Sadly, the wonderful
holiday of Christmas has been stolen by Satan and the world which Scripture
tells us he is “god” over. He takes all
that which is good, that which God created and saw that it was good and
corrupts it and mocks God in the process.
The celebration of Christ’s birth has become, ironically the most
selfish holiday of the year. I loved
Mike Slaughter’s book Christmas is Not
Your Birthday: Experience the Joy of Living and Giving like Jesus. In this book he shows how mankind has
corrupted this wonderful celebration and how believers can take it back. The book is a challenge for each believer to
re-evaluate his/her own lives and their own Christmas celebrations and their
own attitudes to see if they measure up to what the Lord intended.
Many signs point to the end of days. The world is going about its business just as
it has always done and is largely oblivious to the rapidly approaching end of
time. David Jeremiah’s book Is This The End? Signs of God’s Providence in a Disturbing New
World is eye-opening and genuinely helpful.
It will get you excited about what God has in store! He gives insight on the rapture of the
church, the tribulation period, how countries such as Russia fit into end
times, and God’s special place for Israel.
The book gives great emphasis to what is going on today in light of
Bible prophecy.
Another great book that helped me
understand end times more was The Second
Coming of Babylon by Mark Hitchcock.
The book shows the place of resurrected Babylon in end times; as well as
traces the history of ancient Babylon, and shows the Scriptural usage of the
term “Babylon” especially in the book of Revelation. It is a book that really is hard to put down
after you start reading! Another great
book by Hitchcock that I read this year is called 101 Answers to Questions About Satan, Demons, & Spiritual Warfare. Many like to focus only on the positive in
life and even in their faith. But, these
things are reality and they must be faced.
Satan is real; demons are real; spiritual warfare is real. Furthermore, these realities are harsh. They are essential for our focus, attention,
and studies. This book, as the title
indicates, is a question and answer book.
Hitchcock states a common question then gives a biblical answer. The book is packed with great
information. I highly recommend this to
all believers. Keep it as a reference. Use it to answer the questions that arise in
your mind and to answer the questions others ask you.
Ray Stedman’s book Spiritual Warfare: How to Stand Firm in the
Faith is one of the very best on the subject. People do not understand as well as they
should the ongoing realities in the spiritual realm. We need to understand those things and be
ready. This is a sort of “how to” book
on dealing with the warfare we are already engaged in. We have no choice as believers. We are already in the battle, the question
is, how will we carry out our duty? This
book is great encouragement and filled with wisdom for all believers.
Heaven should be constantly on the
minds of all Christians. It is our
future home/reality. It may be in your near future and not merely the
distant. Truthfully, even if you have
several years ahead of you, it is not too far away. Many myths and legends exist about Heaven and
they have corrupted biblical teaching to a degree many no longer have a clear
and realistic view of the literal Heaven.
David Jeremiah helps us understand Heaven better by separating facts
from urban legends in his simple book Answers
to Your Questions about Heaven. Use
it as a guide, a reference, and to give as a gift.
Many books come out each year that
help people have more confidence in Christianity and the Bible. This discipline is called “apologetics.” Many of these books are academic, although
there are a significant number that are lay oriented to help the average person
defend their faith to their neighbors, friends, co-workers, and extended
family. Os Guinness has an award
winning, brilliantly written book called Fool’s
Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion that I thoroughly enjoyed
reading. Guinness calls Christians away
from a “cookie cutter” approach to evangelism and sharing of their faith citing
the fact that our world is incredibly diverse and we need to embrace that fact
and share with each person as individuals and not merely like we were sharing to
the masses. This book will help you
re-think how you witness to those around you in a very good and helpful way. It will also help you see the need to better
equip yourself for divine encounters to share your faith.
A steward is a manager. Every area of life calls for good
management/stewardship. Money is a
particular hang-up for many people. It
is not just about systematically giving to the church and for God’s work, but
it is in areas like buying things we cannot afford and things we do not need,
accumulation of debt, falling for the world’s lies about “stuff” and possessions. We are actually called upon to work hard
specifically to be able to give more.
Sadly, if anyone works hard they feel entitled to spend it on
themselves, but that is not the way the Bible presents stewardship. I really got a lot out of The Money Challenge: 30 Days of Discovering
God’s Design for You and Your Money by Art Rainer. It will help you see money differently and
evaluate your life, your goals, your priorities, spending habits, and desire to
give to God’s work.
This year marked the 500th
anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. There has been a flood of books that have
been released marking the occasion from deep critical works, reference works,
biographies of key figures, and laymen-oriented overviews of the historical
event. I enjoyed Erwin Lutzer’s Rescuing the Gospel: The Story and
Significance of the Reformation. It
is readable, understandable, and engaging for almost every believer. Reading this book will go a long way towards
helping you understand the monumental significance of this time period in
Christian history.
In Christ,
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
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