Books that Influence Our Lives

“Study to show thyself approved unto God …”

—2 Timothy 2:15

“A book,” wrote Franz Kafka, “must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” A Christian book that melts cold doctrine and soaks it into the heart is a book that has done its job well. Many kinds of books can accomplish this, depending on the size and terrain of that inward frozenness. In the following pages, people from a variety of positions and professions write about books that have managed to reduce the distance between them and their Lord. Some of these books are well known, some less known. All are successful books because they have touched lives with the truth of the risen Christ. There is no more appropriate time to introduce such books than now, as we enter the Easter season.

A Role Model For A Politician

Those of us in public life who profess the Christian faith are uniquely challenged to display Christlike qualities in our work. This is particularly true of politicians because it seems that some aspects of our profession are contrary to the way Christians should act.

By its nature, political life is self-centered, not Christ-centered. This is constantly reinforced during campaigns, in which the candidate’s virtues and accomplishments are inflated, by staffs and supporters eager to serve the congressman’s every whim, and by lobbyists who are only too happy to massage congressional egos. Everybody looks to Congress to solve problems; yet we are fallible, and as Christians we readily admit we cannot even solve our own problems without God’s help. William Wilberforce, an English aristocrat who served in Parliament around the turn of the nineteenth century, offers a model of how Christians can serve both God and country.

Wilberforce has been the subject of several recent books, including John Pollock’s excellent Wilberforce (St. Martin), but my favorite is Saints and Politics (Allen Unwin), by Ernest Howse. He offers a poetic account of this extraordinary man’s life and faith.

Wilberforce’s England, as Dickens aptly described it in his epigram, was the “… best of times; it was the worst of times.” The wealthy and popular young MP indulged in London’s “best of times” society and its vices. But even then, for all his gaiety and indolence, it was apparent God had special plans for Wilberforce. Once he accepted Christ, he set about to use his position and prestige to address many of the moral issues of the day. Wilberforce presided over a group known then as the Saints (later called the Clapham Sect), who possessed wealth and power, but who were deeply motivated by religious impulses. Their movement sprung out of a new doctrine of responsibility—a doctrine that received its vision from the Christian emphasis on the value of each person.

Led by Wilberforce, they organized the movement to abolish the slave trade and embarked upon a number of social issues, including reforming parliamentary and penal systems, curbing gambling and other social vices, and educating the illiterate. Their concern was not only with the moral, but also the material, well-being of the less fortunate. So Wilberforce and his friends gave generously of their own fortunes to help others.

There is much today’s politician can learn from Wilberforce’s example.

First, he unabashedly proclaimed Christ. His faith was there for everyone to see and judge. At first, he felt that public life and serving Christ were incompatible and wanted to resign from Parliament, but his good friend John Newton convinced him otherwise.

Second, political expedience did not compromise his stands on the issues. An aristocrat and a Tory, he nonetheless offended the financial establishment by wanting to end the slave trade.

Third, as Sen. Mark Hatfield has noted, Wilberforce was a practitioner of relational politics. Even his friend Prime Minister William Pitt, with whom he differed on major issues, was drawn to Wilberforce’s unconditional love for others.

Fourth, Wilberforce was a devout man, but he needed nurturing and accountability. Thus, he gathered around himself like-minded friends who met frequently to seek God’s wisdom, pray, and support one another at a place called Clapham, outside London.

Fifth, as a politician and Christian, Wilberforce’s conduct was above reproach. He once observed about himself: “How careful ought I to be, that I do not disgust men by the inconsistency between the picture of a Christian which I know, and which I exhibit.”

Four of us have been meeting regularly for five years on Capitol Hill for Bible study, and to pray, share our faith, uphold one another, and discuss ways in which we can be more Christlike in our political lives.

Wilberforce has been an inspiration to each of us. He has shown us that politics is simply the means, but that God’s divine will is the end. Regardless of ideology, we can strive to accomplish his work on this planet.

Wilberforce and his close friend William Pitt were both elected to Parliament at age 21. Pitt went on to become prime minister of England at the astonishing age of 24. But it was not Pitt the politician but Wilberforce the Christian who altered the course of history during their time.

—Don Bonker

A Smorgasbord Of Christian Insight

Choosing the one book that has brought me closest to Christ is like choosing the one child who has contributed most to my positive outlook on family life.

There is no one book, although there is a single theme running through my Hit Parade of Christian books. Books that are down to earth and offer useful insights into living and sharing everyday life are at the top of my list.

