We are regularly exposed to tragedy. Sometimes these are tragedies played out on a television screen thousands or tens of thousands of miles away and other times they are tragedies in our neighborhoods or our local churches. Strangely, some tragedies on the far side of the world make indelible impressions upon us while tragedies next door barely affect us. It has been my observation that the tragedies that make the deepest impression upon us tend to be the ones that we can most relate to. In some tragedies we see and feel ourselves and our own friends or family, and these are the ones that grieve us, the ones that move us to prayer or action or tears.

On the evening of May 6, Tim Bosma of Ancaster, Ontario, was doing the most mundane of things—he was attempting to sell his truck. He had advertised that his 2007 Dodge Ram pickup was for sale and two men had responded. His wife watched the truck pull out of the driveway as Tim took them on a test drive. She would never seen her husband again.

Eight days later police confirmed that they had found Bosma's remains in a field, burned beyond recognition. Dellen Millard and Mark Smich, both residents of nearby suburbs of Toronto, have been charged with first-degree murder, but no one has been able to determine why they killed Bosma or why they would even want to. Millard was independently wealthy and had no clear financial need to steal a 6-year-old truck. In fact, just a day after he allegedly murdered Bosma he purchased a condo for over $600,000 in cash. Smich has a more extensive police record, but little that would obviously place him on the path to kidnapping, forcible confinement, murder, and the desecration of a body.

Bosma's murder is a crime that makes no sense. It is a crime that has resonated with residents of Toronto and all of Ontario and it remains front-page and headline news across the city and province. And I am convinced that the story is resonating because Tim was so ordinary, so out-of-place in a situation like this. He was a normal guy doing a normal thing when he fell into the hands of evil people intent on doing him the worst kind of harm. Men look at him and realize that it could as easily have been them; women look at his broken-hearted wife and know that her anger could be their anger, her grief their grief, her loss their loss.

We can all relate to Tim, to his context, to his family, even though few of us ever met the man. He was a member of Ancaster Christian Reformed Church, a congregation that meets just down the street from where I lived for many years. His sister was a classmate at Ancaster High School. His friends were our friends. He was the guy who moved my in-law's air conditioner when they renovated and the guy who just a few weeks ago was renovating the home of some friends from church. I didn't know him, but I know so many people like him. I'm like him. He and I are not the kind of people who get inexplicably caught up in a crime like this one. These things happen to people who bring it upon themselves, not good, ordinary, unremarkable people.

It was back in 2007 that I had an idea that genuinely changed my life. I wanted to read some of the classics of the Christian faith, but I knew that without some measure of accountability I would never have the self-discipline to make it happen. I realized that this accountability could come by reading classics together in community. I decided to launch a reading program called Reading Classics Together.

In the years since this program began we’ve read some amazing classics from years gone by and from the present time. These include titles like Holiness by J.C. Ryle, Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen, The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards, The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul, and The Cross of Christ by John Stott. These books and others like them have benefited me immensely and I know the same is true of those who have read along with me.

It is time to embark on a new reading project and it only seems right that we should go back to the Puritans. We’ve read Owens, Burroughs, Sibbes and Bunyan. Now it’s time to move to Thomas Brooks and his classic work Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.

In their book Meet the Puritans, Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson say, “This book offers sorely needed lessons on the subtleties of Satan’s devices.”

Brooks describes twelve of Satan’s devices and their remedies, then focuses on eight devices Satan uses to keep believers from using the means of grace. He provides remedies for those devices that keep saints in a sad, doubting condition. Finally, he provides remedies for the abuse of riches, for pride of learning, for divisions among the gody, and for the excuse of ignorance.

They close by saying, “We greatly need the guidance Brooks provides in this book. Though Satan’s tools may change over the centuries, his devices remain constant; hence, this classic will never be outdated.”

That sounds like exactly the kind of book I (and you!) need to read. So here’s the plan:

• Get a copy of the book ASAP.
• Start reading it.
• Visit this site on June 6.

I will share my first article on Thursday, June 6. This will reflect on the introductory matter and the brief section entitled “The Proof of the Point.” (The week after we will begin to look at the devices Brooks draws out.) After June 6 I will share one article each Thursday until the book is complete, something that will likely take about 10 or 12 weeks.

All you need to do in order to participate is get a copy of the book and begin reading.

The book is available in print (Westminster Books, Banner of Truth, Grace & Truth Books; Reformation Heritage), Kindle (Amazon) and HTML (alternate). There are various electronic editions at about a dollar each, and some may be better quality than others.

If you’re going to read along with me, why don’t you just leave a comment below so I can get a gauge on interest.

The Big Picture - The Big Picture has a gallery of photos of the devastation in Oklahoma. Also, these before and after pictures are startling and display the power of the storm.

Modern Parables 2 - I have often expressed my appreciation for the Modern Parables series of films. Well, they are now using Kickstarter to try to fund a second series of films. Check it out and consider being part of it! (And if you’ve never checked out the first series, you should.)

The Sensuous Christian - Here’s a quote from R.C. Sproul. It tells about a book he’s almost written several times.

The Case for Man/Woman Marriage - This is a great little video that gives a case for maintaining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. If there’s a problem with it, it’s simply that this is an issue won and lost on the emotional, not the logical, level.

King Solomon’s Commencement Address - I read yesterday that not one of the Ivy League schools has a conservative giving the commencement address this year. Well, maybe they should have asked King Solomon. Joe Carter speculates on what Solomon would tell them.

50 Common Misquotations - Here are 50 common misquotations you should stop using.

It must not content us to take our bodies to church if we leave our hearts at home. —J.C. Ryle

Just about every Christian has memorized the closing verses of Galatians and Paul's description of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is the character of the man or woman who has been justified by grace through faith.

Yet as we review the list, and especially as we review it slowly and prayerfully, we may find ourselves growing weary and discouraged by how little of that fruit we see. We are still angry at times, still struggling with self-control, still not nearly as gentle as Jesus Christ was and is.

Paul's metaphor of the "fruit" of the Spirit can help us, though. Here are five things that are true of fruit trees and, therefore, true of the fruit of the Spirit.

1. Growth is Gradual. We are an impatient people accustomed to instant gratification. But fruit grows slowly. A fruit tree grows gradually and over many years of careful and deliberate cultivation. If you purchase a sapling apple tree today, a sapling which is already more than a year old and well established, and if you plant it in the right climate zone and in fertile soil, and if there are other trees nearby that can help pollinate it, and if you care for it exactly as you should, it will probably be close to 5 years before you see the first apple dangling from the end of a branch and many years beyond that before it is at its top production, bearing the most and best fruit. Trees are tended carefully, pruned deliberately, and loved patiently until they bear the best fruit. Our growth in character is also far more gradual than we may like but the patience that is to mark our lives first marks God himself; he is patient with us as we grow toward maturity.

2. Growth is Inevitable. A healthy fruit tree that has been lovingly tended will bear fruit. It is inevitable. It is equally inevitable that the Christian indwelled by the Holy Spirit will and must bear fruit. No matter what the Christian’s life is like when he is first saved, that fruit will grow and display itself. The inevitability of fruit challenges every person who professes faith to examine his life to ask whether the Spirit’s fruit is present there. While we are saved by faith and not fruit, the fact remains that faith necessarily produces fruit. The growth is inevitable where there is life.