BOOKS
Believe it or not, but the lessons on Wednesday night are not always completely hatched from my brain alone. Lots of reading and preparation goes into everything we talk about at The Hill. Here are some of the books that I’ve read recently and have inspired what you see on the blog and at church. Though I always cite my sources, now you can check out each book for yourself in case you too would like to read it. You can click on each link to purchase a copy for yourself at Amazon.com.
- Traveling Light by Max Lucado – Possessing a charming, familial style that eases you right in, Lucado has a knack for getting to the core of scripture in relatable ways. In Light, he guides the reader through the 23rd Psalm line by line, giving it a whole new light.
Jesus Wants To Save Christians: A Manifesto For The Church In Exile by Rob Bell – The author Velvet Elvis and the fantastic Nooma series of videos brings the story of Exodus full circle to today’s lost and broken world. Bell is one of my favorite authors today. The depth of research and historical context he loads his books with is great, and yet they still manage to be easy to understand. A very quick read, but one you will keep going back to.
If You Will Ask by Oswald Chambers – A short, thought-provoking work on prayer from the author of My Utmost For His Highest, the timeless daily devotional book. This book pokes and prods about our conventional ideas and methods of prayer and will force you to reexamine your prayer life.
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell – One of the foremost original thinkers in America, Malcolm Gladwell’s three books have revolutionized the way people look at the world. My favorite of his books so far, Blink is about the power of intuitive, how more often than not our intuition guides us to our decision. Gladwell talks about how some of the best decisions are the ones we make in the blink of an eye before we have time to over-analyze and over-think something, which is a great to think about the story of Peter walking on water in Matthew 14. I often reference Gladwell’s research and theories from this book as well as The Tipping Point and Outliers and I heartily recommend all three.
Making Life A Masterpiece by Orison Swett Marden – Orison Swett Marden is an author that demands to be rediscovered. His digest style of collected quotes on stories on successful living fascinates me. I discovered some quotes of his while researching a lesson late last year and then stumbled across a couple of original prints of his early 1900s writings at the ASU Library a few weeks later. While his writing style (and the occasionally politically incorrect reference) is a bit out of date, his inspirational messages have not aged a bit. Marden’s writing is the rare type that gives you chills and demands that you actually put the writing into action. His works are nearly impossible to find today but go out of your way to read some of his work. You will be hard pressed to put the book down unchanged.
Cast of Characters by Max Lucado – Another book by Lucado that really gave me a new perspective not just about the stories he writes of, but about reading scripture in general. In this book Lucado looks between the lines of familiar stories and characters in the Bible to reveal truths hidden in the scripture that most of us would never grasp.
Teach by Dr. Allen Jackson – While I’ve never outwardly referenced this one in a lesson, I recently read this book and it has informed a lot of the ways that I have taught since then. Jackson breaks down the Student Life method of teaching students the Bible and while it may not break any new ground, it does a good job of making you question and reevaluate the way you teach.
