Reading Together

Reading Together, our ladies reading club has had an extended hiatus since we finished our last book back in July 2020. But with the arrival of Spring has come renewed enthusiasm for starting a new book! 

The main idea behind the reading club is to encourage ladies of all ages to pick up a book they would not normally get through and enjoy some online encouragement and discussion as we slowly read through it together. It is run as an online blog that can only be viewed by members who have subscribed (which is free), and those who are members also get a bonus discount on the current book. If you like the look of the books you see in the image, (these are the ones we have read so far) then how about joining us for our next one? Just contact us to find out how.

Reading Together

Our online reading club for ladies is just about to start a new book - so now would be a great time to join! Would you like to read more? Do you have a growing pile of half finished books? Let us help you read a book from cover to cover! We read just a few chapters every couple of weeks and discuss each chapter on the blog - it's all private as the blog is only accessible to subscribers.
Our new book is Why the Reformation Still Matters by Michael Reeves & Tim Chester. This is a contemporary look at the importance of the doctrines underpinning the Reformation 500 years ago. Please click on the link to read more about the book (including a blog review), and contact me if you want to sign up to the reading club. Don't forget, reading club members get a discount!

Reading Together - our virtual reading club

Our virtual reading club has now been running for six years! Wow! I trust it has encouraged some ladies to read books they wouldn't otherwise have stuck with - it certainly has me. That was the original aim, not to have a light read, but a serious look at some authors we would otherwise find difficult to get through.  We've read Luther, Owen, Watson, Krummacher and more.  We are just about to start a new title and anyone who wants to join us would be very welcome to get in touch.
Alexander Whyte is probably best known for his series of books on Bible Characters, but Lord, Teach us to Pray is a study of the prayers of various Bible characters and also a look at the subject of prayer itself.  We will be starting this book in a couple of weeks.
The book club is for ladies only and runs via a members only blog so all discussions are private.  Please email if you would like more info.
Lorna

New resolution to read more?

Have you made a New Year's Resolution to read more? If you have, now would be a great time to join our online reading club Reading Together (ladies only).  We are just about to get going on a new book - Spiritual Mindedness by John Owen.  The idea of the reading club is to support and encourage each other to read books that we would normally find difficult or too time consuming.  Just a chapter or 2 every couple of weeks is all we ask - and you can keep up with everyone else by checking back on the blog & reading the posts and comments.  The blog is for subscribed members only. Have a look at the details on this new book and just send me an email (lorna@christianbookshopossett.co.uk) if you fancy joining in.
Lorna

Reading Together - our online ladies reading club

The time has come for our ladies online reading club to start a new book so I am canvassing for new members (you can tell an election's coming!).  We are starting on Krummacher, the well known F W Krummacher who wrote the popular books 'Elijah the Tishbite', 'Elisha a Prophet for our Times' and 'The Suffering Saviour'.  The book we have chosen is not so well known - 'Christ and His People' is an exposition of  Christ's life and the beginnings of his Church here on earth.  Krummacher writes in his typically colourful and highly devotional style and there is much thought provoking application. Anyone ladies keen to read something that might be a bit tougher than most books they would naturally pick up, with gentle support and encouragement along the way should get in touch with me.  The online reading club is run as a member's only blog, our members vary from old to young (it's all relative!) and are spread around the world so don't think you won't fit in - we would love to have new members, it all helps add to the discussions!

Reading Together - A Glorious High Throne

We are almost halfway through the current book of the online reading club 'Reading Together'.  There are some rich pickings here from Edgar Andrews on the book of Hebrews.
On the subject of eternal intercession (Hebrews 7:25) he says...

Christ saves finally, completely, perfectly and utterly.  Here is no partial salvation, as many teach, leaving man to complete a work that Christ began.  Here is no temporary salvation that can be lost through neglect or inadvertence.  There would be no point in Christ's everlasting intercession if it did not secure an equally complete and durable salvation.  A perfect Saviour must provide a perfect salvation for all 'who come to God through him'.  But let us be sure that we do come through Christ, for he alone is 'the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him'.

Quoted from Chapter 21 'A Perfect Saviour' in A Glorious High Throne - Hebrews Simply Explained by Edgar Andrews (Welwyn Commentary Series).
If the sound of an online reading club (ladies only) is tempting, drop me a line and I can get you signed up.
Lorna

A Glorious High Throne

Our virtual reading club is getting on well with A Glorious High Throne (Edgar Andrews). I have been catching up with some reading this evening and this is too good a section not to quote!

It is central to the message of Hebrews that Christ's work of deliverance is complete.  Christ is the perfect Saviour because he saves perfectly.  There is nothing partial, conditional, or temporary about the salvation that is in Christ. Nothing is left to chance. Nothing is left to man's fallible 'decision' or 'commitment'. Jesus' work of atonement is a finished work of grace that has completely and eternally saved his elect.  Their entrance into 'glory' is assured. 

If you like the sound of that and want to join the club, please let me know (ladies only).

Lorna

Let's Read Together

I couldn't let our reading club get started on a new book without trying to drum up some more members... any ladies out there who wish they read more? I'm guessing there are lots of ladies out there who feel like they don't have the time to read. Yep, me too!  That is precisely the reason we have a ladies only virtual reading club.  We are keen to encourage and support you in your reading by slowly reading through books that you would probably struggle to get through otherwise. The reading club is a members-only blog so our discussions are away from prying eyes and we can comment freely.
For the first time I can announce that we are reading a contemporary author! After reading through books by Thomas Watson, Martin Luther, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Richard Sibbes it is going to be quite a change to read a book by someone who is still living!
A Glorious High Throne is a commentary on Hebrews in the Welwyn Commentary Series.  Written by Edgar Andrews it has been highly recommended to me.  After a sneaky peek into the first couple of chapters I can see that the writing style is easy and direct.  Above all Christ is exalted.
Please let me know if you would like to join in ( lorna@christianbookshopossett.co.uk ), we have nearly 40 members from across the world but more are always welcome.
Lorna

Humility and Pride

Our virtual reading club 'Reading Together' has arrived at the final chapter of its fourth book 'The Bruised Reed' by Richard Sibbes.  There are some cracking sections in these final chapters. How about this for a quote to ponder...

"Nothing is stronger than humility, which goes out of itself, or weaker than pride, which rests on its own foundation"

If you're not already a member, don't miss out on the next book.  Drop me an email & I'll sign you up - we would love to have new members & even more discussion. 

Lorna

Prayer

Our online reading club is racing through its current book 'The Bruised Reed' by Richard Sibbes.  In chapter 7 'Help for the Weak', Sibbes has encouragements for us to pray...

A Christian complains he cannot pray. 'Oh, I am troubled with so many distracting thoughts, and never more than now!' But has he put into your heart a desire to pray? Then he will hear the desires of his own Spirit in you. God can pick sense out of a confused prayer.  These desires cry louder in his ears than your sins. 'Oh, but is it possible', thinks the misgiving heart, 'that so holy a God should accept such a prayer?' Yes, he will accept that which is his own, and pardon that which is ours.  There is never a holy sigh, never a tear we shed, which is lost.  By prayer we learn to pray.

If you fancy joining the club (ladies only), please let me know.
Lorna

Sibbes Quote...

Can't argue with this principle!

It would be a good contest amongst Christians, one to labour to give no offence, and the other to labour to take none.

Taken from Chapter 4 of The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes, the current book of our virtual reading club. If you fancy joining the club, just drop me an email.
Lorna

Calling all ladies!

Our online ladies reading club is about to start a new book, so now would be a really good time to join!
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.

If you fancy joining, just drop me an email & I will register you on the blog.  The club is run on a members only blog so our comments and discussions can remain known only to us and there should be no concern about unwanted interference!
Another bonus is that you get a 15% discount on each reading club book...
Lorna

Martin Luther

I just noticed this Martin Luther quote on my calendar

'We no more earn heaven by good works than babies earn their food and drink by crying and howling'

It sounds like classic 'no beating about the bush' Luther to me & made me smile because I have just spent the last hour immersed in Luther's commentary on Galatians and it is full of comments like this. Our online ladies reading club is coming to the end of this commentary on Galatians, it has taken us over a year to steadily work through, but I for one have enjoyed getting to grips with this incredible author who went through so much in his efforts to reform the church. He is amazingly easy to read so don't be put off trying him out.  If you fancy joining our reading club please let me know... we will shortly be choosing a new book to tackle so this would be a good point to get involved.
Lorna

Reading Together

Do you ever start a book and struggle to finish it?  I certainly do.  This was my motivation for starting a virtual reading club 'Reading Together' nearly a year ago.  We have just come to the end of our second book which was The All-Sufficient God by Lloyd-Jones.  I wouldn't rate it as my favourite book by Lloyd-Jones but this doesn't mean there was nothing to gain by reading it.  Lloyd-Jones is always structured and straightforward to read and there was much to muse over and discuss with other members of the club.  Perhaps not as much detail to discuss as there was in our first book by Thomas Watson.  But then he was a Puritan... I need say no more!
So hopefully then, the group serves to bring together likeminded Christian ladies (sorry, no men allowed) and encourages them to read books they would normally struggle to get through.  I have definitely found it helpful and am looking forward to getting going on the next book, which is...

Commentary on Galatians by Martin Luther.  No, don't groan at the thought of some unwieldy tome... together we can read through this book, enjoy it and profit from discussion about it.  This is my sincere hope and prayer.  Please let me know if you are interested in signing up to the virtual reading club - we would love to have you on board!
Lorna

Happy New Year!

By the grace of God the shop has survived another year when so many independent Christian bookshops have had to close, and we look forward to continuing in this ministry for as long as He sees fit.  Many thanks go to our loyal customers who have stuck with us through this recession even when we are unable to compete with the price cuts of the bookselling giants.  
We do make reductions when we can and it is always worth checking our sale pages to see the many bargains that can be had. We are now selling our 2011 calendars half price and some remaining Christmas cards are also reduced.
The ladies reading club is just starting its second book so for anyone interested in joining, now is a good time.  This book is more contemporary than the last and is by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  If your new year's resolution is to read more, then the club is perfect for helping you achieve this. Let me know if you are interested.
Lorna

Reading Together

Those of you who receive our monthly bulletins will be aware of our plans to set up a reading club.  This is now up and running - we have a new blog called 'Reading Together' which is limited to subscribed members only.  Initially the club is also limited only to ladies - sorry chaps.  This is essentially because I am facilitating it and not Jeremy.  If our gentlemen customers would be interested in joining a reading club they need to pester Jeremy and he may be persuaded to set one up. 
The first book we have chosen to read together is 'The Great Gain of Godliness' by Thomas Watson in the Puritan Paperback series.  This is subtitled 'practical notes on Malachi 3:16-18'.  The aim is to read a planned portion of the book over a 2 week period and make comments and discussion points on the blog.  Our vision is that this will encourage a discipline of regular reading of books at a higher level than 'easy-reading', at the same time as being supportive and edifying to each involved. Another plus is that you get a discount on the book being read if you buy it from us! 
I for one am excited to be getting going on my copy of the book and am hoping that lots of you will join us (first come, first served - the blog is limited to 100 members!).
Drop me a line if you want to know more,
Lorna