Top 10 God Exalting Books

In light of the Christmas season being upon us, I wanted to share what I consider the top 10 God exalting books. As we approach Christmas Day, it's important to not only remember, but realize the significance of who God is and his holiness. Special thanks to The Cripplegate (cripplegate.com) for originally compiling this list. I hope and pray that you will pick up one of these books, along with God's Word, and rediscover out personal and amazing God.

• The Pleasures of God – John Piper

"God's delight in being God is not sung the way it should be, with wonder and passion, in the worship places of the word. And we are the poorer and weaker for it. My hope and prayer in writing this book is that more and more people would meditate with me on the pleasures of God"

• The Knowledge of the Holy – A.W. Tozer

The Knowledge of the Holy by popular evangelical author and Christian mystic A.W. Tozer illuminates God's attributes—from wisdom, to grace, to mercy—and in doing so, attempts to restore the majesty and wonder of God in the hearts and minds of all Christians. A modern classic of Christian testimony and devotion, The Knowledge of the Holyshows us how we can rejuvenate our prayer life, meditate more reverently, understand God more deeply, and experience God's presence in our daily lives.

• The Pursuit of God – A.W. Tozer

The Pursuit of God is the enduring Christian classic written by renowned pastor and theologian A. W. Tozer. More than 65 years later, the words Tozer penned on a train from Illinois to Texas echo across the decades to resonate with power in the heart of anyone longing for a deeper experience with God. This devotional masterpiece is at once thought-provoking and spirit-enlivening, an invitation to think deeply about your faith even as you come alive to God's presence surrounding, sustaining and–yes–pursuing you. "This book is a modest attempt," Tozer wrote, "to aid God's hungry children so to find Him." If you are hungry, The Pursuit of God will lead you to the only One who can satisfy the soul.

• Knowing God – J.I. Packer

One of the top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals (Christianity Today, 2006)
Platinum Book Award, Evangelical Christian Publishing Association For over 40 years, J. I. Packer's classic has been an important tool to help Christians around the world discover the wonder, the glory and the joy of knowing God. Stemming from Packer's profound theological knowledge, Knowing God brings together two important facets of the Christian faith― knowing about God and also knowing God through the context of a close relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. Written in an engaging and practical tone, this thought-provoking work seeks to transform and enrich the Christian understanding of God.

• The Forgotten Trinity – James White

Discover Afresh the Living Truth of a Foundational Christian Belief The Trinity is a basic teaching of the Christian faith. It defines God's essence and describes how He relates to us. The Forgotten Trinity is a concise, understandable explanation of what the Trinity is and why it matters. It refutes cultic distortions of God. It shows how a grasp of this significant teaching leads to renewed worship and deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian. And amid today's emphasis on the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, The Forgotten Trinity is a balanced look at all three persons of the Trinity.

• The Attributes of God – A.W. Pink

The timeless appeal of this classic book, written by a preacher with a worldwide ministry during the first half of the twentieth century, demonstrates the deep hunger for a saving knowledge of God present in each generation. Arthur Pink sought to give readers not just a theoretical knowledge of God but pointed them toward a personal relationship of yielding to him and living according to his biblical precepts.
Pink's book explores attributes such as God's decrees, foreknowledge, sovereignty, holiness, grace, and mercy, among many others, all packaged in a style especially useful for pastors, teachers, and Bible students. Our God who is above all names cannot be found through human searching alone, Pink teaches, but can be known only as he is revealed by the Holy Spirit through his living Word.

• Systematic Theology – Wayne Grudem

The Christian church has a long tradition of systematic theology, that is, studying theology and doctrine organized around fairly standard categories such as the Word of God, redemption, and Jesus Christ. This introduction to systematic theology has several distinctive features: – A strong emphasis on the scriptural basis for each doctrine and teaching – Clear writing, with technical terms kept to a minimum – A contemporary approach, treating subjects of special interest to the church today – A friendly tone, appealing to the emotions and the spirit as well as the intellect – Frequent application to life – Resources for worship with each chapter – Bibliographies with each chapter that cross-reference subjects to a wide range of other systematic theologies.

• Communion with the Triune God – John Owen

Puritan theologian John Owen recognized the great need for every believer to understand the triune God. Communion with the Triune God revisits the truth presented by John Owen and challenges all believers to truly recognize and appreciate the ministry that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have in their lives. This work of John Owen encourages Christians to enjoy true communion with each person of the triune God.

• The Holiness of God – R.C. Sproul

Central to God's character is the quality of holiness. Yet, even so, most people are hard-pressed to define what God's holiness precisely is. Many preachers today avoid the topic altogether because people today don't quite know what to do with words like "awe" or "fear." R. C. Sproul, in this classic work, puts the holiness of God in its proper and central place in the Christian life. He paints an awe-inspiring vision of God that encourages Christian to become holy just as God is holy. Once you encounter the holiness of God, your life will never be the same.

