Booktag

In response to the "tag" I received from Dorcas Hawker, here is my contribution to the book chatter:

1. One book that changed your life: Although I assume that it is too obvious to say "The Bible," for me that has to be the answer. I was an atheist until I sat down to read God's Word for myself. I walked away a believer. Hard to compare anything else to that. If I am forced to choose a book besides the Bible, I would choose Unveiled at Last by Bob Sjogren.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: The Bible. But if I must go outside that, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

3. One book I’d want on a desert island: Um, The Bible. Say, "That's not one book, that is 66 books, so pick one!" I would say probably Genesis, though if I was stranded on a desert island I would be grateful for any single page of Scripture. If you have never read Ravi Zacharias's story about the Vietnamese POW in his book Deliver Us From Evil, it will help you appreciate every sentence on every page of the Bible. Now, if I have to choose something besides the Bible, it would have to be something by C. S. Lewis, maybe even The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Would the entire Narnia series in one volume count?

4. One book that made me laugh: I have laughed many times reading the Bible, especially every time I read Galatians 5:12. One book that made me laugh was one I read as a new pastor by Elmer Towns called Stories from My First Church.

5. One book that made me cry: Cried many times reading the Bible, but otherwise, A Hunger for God by John Piper

6. One book that you wish you had written: The Analytical Key to the Old Testament (4 vols.) by John Joseph Owens.

7. One book you wish had never been written: The Quran

8. One book that you are currently reading: The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Samuel, Robert D. Bergen

9. One book that you’ve been meaning to read: The Atonement by R. W. Dale. Alistair Begg once said that this book (an OLD copy of which I have had in my "need to read" pile for years), revolutionized the preaching and theology of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I just can't seem to get around to it. Something else always piques my interest and usurps the priority of Dale's book.

Ask me again in ten minutes, I will give you an entirely different list. These are the first ones that come to mind. I would tag Billy Belk, but he is too overwhelmed with doctoral studies to respond. I would tag Josh Wells, but I am afraid some of what he reads shouldn't be listed. I will refer the reader to his earlier sermon on David and Bathsheba, wherein he described some of his research material. I would tag Chris Eller, but most of his books would be medical textbooks we couldn't pronounce or afford, and besides that, he may only be speaking Portuguese now.