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Stuck on Me: 15 Books I'll Never Forget

A few Facebook friends have been passing around a list of 15 books that have stuck with them, so I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring: 

1) The Bible (Actually, the Bible is in a category of its own. To the Christian believer, the Bible is not just a piece of literature, but our very soul-food. Nonetheless, God's Word tops the list). 

2) The Holiness of God (Sproul)

3) Knowing God (Packer)

4) When People are Big and God is Small (Welch)

5) The Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan)

6) David Copperfield (Dickens)

7) Can Man Live Without God? (Zacharias)

8) Be True to Your School (Greene--some material is unfortunate and objectionable, but this book encouraged me to keep a daily journal, something the author did during 1964, when he was a teen). 

9) Money, Possessions and Eternity (Alcorn)

10) Future Grace (Piper)

11) The Contemplative Pastor (Peterson)

12) The Discipline of Grace (Bridges)

13) Letters From a Nut (Ted Nancy---I couldn't stand to leave out a book that has me LOL'ing every time I pick it up--and the sequels just get better. Just wish I'd have thought of his idea before Mr. Seinfeld, er, I mean, Nancy.)

14) The Cross He Bore (Leahy)

15) The Cost of Discipleship (Bonhoeffer)

**Honorable Mention (esp. because some are recent reads):

-Christless Christianity (Horton)

-The Weight of Glory (Lewis)

-Unpacking Forgiveness (Brauns)

-Revival and Revivalism (Murray)

-The Rest of God (Buchanan)

-The Bondage of the Will (Luther)

-Polishing God's Monuments (Andrews)

The Audacity of Hoarding

What if . . . 

. . . after federal and state taxes, as well as real estate taxes (in excess of $22,000—nice digs!), as well as after charitable giving, you still had almost $800,000 of income last year? 

And what if you often spoke as an advocate for the poor and the working man and those with inadequate health coverage? 

Wouldn’t you feel at least a slight conviction to have allotted more than 6.5% of your adjusted gross income for charitable purposes?

Not if you’re Barack Obama, who raked in over $2.6 million in 2008, yet claimed only $172K for charitable giving.

I don't mean to sound too partisan, as I would bet that Obama was more generous than the average politician in Washington, regardless party and/or faith affiliation (his VP, after all, gave less than 1%). And he was twice as generous as the average American churched household, which gives less than 3% of its income toward the Kingdom of God.

But Mr. President, if you want to lead us in the way of compassion, why not practice what you preach? If you want us to help the poor and the working man, how about demonstrating to us something superior than compulsory generosity (a.k.a., higher taxes). 

How about showing us what it means to be cheerful givers, who die to ourselves, live within humble means, and give everything we can to the downtrodden. 

Help us, Mr. President, by showing us what Jesus meant when he said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Help us, Mr. President, to remember the lesson of the widow’s mite: that generosity is not about how much we give, but how much we give up. 

Show us, Mr. President, that it is in giving, not hoarding, that we receive; that the real solution to poverty is not higher taxes on the wealthy, but the generosity of all. 

Mr. President: You possess the most powerful and influential position in our world. You have the persona to influence millions of Americans, as well millions outside our borders. But we must see the audacity of hope, not the audacity of hoarding, if we want to see change we can believe in. 

You are our President. Don't tell us how we will need to sacrifice in tough times, for most of us won't see $800,000 in the next 10 years. 

Don't tell us what to do, Mr. President. 

Show us.

Daring Thomas

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

John 20:24-26 (ESV)

Thomas was not so much a doubter, as a “darer.” 

Reading between the lines of Thomas’s words, I can feel his frustration. “Why did the Lord show up while I was gone? It’s not fair!”  

His feelings were strong and to the point: “Unless I see this for myself, there is no way I’ll believe what you’re telling me” (“never” in the original language is a combination of negative terms meaning, “in no way whatsoever”). 

Perhaps Thomas’s feisty rhetoric was more a dare than a doubt; one man's attempt to lure the Master of the Universe back to the room on his terms: “I know you can hear me, so come back right now!”

Rather than taking the bait, Jesus stayed absent for more than a week.

I wonder how the other ten felt, their credibility melting away as each day passed. 

I wonder how Thomas felt, finding with each setting of the sun that the Teacher would not be mastered by one man’s demands . . . not this day, or the next, or the next, or maybe . . . ever.  

I wonder why the Lord “wasted” eight days, knowing that His ascension was just around the corner. 

I wonder why the Lord was not moved by the urgency of His own reputation (are the atheists listening?).  

I do know that all Thomas had for eight days is all that the Church has had for two millenia: the testimony of credible witnesses. 

Thus Jesus commends us who, while still waiting, believe. 

An Amazing Fast

In the, "I had a considerable amount of spare time today" category, I wondered how many of us could go 24 hours without uttering (or writing, for you Facebook junkies) today's most overused adjective "amazing."

This may be quite a challenge, but for those of us who feel we might not make it past breakfast, here are some viable alternatives:

-majestic

-astounding

-astonishing

-stupendous

-striking

-prodigious

-unprecedented

-staggering

-stunning

-shocking

-jarring

-bewildering

-startling

-dazzling

-electrifying

-awe-inspiring

-regal

-supernatural

-splendid

-distinguished

-resplendent

-glorious

-lofty

Godspeed to you on what promises to be a regal challenge.