Saturday Selections from Our Bookshelf: If

"If the moment I am conscious of the

shadow of self crossing the

threshold,

I do not shut the door,

and in the power of Him who

works in us to will and to do,

keep that door shut,

then I know nothing of Calvary love."

When my Grandmother asked me for a Christmas wish list, I sat at Amazon's website and stared. I, who needed absolutely nothing, was at a complete loss. Somehow, Amy Carmichael crossed my mind, and I decided to search for some of her books. If was near the top of the list, so I decided to add it to mine. 

If you've never heard of Amy Carmichael, she was a missionary in India for fifty-six years. At a young age she left everything behind to follow the call of Christ, rescuing orphans from temple prostitution and beginning a community for them that still exists today. What I admire most about Amy was that she was completely dead to self and alive to Christ- she was in love with Jesus, and she let Him be everything in her life. That was what set her apart to Him, and why her life was such a beautiful picture of selflessness. 

If is an incredibly short book. In fact, I read the whole thing in less than an hour. Still, it's life-changing. Amy's beautiful, short descriptions of what Calvary love really is are powerful and full of bold truth- she's not afraid of being honest. 

Since there are too many wonderful things about this book to tell you about in one little post, I'll just finish this off with a quote that sums up Amy's walk with Christ and her implicit trust in Him.

"Trust Me, My child," He says. "Trust Me with a humbler heart and fuller abandon to My will than ever thou didst before. Trust Me to pour My love trough thee, as minute suceeds minute. And if thou shouldst be conscious of anything hindering the flow, do not hurt My love by going away from Me in discouragement, for nothing can hurt love so much as that. Draw all the closer to Me; come, flee unto Me to hide thee, even from thyself. Tell Me about the trouble. Trust Me to turn My hand upon thee and throughly to remove the boulder that has choked thy riverbed, and take away all the sand that has silted up the channel. I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. I will perfect that which concerneth thee. Fear thou not, O child of My love; fear not."  

"Sunday" Selections from Our Bookshelf

While having a devotional is certainly not a vital part of our walk with Christ, if I were to recommend one to read, I would definitely point you to this one: They Walked with God by Moody Publishers.

This book, with an excerpt for every day of the year, is filled with truth, written by mighty Christians in our past. D.L. Moody, F.B. Meyer, R.A. Torrey, and Andrew Murray are a few of the writers.

They Walked with God has been a Christ-appointed find in many ways. I found it in a pile of free books at my church--hidden by out-of-date, dog-eared, paperbacks--once popular in the 70's.

Not only was this book found in an unlikely place, it seems to know just what I am thinking. Time after time, something will be on my mind, and God will give me the perfect message from this book that goes exactly with what I was thinking about! Besides the Bible, reading about the Christians of our past is a great source of insight and strength.

Saturday's Selections from Our Bookshelf: No Compromise

"You've got to read this book!" my mom encouraged me. "It's really life-changing." I shrugged, silently arguing that I'd read a lot of "life-changing" books, and my life was still the same every time. I always closed the book with a happy sigh, thinking, "That's just great! What a nice story. I'd like to live that way." Somehow, nothing ever changes.

Keith Green's story is different from everyone elses. He was only a Christian for a couple of years before he and two of his precious children were killed in an airplane crash on his own property. But in that span of time, lasting less than a decade, he impacted millions and millions of people for Christ. Not only were they affected, but their lives were drastically changed.

What made Keith different from every other Christian is that he lived radically for Christ. Before he was a Christian, he lived radically for drugs and everything that every other hippie loved, so he thought that it was only natural to transfer that passion from idiotic practices to living for the King of kings. And what a transfer! In one situation, he and a van full of his Christian friends picked up two unmarried hitchhikers, prayed for their healing, got them married and converted all in one day!

After Keith became famous because of his gift for music, he didn't let any of it go to his head. Instead, he gave every tiny ounce of glory to his Creator, thus leading everyone, from his die hard fans to those who saw him on the street, to the light that He displayed so brightly.

Keith's wife Melody write his biography, No Compromise, just years after his death. However, his story continued to have such an impact on people all over the world that she wrote a revised and expanded edition fifteen years later, and this is what found its way into my hands as I sat in bed and read until 2:30 AM the other night, tears streaming down my face.

If we only realized how incredible our Lord Jesus is, we might begin to live for Him the way Keith Green did.

