Because I Don't Believe

sovereign increments pass
sometimes crushing
others mundane

and I

I
sit
fulfilling my vesselship
as one for wrath.
for why else would I be sitting?
here rather than there
now rather than then

apathetic rather than impassioned.

"Accept Christ"

“The formula ‘Accept Christ’ has become a panacea of universal application, and I believe it has been fatal to many…

The trouble is that the whole ‘Accept Christ’ attitude is likely to be wrong. It shows Christ [appealing] to us rather than us to Him. It makes Him stand hat-in-hand awaiting our verdict on Him, instead of our kneeling with troubled hearts awaiting His verdict on us. It may even permit us to accept Christ as an impulse of mind or emotions, painlessly, at no loss to our ego and no inconvenience to our usual way of life.

For this ineffectual manner of dealing with a vital matter we might imagine some parallels; as if, for instance, Israel in Egypt had ‘accepted’ the blood of the passover but continued to live in bondage, or the prodigal son had ‘accepted’ his father’s forgiveness and stayed on among the swine in the far country. Is it not plain that if accepting Christ is to mean anything there must be a moral action that accords with it?”
- A.W. Tozer

Whole-Hearted Recommendations

Apologetics:
+ A Defense of Christianity and My Credo - Cornelius Van Til
+ Jesus Among Other Gods - Ravi Zacharias
+ The End of Reason - Ravi Zacharias
+ Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis*^
+ The New Testament Documents, Are They Reliable? - F.F. Bruce

Bibliology:
+ Standing on the Rock - J.M. Boice
+ Revelation and Inspiration - B.B. Warfield
+ Knowing Scripture - R.C. Sproul

Biographical:
+ A Third Testament - Malcolm Muggleridge
+ St. Francis of Assisi - G.K. Chesterton*
+ The Apostle: A Life of Paul - John Pollock
+ Here I Stand: The Life of Martin Luther - Roland H. Bainton
+ The Confessions - St. Augustine
+ The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
+ Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor - D.A. Carson

Christian Living:
+ Worldliness - C.J. Mahaney
+ The Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer^
+ Desiring God - John Piper
+ Imitation of Christ - Thomas a Kempis*
+ Ten Things I Wish Jesus Never Said - Victor Kuligan^
+ The Doctrine of Repentance - Thomas Watson

Commentaries:
+ Commentary on the Whole Bible - Matthew Henry^
+ MacArthur New Testament Commentary - John MacArthur
+ J.M. Boice's Commentaries

Ecclesiology:
+ 9 Marks of a Healthy Church - Mark Denver

Evangelism:
+ Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God - J.I. Packer

Fiction:
+ The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
+ Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky^
+ The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien^
+ The Space Trilogy - C.S. Lewis^
+ Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
+ Home - Marilynne Robinson
+ Jayber Crow - Wendell Berry
+ Everything that Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Conner
+ The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton^
+ The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis*^
+ The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
+ Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

Philosophy:
+ The Universe Next Door - James W. Sire
+ Pensees - Blaise Pascal*^
+ On Friendship - Michel de Montaigne*

Poetry:
+ The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson
+ The Works of T.S. Eliot
+ The Works of Wendell Berry
+ The Works of John Donne

Relationships:
+ The Exemplary Husband - Stuart Scott^

The Cross / Salvation / The Gospel:
+ Alarm to the Unconverted - Joseph Alleine^
+ All of Grace - Charles Spurgeon^
+ The Cross - Martyn Lloyd-Jones^
+ Pierced For our Transgressions - Steve Jeffery^
+ The Gospel According to Jesus - John Macarthur^
+ The Death of Death in the Death of Christ - John Owen
+ In My Place Condemned He Stood - J. I. packer / Mark Dever
+ Letters From the Cross - Mark Driscoll
+ Justification and Regeneration - Charles Leiter
+ God is the Gospel - John Piper

Systematic Theology:
+ Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine - Wayne Grudem

Theology Proper:
+ The Attributes of God - A.W. Pink
+ The Sovereignty of God - A.W. Pink
+ The Holiness of God - R.C. Sproul
+ Knowing God - J.I. Packer

Assorted Theology:
+ The Problem of Pain - C.S. Lewis*
+ The Weight of Glory - C.S. Lewis*
+ Studies in Theology - B.B. Warfield
+ Safe in the Arms of God - John MacArthur
+ Authority - Martyn Lloyd-Jones
+ John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology - Burk Parsons (editor)
+ The Freedom of a Christian - Martin Luther



^ = Impacted and changed me.

* = I recommend these works to the person well founded in biblical doctrine who is able to discern the true from the spurious. Read them in the mindset that every thought and word must be weighed by scripture and there is much to learn in these works. There is also some to toss away.

What is the Cross Really About?