My April Reading Schedule

[JeffR]

Any special April reading plans going on with you guys and gals? If not let me just share what my plan is, (this is my birthday month too btw)

I plan to read all of the following per week for 4 weeks, some extra time as April is a little more than just 4 weeks

The Three Forms of Unity
The Westminster Standards
From Romans to Hebrews (maybe ALL the epistles)

And once through for the whole month Calvin's Institutes, at my reading speed i must read about 5 hours of this per day, and plus the above (roughly 7 hours per day total), my reading will be full!!

I pray that in May i am more grounded in The Reformed positions and will be able to approach tougher texts like Turretin with more confidence and profit.

Any suggestions on what i should drill into my thick skull for the next month?

Yes, i will also factor in lecture series, that which i linked below will be my first locale, it's great, FREE and you can take notes when you sign in. We can for the greater good implement things we heard from other people with different specialities, a book club founder i was much impressed with said in a podcast lecture, that when he was in University, he attended lectures all the time, even when he didn't understand, that use of lectures came to my mind just an hour ago, and it inspires me to make listening to lectures, sermons and other biblical teaching audio and visual a solid part of my private study.

We live in an amazing age where so much can be learned through technology. I would so much rather seek to be more grounded in Reformed theology than watch one more second of Netflix, or The Criterion Channel.

 

[Blood-Bought Pilgrim]

That’s quite an intense schedule! May the Lord cause it to bear great fruit for you!

 

[JeffR]

That’s quite an intense schedule! May the Lord cause it to bear great fruit for you!

Thanks Andrew, yes, and i might throw in a lecture series like this for good measure

John Knox Institute of Higher Education

 

[LightBringer]

I read John Piper's Five Points which is an introduction to TULIP. He goes pretty deep for a book that is an introduction. It is a small volume.

 

[JeffR]

I read John Piper's Five Points which is an introduction to TULIP. He goes pretty deep for a book that is an introduction. It is a small volume.

Piper is contagious in his theological zeal, might need to add that to my library at some point.

 

[JeffR]

I should update my original post here, often as i progress my plans adapt to how life goes, i shall incorporate a lot more scripture reading with the 3 top study bibles i have and Mastricht (eagerly awaiting the 5th volume of 7, this year sometime??!!) Probably the Epistles and Confessions/Catechisms 3 times around instead of 4, and Calvin might take longer. I went out for a walk with my kindle, and guess what, reading while walking is a ok, gonna be doing it regularly now!! There are 6 ebooks constantly in the flux now which take up a page in the kindle library, NO SCROLLING DOWN, just those 6 --

 

[LightBringer]

Piper is contagious in his theological zeal, might need to add that to my library at some point.

Yes very zealous. I read his Desiring God in February. His terminology is very definitely off the beaten track.

March was a busy reading month for me.

I particularly enjoyed Kevin Deyoung's Men and Women in the Church. I found him to be pretty much spot on.

 

[JeffR]

Yes very zealous. I read his Desiring God in February. His terminology is very definitely off the beaten track.

March was a busy reading month for me.

I particularly enjoyed Kevin Deyoung's Men and Women in the Church. I found him to be pretty much spot on.

Looks good, thanks for the heads up on DeYoung!! Piper is God intoxicated, Pleasures of God is a fave of mine.

 

[No Other Name]

I never finished Desiring God and got rid of my copy.

I can't wrap my head around the love of Jesus being "erotic to the core" at all.

 

[shunoshimobe]

I never finished Desiring God and got rid of my copy.

I can't wrap my head around the love of Jesus being "erotic to the core" at all.

Someone on this forum a long time ago said they take people like Paul Washer and Ravenhill in "medicinal doses". I apply this to Piper as well.

 

[JeffR]

Someone on this forum a long time ago said they take people like Paul Washer and Ravenhill in "medicinal doses". I apply this to Piper as well.

For a newbie like me i recall someone here advising just to read dead guys.

 

[RamistThomist]

For a newbie like me i recall someone here advising just to read dead guys.

In a sense, yes. It's more important to master foundational texts. Piper gets in trouble because he will get hold of an untested idea and then work an entire system around it. See his bizarre comments on Jesus' erotic love for me.

True, Piper has the best exegesis of Romans 9. I won't take that away from him. But it is far more important to master volume 1 of Hodge's systematic theology.

 

[JeffR]

In a sense, yes. It's more important to master foundational texts. Piper gets in trouble because he will get hold of an untested idea and then work an entire system around it. See his bizarre comments on Jesus' erotic love for me.

True, Piper has the best exegesis of Romans 9. I won't take that away from him. But it is far more important to master volume 1 of Hodge's systematic theology.

