounded in Scriptural doctrine then and was worried about accepting the rapture idea as fact and getting confused because I did that a lot. I was fickle and eager to know truth and accepting doctrines all over the place. Now I know it is just fiction I might be able to enjoy it more.
I will keep you posted.
God bless.
I was researching Scriptural commentators and Fundamentalist books on Amazon last night, something I do regularly, and Matthew Henry's volumes came up. I have seen his name about but never paid much attention because I knew from his Wiki page that he is long dead and wrote in English I would not understand, Spurgeon is hard enough for me on bad days.
I was about to move on when my focus was caught on his 6 volumes in modern English which came up on Kindle. Something inside was urging me to try the sample at least so I did and from 1am to 3am last night I was with the Lord God Our Messiah and feasting.
I did not know how I was going to get on but I actually really enjoyed it and felt energised. When I saw he was talking/explaining about a verse and then recommended looking up 1-3 verses from all over Scripture I was worried. I thought oh no another text person cutting and pasting up the Bible to support his argument but it was not like that, it added to it emphasising that specific things are repeated and rementioned (not sure if that is a word - it is now).
I completed Genesis chapter one today first reading it through and then going verse by verse with Henry. I read what he had to say and looked up all the passages he suggested in order and wrote 8 pages of notes in my journal. It was a really fulfilling devotional exercise I am looking forward to chapter two tomorrow.
So I think the plan is to do that on weekdays and keep Spurgeon's sermons for the weekends so I have the benefit of explanations during the week and how to live it out practically over the weekend (Spurgeon explaining and encouraging how to live it out in my life in a practical manner not only to live practically over weekends and not the rest of the time).
I am still wanting to keep to my decision about not reading any books other than Christian ones for a 12 month period starting Jan 1st. I might possibly be buddy reading the Left Behind series with an elder church friend, with 12-13 books in the main series that could keep me going). I read the first book a few years ago but I was not as grounded in Scriptural doctrine then and was worried about accepting the rapture idea as fact and getting confused because I did that a lot. I was fickle and eager to know truth and accepting doctrines all over the place. Now I know it is just fiction I might be able to enjoy it more.
I will keep you posted.
God bless.
