Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

2 December, 2006   comments: (0) Resource Spotlight   Must-Have Puritan Gift Items I've recently run-across a couple of important Puritan items that would be great for anyone who's had their fill of modern Christianity, and longs for a time when Christianity contained less milk and more meat. With Christmas coming up, I'll even answer the question for you "would the Puritans themselves want you to buy these items for that special someone for Christmas?". The answer might surprise you. For most Christians today, the closest they will come to buying something Puritan-related, are these shirts and these vitamins. But that's not at all what I'm about to suggest. One of the items that I want to recommend, is the new Joel Beeke book entitled Meet The Puritans. I've had mine for a couple of weeks now and it's already one of my favorite books. It's like an encyclopedia of who's who in the Puritan era. You can look up the name of many of the most noteworthy Puritans and it will give you a complete run-down on them. It tells you about their life, the times that they lived in, and it even tells you about their most important writings. You can use this as a guide to help you determine which Puritan books that you might want to read. In my case, I went right for Jeremiah Burroughs who is my favorite Puritan author, to see if he had written any books that I was not aware of. Joel Beeke's new book would be an excellent history book for your library, and would be useful in guiding you into what Puritan literature to pursue. This next item is only available for a limited time (through December 18th) at the discounted price of $25. From the aPuritansMind.com website, it's a computer CD (DVD) containing much of the contents of that site, plus a lot more. Dr. Matthew McMahon is giving away the farm on this one. It also contains MP3 audio lectures on a variety of Puritan topics including creeds, confessions, and catechisms. My favorite thing on this CD is the audio lectures entitled "Who Are The Puritans?", which teach you about some of the noteworthy names in that era including Francis Turretin, John Owen, Thomas Manton, John Bunyan, and Christopher Love. For Jeremiah Burroughs, there is a whole lecture on his book Gospel Worship; a book which I think is an essential antidote today's trendy church music. Just those lectures (audio MP3's) alone would be worth the $25, but you get a lot more (see the complete list). It's also wonderful just to listen to Matthew McMahon's infectious love for the Puritans; he is a tremendous blessing. As promised though, I will wrap up this post by answering the question: "would the Puritans want you to buy these items for someone for Christmas?" The answer is: Absolutely not! The Puritans did not feel that Christmas is a holiday that Christians should celebrate. You can learn more about that on the CD too! Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.555   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism