Thursday, 8 May 2014

Martyn Lloyd-Jones year

Please be clear, I am not overly brainy.  In fact one of my teachers in primary school wrote, on a school report, that I was of 'average ability and below average standard'.  While I hope my standard has risen my ability remains the same.  Yet when I was about nineteen I discovered the joy of reading books and books have given me great pleasure ever since.

This year is my Martyn Llyod-Jones year.  I have embarked on a mission to read his fourteen commentaries (sermon compilations) on Romans.  I am actually really enjoying them.  I also want to read some other books by him - including his book on preaching, his 'Spiritual Depression', and his series on The Sermon on the Mount.

I am keeping a record of the books I am reading this year (I record books finished in the calendar year) and I give a star-rating to these books.  I want to mention two books that are getting five stars.

The first is Tim Keller's commentary on Romans 1-7 (I hope that it will be followed by a commentary on the second half of the epistle).  I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  It is concise, readable, evangelical and very insightful.  If I could make people read it, I would.  This book  would be on my prescribed reading lists for young and old Christians alike.

The second is Iain Murray's 'The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones'.  This 460-page book is smaller than Murray's previous two-volume biography on Lloyd-Jones (which consists on 1,200 pages).  It puts flesh on the writer of the sermons I am reading on Romans, it is perfectly paced, and is interesting enough to make look forward to tucking up in bed and reading before I sleep.  The subject matter might not be for everybody but if you are interested in 'The Doctor' this is excellent stuff.

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