Finding those books in my home and office are easy. They are the ones in which I have underlined numerous pages, dog-eared for later reference, starred in the margin, and pulled off the shelf time and again to use in teaching, writing, and sharing. My favorite books would not appeal to everyone because my tastes—like my needs—range from Watchman Nee to Ann Kiemel.

I have a hard time keeping up with my best books because I give them away. That is a much better practice than lending books, because it reduces the guilt on both sides when a book is away from home for months at a time. My favorite books to give away have been C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity and Bob Benson’s In Quest of the Shared Life.

But the book I have used most frequently in personal study and teaching Sunday school is a book by C. S. Lewis called God in the Dock (Eerdmans). This book, edited by Walter Hooper, is a marvelous collection of essays and letters on theology and ethics.

I must admit, I am not a heavy theology man. I can and will read all of Ann Kiemel’s books before I’ll plunge into a book on theology. If I want theology, I’ll take it straight, thank you—straight from the Bible.

But C.S. Lewis is different.

God in the Dock has helped me because it is one of the most practical and far-ranging books I have ever encountered. It has helped make my faith stronger and more real.

Lewis, of course, was an intellectual, but his strength for me is his simplicity of style and his anticipation of the questions that nag believers and nonbelievers alike.

Lewis’s ability to deal with skepticism in a straightforward, nonhysterical way is a great asset. Throughout this book, Lewis refuses to water down the supernatural underpinnings of Christianity, but he offers sensible, pragmatic insights to practical living.

That is a rare blend. He puts the Christian faith in marvelous perspective with this obvious but succinct observation: “One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

My underlined passages and dog-eared passages cover the full range of this book, from Lewis’s advice on human relationships to his opinion on whether it is proper for Christians to be ambitious.

God in the Dock is a smorgasbord of Christian insights, which is why it has helped me so much. There is nothing single-dimensional about the Christian life, and that’s what makes this book such a joy.

Like all the books on my Hit Parade, God in the Dock illuminates and brings to life the truths of the Bible. That, of course, is the essence of any good book and explains why C. S. Lewis continues to be so popular.

—Charles Overby

What Job Never Understood

Several months ago I was going through a pressure-packed time: major business decisions coupled with some pressing family problems. At the same time, my turn at teaching the men’s Bible class at my church required a study of Job’s interesting experiences. A friend suggested that I look at G. Campbell Morgan’s book The Answers of Jesus to Job (Baker).

Morgan’s book encouraged me to discover what I already knew but had carelessly ignored. Jesus Christ is not only my Redeemer, but, as Lord of my life, a deep resource of comfort, assurance, and peace. In short, he is the answer to all personal problems if I will just ask for his assistance.

As I studied Job’s story and read Morgan’s book, I was struck again with the hopelessness and inadequacy of human thinking in the midst of crisis. God called such thinking and advice “words without knowledge.” But the chief thrust of Morgan’s book was that today life’s problems find their answers in the provision of Christ—something Job couldn’t fully comprehend.

Stripped of all the trappings of human comfort—including his health—Job cried for a mediator to create contact with God so he could plead his case. Paul tells me there is one mediator between God and man uniquely qualified as diety and as man: Jesus Christ. There it was! God would see my problems and hear my case because Christ made access to God possible. How remarkable!

As Morgan points out so clearly, again and again Job would cry out for answers to his plight. Then the book would direct me to a clear answer from Christ, who meets all human needs. The reality of this resource in Jesus brought great relief to my troubled time. My problems were insignificant compared to Job’s, but my Lord was just as concerned with my details as with any major world crisis.

Job’s story was written centuries ago. The story of Jesus’ earthly ministry came later. Morgan’s book was written several years ago, but it pointed out to me once again the relevance of the Holy Scriptures and the timelessness of Jesus’ work and provision. What a remarkable privilege it is to have bold access today to the presence of God and to be a beneficiary of the work of Christ.

—William Seay

Bloom Where You’Re Planted

I grew up loving to read. I can remember being totally immersed in such historical novels as the Altsheller series on the Civil War and the Fenimore Cooper stories of the American frontier. But with college and then business and professional life, reading became something I had to do to keep current, especially with the volume of required literature. Often my two hours of daily reading, as I commuted from Connecticut to New York and back, were not enough to keep up with the stack.

So I was somewhat less than enthusiastic around 1970 when my wife, Sally, started producing “good Christian” books for me to read. A couple of years before she had had a meaningful experience in church and made a commitment to God, which I didn’t really understand. But I did appreciate the change in her. Housekeeping, cooking, doing laundry, and looking after three active children did not seem to be the same burden as before. All of us noticed and remarked upon Mom’s new and happier image, though she talked more about her Bible study than I cared to hear.

