Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Influential Reading

One of my favorite book categories is Christian biographies.  I love learning about people whose lives have been changed and have changed the world.  Biographies can help us meet people we would never have the opportunity to know any other way.  In biographies we have opportunity to learn lessons from the lives of others that will benefit our own lives.  Reading about the great men and women in history--both past and present--shapes our thoughts, our values, our actions, and even our character.  As promised, here are a few of the biographies (in order) that have had the greatest impact on my life:

The Journals of Jim Elliot by Elisabeth Elliot.  Jim Elliott was one of the five missionaries attempting to take the Gospel for the first time to the Auca Indians of Ecuador.  He and the four others were speared to death in January 1956.  His wife, Elisabeth published his personal journal notes.  The notes record the inner struggles, victories, thoughts, motivation, faith, and commitment of Jim.  A genuine life-changer!

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd by Philip E. Howard.  This book is much like the previous.  David Brainerd was a missionary to American Indians during the time that the American colonies were governed by Britain.  His self-denial, courage, and genuine piety are both challenging and contagious.  He, like Jim Elliot, died an untimely death.  A remarkable story!

Daws: The Story of Dawson Trotman.  Founder of the Navigators by B. Skinner.  Dawson Trotman was an extroverted, energetic, tireless individual.  He was highly disciplined and a man of great faith and vision.  He was totally committed to world evangelism and created a systematic follow-up strategy for new converts and for training believers to reproduce themselves through evangelism and discipleship.  His system and strategy became the Navigators which still exist today.  Dawson drowned in an attempt to save another in 1956.  This is a great story!

To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson.  Adoniram Judson was America's first foreign missionary.  His perseverance, determination, and faith in the midst of tragedy, hardship, and suffering form a truly remarkable story.  You must read this story!

I will list some others in no certain order.  All of these would be worth your time to read:
The True Story of John G. Paton: Missionary Among the South Sea Cannibals by John Paton
Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey by Timothy George
Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Time Enough to Win: Roger Staubach by Roger Staubach and Frank Luksa

I know that there are many more that I could recommend, but these come to mind.  If you're interested, I will be glad to talk with you about these.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Christian Biography

Let's talk about reading Christian biography.  The reading of Christian biography is one way to set before ourselves noble standards, goals, and aspirations which can only help the Christian man or woman to make progress, not to gain earthly accolades, but towards that ultimate prize of our heavenly calling--to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Here are some reasons to read Christian biography.  

First, reading Christian biography sets before us a grand overview of the progress of the Christian church, a mighty panorama of God's faithful and mighty acts in previous generations and times. In other words, we can understand God's providence and purposes in history through the lives of faithful and obedient individuals.  By reading the lives of Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Patton, Jonathan Edwards, Amy Carmichael, Lottie Moon, and many, many others, you can learn of God's working during the Reformation, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and other times.  We can even learn much about God's working in our own time by reading the lives of others.

A second advantage for reading Christian biography is to be challenged and encouraged to greater faith and obedience.  By reading the lives of others we can be motivated to increase and progress in self-discipline, self-control, purity, devotion, courage, patience in trials, steadfastness in suffering, and grace in failure. The lives of Dawson Trottman, Jim Elliot, and David Brainerd have influenced me to further godliness as much as any living person in my life today.

A final advantage (at least for this blog) for reading Christian biography is to be encouraged in God's use of differing individuals with various experiences and circumstances . God more often than not uses men and women whom society might regard as inadequate--perhaps illiterate, uneducated, diseased, deformed, depressed, lonely, rejected, poor, and in various degrees of failure.  What an encouargement to know that God can use any person to make a difference for Him!  What motivation to be regarded as inadequate by many standards and yet to realize that you too can be used by God!  Reading Christian biography gives you that kind of encouragement and motivation!  Read Christian biography.  I will make some good recommendations in my next post.