Saturday Selections: From Our Bookshelf

A couple weeks ago, I was pleased to find myself with a free hour to read. With eagerness I fixed myself a snack, went to my room, turned on some peotic music, fluffed a few pillows and settled in. Then I opened my new copy of The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun.

I had heard that this was a good book. In fact, I had heard it was life changing. But I wasn't sure--"good book" is a broad term, and I've read quite a few of them.

The Heavenly Man goes above and beyond "good". Within three pages of the first chapter, my snack had suddenly turned to an old bowl of rice. Instead of my cozy bedroom, I was in a village in China. My pretty music no longer played, but I heard the screams of the beating that the Chinese Christians endured for their faith. I didn't lean against some fluffy pillows, but instead I felt the cold floor of a tiny prison cell, packed with one hundred people.

Brother Yun's story does more than inspire you. He doesn't make you feel sorry for his family and their circumstances. Instead, the Brother Yun's story is an example of a modern-day Paul. A modern-day Stephen, a modern-day Peter. He shows us that these lifestyles weren't just meant for the early church. They were meant to be lived by us.

We are meant to live a radical, poured out life for Jesus Christ. Yet so few do. But Brother Yun--he shows how to answer the call!

When it comes to crying while reading a book, I don't very often. I cried at the age of ten when I read Black Beauty. I stayed up late one summer night reading that one. The last few pages of Gone With the Wind made me cry--not because of Scarlet's fate, but because I had spent a month reading a book that had a terrible ending! L.M. Montgomery's always caused at least a few tears during the early teen years. (Oh, brother!)

However, more than once I found myself crying when I read about Brother Yun. His story is simply too incredible not too, his words too resounding and his experiences too amazing. If you're in the mood for some heart surgery, then I suggest The Heavenly Man.

Follow the call, dear friends--serve for the sake of Christ!

Saturday's Selections from Our Bookshelf: Wrestling Prayer

     

      "God, if it's Your will, would you please-?"
      How often I hear prayers begun this way. Not that we shouldn't desire to have God's will reign in our lives, but Jesus never prayed prayers like those. He said, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
      What is it like in heaven? There is no sickness. There is no suffering. There is no lack of any good thing. Jesus told us to ask His Father for perfection in every area of our lives.
      This is one of the many areas explored in Eric and Leslie Ludy's Wrestling Prayer. Wrestling Prayer isn't an easy read. Lindsey and I read and discussed one chapter every week for about four months, and even then I felt as if I had only really taken in a small fraction of all it holds. It isn't an easy read for all of the right reasons, and that is what makes it exciting.
      Eric knows exactly how to get your blood pumping, and I can say that from personal experience because I'm met him. (He even signed my copy of Wrestling Prayer!) After two days at a conference with him and his wife I knew that I would never be the same, and I had the exact same experience after reading Wrestling Prayer. Take this quote for example:

"You may acknowledge intellectually that your King has power over all His enemies, but the only way that you will know this truth intimately in the depths of your soul is if you follow Him into the camp of the enemy and witness this power for yourself."

      Eric and Leslie show us that God is so much more willing and so much more able to do above and beyond what we could ever ask and think than we give Him credit for. He is ready and waiting for us to come to Him at any moment of the day and ask great things of Him. And when we ask and believe that we will receive, He truly answers us beautiful ways.
      After Lindsey and I met Eric and Leslie, we decided to pray a very specific prayer: that God would provide us with 45 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes and enough money to ship them all. (At $7 a box, this was no small request.)
      God gave us 46 boxes and plently of shipping money! We were so filled with a joy that words could never describe.
      I highly encourage you to read Wrestling Prayer. If you are open to Him, God will use it to shape you into a prayer warrior that will toss mountains into the sea that you never could've imagined budging an inch.        

Saturday Selections: From Our Bookshelf

"Tortured for Christ", By Richard Wurmbrand

Have you ever been beaten for you faith? Stood on bed of nails for hours? Have you listened to men renounce the name of God for seventeen hours a day, for months straight? Put into prison for fourteen years?

For Richard Wurmbrand, this was only a taste of the torture that he experienced--all for the sake of Christ. During a congress in their Parliament the Romanian pastor and his wife, Sabina, watched four thousand pastors and bishops declare that communism and Christianity were the same, and could co-exist. Sabina could not stand it. She said, "Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face."

"If I do," he told her, "you will lose your husband."

She replied, "I don't wish to have a coward as a husband."