One evening, at the dinner table, our oldest son, Chris, who loved to debate (so much that he has gone on to become a lawyer), was arguing with his mother. He pointed out apparent inconsistencies between certain books in her beloved Bible. Finally, his mother, her patience growing thin, said, “Chris, just tell me one thing: Have I changed?” There was a pause, and then to my astonishment, Chris threw his hands in the air and said, “You win, Mom.” That went through me like a knife, and I thought, He’s right. She really has changed.

I myself had been a lifelong church attender and believer in God but at that time was without any personal commitment to him. It was in that same time frame that Sally gave me The Hiding Place (Revell), Corrie Ten Boom’s account of her life before and during World War II. This story of an ordinary Dutch spinster and her family’s bravery with the Nazis before and during imprisonment came alive to me. It had to be God, I thought, because no human being in his or her own strength would be able to do what she had done and affect so many lives through her simple but iron-strong faith in Jesus Christ.

Concurrently, I also read L’Abri, by Edith Schaeffer, a story of an American preacher and his family led by the Lord to establish a mountainside Christian community in Switzerland. What impressed me again was how many people’s lives were impacted by men and women simply doing in their daily lives what they believed God was telling them to do. It was just after finishing this book that Sally cabled our son Chris, who was then touring in Europe, to visit L’Abri. She told me what she had done, and I agreed completely. And I sensed that somehow our complete agreement on that had something to do with Chris deciding to go back to Switzerland and spend time at L’Abri. That experience marked a dramatic deepening of his own personal commitment to God.

As for me, those two books made a profound impression, bringing home the trust that I can do the Lord’s work right where he has put me. I didn’t need to wait until retirement, nor did I have to go into full-time Christian activity to prepare to do God’s work in my own daily life—in my family, my work, my community life, my church.

Too many of us decide to wait for a better time to start a new life—when the pressures of business or family have eased, when we’re less tired or feeling better, when the children are in college or off to their jobs. The truth that Corrie Ten Boom and Edith Schaeffer so powerfully dramatized is this: We don’t have to wait; we can start serving him right now, and right where we are.

—William Kanaga

An Eternal Debt To C.S. Lewis

I am eternally in debt to a number of Christian writers whose books have influenced my life and helped me in my quest to know and love the Christ who died for me. Charles Colson’s trilogy of works—Born Again, Life Sentence, and Loving God—immensely influenced my career choices and the conduct of my life. Likewise, James Dobson’s books, tapes, films, and personal testimony have had an immeasurable impact on our entire family.

No writer or single book, however, has had more influence on my life or drawn me closer to Christ than the C. S. Lewis masterpiece Mere Christianity (Macmillan). This 190-page paperback, actually a compilation of three Lewis books, confronted me with directness and authority as to the meaning of Christianity and the behavior to be expected from those who claim and want to follow Christ. I don’t believe anyone can read Mere Christianity without being forced to face ultimate questions about who Christ is or what his life and death means to each individual.

I have read and reread all or parts of Mere Christianity many times, each time with new insight and renewed appreciation for the clear, logical, and practical way in which C. S. Lewis presents his thoughts. By the time I reached the chapter titled “The Practical Conclusion,” I realized how necessary it is that all of us must individually heed Lewis’s concluding thought: “Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us a chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.”

Having personally made this choice, Lewis then tells me how Christians should live. In his chapter titled “Is Christianity Hard or Easy?” he explores the myth that I could have both Christ and self. He tells me that “the terrible thing, the impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self … to Christ.” Lewis reminds me that “Christ says, ‘Give me all … I want you.… Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you myself: My own shall be yours.’ ”

Deciding for Christ and giving up self—that to me is the essence of Christianity. It seems so basic, yet I didn’t understand it until C. S. Lewis told me. I can’t wait to thank him and Him.

—Dan Coats

How To Step Back From The Daily Battle

On occasion a friend or a colleague has sent me a gift of “shared celebration” or “encouraging words” in the form of a book. This is how I received a copy of The End of Christendom (Eerdmans), by Malcolm Muggeridge, whom I admire greatly for his heart, wit, and intelligence.

The book came from a professional acquaintance who has served in the government for many years. He knew the satisfactions and pressures in public service and could empathize with my experiences. My job in the Reagan administration includes administering programs and research to reduce early teenage sexual activity and to improve the outcome of adolescent pregnancy. I also have responsibility for the program that provides family planning services to approximately four million poor women across the country. These problems affect many families throughout the country and have serious repercussions for our society.

