Reading Good Books

This is a photo of my home office/study. I love books. I am reading through a couple of great books currently- Simply Christian by N.T. Wright and Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. I have been thinking of the books that have influenced me to place my trust in Christ.

Mark Twain remarked, "The person who doesn't read good books is no better off than the person who cannot read." Here are 5 books that have influenced my faith and also some short comments on why they have impacted me. I hope you read them.

1. Bible. Too many Christians never read the Bible. It is hard to understand why this is the case. Christians are to be people of the Word and to use this book as our life's guide. I encourage everyone- Christian and non-Christian- to read the Bible and study its contents. There are some great websites out there to help you read through the Bible in a year. One is the http://www.oneyearbibleblog.com/

2. Holiness- JC Ryle. This was the right book for me at the right time. I was at a point in my life where I had committed to Christ intellectually but had not experienced true conversion. This book helped me understand what true conversion to Christ is. I am forever grateful for having found JC Ryle's writings. He is one of the people I am most excited about meeting in Heaven.

3. The Chronicles of Narnia series- CS Lewis. Before reading these books, my view of Heaven was boring. After reading this series, I have been fired up about Heaven. It will be a prepared place for a prepared people. Lewis' biblically inspired vision is that Heaven is a place of adventure, learning, renovation of beautiful creation where the curse of sin is removed. Heaven will be a place where the Trinitarian God is tangibly present and sin is absent.

4. Provocations- Soren Kierkegaard. This book is a great summary of Kierkegaard's thoughts. I find many of Kierkegaard's thoughts to be relevant to our current society in the West. He wrote about the corruption of the church and what true Christianity should look like in contrast to this corruption. Kierkegaard was one of the giants of philosophy and was filled with a God-centered passion.

5. Creation Regained- Al Wolters. I had to read this book for an Apologetics class at Westminster Theological Seminary in Dallas. The book does a great job of explaining the major themes of the Bible: Creation, Fall, Redemption. It also transformed the way I think about the secular versus sacred distinctions. Wolters teaches that all of creation is good and needs to be reformed in ways that are glorifying to Christ. What was formed by God has been deformed by sin and needs to be reformed for the purposes of Christ.

I pray that some good books find you in 2007. And since it is a day where Martin Luther King, Jr's life is remembered, I thought of an excellent biography that I read about him several years ago: Let the Trumpet Sound- Stephen Oates.

For God's Glory,

Ashley Hodge