Books

» We have compiled a list of books that we would like to recommend. These books are extremely helpful for Christians, non-Christians, seekers alike.

 

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Don't Waste Your Life
by: John Piper

It's easy to slip through life without taking any risks-without making your life count. But life ought not be wasted. You don't need to know a lot of things to make a lasting difference in the world, but you do have to know the few, great, unchanging, and glorious things that matter and be willing to live and to die for them.John Piper's plea to a generation is, "Don't waste your life!" This book is a passionate call to make your life count for eternity. He acknowledges that there are risks for those who seek to make a lasting difference by faith, yet he believes that they are risks worth taking for the cause of the Gospel.

Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
by: John Piper

In the last few years, 9/11, a tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and many other tragedies have shown us that the vision of God in today-s churches in relation to evil and suffering is often frivolous. Against the overwhelming weight and seriousness of the Bible, many Christians are choosing to become more shallow, more entertainment-oriented, and therefore irrelevant in the face of massive suffering. In Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, contributors John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Saint, Carl Ellis, David Powlison, Dustin Shramek, and Mark Talbot explore the many categories of God-s sovereignty as evidenced in his Word. They urge readers to look to Christ, even in suffering, to find the greatest confidence, deepest comfort, and sweetest fellowship they have ever known.

The Reason for God
by Tim Keller

Why does God allow suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isn?™t Christianity more inclusive? How can one religion be ?œright??and the others ?œwrong?? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions and doubts even ardent believers wrestle with today. As the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced ?œdoubts??skeptics bring to his church as well as the most important reasons for faith. And in The Reason for God, he addresses each doubt and explains each reason.

The Prodigal God
by Tim Keller

Two sons, one who kept the rules religiously and one who broke them all. One Father who loved both lost sons beyond anything they could imagine. Discover how deep and far God's grace goes in The Prodigal God The Prodigal God discussion guide will help you uncover, personalize, and apply life-changing insights from The Prodigal God DVD and book...The Prodigal God is a revelation of the very heart of the gospel: God's radical love for sinners of every kind. Taking you beyond the traditional focus on the wayward younger son, Keller helps you glean insights from each of the characters in Jesus' parable: the irreligious younger son, the moralistic elder son, and the Father who lavishes his love on both.

Counterfeit Gods
by Tim Keller

Success, true love, and the life you've always wanted. Many of us placed our faith in these things, believing they held the key to happiness, but with a sneaking suspicion they might not deliver. The recent economic meltdown has cast a harsh new light on these pursuits. In a matter of months, fortunes, marriages, careers, and a secure retirement have disappeared for millions of people. No wonder so many of us feel lost, alone, disenchanted, and resentful. But the truth is that we made lesser gods of these good things -gods that can't give us what we really need. There is only one God who can wholly satisfy our cravings- and now is the perfect time to meet him again, or for the first time.

Humility
by C.J. Mahaney

?œGiven pride?™s pervasive presence in my life, I come to this book in holy fear, yet inspired by God?™s promises to be humble and sobered by his warnings to the proud (Isaiah 66:2b, 1 Peter 5:5b). Scripture reveals to us that, while pride was the first and most serious sin, God is decisively drawn to humility and is specifically supportive of the humble. Only Christ has fully obeyed Isaiah 66:2b (?œThis is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word??, yet He did so as our representative! How marvelous that in our daily battle against pride we can rely on God?™s grace, through the gospel, and thus bring honor and glory to God.???”C. J. Mahaney

Living the Cross-Centered Life
by C.J. Mahaney

Have the extremities taken over and left the core of your faith forgotten? Do you get confused by what you feel versus what is real? Let dynamic pastor C. J. Mahaney strip away the nonessentials and bring you back to the simplest, most fundamental reason for your faith: Jesus Christ. This book is packed with powerful truth that will grip your heart, clear your mind, and invigorate your soul. Chapters include ?œBreaking the Rules of Legalism,???œThe Cross Centered Day,??and ?œAssurance and Joy.??Get ready to behold a breathtaking view of what God intends to accomplish in and through you every day. You?™ll discover how embracing this cross centered life is both our highest privilege and greatest responsibility.

End of Reason
by Ravi Zacharias

When you pray, are you talking to a God who exists? Or is God nothing more than your imaginary friend, like a playmate contrived by a lonely and imaginative child? When author Sam Harris attacked Christianity in Letter to a Christian Nation, reviewers called the book marvelous and a generation of readers' hundreds of thousands of themwere drawn to his message. Deeply troubled, Dr. Ravi Zacharias knew that he had to respond. In The End of Reason, Zacharias underscores the dependability of the Bible along with his belief in the power and goodness of God. He confidently refutes Harris's claims that God is nothing more than a figment of one's imagination and that Christians regularly practice intolerance and hatred around the globe.

Who Made God?
by Ravi Zacharias

In the quest for the truth, you need to know what you believe and why you believe it. Who Made God? offers accessible answers to over 100 commonly asked apologetic questions. Bringing together the best in evangelical apologists, this guide is standard equipment for Christians who want to understand and talk about their faith intelligently. Part one answers tough questions about the Christian faith such as: ??Who made God? ??How can there be three persons in one God? ??What is God?™s ultimate purpose in allowing evil? Where did the universe come from? How long are the days of creation in Genesis? Did Jesus rise from the dead? Are the records of Jesus??life reliable? Does the Bible have errors in it?

The Great Exchange
by Jerry Bridges

Believers often take for granted the great act of salvation provided to us by the work of Jesus Christ. Beginning with the Old Testament sacrifices and the prophecies that foreshadowed Christ, authors Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington guide believers through the biblical overview of Christ's atonement. The Great Exchange helps believers see how the Old Testament practices tie in with the New Testament discussion of Christ's great work of salvation. As believers work through these principles, they will begin to recognize that even though we deserve condemnation and punishment from a holy God, he has given us the opportunity to experience his great riches through his Son, Jesus Christ. The clear gospel message presented throughout the entire book offers a great appreciation of Christ for believers and an opportunity for salvation for unbelievers.