It is a privilege to have responsibility for even a few of the successful initiatives this administration supports to help people in need. At the same time, there are inevitable frustrations brought about by the realities of addressing deeply entrenched social problems. These frustrations present an opportunity to gain deeper insight into Christian faith. Muggeridge is a good guide. He highlights eternal truths about the character of God and the believer’s relationship to him that help keep life in perspective. Using the insights gained in a prison camp, Alexander Solzhenitsyn shows the good that can come from the most difficult circumstances. He seems to encourage us to keep working and to have faith. In the government, as in other professions, the ideal is seldom achieved. Yet we should set our sights on the ideal anyway, and if it appears to be beyond reach, we must still try, for as Robert Browning wrote, “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”

In his book, Muggeridge eloquently states his strong prolife beliefs, based on a universal view of human rights and a loving Creator who values all of his creatures equally. He also deplores the current notion of freedom. With alarm, he sees morality on the decline and “senseless self-indulgence” becoming a norm.

Yet the author does not leave us without hope. He reassures his readers that it is in a crisis that we learn the lessons of faith. “It is in the darkness and the cold when Christ’s hand reaches out sure and firm,” he writes. Whatever the crisis, personal or public, the central role of faith and the warmth of Christ’s love is a redeeming factor.

Muggeridge lets us know that “I believe” is as central as “I know.” We are all tempted at times to rely solely on reason in our pursuits, and Muggeridge pulls us back into a proper understanding of God’s sovereignty.

This book has helped me step back and take the longer view. There is nothing more reassuring than knowing that God remains in charge and that faith will be triumphant regardless of circumstances.

—Marjory Mecklenberg

Finding My Way Through The Wilderness

In 1977 I stepped aboard a plane with several men from around the country, most of whom I had never met. We were heading for a land I had been fascinated with as a child and awed by as an adult.

It was in the middle of my race for the U.S. Congress and I had a thousand things on my mind. But the most prominent thought that day was that soon I would be sleeping under the stars in the Sinai desert—a wilderness used by God for incredible purposes.

I was traveling with Jamie Buckingham, my pastor and personal friend from Melbourne, Florida. He had invited me to be one of 12 sojourners to traverse the desert sands, following the footsteps of Moses. He was compiling factual data for a book he was writing about the Sinai and also gaining insight about the wilderness itself and the effect it has had on the men who walked its sands and climbed its mountains.

Buckingham’s book, A Way Through the Wilderness (Chosen), describes Moses making his trek across the peninsula wasteland to nowhere—spending 40 long, hot years tending sheep. But God had not forgotten Moses. The plan for his life was still in effect.

Then one day, as an old man of 80, Moses saw a burning bush. It spoke to him, and Moses obeyed.

Buckingham’s book describes the Sinai wilderness as being the tool that God used to hone the future leader of the Israelites. For 40 years Moses was shaped by God until he became the only leader able to stand up to the Egyptian pharaoh and demand in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “Let my people go.”

As I felt the scorching sand beneath my feet and the sun baking my skin, I realized the torment Moses must have felt when he first entered that arid land in exile. Yet, standing in that wilderness, I realized that God has a purpose for our lives just as he did for Moses’ life. I felt his coolness in the heat of the day and his warmth during the chill of the night.

Each of us has had wilderness experiences—loved ones dying, dreams fading, and prayers seemingly going unanswered. But through times of spiritual solitude, God always grants the necessary perseverance and confidence. As Buckingham describes in his book, “He has always guided me to the fresh Waters of Elim, where the springs of life flow.” While leading our group through the desert, God taught us the lessons of the wilderness—lessons in patience, obedience, and relationships.

As in the Sinai wandering, God’s presence is constant. He continues to be a single cloud in the daytime, giving us direction and cooling us in his shadow while warming us at night as a pillar of fire.

Standing on the summit of Mount Sinai, I remembered Moses and the fears he had when God first spoke to him. If he had doubted God, he never would have stood on that mountain and received God’s commandments. The Lord spoke and he had to act.

In that wilderness, I learned that God will communicate to each of us as well. The “wilderness” is an experience we all must go through, says Buckingham, but God will always remain with us and will reveal to us his purpose for our lives.

Refreshing Sensations In The Word

Few things are as important to a maturing Christian as a daily quiet time with God. But it is easy for our regular appointment with God—reading his Word and praying—to become dry and seemingly noninspirational. For this reason, A Day at a Time (Zondervan), by Richard C. Halverson, has been an important part of my walk with the Lord.

