It Feels Nice to Finish...

It has been a little while since I finished a book. For the past couple months I have not spent much time reading at all. Recently I've started to find time each night to read a chapter or two and finally finished "Living for God's Glory" by Joel Beeke. It took me a while for sure, but it feels great to finish a book again. I'm feeling encouraged to continue on.

The book was very good. It's basically an introduction to Calvinism, but it goes past the normal discussion of the five points. There are multiple chapters of discussion on Calvinist, Reformed and Puritan views on family, marriage, politics and ethics, centered around historical accounts of how these viewpoints developed. It was a nice, engaging read and I was glad to finally be able to read one of Joel Beeke's books after hearing him speak at PCRT and seeing his work in the "Meet the Puritans" resource.

Next up I intend to read through "Desiring God" by Piper. I've tried to read it multiple times but have gotten distracted every time. Maybe taking some notes and putting together a couple blog posts will help me to keep focused. Hopefully I can finish sometime in February before I try to kick off a reading of "The Christian in Complete Armor" with a couple friends.

I started "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer Adler again as well, but I've decided to table it until a little later in the spring. Instead I'm going to be reading "The Back of the Napkin" by Dan Roam to add a little variety to my reading. It seems like its going to be a fun read about using pictures to communicate ideas.

Looking Forward, Part 2

A couple more areas I'm looking to grow this year.

3. Increasing Fellowship - Seeking fellowship with other believers hasn't been as much of a priority for me recently. This is primarily because I was not engaging God myself, so I didn't really have a lot to talk about in that regard. I really want to grow in this over this year, both with friends as well as my soon-to-be wife.

4. Writing About It - Blogging is not a necessity for life but it helps me to critically process what I am reading instead of just increasing the information in my head. I would like to get back to posting regularly. I'd also like to try and increase my engagement during reading by taking notes. Journaling is something else that seems like it could be helpful in evaluating myself and seeing God's grace in my own life.

5. Physical Discipline - I've come to see that my lack of exercise and poor eating not is not a result of a busy schedule but mostly laziness and selfishness on my part. Plus, I have found that its easier to maintain other disciplines when I am also exercising self-control over my body. Over the course of the year, I plan on seeking to evaluate and make changes to my life in light of this.

Obviously, not all of these things are going to be completed. At least not to the extent that I imagine in my head. Everyone jokes that resolutions are made to be broken. However, these are areas that would be helpful to change at any time of the year. Now just happens to be a time when we all reflect on that. God provides us the grace to change when we ask. Sometimes it doesn't come as fast as we'd like, but God also gives the grace to persevere.

Looking Forward, Part 1

Maybe it's getting a little late for gearing up for the new year, but I thought it might be good to kick out a post with a couple of my plans if only for accountability to myself.

1. Growth in Bible Study - I've spent the past couple months struggling with the discipline to meet with God by reading his Word and praying. By God's grace, I've been convicted again of the importance of this practice and God has helped me to begin to reestablish this practice in my life. As the routine returns, I also want to deepen this time during the year by growing in prayer and in application of what I am reading.

I'm using the plan in D.A. Carson's book "For the Love of God Vol. 2" and reading in the ESV Study Bible. If I stick to the plan, I should get through the entire Bible at least once and some portions twice.

2. Back to Books - Similarly, I haven't spent as much time reading books other than the Bible either. It is a lot harder to find time to sit down and read than in the past. I read a great post by a well-read blogger who explained how little time one has to spend reading each day to read a large number of books in a year. So I've started to find small bits of time every day to find a bit and it still surprises me how fast you can get through a book reading just a chapter a day.

I've got several book goals for this year. I intend to finish a couple big books that I've been meaning to read for awhile and finally finish a few books I've started multiple times. Four books I intend to read this year are "The Christian in Complete Armor" by William Gurnall, "Institutes of the Christian Religion" by John Calvin, "Desiring God" by John Piper and "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer Adler. I'd obviously like to read some other things as well, but I hope to get all these books in for sure.