Books...

When I was younger I was always reading, and loved it. Mostly fiction - I read the Famous Five series over and over again. In my teenage years I started to read Christian missionary biographies after going on my first Christian camp with WEC international (mission organisation whose aim is to take the gospel to the unreached people groups in this world). These books really caught my attention. Here were people giving up homes, families and friends to go overseas and tell people about Jesus, having to learn new languages, cultures and adjusting to sometimes going without the basics. It was reading these books that made me think every Christian had to go to Africa to be a missionary! (I did go to Africa, to Senegal, when I was 19 for 5 weeks, if I was going to have to go for life then I'd better get used to it! Thankfully my assumptions were corrected!)

As I've got older I go through phases of reading books...Bex got me into reading fiction books again when we were on holiday one year. Basically I was sitting by the pool one day bored so she gave me a book to read. I think it was to keep me quiet! But it worked! Now though I can only pick up a fiction book if I know I have lots of time to read it as I get into them and don't want to put them down.

Over the past few years I've been introduced to some books at college that have really changed my thinking on things...
'God's Big Picture' - Vaughan Roberts
'No other God' - John Frame
'Why I'm not a Calvinist' - Jerry Walls & Joseph Dongell**
'Fruit that will last' - Tim Hawkins
'Shepherding a Child's Heart' - Ted Tripp
'Standing on the Promises' - Doug Wilson
'The Case for Classical Education' - Doug Wilson
'Teach them Diligently' - Lou Priolo

**For those of you who may be worried (!) I didn't agree with the arguments put forward in this book. But not agreeing with them help me work out what I did think.

I haven't read much since my days in college which I know is not a good thing. I don't put time aside in my work diary to read. I know I should as it will keep me fresh. And then when not in work to be honest I'd just rather put on the TV or watch a DVD - something a bit mindless.

However, I have recently come across a book that I think I will be adding to the list above. 'You Can Change' by Tim Chester. If you're a Christian reading this then I'm sure you will, like me, struggle with sin. Stuggle with those behaviours and attitudes that you know are not pleasing to our heavenly Father. I want to change. I want to be different. I want to be more like the Lord Jesus. I want to please the one who gave his life for me. I have tried. I have failed. I have tried again. I have given up trying maybe I'm never going to change in this area.

Well, in the introduction section Tim writes, "You may be a new Christian, struggling to change the habits of a former way of life. You may be an older Christian who feels as if you've plateaued: you grew quickly when you first believed, but now your Christian life is much of a muchness. You may be a Christian who's fallen into sin in a big way and you're wondering how you'll ever get back on track. You may be helping other Christians to grow and you can tell them how they should live, but you're not sure how to help them get there. This book is about hope. It's about the hope we have in Jesus...." (p.12)

As I read the above and started to read the 1st chapter 'What would you like to change?' I thought this book will help me. Not help me because Tim is God, but help me because what Tim has tried to do in his book is, "connect the truth about God with our Monday-morning struggles" (p.12).

I am, if I'm honest, a little bit nervous about reading it. Nervous because I know I am going to be challenged. I'll see how I get on, I might even blog about it a bit more...