• Uneclipsing the Son – Rick Holland

Christianity is the worship of Jesus Christ. If He is who the Bible says He is, and if He did what the Bible says He did, He is worthy of the exclusive, attention and focus pf our lives. Sadly, though, the Son gets crowded out by earthly things. Our hearts grow slack, our love runs cool, our worship is distracted. Even the treadmill of Christian activity can keep us ever unable to focus on the Author and Finisher of the race. We sip at puddles of sin a stone's throw from the Well of the water of life. Uneclipsing the Son aims at ending all this, bringing you face to face with the Christ of Scripture, the only one who can transform you just by knowing Him. Clear, biblical, compelling, Holland will drive you relentlessly to the conclusion that you must give yourself to the worship of this Jesus or forever stumble in the half-light of spiritual uncertainty and disaffection.

--
Corey & Kirsten Wells
Missionaries to Honduras
U.S. Msg. Phone: 503-877-6391
Honduras Phone: 504-9713-5650
ckwells1@gmail.com

A steadfast spirit

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you." (‭‭Psalm‬ ‭51:10-13‬ ‭NIV)

Each day I pray, I ask the Lord to search my heart to see if there is any sinful way in me and to lead me in his perfect will (Ps. 139:23-24). Like David, I want a pure heart before the Lord. It is only he that can give it, and it is only he who can give me a "steadfast spirit"—the ability and desire to keep pressing on. 

For what purpose? To teach others who do not know Jesus and God's grace so that they will turn to him. God's plans are so much greater than what we can see it our limited view. It's like looking through binoculars and only seeing the small area zoomed in. Sometimes God's plans don't seem right. "How could that be the best way Lord?" I sometimes ask... I have a limited view. 

Lastly, the part of the scripture above that glares at me is "restore to me the joy of your salvation..." Have I found joy on his salvation lately? If not, there is something spiritually awry. I should be full of joy knowing that he has saved me "to the uttermost" and there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God through Jesus Christ. When I have joy of my being saved and realize the depth of love extended to me, it should give me a willing spirit. When that happens, the result (overflow) should be telling others about this amazing thing that God, in his unending love, has done for me. What purpose it gives to know these things as truth!

A heart like David

David was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be king. He accepted this anointing as God's will but knew it wouldn't come without hardship. At the time David was young and Saul was king. As the story goes Saul persued David for many years to hunt him down and kill him. There was evil stored up in the heart of Saul, unlike David who was "a man after God's own heart." David was always kind to Saul and knew that if Saul had been anointed to be king before him (which he was) then he must honor God's decision to do so and honor Saul as king. This, of course, shaped David's future and that of Saul and his family.

In 2 Samuel 9 we read about David, who is now king over Israel years after Saul was killed, seeking to show kindness to Saul's family "for Jonathan's sake" (2 Samuel 9:1). David could have eliminated Saul's family, but that was not his motive of his heart. Instead he wanted to extend the love he had experienced from his close friend Jonathan (see 2 Samuel 1:26) to Jonathan's family. His mind was not on revenge, instead he wanted to show his gratitude.

What does my heart look like today? Do I seek to bless those who have wronged me or do I want revenge? Does my heart look like David's? 1 Samuel 13:14 declares he was a man after God's own heart. Am I a man after God's heart?

Resurrection... of a blog!

I have seen it many times... someone writes a blog and has the full intention of keeping it up-to-date. Well, then life "happens" and the blog is forgotten for a time or all-together. So I now join the ranks of those bloggers with good intentions...

The reason I am resurrecting this blog are many, but the main reason is I need a place I can journal my thoughts and findings of my journey of faith. I have been a Christian for 20+ years (I was 19 years old when I accepted Jesus as my Lord) and have been encouraged by others who have taken the time to write down what the Lord has done in their lives.

So after many years of absence, here we go again. Whether you call Jesus your Lord or not, I hope this will begin to be an encouragement to whoever reads and helps to stretch your faith in Jesus and/or bring you into a deeper understanding of who He is and who you are IN Him. I pray for your spiritual eyes to be opened. Blessings to you!

Reading "Called to Controversy"

I am excited about this next book I am reading as I have heard good things about it. I have read the first three chapters so far and it is becoming one of my favorites for how it is written and the content of the book. It's a biography written by the widow (Ruth Rosen) of Moishe Rosen, a Messianic Jew who founded the ministry Jews for Jesus. I look forward to posting a review in the next few weeks!

If you like these kinds of books (biography of the life of those who have led ministries and seen God move in miraculous ways), I suggest also reading No Compromise: The Keith Green Story, by Melody Green (Keith's widowed wife). It is told from her perspective, experiences and Keith's journal entries of his life and ministry.

