An update for June 2026

JeffR · Jun 14, 2026

Hello everyone!!

I want to share some things with the gang here who hold the appropriate theological views. I've spent more money this month than I ought to have, and as I write I hope I can keep myself from getting even more, to be a good steward of what God has blessed me with.

Physical format editions of:

The ESV Study Bible
The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible -- this was on sale from RHB, 50 USD, but for a Canadian (me) it ended up a little under 120, calfskin!! I never before had a premium leather Bible!!
a 1995 NASB super large print, this is what started me off here because my dad needs a large print and I got one for myself also.
a slimline ESV
and just now Ian H. Murray's 2 volumes bio of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, whom I am being incredibly blessed with his Romans sermon series, currently on the 19th message out of 366.
plus Bible highlighters, and some journals to write in. This 2 volumes biography was ordered from Reformed Book Services, based in Ontario, maybe some Canadians here can save some money from using that instead of other services like Amazon, or RHB.

And to maximize the usefulness of the internet besides listening to the best 20th century preacher is other great preachers than can be heard on YouTube primarily, I really like John Piper, and the late R.C. Sproul, his Romans series will be combined with MLJ, and those panel discussions from Ligonier, and the Reformed Theological Seminary website to give me a taste of the kind of lectures you'd hear in a advanced kind of endeavor.

These are my new tools, amongst many many other tools in my Kindle and Kobo, I am finding that what I need to work on is time management, I need to work in -- work!! My home is very messy, and it's like the Lord is pushing me towards doing cleaning up because physiologically I ache from sitting too much.

There's no Reformed minded church nearby, but a Baptist church is within walking distance, a week from now I may attend for the first time, for a long with the time management issue, to be in communion with other believers is a dire need, as was pointed out to me a few months back here on Puritan Board.

I had gotten dad John Piper's Providence as well, but I will be giving it to him for his birthday in August, Lord willing, and I might see if I can read through it before than and see if I can personalize it for him with clearly legible comments to enhance his reading of it, and for Christmas i'm thinking of a good devotional for him, large print preferably.

Besides direct Bible reading and the helps in the study Bibles I need to find a perfect balance of the enormous e-book resources, but I feel I shouldn't attempt to fit in too much, that has been my failing up to this point, so here I want to state what will be covered initially:

1. Calvin's Institutes
2. Charnock's The Existence and Attributes of God
3. a Brakel's The Christian's Reasonable Service
4. Amandus Polanus' Syntagma Theologiae Christianae
5. Beeke/Smalley's Reformed Systematic Theology
6. Carl Trueman's last 4 or so books
Works of:
7. Thomas Watson
8. John Owen
9. Matthew Henry

Thanks for reading, and may you all be richly blessed in all things.

JeffR · Jun 24, 2026

Hello again, I wish to follow my update with a sequel update,so that I hold to something manageable, and can have maximal progression into a positive direction,in not just my studies, but even the mere act of thinking clearly,and to the larger sphere of my life, what I do besides reading, belonging to a local body of believers, which may mean forming friendships,who'll hold me accountable, for i often say one thing and then immediately do another thing. In what I lay out below is what I must confine myself to, leaving out something's I hope to get to when #'s 4, 5, 6 are initially completed.

There is a plethora of resources available these days,and that can be a hindrance to deriving the nourishment they often contain. I must therefore devote the majority of my study time to these, leaving out plenty, that if there is time,to come to only after the following receives their initial cover to cover usage.

1. The Reformation KJV SB -- from Genesis to Revelation,all the Intros,articles and notes, reading Scripture experientially, not putting unnecessary guidelines like a chapter a day, and going through the helpsat the back beginning with Sinclair Fergusion's Church History summaries,and the Creeds,Confessions and Catechisms,using scripture references as selective opportunities to use mini study times with the books those verse citations are from, this can be an option for all readings which interact with the Bible.

