When you think of the greatest music ever recorded do you think of The Beatles? Mozart? What about Christian music?
If you consider Christian music at all you probably think first of the songs you hear on K-LOVE, the nationally syndicated Christian radio station. You might consider some of the great hymns like “Amazing Grace.” But would you consider classical music to be “Christian” music?
Cover of My New Book
After a brief break from blogging, I’m back to report that my book, “Five Stones for Christians in Crisis” wil be available on Amazon.com in about two weeks. The book is a game plan for those struggling through a crisis in their lives and expands on a lot of the content in this blog.
I decided to self publish my book through CreateSpace, Amazon.com’s self publishing division. Although I had a complete proposal ready (based on M. Hyatt’s great proposal outline) and had queried a few agents, I decided not to wait around hoping they would contact me.
The thing about a traditional publishing route is that it’s really based more on how well you can market the book. It’s a business decision (great article here explaining this). These days, agents and publishers want to know just as much, if not more, about your platform as your content.
I wanted to spend this year actually selling my book rather than trying to get an agent to accept my proposal.
I’ve written a book about the very theme of this site: How Christians can survive tough times. It’s a book that is designed to give you Biblical strategies to overcome any crisis. Before each chapter, I talk briefly about my own experience fighting stage IV cancer.
Below is a sample from an early draft from Chapter Two:
In the science fiction movie The Matrix, Neo has to make a choice: take a red pill or a blue pill. If he takes the blue one, he will wake up in his bed and return to life as usual. He’ll go to work, hang out with his friends and continue to live out his life as he’s always done.
But the red pill will show him something else — something that cannot be described or explained. It must be experienced. Neo grabs the red pill, swallows it, and never again sees his world the same.
After taking the pill, Neo suddenly wakes up and is literally unplugged from a series of tubes that are attached to his body. He looks around and see that everyone else is also plugged into these pods but they are asleep, if they are even conscious at all. Moments later, he is freed from his pod by the person who presented him the options of pills and they speed away in a spacecraft.
Neo then realizes that he’s been plugged into “The Matrix” all along, an imaginary world that seems so real yet is completely manufactured by a computer. He has not been living in reality at all! What he thought was reality was only a figment of his mind that a computer had generated.
In a sense, we all live in a sort of matrix in our current world. There’s a physical world that we can touch, taste, see and smell but there’s also a spiritual dimension that we cannot see yet is just as real. This is the world of our soul, our emotions and heart.
Fasting by Scot McKnight
Don’t eat.
That thought alone would probably terrify most people in America! But what exactly is fasting?
In his book “Fasting,” Scot McKnight consistently hammers home one point about fasting: it is a response to a grievous sacred moment. We fast because we are responding to something, such as death or other tragedy. We don’t fast because we want to get something.
1. The Bible.
Of course you have to start with The Bible. Sounds obvious but I wonder how many Christians have actually read the majority of this book. At the least, every Christian should read the entire New Testament.
2. How to Read The Bible for All It’s Worth.
This is a great book in understanding how to read The Bible. It’s not as easy as it sounds! The book of Revelation is a lot different than reading the gospel of Mark. This book should be bundled with each Bible sold!
3. The Purpose Driven Life.
This book is full of Biblical verses that answer the basic question, “What on Earth are you here for?” Great book for someone going to college and really excellent for anyone wondering what your purpose is in this life.
4. Church History in Plain Language.
Most people don’t have a clue as to what happened to Christians after the first century. This is a great book that is easy to read and not full of dense historical facts. Finish this book and you’ll know more than 95 percent of Christians about the history of the church.
5. Crazy Love.
This book shows you what it really means to love and follow God. Do you really “get it?” As a follower of Jesus are you really radically sold out? Great book if you are really serious about your faith.
6. The Hole in Our Gospel.
This 2010 Christian Book of the Year explores the journey of Rich Stearns, the CEO of World Vision, as he looks at what The Bible says about helping the poor. Again, if we truly call ourselves Christians, are we helping “the least of these?”
7. Amazing Grace.
Philip Yancey gets two books on my top ten. The guy is by far the best Christian writing today. His books deal with deep theological issues (suffering, prayer, grace) but from a “questioners” perspective: Does prayer work? Why does God allow suffering? This book examines grace, something I believe is slipping away from many Christians but is at the cornerstone of our faith.
8. Where is God When it Hurts.
This Yancey book tackles the tough question of why we suffer. All his books are well written and challenging without falling into sentimentality.
9. The Case for Christ.
Every Christian needs to be able to “contend for the faith” and know what you believe in. As I mention in another post, Christians don’t take a leap of faith. It’s more like a step.
10. Successful Christian Parenting.
This book makes the list because it’s a great book on raising children in the context of a Christian family. Most books of this type are closer to psychology books but this one has plenty of Bible verses and principles.
Of course, I’d like to add my new book as #11. You can preview it here on Amazon.
Am I missing a book? Leave a comment and let me know.
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