Book Review: The Sacred Journey

The Sacred Journey
By Charles Foster
Thomas Nelson Publishers

"The penalty for wanting to be a settler is that you become one." –Charles Foster

That is one of the sentences in this book that could easily define its contents. The main focus of this book is that of our lives, as Christians, being on a moving journey, or "pilgrimage" as it's often described in this book. His writing was simple to follow, sometimes a little dry, and I didn't care for his style of humor. It took me nearly a year to read this book, mainly because it was difficult to read. I kept going back to books I was being pulled into because of their strong content and strong biblical references. This book lacked in this department, so the reason it took so long. It is my first book review with Thomas Nelson's "Book Sneeze" program and unfortunately it was a bad first choice.

Foster is an obviously educated and experienced person, albeit misguided. He makes a key point throughout this book that Jesus was a pilgrim. Jesus was not looking for a place to "settle" but was to move around assuming the role of a servant, spending his time with the unwashed travelers of the day. But that is exactly what I think, as Foster describes in this book, we as Christians should be. Unfortunately, Foster refers to many other "wonderful" religious practices of Buddhists, Muslims or Hindus among others. He spends a lot of time injecting his strange take on Scripture but not including much Scripture at all.

The very clear message of this book, which was made in a 'round about way, is to trust in God. What we NEED will be provided to us, not necessarily what we WANT. Bigger does NOT mean better. It is the distractions of this world that keep us from following Jesus on the true journey of life, the pilgrimage. As Christians, are we better off to be moving around or be settled in one place? On this point I do not quite agree with Foster as I believe everyone has a different "calling" to be wherever the Lord wills. That could be "settled" in a suburbia America, or in my case, could mean to go to a foreign country to share Christ with those who have not heard of Him. In either case, Foster seems to have it "out" for city living indicating that God was always punishing those in the cities. What? His theology is interesting to say the least.

The bottom line of this book is that Foster is trying to take something that is more metaphorical (pilgrims in a strange land) and make it literal (we must all literally be strangers and not settle). It doesn't take "long walks" or a literal journey to find God. That is the stuff all the other world religions are made of. God will never leave me or forsake me. God is wherever I go, and yes, there are times when I hear more clearly from him out in the country. But I hear Him just as often in the city when I seek Him.

I do not recommend this book and will probably throw it away as there are enough heretical statements in this book that I wouldn't want anyone seeking growth in their Christian walk to read it.

--------
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

One Minute Sermon

I recently came across a video of a gal who made up a rhyme/rap about one minute long where she lays out all that is needed to deal with today. It applies well to our entertainment centered American culture. I found it transcribed as well and wanted to post it here to remember and for others to read as well. Click on the link at the bottom of the post to see/download the video (right click to 'save as...').

------------

To be a survivor in this Amazing Race with the need for speed you need God’s Grace and if your desperate like housewives watching days of our lives, you can’t cope without hope and that is not on a soap. If you’re looking to Oprah or Dr. Phil you can shop non-stop or pop a pill, but the void won’t fill and the pain won’t kill until you love the one that hung on a hill.

Kicking back in your lazy boy easy chair watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, nah your not gonna find it there. No American Idol or Council Tribal has the final answer that will satisfy ya. C. S. I. ain’t got a clue. S.V.U. don’t know what to do Not the E R or the OC not those seen on a CD TV DVD or MP3 can save you and me.

CNN has got no Good News here’s a headline you must choose. It’s not a simple life Paris Hilton, It’s treading on thin ice living in sin. You can be an apprentice for Donald Trump or eat Fear Factor fast food from a dump. You can be a heavy hitter or wheel of fortune winner or a Fox news no spin spinner or flat out sinner but you better check this life that you’re livin’ and make sure your sins are forgiven.

I bet ya 50 cent Elvis done come and went, and eventually every Black-eyed-pea, Gwen Stefani, P-Diddy and Britney. Every wanna-be on M T V with their Icy Bling, every Dixie Chick that Sings, they all gonna see the king of kings.

I don’t care if you’re J-Lo, Leno or Bono. One thing you gotta know. Some day you’re gonna die, Bro. Then Where are you gonna go? Hey, I’m not talking some punk junk that is irrelevant. Like your Grandma’s church from way back when. It’s not some preacher feature on T B N. that you need to be liking or listening.

The real superstar is Jesus Christ. He’s the way, He’s the truth and the life. One day he’s gonna split the sky. He is the brightest light and the highest high and so what I came to say and what I’m telling you is don’t buy that stupid stuff they be selling ya. it’s all designed to fill your head and waste your space until your dead.

Here’s the bottom line in my rhyme. Give your life to God while there’s still time.

See video here