2. The Baker Illustrated SB and 3. The NLT Illustrated SB -- from Gen. to Rev. for both,enjoying the pictures and charts and graphs,and noticing how they stray from our rich theological heritage. It is good to be reading what we disagree with,think of how the Puritans would be widely read in order to participate in the controversies of the day,and there is surely controversies these days.

4. The Work of John Cotton -- this was needed to balance out the broadly evangelical inclusion of #'s 2 and 3 in the sense that,if i'm going to spend money on those, I need to spend money on this as well which I eye often,previously I thought i'd see about completing Brakel,Turretin and Beeke/Smalley before getting this, but I justified it's purchase because of wanting to equate my spending on what those resources are.

5. William Jay -- Morning and Evening Exercises -- I want to storm through this so that by the end of the year I can hand them over to my dad,for his spiritual nourishment in that care facility, I may add here that what I got him for Father's Day has improved his state of mind, there are people there that are benefitted by him being there. He speaks of Christ to any and everyone there,there's a Catholic chapel service the establishment provides, and he hugs the Priest, who wears casual clothing. He has a super large NASB 1995, Piper's Providence, and Sproul'sNow That'sa Good Question, he LOVES Sproul,and a few months before he had his medical state now, he'd watch Sproul videos all through the night when he couldn't sleep. Our church's former pastor's wife who my folks were really close with had expressed serious differences with Reformed theology, my dad doesn't understand the differences between Ariminianism and Calvinism. My parents used to do ministerial activity with a guy who was very Reformed, and during Covid-19 with church's closing due to social distancing, we lost that person's friendship, so in my dad's mind the Reformed tradition has a light and dark side, Sproul is light, our former friend the dark. He loves John Piper too, I wish there'd be a mainstream Christian tv channel that aired his sermons, it would be a huge blessing to my dad to hear that instead of people like David Jeremiah, who my dad agrees with his Dispensationalism. I think if he were to read Sproul's eschatological thoughts, he may see a choice to make.

6. Reformed Systematic Theology -- I feel this is the theological work of our time, so only after I go through all 4 volumes will I even think of getting to the likes of Mastricht, Rutherford, Burgess, Goodwin, Owen, Sibbes, Perkins, Boston, Polanus, Turretin, Bavinck, Edwards, Spurgeon, and so many more. I am super proud of our Reformed literature, I have a lot of it, and that is not something I should boast about.

7. urray's Lloyd-Jones I keep missing things whenever I make a new list!!

There cannot be anymore purchasing after the Pre-order of Rutherford Vol.1 which i'm getting at the Kobo store, over 30 dollars cheaper than the Kindle route, I am hoping Burgess will be in e-books too, Rutherford and Burgess are the biggest in these new publications from RHB, I will not be getting Watson, because I already have most of his work, and I will be reading him only after Cotton,however I may want to spend a year with Sibbes first as a follow up to Cotton,for Cotton was impacted by Sibbes, but I may feel different when I cross the finish line of Cotton, Jay and Beeke.

Those Illustrated Study Bibles may end up with dad if he's still alive and we're still in this rotten reality of a world in around 2028 or so,I need a good 2 years with those 2,and I'm thinking that possible follow ups to those would be the NET Full Notes, and the Life Application SB,writing in the margins where they're going astray in their theological impurities.

JeffR · Jun 26, 2026

As June winds down,I shall give a 3rd and final update here, and I may give an update in 3 parts for some other month in the future, who knows, it'll be nice to report here of some progress, but in reality, I keep on thinking of the perfect balance of reading material, and of the best kind of approach, a bent so to speak to try to fit in as much as possible.

The manner in which i've built my theological library is in the spirit of all at the same time, but actually reading them in that way makes all of them of no effect, at least for me, there are I suspect rare breeds of people who can be going through hundreds of ponderous tomes at a time and be retaining it all.

