Puritan Reading Challenge Continues!

For those of you who are keeping up, it is now February. I hope that you've finished Richard Sibbes' The Bruised Reed. I confess that I am a few pages short, but I will finish it within the week. It is my second time through the book, and I confess that it has blessed me more the second time through than the first.

The next book we'll read is John Flavel's The Mystery of Providence. I am stoked about it. Hopefully, it will help answer a couple of the "noodle burner" questions about God's orchestration of all things. Hang in there! Keep reading! And if you have a favorite quote from your reading of Sibbes, why don't you share it in the comment section?

Wisdom from Richard Sibbes

Occasionally, I like to go back and peruse a good book. This nugget of wisdom displays the beauty of Sibbes language and the great mystery and comfort of ministry. Hope you'll enjoy it:

We feel by experience the breath of the Spirit go along with the breath of the ministers. For the reason the apostle knits these two together: 'Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings' (1 Thess. 5:19, 20). Nathan, by a few words, blew up the decaying sparks in David. Rather than that God will suffer his fire in us to die, he will send some Nathan or other, and something always is left in us to join with the Word, as of the same nature with it; as a coal that has fire in it will quickly gather more fire to it. Smoking flax will easily take fire.

This is from his most excellent book, The Bruised Reed. It is an excellent resource for those struggling in the faith, and it is a great rebuke for those of us who tend to be impatient with the struggles of others.