Radical Reformission
by Mark Driscoll

Reformation is the continual reforming of the mission of the church to enhance God?™s command to reach out to others in a way that acknowledges the unique times and locations of daily life. This engaging book blends the integrity of respected theoreticians with the witty and practical insights of a pastor. It calls for a movement of missionaries to seek the lost across the street as well as across the globe. This basic primer on the interface between gospel and culture highlights the contrast between presentation evangelism and participation evangelism. It helps Christians navigate between the twin pitfalls of syncretism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your message) and sectarianism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your mission)...

Bible Doctrine
by Wayne Grudem

How do we know the Bible is God?™s Word? What is sin and where did it come from? How is Jesus fully God and fully man? What are spiritual gifts? When and how will Christ return? If you?™ve asked questions like these, then ?œsystematic theology??is no abstract term. It?™s an approach to finding answers every Christian needs to know. Bible Doctrine takes a highly commended upper-level textbook on systematic theology and makes it accessible to the average reader. Abridged from Wayne Grudem?™s award-winning Systematic Theology, Bible Doctrine covers the same essentials of the faith, giving you a firm grasp on seven key topics: ? The Doctrine of the Word of God ? The Doctrine of God ? The Doctrine of Man ? The Doctrines of Christ and the Holy Spirit ? The Doctrine of the Application of Redemption ? The Doctrine of the Church ? The Doctrine of the Future

Crazy Love
by Francis Chan

"Sometimes I feel like when I make decisions that are remotely biblical, people who call themselves Christians are the first to criticize and say I'm crazy, that I'm taking the Bible too literally, or that I'm not thinking about my family's well-being. . . When people gladly sacrifice their time or comfort or home, it is obvious that they trust in the promises of God. Why is it that the story of someone who has actually done what Jesus commands resonates deeply with us, but we then assume we could never do anything so radical or intense? Or why do we call it radical when, to Jesus, it is simply the way it is? The way it should be?"

The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospels
by Gordon Fee

Does God will that the true believer in Christ be in good physical health? Is a Christian promised good financial health by virtue of his or her faith in Christ? If the Christian does not experience these blessings, must we assume that he or she is outside the will of God? Gordon Fee provides a provocative discussion and a direct challenge to all who struggle with these issues. Perhaps no other issues more directly affect the lives of professing Christians as do the issues of health and wealth and their relationship to the will of God. In Disease of the Health & Wealth Gospels, Dr. Gordon Fee looks at the treatment of these two themes as frequently found in popular Christian teaching. Based on solid exegesis of the Scriptures, looking at each theme separately, this books suggests that there may be yet a "more excellent way" in viewing these emotionally charged issues.

The Doctrines of Grace
by James Montgomery Boice

Two respected pastors make a compelling case for the need to recover the five fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. We live in an age of weak theology and casual Christianity. And this situation will continue as long as God's people insist on substituting intuition for truth, feeling for belief, and immediate gratification for enduring hope.Yet if evangelicalism will again denounce this self-centered faith and place Christ and his cross at the center of its vision, the church will see great days once more. According to authors James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken, this will happen when believers specifically return to the gospel foundation with its doctrines of radical depravity, unconditional election, particular redemption, efficacious grace, and persevering grace.As these two noted pastors provide a compelling exposition of these essential truths, they also consider the current challenges, leaving no doubt that the church suffers when the doctrines of grace are neglected.

The Gospel and Personal Evangelism
by Mark Dever

Evangelism is not only misunderstood, it is often unpracticed. Many Christians want to share the gospel with others, but because those Christians don't grasp the fundamentals of witnessing, they feel intimidated and incapable of sharing the truth of the gospel.Yet those believers fail to recognize that God has already established who and how we are to evangelize. In The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Dr. Mark Dever seeks to answer the four basic questions about evangelism that many Christians ask: Who should we evangelize? How should we evangelize? What is evangelism? Why should we evangelize? In his answers Dever draws on New Testament truths and helps believers apply those truths in practical ways. As readers understand the fundamentals of evangelism, they will begin to develop a culture of evangelism in their lives and their local churches.

God Wrote a Book
by James MacDonald

"God wrote a book." There is something very powerful in that simple statement. The book, of course, is the Bible, and because God is its author, it's the most important work ever written. Millions across the world agree with that, yet many believe it only conceptually, doubting that the words of the Bible are in fact the very words of God.Pastor James MacDonald addresses today's disturbing trend away from taking God's Word seriously. He clarifies the misconceptions that surround the infallibility, reliability, and historicity of the Bible and explains why he believes it is the inspired Word of God, how it originated, what the Bible is good for, and its benefits to us. Written to believers and non-believers who have questions, this book on the Good Book has the answers.

Just Do Something
by Kevin DeYoung

Hyper-spiritual approaches to finding God's will don't work. It's time to try something new: Give up. Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung counsels Christians to settle down, make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through. Too often, he writes, God's people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships, worrying that they haven't found God's perfect will for their lives. Or?”even worse?”they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting for clear, direct, unmistakable direction. But God doesn't need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He's already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like. No need for hocus-pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged. Just do something.

Ordering Your Private World
by Gordon MacDonald

One of the great battlegrounds of the new century is within the private world of the individual. The values of our Western culture incline us to believe that the busy, publicly active person in ministry is also the most spiritual. In Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald equips a new generation to live life from the inside out, cultivating the inner victory necessary for public effectiveness.