The club started back in the summer of 2010 with a vision to help and encourage a discipline of regular reading amongst those who struggle to get through a book (maybe because of time constraints or motivation). We wanted to push readers beyond the 'easy reading' level to read books that they wouldn't normally pick up. The idea was that through discussion and feedback via the club, a book could be worked through at a gentle pace.
Well, that was the original plan! Here we are 2 years and 3 books later (yes, only 3 books - it is a gentle pace!) and I can certainly say that I have read 3 books I probably wouldn't have stuck with if it hadn't been for the club. We started off with the Puritan Thomas Watson and read 'Great Gain of Godliness', then we moved forward a few hundred years to Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones on 'The All-sufficient God', we followed that by retreating into the Reformation era and have just finished Martin Luther's 'Commentary on Galatians'.
For our next challenge we are heading back to the Puritans. 'The Bruised Reed' was written in 1630 by Richard Sibbes and is a highly regarded treatise on Isaiah 42:3 'A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth'. I was convinced that this was the book for us when I read this recommendation by Lloyd-Jones:
I shall never cease to be grateful to Richard Sibbes who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil... I found at that time that Richard Sibbes, who was known in London in the early seventeenth century as the 'Heavenly Doctor Sibbes' was an unfailing remedy... The Bruised Reed quieted, soothed, comforted, encouraged and healed me.
I am sure that many of us often feel 'overworked and badly overtired' so I pray that this book will also be a profitable remedy to us too.
Another bonus is that you get a 15% discount on each reading club book...
Lorna
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