So Richard stood up, and began to praise the name of Jesus. Because the congress was being broad casted, the whole country heard what he declared. "Later," he said in his book, "I had to pay for this. But it was worthwhile."

Richard and Sabina were separated for fourteen years. Their only child, Michael, was left to fend for himself at the age of nine. Sabina experienced horrible torture. The guards enjoyed throwing Sabina and other Christian women into the Danube river, then fish them out, laugh at them, then throw them in again. She was forced to dig earth in the winter, and eat grass to stay alive.

Can you imagine? All for the cross--what will we do for the sake of the cross? Can't we be willing to give up a little of our luxuries, for the sake of the cross? Is it a torture to give our money to the poor, to be kind to the people we don't like, to have a good attitude? Of course not! But look what the Wurmbrands sacrificed for the sake of their Savior. Can't we sacrifice as little as our time and money, if not our very lives?

Tortured for Christ will bring new perspective to your life. The Wurmbrands were a living example of that through suffering for Jesus, He brings joy. I encourage you to read it yourself!

Note: You can receive a free copy of this book at http://torturedforchrist.com/. It may take a bit of time for it to arrive (it did for me), but it is certainly worth the wait!

Saturday Selections from Our Bookshelf: Chasing the Dragon

      Few complete strangers have influenced my life the way that Jackie Pullinger has. Ever since I heard that she let former prostitues and druggies sleep in her bed I have been drawn to her story. Not only is her book, Chasing the Dragon, the best book I've read all year, but I do believe that it's one of the very best books I've read in my entire life.
      Jackie was only twenty years old when she felt God calling her to China, and she was so sure of this calling that she simply got on a boat and didn't get off again until He told her to. This was only the beginning of a grand adventure that is still continuing on today. 
      Chasing the Dragon isn't one of those books that you can pick up, read, and put down again, simply saying, "That was nice," and then moving on to Beth Moore or Joel Osteen. Instead, it takes your world, turns it upside-down and inside-out, shakes it, plunges it into a vat of hot oil, then ice water, then lemon juice, and then tosses it in the trash compacter. And that's just after the first five chapters. You think that you understand poverty and the power of God until you read this book, and then you realize that what you thought was poverty was one step below suburbia.
      Jackie was called to minister to the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, where over 30,000 people resided. Did I mention it was on a property comprised of six acres? And it was so full of filth, crime, prostitution, drugs and everything else imaginable that the government chose to demolish it in 1993. However, from the 1960s to the demolition of the city, Jackie ministered to its residents like there was no tomorrow. And it wasn't just some mamby-pamby "God loves you and that's all" ministry- God used Jackie to literally transform everyone that she encountered, from powerful gang leaders to sixty year-old harlots.

    

      If I had to recommend one book to someone who needed a boost of faith, energy, passion and awe in their walk with Christ, I wouldn't think twice about telling them about Chasing the Dragon. Jackie writes in a simple, easy-to-understand style, but her story is as powerful as something straight out of the Bible. The best part? She tells about how ours can fit in that category, too. Talk about inspiring!

Saturday Selections from our Bookshelf

The Autobiography of George Muller is full of inspiring stories from George Muller's own personal perspective. His story strengthened my own faith in many ways. Excerpts from this man's diary show us a thrilling timeline of his journey, full of faith and passion for Jesus Christ. I encourage you to read it yourself.

Although Muller grew up in a non-Christian home (born 1805), and lived a rebellious life in his teen years, he became friends with a man named Beta. Muller said that God had mercy on his cold heart, for Beta led him to Christ. Muller felt called to live for God alone, and willingly gave up worldly pursuits. Later, Muller went on to begin an orphanage, bringing hundreds of orphans to Christ.

What impressed my heart most was Muller's faith in prayer. Countless times he and his wife would be penniless, but desperately in need to feed several hundred orphans. God never failed to provide them with their needs--sometimes while they were still praying. A box a food would arrive on their doorstep, and many people would anonymously send funds. His life was such an example of faith!

Even if you don't get a chance to read this book, I hope that you will examine your faith in prayer. Muller never doubted that God wasn't listening--nor should we.

Do you make it your primary business and concern to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? Are the things of God, the honor of His name, the welfare of His church, the conversion of sinners, and the profit of your own soul, your chief aim? Or does your business, your family, or your own temporal concerns primarily occupy your attention? Remember that the world will pass away, but the things of God will endure forever. -George Muller