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My Top 7 Christian Books List

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Mortgage and Lending with iBrandPlan.com - Grow your e-Profile & Brand

I know lists are usually top 10 or 3, but 7 is a biblical number so here's my top 7. Broker Bryant Tutas and I are commenting back and forth about our preferred books on his MLK Tribute blog and I thought a "top list" was in order. Please comment and add your favorites!

•1.       What's so Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey - I've read this book at least 4 times as it grounds me in the reality that there is "nothing I can do to make God love me any more and nothing I can do to make God love me any less".

•2.       The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel - an investigative reporter and jew, Lee Strobel is shocked when his wife becomes a Christian and relates his own path to believing in Christ using the investigative approach he used as a crime reporter.

•3.       Your God is Too Safe by Mark Buchanan - This book challenges a mature Christian to question if they have possibly marginalized God into being a "pet" God who is there just to answer our prayers like some kind of magic genie. Don't think this is you? I didn't either until I read the book.

•4.       More Than Meets the Eye by Dr. Richard Swenson - Both a Physicist and Medical Doctor, this book uses both disciplines of science to prove the existence of God. Heavy reading but awesome proof.

•5.       Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller - told in a journal format, this is a folksy, modern-era view of Chrisitianity. Mr. Miller strips suburbian pretense and gives a real-world view of Christian discipleship

•6.       Living on the Ragged Edge by Dr. Charles Swindoll - This study of Ecclesiastes reveals the myths in believing we need more...more money, better jobs, etc. Solomon had more of every worldly item then any other human ever to live and wrote Ecclesiastes as his summation of all he learned.

•7.       The Bible by God, through his people - Divinely inspired, the bible is the most important book in a Christian's bookcase. Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. --Mark Twain

Like I said, please comment and add your favorites.

Ken

Comments(21)

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Ken Stampe
iBrandPlan.com - Grow your e-Profile & Brand - Dallas, TX
iBrandPlan

Bryant,

I couldn't pick just one C.S. Lewis. That would take it's own list!! The Screwtape Letters would probably be my favorite, though just because it is so different from anything else I've ever read. I haven't read St. Augustine's Confessions and will have to make a point to get that. I really encourage you to try on the science in More Than Meets the Eye! Powerful stuff!

Ken

Jan 15, 2007 08:35 AM
Bill Williams
Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Group - Boise, ID

Good evening gentlemen.  May I recommend:

Knowing God   J.I. Packer   (this is right up there with Mere Christianity)

Discourse on Free Will  Erasmus-Luther

Putting Amazing Back Into Grace  Michael Horton

Jan 15, 2007 09:16 AM
Ken Stampe
iBrandPlan.com - Grow your e-Profile & Brand - Dallas, TX
iBrandPlan

Bill - great suggestions as I'm not familiar with any of the 3! Is there one you would recommend above all others? In other words, which should I start with?

Ken

Jan 15, 2007 09:26 AM
Bryant Tutas
Tutas Towne Realty, Inc and Garden Views Realty, LLC - Winter Garden, FL
Selling Florida one home at a time

"Screwtape Letters" was awesome. William I think I have read "Discourse on Free Will", I read a whole bunch of Luther last year.

Ken, "Confessions" is one of the all time classics. Augustine was quite the thinker. His thought process on "time" is extraordinary. 

I really like the classics; John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and of course Milton's "Paradise Lost".

Another great trilogy is Elie Wiesel "The Night Trilogy" this is a heartbreaking book about the holocaust.

Jan 15, 2007 09:55 AM
Bill Williams
Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Group - Boise, ID

Bryant, how can we forget "Pilgrim's Progress"?! 

Ken, if I was to recommend only one, it is without doubt "Knowing God".  It is one of those books you work through slowly, fall on your face frequently, and then come back to again and again. 

Horton's book is good, but only one of many on grace.  R.C. Sproul is another author I'll put out there.

And if you just want to read Luther, look for "On The Bondage Of the Will"

Jan 15, 2007 11:41 AM
Professor X
NONE - Ludington, MI

Wow Ken,

This is an excellent post and one never expected to find browsing the blogs today...With the exception of #7, I can't say I have read any of the rest yet.  But I may have to pick up a few and give them a try.

Again excellent post.

 

P.S.  I got your email a few weeks back...I haven't quite figured out what a squidoo lens is yet and have been embarrassed to ask

Jan 15, 2007 12:24 PM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert

 

Ken, I always enjoy your #7, I get something new out of it every time I pick it up.

