“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
The words of Oscar Wilde are no less true today than when he spoke them. The books we choose to read shape who we are and how we see the world. Because of this, I consume books voraciously. Mostly religious non-fiction, but also some fiction as well. I was recently thinking about which religious books I’ve read during the last decade shaped and impacted me most, and I decided to share them with you….
Think of your own list and then read it all and see how they compare and contrast–KSH.
Interesting list.
I don’t remember exactly what I’ve read when…. Quite a few of the books on the published list I read more than 10 years ago.
Here are a few of the authors & books that would make my top Christian books list, not in any particular order. Some I first read much more than 10 years ago, but for the older books, I’m pretty sure I’ve RE-READ all of them within the past 10 years. (Almost all of the books below I’ve read multiple times.)
[b]Joni Eareackson Tada[/b]: [i]A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering & Pain[/i]. I can’t recommend this highly enough!
[b]John Piper[/b]: [i]Desiring God[/i] and [i]Future Grace[/i] have both helped me tremendously, and I’ve also found [i]50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die[/i] very helpful in my ministry (it’s even available in Arabic! smile).
[b]Henri Nouwen[/b]: [i]The Return of the Prodigal Son[/i]
[b]Charles Colson[/b]: [i]Loving God[/i]
[b]Larry Crabb[/b]: [i]Inside Out[/i] and [i]Becoming a True Spiritual Community, a Vision of what the Church can Be[/i]
[b]Richard Foster[/b]: [i]A Celebration of Discipline[/i]. Also his book [i]Prayer[/i] is great, as is his compilation of [i]Devotional Classics[/i]
[b]Elisabeth Elliot:[/b] ALL of her books, but especially [i]Keep a Quiet Heart[/i], [i]Passion and Purity[/i], [i]The Shadow of the Almighty[/i], [i]The Path of Loneliness[/i], and [i]A Path Through Suffering: Discovering the relationship between God’s Mercy and Our Pain[/i]
[b]Jerry Bridges[/b]: [i]The Discipline of Grace[/i] – REALLY awesome book, a study of Romans and the importance of learning to “preach the Gospel to yourself” and live in the truth of God’s grace. Recommend it VERY highly!
[b]Andrew Murray:[/b] [i]The True Vine: Meditations on John 15[/i] and [i]Abiding in Christ[/i] I’ve just been re-reading these the past few months, and they have greatly encouraged me in learning to abide.
[b]Jan Karon[/b]: The Mitford series. It’s fiction, but packed with encouraging spiritual truth!
I’m sure there are more books I could add to this list, including some deeper theological texts, but these are the books that come to mind as most changing not only my understanding of doctrine, but actually helping me to APPLY sound doctrine in my daily life and be transformed more into the image of Christ. I’d probably put AW Tozer on the list too… but I don’t think I’ve actually re-read any of his books in the past 10 years, but they are CLASSICS
I would put the Mission of God before anything on Merritt’s top ten list and would start my own list with The Insanity of God by an author who uses the pen name of Nic Ripkin.