In a laborious manner with a high level of dedication and effort one may I guess retain and put into use perhaps a many volumed perusal fruitfully by having a state of the art note taking practice, some way where you can daily, and even more frequently than daily go over the salient points that have been brought to your attention in a prayerfully receiving way.

But what is it for? I hear a few times when getting started on something,if they're good at what they're doing they will be asking you, what is the purpose of this effort of yours? Your answer will tell a lot about what is your heart's desire.

My heart's desire is to actually know God a little bit better, what J.I. Packer's famous Knowing God is about.

These last few weeks i've been sensing the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of understanding, it's a good starting and continuing point.

I regret buying these illustrated Bibles, I don't really need them,part of my reasoning was to have something visually appealing to flip through while listening to sermons and whatnot, and to put into practice the simple art of using study Bibles like my mom always was doing until the last couple months, where she was sleeping all the time. Reading those tiny notes on the bottom of the page makes me think I'm carrying on what she would be doing in her quiet times, and oh I remember with regret how she'd be doing her devotional reading and I kept on interrupting her, sharing with her from my books which were at that time often not of a Theological nature, and she was so gracious,but I must have been a real pest to her. Sometimes she'd make me read something from her devotional, she wanted me to get out of the rut I was in, to see things from a biblical point of view, and it's that kind of thing I feel these days are what I'm inclined towards.

What a blessing to have had godly parents, it makes me think of some teaching I heard not too long ago, from a Presbyterian I think it was in connection with Infant Baptism, how much of a blessing it is to be born to parent who know and love the Lord.

I'm nearing my 50th year, and so far, the Lord has been so patient with me, and forgiving, His mercies are new every day,or to that effect goes a well known hymn.

I also want to mention here that, with my reading, and that was the reason I decided to write again here, is that following my plan above can only be best if as I go forth, day to day it remains as seen as the best way.

There is now this clarification as I see it for the bedrock of my reading besides the Bible:

Cotton -- a 5 volume read, but all together may be pretty close to the actual amount of material in Reformed Systematic Theology, those 2 for me are to be read side by side, to be completed on the same day maybe! I'd like to see if I can complete them both in 4 months from now, so that would be by the end of October, so while the trick or treaters are wondering why I won't open the door to give out treats i'll be on Puritan Board telling one and all that I made a reading milestone!!

That is my little challenge, and I feel like at least spending a whole day here and there where I don't even touch any book that isn't from a theological point of view that aligns with the great Reformed standards. Because for me,I need guidance more than finding where correction needs to be (in others that is, I surely need to know where correction is required in my own life), a slow learner who must sit at the feet of the greats. So Lord willing in 4 months,on the birthday of the Reformation, I might share about this here.

Thank you all for reading,God richly bless you all in Jesus' name.

JeffR · Jun 26, 2026

I must confess something, I signed up for a text message alert thing for amazing deals at RHB, and so for roughly the same price as the SB from there, i'll be getting the 19 volumes of the Puritan Treasures for Today, quick, light, but solid too, good to pass along to dad, but also if I ever get to know anyone conversationally, and they'd be like -- what's so great about those guys yer always quoting or referencing, and then i'd slip em one of these, on a topic that would relate to something we'd have talked about and they'd read it, and become enflamed with zeal.!!

JeffR · Jun 26, 2026

I'm gonna ask openly for whoever wants to let me know if this is a good idea. I LOVE reading out loud, and to record myself reading on Vocaroo ismy idea to in part chart my progress through my books, here is a sample from Nick Needham's 2000 Years of Christ's Power, and I ask whether, if it's ok to do so, whether there should be a time limit or not, and which category would it best be in. This is 15 minutes, and yes I was meaning to include Nick's 5 volume church history in my lists above, but I seem to always be missing something when making lists, oh and one other thing should I start at the beginning for each thing, and thus cumulatively offer a full audiobook recording which would be about (with all of my strength) only be 70 times 7 worse than an average LibraVox recording.