Books You Would Recommend And Why?

[Mark Kisla]

How To Be Born Again, by Billy Graham
It was so simple ( I was embarassed to buy it) but very encouraging. It reconfirmed what the assembly caused me to doubt about salvation.
 Getting "back to basics" after leaving the assembly was the best thing I could have done.

[M2]

Philip Yancey is an excellent author.

1. What's so Amazing About Grace

2. The Jesus I Never Knew

3. Soul Survivor - How My Faith Survived the Church.
From Back cover:
   "I became a writer, I now believe, to sort out and reclaim words used and misused by the Christians of my youth,"  Philip Yancey says. "These are the people who ushered me into the kingdom. In many ways they are why I remain a Christian today, and I want to introduce them to other spiritual seekers."
   How did Philip Yancey manage to survive spiritually despite early encounters with a racist, legalistic church that he now views as almost cultic? In this, his most soul-searching book yet, he probes that very question. He tells the story of his own struggle to reclaim belief, interwoven with inspiring portraits of notable people from all walks of life, whom he calls his spiritual directors. Soul Survivor is his tribute to thirteen remarkable individuals, mentors who transformed his life work. Yancey provides fresh glimpses of the lives and faith journeys of each one. From the scatterbrained journalist G. K. Chesterton to the tortured novelists Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to contemporaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Annie Dillard, and Robert Coles, Yancey gives inspiring portraits of those who modeled for him a life-enhancing rather than a life-constricting faith.
   Soul Survivor offers illuminating insights that will enrich the lives of the veteran believers and cautious seekers alike.

[Oscar]

Philip Yancey is an excellent author.

1. What's so Amazing About Grace

2. The Jesus I Never Knew

3. Soul Survivor - How My Faith Survived the Church.
From Back cover:
   "I became a writer, I now believe, to sort out and reclaim words used and misused by the Christians of my youth,"  Philip Yancey says. "These are the people who ushered me into the kingdom. In many ways they are why I remain a Christian today, and I want to introduce them to other spiritual seekers."
   How did Philip Yancey manage to survive spiritually despite early encounters with a racist, legalistic church that he now views as almost cultic? In this, his most soul-searching book yet, he probes that very question. He tells the story of his own struggle to reclaim belief, interwoven with inspiring portraits of notable people from all walks of life, whom he calls his spiritual directors. Soul Survivor is his tribute to thirteen remarkable individuals, mentors who transformed his life work. Yancey provides fresh glimpses of the lives and faith journeys of each one. From the scatterbrained journalist G. K. Chesterton to the tortured novelists Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to contemporaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Annie Dillard, and Robert Coles, Yancey gives inspiring portraits of those who modeled for him a life-enhancing rather than a life-constricting faith.
   Soul Survivor offers illuminating insights that will enrich the lives of the veteran believers and cautious seekers alike.

Marcia,

Whoever wrote that back cover blurb needs his head examined!  Gilbert K. Chesterton was SCATTERBRAINED???

Gilbert Chesterton was an English intellectual who converted to Catholicism and  spent 40 years standing up for Christianity among the "intellectual" circles of England and USA.

His "The Everlasting Man" book about Christ is masterful, to say the least.  His biographies of Aquinas and Augustine are also excellent.

He wrote a series of short detective stories which are known as the "Father Brown" series.  Brown is an old priest who exemplifies good heartedness and wisdom, as well as a profound understanding of evil.  He solves many of the mysteries by relying on a Biblical view of man.

Scatterbrained indeed.  

God bless,
Thomas Maddux
Gasbag in Chief

[Oscar]

Here is a book that I highly recommend.  It was a great help to me in getting my head out of deeper life mysticism...or maybe getting deeper life mysticism out of my head.

Decision Making and the Will of God

By Gary Friesen

God bless,

Thomas Maddux

[Recovering Saint]

George MacDonald (1824-1905)–Michael R. Phillips, Editor – “The Curate’s Awakening”.

I have started reading it. The novel has very deep spiritual understanding. The novel is the first in a trilogy that deals with people who have similar problems as both leaders and followers in the Assembly. It shows people doubting their beliefs and leaders who are not what they appear to be who are ill prepared to handle the responsibilities. The book shows how now that they are in a place of responsibility they feel compelled to do something. George MacDonald has written these books to emphasize grace a sense of the loving Father, a teaching he did not find taught at the time he was around. My apologies to any who adhere to Calvanist beliefs; at the time of his writing he had not seen a good example set by the people in his church. I don't know enough about Calvanism to agree or disagree I am still learning.

http://www.theromancereadersconnection.com/reviews/macdonaldgeorge1502.html

Quote from introduction:

<begin quote>
………

George MacDonald often seemed to poke fun at organized religion. Christianity in England and Scotland during the late nineteenth century was; despite pockets of revival and great fervency, locked for the most part into the constricting doctrines of Calvinism carried to the extreme. God’s wrath was severe and greatly to be feared; and woe to him who had not been born of the “chosen elect”.

In the midst of this legalism, MacDonald emerged with a warm view of a God of love and compassion. From the pulpit and the printed page, MacDonald proclaimed that God’s essence was love. It was not, according to the outspoken Scotsman, God’s will that any should perish, that any should be so far removed that He could not reach down and pour His love into him. MacDonald’s writings portrayed an entirely contrasting picture of God–a tender and compassionate Father. Much of today’s awareness of God’s loving fatherhood has sprung from evangelical pioneers like MacDonald-men who dared stand against the tide of commonly held views of God’s character.

People flocked to MacDonald and devoured his writings because of the deeper sense of truth they found in them. However, MacDonald was scorned by official churchdom. He had rebelled against the established order and refused to relax his attacks upon the Phariseeism within the church in which he had been raised and in which he had unsuccessfully sought to become a leader. Trying to influence the system from within, he had been ousted because of his strong views. Thus he took his case directly to the public. And their response to his books affirmed the truths he believed in his heart.