On #4, Patrick Mead, John Clayton, and the Apologetic Press have some great material on the "Existence of God".

Jan 16, 2007 04:07 AM
Ken Stampe
iBrandPlan.com - Grow your e-Profile & Brand - Dallas, TX
iBrandPlan

Bill - I'm all about falling on my face so it's off to half.com to buy "Knowing God".

Joshua - Thanks for the compliment and just holler at me if you want to talk lenses

George - did you read "More Than Meets the Eye"?

Ken

Jan 16, 2007 06:39 AM
Meleny Ramos
Working Mortgages - Pottstown, PA

Your number one book should be on everyone's list.  I enjoyed reading it.  Here is one that I had trouble putting down. 

Judy Jacobs, author - TAKE IT BY FORCE.

 

I love to read.  It is so exciting to see others reading the same books that I like.

Jan 16, 2007 07:01 AM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert
No I did not Ken.
Jan 16, 2007 07:31 AM
Lola Audu
Lola Audu~Audu Real Estate~Grand Rapids, MI Real Estate - Grand Rapids, MI
Audu Real Estate~Grand Rapids, MI ~Welcome Home!

Some books I continue to enjoy as I re-read parts of them from time to time:

The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

The Healing Light by Agnes Sanford

The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

Lola Audu, CRS GRI

Jan 19, 2007 08:52 AM
Joan Snodgrass
Midamerica Referral Network - Kimberling City, MO
Philip Yancey & Chuck Swindoll are always good reads for me, but must confess to being unfamiliar with the others.  "Me and My Big Mouth" by Joyce Meyers hit me where I needed it.
Jan 20, 2007 07:18 AM
David Abernathy
Waterfront Properties & Club Communities - Jupiter, FL
Palm Beach County Real Estate

Great idea - I will have to review and come up with my own list.

 

I am expecting that J.I.Packer, R.C. Sproul, C.S. Lewis, John MacArthur, Phillip Yancy and Og Mandino will all be on the short list...

Thanks again - I will enjoy the review :)  Probably start re-reading my favorites.

Jan 21, 2007 08:45 AM
Ken Stampe
iBrandPlan.com - Grow your e-Profile & Brand - Dallas, TX
iBrandPlan

Lola, John - My pastor this morning said, "nothing changes us more than the people we meet and the books we read".  I thought that was so true and you have both added books I've never discovered. My amazon "wish list" is getting long!

Ken

Jan 21, 2007 09:20 AM
Robert D. Ashby
Cruise Planners of South Florida - Plantation, FL
Providing Personalized Travel

OK, Let me add some I didn't see yet...

Becoming a Man of Prayer...Beltz

Experiencing God...Blackaby & King

The Discipline of Grace...Bridges

Systematic Theology (I forget who wrote it and I no longer have a copy as it was lost when I moved to FL).

Sorry if I repeated any.

Feb 01, 2007 01:47 PM
Robert D. Ashby
Cruise Planners of South Florida - Plantation, FL
Providing Personalized Travel

PS...

I also love using the PC Study Bible, especially the ease of cross referencing Commentaries and the other tools it has for in-depth study.  Just thought I would add that.

Feb 01, 2007 01:48 PM
William Collins
ERA Queen City Realty - Scotch Plains, NJ
Property and Asset Management

Ken,

Thanks for the post. I am absolutely drawn to number one!

Feb 02, 2007 11:37 PM
Nick Vandekar, 610-203-4543
Realty ONE Group Advocates 484-237-2055 - Downingtown, PA
Selling the Main Line & Chester County

Ken,

 A great book I find handy is Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest. It is a daily devotional put together by his wife after his death from sermon notes if i remember correctly I am amzed at how years after if was written it can still convict and drive me to your #7 choice.

Thanks for the list, several on here worth reading.

 Nick V

Feb 06, 2007 01:17 AM
Ken Stampe
iBrandPlan.com - Grow your e-Profile & Brand - Dallas, TX
iBrandPlan

Nick & Trudy,

 My Upmost...

 Read it....re-read it...and still find that God graced Mr. Chambers with a level of wisdom far surpassin my own. Half of those devotionals I hope someday to understand and if not, I hope the heavenly library has a copy of the book so I can ask God directly. Maybe they will have a study group in heaven?

Feb 06, 2007 04:05 PM
Meg Stewart
Reliable Appraisal - Frisco, TX
Appraiser-Frisco, Texas

Ken.  Thanks for taking the time to compile your favorites.  I plan to share your list with family members..

 

-Meg

Feb 24, 2007 12:40 PM