John Ploughman

Welcome to John Ploughman. I hope that this site will be a place of resource and encouragement.

Subscribe in a reader

Shop For Books Here

Books I am reading-

Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This enduring collection of twenty-one sermons by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, each originally delivered at Westminster Chapel in London, carefully and compassionately analyzes an undeniable feature of modern society from which Christians have not escaped—spiritual depression.  “Christian people,” writes Lloyd-Jones, “too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and absence of joy. There is no question at all but that this is the main reason why large numbers of people have ceased to be interested in Christianity.”  Believing the Christian joy was one of the most potent factors in the spread of Christianity in the early centuries, Lloyd-Jones not only lays bare the causes that have robbed many Christians of spiritual vitality but also points the way to the cure that is found through the mind and spirit of Christ.

Communion With God by John Owen.

In 1657, John Owen produced one of his finest devotional treatrises: probably originating from the substance of a series of sermons. He examines the Christian’s communion with God as it relates to all three members of the trinity. He assures that every Christian does have communion with God, no-one is excluded and that this communion takes place distinctly with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our relationship with…

• God the Father is primarily through love and faith.
• God the Son is through fellowship & grace.
• God the Holy Spirit is primarily through comfort and sanctification.

This was a controversial work in ecclesiastical circles of the 17th century. Twenty years after its publication, the rational ecclesiastical elite were scoffing at it’s contents. Owen strongly defended the ideas within this book, and history has shown him to be right! It is a classic of Christian devotional thought that still influences the church today. This is the orginal text with a new layout and is fully subtitled which makes it more accessible to a new generation of readers!

What Jesus Demands from the World by John Piper

“This is now my favorite book by John Piper. In the best tradition of Adolf Schlatter’s Do We Know Jesus? and his `hermeneutic of perception.’ What Jesus Demands from the World has changed my life and will certainly change yours because it is based on the pure words of Jesus as revealed in the four Gospels. A must-read for every follower of Christ. ” Andreas J. Kostenberger, Editor, Journal of the Evangelical Society, Professor of New Testament and Director of Ph. D. Studies, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Jonathan Edwards and Personal Holiness Page - Jonathan Edward’s life was marked by a resolve to be holy. This page is dedicated to a 4 part series of how Edwards tailored his life to be one of personal holiness and glorifying to God.

We Shall See Him and Be Like Him Page - There is much literature today on how to defeat sin in one easy formula. This does not seem to be what Scripture explains the fight against sin to be. This page is a series dedicated to fighting sin through the habit of meditating on the Person and glory of Jesus Christ.

Personally - My actual name is John Starke, not John Ploughman. John Ploughman is a reference to a book C. H. Spurgeon once wrote. My interests are theology, the Bible, Church History, reading the Puritans, and baseball. I am married to a beautiful woman named Jena who is widely famous for her cooking and baking skills. I am a father to a little girl named Corinne, who quickly becomes far more popular than her mom and dad whenever she enters a room and to an expected boy on January 18, 2008. Some say that you can learn a lot about a person by taking a peek at their library. You take a peek at My Library and see a list of (not exhaustive) books that I have enjoyed reading and would heartily recommend. There are a lot of bad books in my library that I have wasted time reading and I don’t want to waste your time by showing them to you. So this is a list of some of my favorites. I have not updated it fully, but I am getting there.

Suggested Audio - Together for the Gospel 2006 is now online and free. Do your heart some good and download and listen.