Are you busy? Yeah, I know, dumb question. This isn’t so much about your reading the Bible as it is about reading to stay fresh. (If you aren’t reading God’s Word and you are a pastor or lay leader in your church you need some time off to spend with God in prayer and getting into HIS word. You can’t do it on your own.) A good friend once told me to read old and new books to challenge my faith. I think he was citing C.S. Lewis, but even if he wasn’t, it was good advice. You can read to stay up to date, but it is also important to read to stay grounded in your faith. If we only talk to people in our church and community, it is easy to get stale in our teaching. If we read great books, we can see how great minds think. Isaac Newton said something once about doing great things because he stood on the shoulders of great men. In this century, we have the luxury of having millions of books in print. We can thus stand on the shoulders of both those who are currently doing great things in God’s kingdom and also those great saints who have gone before us. Scheduling time for reading is tough, but it can be done. My wife teases me because I prefer reading to TV, but seriously, many of us spend a lot of time watching very un-educational television. If you prefer the internet reading, which may be true if you are reading this, then check out the Christian Classics library. http://www.ccel.org/ I also have a link to it on the sidebar. There are many great Christian classics on this site. Most of all have fun. Don’t read it if it totally bores you. You may not be ready for it, or it is below you etc. As anyone who has read more than a few books knows, sometimes you can think a book is awful, and then a few years later, when you try it again, it is one of the best books you every read! What happened? You changed, the book didn’t. So that to say, if you don’t like it, try it again later.
Sorry if this was more rambling than usual, but hopefully you take from this that reading is a great way to help you stay fresh in your area of ministry!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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3 comments:
Great advice...
For what it is worth, I would highly recommend the book: "How Christianity
Changed the World"
(Formerly entitled "Under the Influence")
by Alvin J. Schmidt
I think every Christian should have to read this book twice, (skipping the
chapter on music which Alvin did not actually write).
(Comment e-mailed to me by Kace)
Great comments. (I think the C.S. Lewis comment is found in an introduction he wrote for a translation of something by Athanasius. I believe it was reproduced as an essay called something like, "On the Reading of Old Books.")
And CCEL is a great resource! Amazing how modern and current some of those century old books are!
A friend of mine gave me "Under the Influence" a few years ago. Some of the historical allusions are very compelling. Your blog is so weird, because you echo the exact comments I made to my friend about the chapter on Music!
I just read a great book during my vacation, Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle. For those who have read that fabulous missionary story, Bruchko, this is a sequel. Let me encourage you to first read Bruchko by Bruce Olsen who set out as a missionary to South America when only 19 and had incredible experiences. As I read the sequel of all God has has done with the Motilone Indians and in and through Bruce Olsen, I had tears numerous times. I highly recommend both books!
Eric Rittberber
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