I wish there'd be an edition of Hodge that translated all the Latin and other languages.

 

[JeffR]

Ok, so i had to add 6 more things into the daily reading schedule, i can't be speeding through things, so what April signifies here, why it's important is that it is when i stick to a controlled amount of my daily reading diet, a total of 12 reading ebook spaces in the kindle are as follows, and it seems perfect as there were 12 disciples. To always have 12 ebook spaces in the current flux of daily reading, when certain ones are completed, something else can take its place, and everything of worth shall always be considered for re-reading, as unlike others, i don't see myself as mastering anything.

1. The Reformation Study Bible -- this is where i'm going through the Three Forms of Unity and the Epistles, it would be good if i just read through these twice in April.
2. The Reformation Heritage Study Bible -- From Genesis to Revelation with family and personal worship thoughts, and some of the notes, and many other places in the canon to be gone through like that, for example in Psalms and Jeremiah.
3. The ESV Study Bible -- in the manner of 2 above.
4. The Westminster Standards - the whole 50 hour reading time thing, for however long it takes.
5. Calvin's Institutes -- for however long it takes
6. Mastricht's Theoretical-Practical Theology -- slowly going through what there is and perhaps re-reading as i and the world wait for further releases.
7. Isaac Amrose's Looking Unto Jesus -- what i have is 6 ebooks of around 100 pages each. When i finish this i will implement Perkins.
8. John Owen -- whichever volume or work i feel called to dwell on, here i want to do Overcoming Sin and Temptation first, Crossway's releases are gonna be fabulous once whole works are done.
9. Beeke and Smalley's Reformed Systematic Theology -- by the time i finish volume 1 volume 4 will be there, i'd like to go through all of it before 2025.
10. Gurnall's The Christian in Complete Armor -- when i finish this i will then implement Goodwin.
11. Daniel G. Hummel's The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism
12. Nick Needham's 2,000 Years of Christ's Power

 

[No Other Name]

Ok, so i had to add 6 more things into the daily reading schedule, i can't be speeding through things, so what April signifies here, why it's important is that it is when i stick to a controlled amount of my daily reading diet, a total of 12 reading ebook spaces in the kindle are as follows, and it seems perfect as there were 12 disciples. To always have 12 ebook spaces in the current flux of daily reading, when certain ones are completed, something else can take its place, and everything of worth shall always be considered for re-reading, as unlike others, i don't see myself as mastering anything.

1. The Reformation Study Bible -- this is where i'm going through the Three Forms of Unity and the Epistles, it would be good if i just read through these twice in April.
2. The Reformation Heritage Study Bible -- From Genesis to Revelation with family and personal worship thoughts, and some of the notes, and many other places in the canon to be gone through like that, for example in Psalms and Jeremiah.
3. The ESV Study Bible -- in the manner of 2 above.
4. The Westminster Standards - the whole 50 hour reading time thing, for however long it takes.
5. Calvin's Institutes -- for however long it takes
6. Mastricht's Theoretical-Practical Theology -- slowly going through what there is and perhaps re-reading as i and the world wait for further releases.
7. Isaac Amrose's Looking Unto Jesus -- what i have is 6 ebooks of around 100 pages each. When i finish this i will implement Perkins.
8. John Owen -- whichever volume or work i feel called to dwell on, here i want to do Overcoming Sin and Temptation first, Crossway's releases are gonna be fabulous once whole works are done.
9. Beeke and Smalley's Reformed Systematic Theology -- by the time i finish volume 1 volume 4 will be there, i'd like to go through all of it before 2025.
10. Gurnall's The Christian in Complete Armor -- when i finish this i will then implement Goodwin.
11. Daniel G. Hummel's The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism
12. Nick Needham's 2,000 Years of Christ's Power

 

[JeffR]

Wax on, wax off, for the wax faileth!!

 

[JeffR]

At this point it's silly to keep updating, but 12 felt too confining, i need variety, within the majestic umbrella of Christian teaching, for example Athanasius' On the Incarnation and Gonzalez's The Story of Christianity, which at a slim 2 volumes would be better be gotten through before embarking on the ongoing Needham series, and plus other Church histories, and the Puritans, and the lecture series, and other audio/visual stuff.

 

[LightBringer]

Someone on this forum a long time ago said they take people like Paul Washer and Ravenhill in "medicinal doses". I apply this to Piper as well.

I had to take Piper in doses because of his terminology and wording.

 

[JeffR]

I had to take Piper in doses because of his terminology and wording.

I wonder if i'll see some red flags when i read or listen to him again!! In the past i merely thought his use of the term hedonism was problematic.