<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:Courier New, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:#00407f;"><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tbody><tr><td width="100%" height="175px" bgcolor="#dff1fd" background="cid:1262918842141@dclient..mail.yahoo.com" valign="top"><table width="100%" height="100%" style="table-layout:fixed;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tbody><tr><td width="10"> </td><td valign="top" style="overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><table width="100%" style="white-space:normal;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td height="10"> </td></tr><tr><td><font face="Arial,sans-serif" size="2" color="#00407f" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:#00407f;"><div style="text-align:undefined;"><DIV></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: small" class=Apple-style-span>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>Some Thoughts On Reading</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>I've been thinking again about the importance of reading and writing. There are several reasons I write. One of the most personally compelling is that I read. I mean, my main spiritual sustenance comes by the <SPAN style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id=lw_1262918650_0 class=yshortcuts>Holy Spirit</SPAN> from reading. Therefore reading is more important to me than eating. If I went blind, I would pay to have someone read to me. I would try to learn Braille. I would buy "<SPAN style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id=lw_1262918650_1 class=yshortcuts>books on tape</SPAN>." I would rather go without food than go without books. Therefore, writing feels very lifegiving to me, since I get so much of my own life from reading.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>Combine this with what Paul says in Ephesians 3:3-4, "By revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_2 class=yshortcuts>mystery of Christ</SPAN>." The early church was established by apostolic writing as well as apostolic preaching. God chose to send his living Word into the world for 30 years, and his written Word into the world for 2000+ years.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>Think of the assumption behind this divine decision. People in each generation would be dependent on those who read. Some people, if not all, would have to learn to read -- and read well, in order to be faithful to God.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>So it has been for thousands of years. <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_3 class=yshortcuts>Generation</SPAN> after generation has read the insights of its writers. This is why fresh statements of old truth are always needed. Without them people will read error. <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_4 class=yshortcuts>Daniel Webster</SPAN> once said,</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>"If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; if God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy; if the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>Millions of people are going to read. If they don't read contemporary Christian books, they are going to read contemporary secular books. They will read. It is amazing to watch people in the airports. At any given moment there must be hundreds of thousands of people reading just in airports. One of the things we Christians need to be committed to, besides reading, is giving away solid books to those who might read them, but would never buy them.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>The <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_5 class=yshortcuts>ripple effect</SPAN> is incalculable. Consider this illustration:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>A book by <SPAN style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id=lw_1262918650_6 class=yshortcuts>Richard Sibbes</SPAN>, one of the choicest of the Puritan writers, was read by <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_7 class=yshortcuts>Richard Baxter</SPAN>, who was greatly blessed by it. Baxter then wrote his call to the Unconverted which deeply influenced <SPAN style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id=lw_1262918650_8 class=yshortcuts>Philip Doddridge</SPAN>, who in turn wrote The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. This brought the young <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_9 class=yshortcuts>William Wilberforce</SPAN>, subsequent English statesman and foe of slavery, to serious thoughts of eternity. <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_10 class=yshortcuts>Wilberforce</SPAN> wrote his Practical Book of Christianity which fired the soul of Leigh Richmond. Richmond, in turn, wrote <SPAN
style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; CURSOR: hand" id=lw_1262918650_11 class=yshortcuts>The Dairyman's Daughter</SPAN>, a book that brought thousands to the Lord, helping <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_12 class=yshortcuts>Thomas Chalmers</SPAN> the great preacher, among others.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>It seems to me that in a literate culture like ours, where most of us know how to read and where books are available, the Biblical mandate is: keep on reading what will open the Holy Scriptures to you more and more. And keep praying for Bible-saturated writers. There are many great old books to read. But each <SPAN style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #0066cc 1px dashed; CURSOR: hand" id=lw_1262918650_13 class=yshortcuts>new generation</SPAN> needs its own writers to make the message fresh. Read and pray. And then obey.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>-- <SPAN id=lw_1262918650_14 class=yshortcuts>John Piper</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span>If you don't know what to read this year, or if you have difficulty reading, ask me. -- Eric B.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium" class=Apple-style-span><BR></SPAN></DIV></SPAN>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both"></DIV>
<META content=on http-equiv=x-dns-prefetch-control><BR> </DIV>
<DIV><I>
<H3 class="post-title entry-title"><A href="http://eleventary.blogspot.com/2009/06/jc-ryles-lament.html" rel=nofollow target=_blank>J.C. Ryle's Lament</A> </H3>
<DIV class=post-header-line-1></DIV>
<DIV class="post-body entry-content"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#ff0000><B>"There is no duty in religion so neglected as private prayer." </B></FONT></DIV></I></DIV>
<DIV></DIV><!-- cg2.c204.mail.gq1.yahoo.com compressed/chunked Thu Jan 7 17:25:53 PST 2010 --></div></font></td></tr><tr><td height="10"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td><td width="10"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div></body></html>