Recommended Reading

This is the place where I will put books I highly recommend as Christian reading (aside from the number 1 book the Bible), as well as a brief description of each book, and the place where you can either read it online, or buy it cheaply.


1) "Final Authority" by William P. Grady
This is a wonderful historical text on the making of the King James and other Bibles. I will warn you, it is very in depth reading and will take some time. You can listen to it HERE for free online. You can buy it online at Amazon HERE for about $4 used. 4/5 stars (I gave it a 4 because it takes time and concentration to understand. Otherwise it is a fantastic and historically accurate book with a lot of relevant research!)

2. "His Needs Her Needs" by Dr. Willard F. Harley Jr.
I love this book. Christian Dr. Harley writes this not only for married couples with problems, but also for those that want to get the most out of their marriage and get a step up on problems before they have the chance to happen. This book describes the top five most important needs for men, and the top five for women, how to meet these needs for your partner, what happens if the needs are not met, and why these specific needs are the most important. The book consists of 14 concise chapters. If you and your spouse dedicate 10 minutes a day to reading this book, you can have it finished in 2 weeks. The book is well written, and easy to understand. I give it 5/5 stars. You can buy it used HERE at Amazon used for about $6.

NOTE: Harley writes a special version of this book just for parents, found used on Amazon HERE.

3. Chick Tracks
I love these little tracts! Not only are they cheap and great to hand out as a witnessing tool, but they give you scriptures as well as other scientific and historical evidence to back up your claims! You can read the tracts for free HERE on the official Chick page, and can buy them for 15 cents each at the same site. 5/5 stars.

4. Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts
You cannot go wrong with this book. This is a wonderful study aid to have by your side when going through the Bible. It is easy to understand and well written. It gives a brief overview of each book in the Bible, the main events in each book, as well as an overview on characters of the Bible. It also gives easy to understand charts, outlines, and timelines of events and other major Bible concepts. This is a great thing to have around when you just want to look something up quickly. You can buy this book used on Amazon HERE for $1-$5. 5/5 stars.

UPDATE: August 22, 2010

I have a lot of new books to add to this list!

First we'll start with any book by Jane Kirkpatrick.  This is an inspiring Christian author who writes Christian novels, mostly centered around women, and marriage.  All have a historical basis, and most are set in the pioneer days.  Each book will leave you satisfied, and yet, craving more.  I recommend starting with "A Sweetness to the Soul."  Be sure to read her Memoir "Homestead" as well.  You are sure to be touched and lifted up by all of her works.

Next we'll move on to "What Hath God Wrought?" by William P. Grady.  This is one of those wordy books that takes a little while to understand, but is well worth the effort!  This book gives a detailed history of America's beginnings and how the values America holds today, including the Constitution, are founded deeply in Christian beliefs and Biblical values.  This book takes us into the edgy world of the truth.  We learn about persecution of varying faiths, the values our founding fathers and pioneers held, what was once right in America, and what has gone wrong since then.  We have traveled a very slippery slope since the beginning of our country, and Grady takes us down a well documented path to the truth, one that you won't be likely to find in the history books of most public schools.

More to come! Check back to this list every once in a while for new entries!

God Bless!

-CBSB

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Having Confidence in God's Word

When I have a moral dilemma, or need to figure out how I should be living life, or what I'm doing wrong in life, I always fall back on my final authority: God's Word. I wholeheartedly believe that God has preserved his Word for us in the Bible. Most of the time when I talk to non-Christians about God or the Bible, they tell me, "But it's just a book written by man... you can't believe that God did that." The fact is, I can and do believe that God wrote the Bible... He wrote it through man. This is where we get the term "divine inspiration."

If you look at the Bible, you'll notice that it doesn't contradict itself... 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, "God is not the author of confusion." Basically this means, God isn't going to write something in one part of his book, and then contradict himself by writing something completely the opposite in a different part of his book. God is not going to try to confuse us by doing something like that. 

For those of you out there who say, "The Bible is written by men," I'd like you to think about this: the Bible was written by over 40 authors! Not only is it written by over 40 authors, but it is written over a period of 1,600 years! Each author agreed on: history of the world, their idea of what God is like, their rules for living, prophecies for the future, and man's sinfulness. Because there are so many authors and the books were written over such a vast amount of time, there is no possible way that all of these authors could have gotten together and talked about writing the same thing over and over and over again. I like to think about it this way: If you look at a painting by Divinci, you can tell that he did it. If you look at another one of his paintings, you can still tell by the style of painting that Divinci painted it, and not another artist. We're supposed to compare spiritual things to spiritual things in the same way. In each book of the Bible, we can see God's brush strokes. Yes, he used men to write and preserve the Bible, but He (God) is still the author. He inspired the men he used to write what he needed them to write, and promised us that He would preserve His word for all time.

If you're interested, I found an article outlining a few similar ideas. You can read it by clicking here: Confidence.

You can also read about the King James Bible HERE.

-CBSB

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