…..

To MacDonald, the attributes lived out by his title character comprise the essence of spirituality. It is not how much a person knows, but how willing one is to learn; not where one stands, but in which direction he is progressing; not what doubts he harbors; but into what truth such doubts eventually lead; not how spiritual one may appear in men’s eyes, but how much truth that one is seeking in the quietness of his own heart. In such views MacDonald’s forerunning influence on C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer and other contemporary writers can clearly be seen. For like these men, MacDonald stood strongly for a Christian faith which was reasonable and consistent. He firmly believed in the practice of that faith as the key to substantiating God’s existence.

…………

<end quote>

If you want to read it once again I am enjoying it.

PS: This book is now out of print.  ;DHOWEVER it is reprinted under a new name.

The Curate of Glaston (3-in-1)
George MacDonald ,  Michael Phillips

http://www.bethanyhouse.com/index.asp?inc=books&page=detail&book=1416


Hugh

[sfortescue]

I heard that George MacDonald believed in universal reconciliation.  Years ago I read a few of his stories.  They were very enchanting, but in retrospect, his excessive subjectivism leads me to distrust his opinions as not being well grounded in the truth.

[DennisP]

"Agape Leadership"

by Robert L. Peterson and  Alexander Strauch

[al Hartman]

DENNIS,

     How great to see you on board!!!  Don't be a stranger...

al

[BeckyW]

The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll, 2003 edition.

Have been reading it carefully for three weeks now.  So much applies re. assembly experience.
Interesting that for years I ignored this man's writings because of negative things assembly leadership said about him and the ev free church.  
Here's just one question he asks of ministers in a chapter called Are You Really Ministers of Grace?
'Do you let others go, or do you smother them...control them?'
OK, two more...
'Are the people you serve given the freedom to be who they are, or do you force them to be who you expect them to be?  Do you encourage, build up and affirm those to whom you minister?'

BTW, this whole book speaks to me as a mom, too, in my own small area of influence.

Becky

[Mark Kisla]

My wife and I have been having a encouraging time reading , 'The Purpose Driven Life' by Rick Warren.
It contains forty brief chapters that the author suggests to partner up with someone and read only one chapter a day.
It's been a great time.
The books introduction points out that in many instances God used forty days to prepare someone for His purposes;
Noahs life changed by forty days of rain
Moses transformed by forty days on Mount Sinai
The spies changed by forty days in the promised land
David changed by Golieth's forty day challenge.
Elijah changed  when God gave him  forty days strenth from a single meal.
Nineveh was tranformed when God gave them forty days to change.
Jesus was empowered by forty days in the wilderness.
The disciples were transformed by forty days with Jesus after his resurrection.
It's been fun, the average life span is 25,550 days. So forty days of going through a devotional and prayer with my wife is good.

[M2]

'A Wrinkle in Time'
L'Engle's book now is the basis for a made-for-television movie, which airs as a "Wonderful World of Disney" presentation on ABC May 10th, 2004 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
http://abc.go.com/movies/awrinkleintime.html

Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace are battling the Dark Thing while searching for Father. They travel to the planet Camazotz, which has given in to the Darkness, and is now controlled by IT. IT tries to persuade them to give up their individuality by telling them how he will look after them, make all their decisions and keep them from pain. He says that differences create problems in the world. Life will be easier for the children and they will be happier if they are all alike. However, the children argue that they like being different. They are disturbed by the sameness and conformation of the people in the village.
http://www.novelguide.com/AWrinkleInTime/

[outdeep]

I'm glad you liked Wrinkle in Time.  I know many people who have - it was a Newbery Award classic.  I'm surprised it took so long to be made into a movie.

I didn't enjoy it as much, but you have to realize that I don't care for the fantasy genre so much unless the literary rules are very tight.  I gave up listening to  Lord of the Rings half way through the 2nd book due to sheer boredom.

One fantasy book that I thought worked extremely well is "The Giver" by Lois Laurie.  For historical fiction, "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Sphere is excellent.  Both are Newbery award books.  

[M2]

The Giver is excellent.

Dave, you must listen to the BBC production of The Lord of the Rings, and/or watch the extended version of the movies on DVD.

Marcia

[al Hartman]

The Giver is excellent.

Dave, you must listen to the BBC production of The Lord of the Rings, and/or watch the extended version of the movies on DVD.

Marcia

     There really are some  l  o  n  g  sections in the second LOTR book that describe seemingly endless travels through dark & despondent lands.  The movie version keeps up the action pace & assumes, rather than portrays, the long dry spells.  The readers of the audio books put so much feeling into their voices that the worst of times seem to pass more swiftly.

al

[outdeep]

Yes, don't get me wrong.  J.R.R. Tolkein has a masterful work and I will never in my lifetime come close to what he has accomplished with LOTR.  I did see the movies and especially enjoyed the third one because by that time, I began to connect who the characters are.  The first two ran by me quickly with me obtaining about 50% comprehension (it has something to do with a ring, right?).

I enjoyed the voices in the audio version.  However, I found in those long stretches between the few critical action points that my mind would wonder off when they were in these endless conversations about where to go next.  I think if Tolkein had to face the rigorous modern editor, he would have ended up with a pamphlet.  I got to the point that I dreaded putting the cassette into the car stereo, opting rather for Rush Limbaugh.  After several weeks of this, I finally faced reality and said, "if I am really not enjoying this, why am I doing this?"

I am now listening to "The Green Mile" by Stephen King (I'm not big on horror either, but this isn't really a horror book) that is the only King I read other than his great book (profanity aside) on writing.   I am enjoying every minute.