Katie and I are going to try something this year called “Peaking with the Puritans.” Most people think of the Puritans as a rather dour lot, spending their time burning witches and stitching scarlet letters. Historical perspective these days is no more accurate than a game of telephone in a knitting circle. Puritanism was a revival of true religion (in the best sense of the word) that came out of the Reformation. It was a time of intense persecution. Out of this fiery revival a corpus of powerful, English-language, Spirit-saturated writings have been left to us. The Banner of Truth has been re-publishing the best of these writings in various forms for years. They have a series called Puritan Paperbacks.
Peaking is a reference to a word my friends and I used to throw around to refer to intense spiritual experiences. We misappropriated the term. I now see that I didn’t know what a peak experience was at that time.
So, consider this an invitation to join us for monthly discussions of these great works. I ripped off this idea from a guy named Timmy Brister. We’re going to get together for breakfast at our house. Please let us know if you want to join us. Here is the schedule for the first three books. If things are going well, we’ll keep going. If not, then I hope you find your way at some other time to this treasure-trove of Christian Hedonism.
January 22nd – The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel
February 26th – The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes
March 26th – All Things for Good by Thomas Watson
Hope to see you soon and Happy New Year!
Shalom,
Jay