I have an author friend who posted on her Facebook page the prompting “Books are…” After a fair amount of thinking the word “opportunities” came to mind. Books are opportunities. I like that thought. This December it will have been 10 years since that Facebook post (I looked it up), yet I still think about it often. I have it written on a yellow sticky note that graces my home “office” in our unfinished basement.
I love books, not just having them on my shelf, but reading them. Every time I open a book, it is like opening the door to a new world, to a new classroom, or even like coming home when it is a cherished book I am reading again. It is exciting to get a new book because of the possibilities that it opens, and the opportunities that it brings.
As a kid, I read mostly fiction books, anything from youth survival books like Hatchet, adventure books like Jack London’s book The Sea Wolf, Louis L’Amour’s Western books about the Sacketts, and even fantasy books about a dark elf named Drizzt. I read whatever I could get my hands on, often late at night when I should have been sleeping.
It was during my freshman year of college that I started going to church and heard the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. God opened my eyes and I put my faith in Him. That changed everything in my life. I still had a great love for reading, but the primary focus of my reading changed. A friend let me borrow one of his Christian books about what Jesus did to save us and I was hooked. I started reading books that were meant to encourage me in my faith, these books helped me grow in my understanding of God and His Word. I started to see that there were books available that didn’t just provide the opportunity to be entertained, but books that had eternal value. As a new believer, I didn’t know much of anything and I found a wealth of knowledge in Christian books. A new door of opportunity was opened to me.
But I quickly learned that not every opportunity is a good opportunity. I started seeing that not every book that is labeled Christian is good or even great. Some books are just ok, where there are some good nuggets of information, but you have to dig for them and be discerning to find them. There are also harmful books that hinder your walk with Christ as they teach you things about God and about the Christian life that aren’t biblical. They teach you wrong concepts about God and Christian life and also inherently teach an incorrect framework for understanding God’s word. So, I have learned that in reading books, you have to be intentional and thoughtful when you read. You have to be discerning and evaluate what you are reading in light of Scripture. You have to be a Berean
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Acts 17:10–11
But who has the time to read all the books that are available to us today? How do you determine what book is worth reading or not reading? I receive multiple catalogs every year from Christianbook.com, but how do you determine which books on which topic would be biblical and helpful for you to read? I would like to help. Not as the sole authority on what is good and true, but as a fellow Christian who is seeking to share what has been helpful to me.
As I have mentioned, I believe books are opportunities. They are opportunities for my personal growth, but they are also opportunities for others. I love connecting people with good books that address an area of growth they are struggling with. I love recommending books that have had a positive impact on me and have the potential to help someone else. I am also very particular about what books I recommend. I don’t want people to read good books, I want them to read great books. I try, as best as I can, to point people to the best books that I am aware of on any given topic. My knowledge isn’t infinite, not even close, but of what I do know, I hope that it can be helpful to others. So, part of what I am looking to do with my participation in this blog is to make book and resource recommendations. I won’t be writing your typical book review, but instead, I will share about a book I have read, why I like it, and who would benefit from it. I want it to be more like sitting down over coffee and sharing something that helped me more than a book review assignment for school. I pray you will find it helpful.
~Pastor Mike