Halverson, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, has been a godsend, not only to the men and women who work in the Senate, but to the thousands of lives he has touched personally and through his book. A good friend of mine once described the chaplain this way: “He’s the most Christlike man I’ve ever known!” I’m sure knowing him personally makes A Day at a Time that much more meaningful.

Halverson’s book has helped me get the day started on the right track. There is a devotion for every day of the year to add depth and new insights to an accompanying Scripture verse.

I don’t know about you, but I can read the same verse over and over again without understanding its full meaning. For example, John 7:17, “If any man chooses to do God’s will, he will find out …” can be read repeatedly without striking a responsive nerve. But this is how Halverson arouses a heartfelt response by commenting on it:

“… the tragedy is not that Christ has failed or that His church has failed. The tragedy is that men have played at Christianity and church or have rejected it altogether. Obviously it won’t work if men won’t work it! There’s only one way to discover whether medicine works or not. Try it! Argument proves nothing. Debate is fruitless. It has to be applied.

“And until a man has tried Christ, until he has met the conditions of repentance and commitment, until a man takes Christ seriously, he is in no position to debate whether Christ works or not.… Christ has never failed in any test under any conditions—when men have been willing to give them a chance!”

That adds a special fullness to John 7:17. It also adds the needed spark to set the rest of my day on fire.

Because weekday mornings are generally so rushed, A Day at a Time helps me maintain daily devotions without the excuse that I don’t have time. Each devotional takes less than five minutes to read, and many are only one or two minutes long. Yet, the message is so clear and to the point that it often stays with me all day. And that’s where the real benefits lie—by giving God the time to mold thoughts and develop character.

Even when passages of Scripture are read with intellectual understanding, we can often miss the warm or refreshing sensations tucked away in God’s Word. Halverson helps bring the Scriptures to life with anecdotes that relate to everyday living. His devotions encourage us to see God’s hand in the events surrounding our lives and give us hope that the Lord is working mightily in each of us.

—Don Nickles

Evidence Of God’S Power

Having read Born Again and Life Sentence, by Charles Colson, I turned to his new book, Loving God (Zondervan), with real anticipation. This volume reached me while I was undergoing a lengthy, severe, and tormenting case of shingles. During this period, God’s Word was my special comfort and encouragement. However, after the Bible itself, Loving God was the book the Lord used to bring me closer to himself, helping me through my “miry clay” of pain and exhaustion. The book was so helpful I sent copies to about 100 friends.

One reason the book is so valuable is that Colson has so throughly stocked his writing with appropriate Scripture passages. We say with Jeremiah (15:16), “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.”

Colson vividly describes an appreciation of Scripture in his portrayal of the appalling Vietnam prisoner of war camp. In that camp, the “Hanoi Hilton,” American fliers strained to keep their sanity by recalling portions of Scripture they had learned in childhood and meditating upon them.

Two prisoners in adjacent cells, Howard Rutledge and Harry Jenkins, whispered back and forth between passes of the prison guard:

“ ‘I remember another story,’ said Jenkins quickly.

“ ‘What is it?’

“ ‘Ruth and Naomi. How Naomi lost everything she had—her husband, her sons, and her land.’

“ ‘I remember some of it.’

“ ‘Ruth was Naomi’s daughter-in-law. Ruth was faithful to Naomi and stayed with her. They went to a foreign land.’

“ ‘What happened?’ Rutledge asked.

“ ‘I can’t remember that.’

“Rutledge spent hours trying to remember the name of the person who had helped Ruth and Naomi. Later that night Rutledge climbed up to reach the small window in his cell.

“ ‘Jenkins,’ he whispered.

“A pause, then, ‘What?’

“ ‘Boaz.’

“ ‘I know. I just remembered.’ ”

The lesson for us in this is, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4). We must “let the word of Christ dwell within [us] richly” (Col. 3:16) to be ready for any occasion.

How beautifully God’s Word is exalted as Colson ties the resurrection of Christ to the Watergate experience. He describes the events of the Watergate cover-up, and writes: “With the most powerful office in the world at stake, a small band of hand-picked loyalists, no more than ten of us, could not hold a conspiracy together for more than two weeks.”

If the Resurrection were untrue, then one must believe 11 powerless men, with the complicity of 500 others, risked imprisonment and death to keep the “cover-up” alive, and they were successful. Given Colson’s Watergate experience, he doesn’t believe they could have done it.

“The gospel of Christ … is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16). This power, of course, is manifested in each individual conversion, but we can observe it more dramatically in an Augustine, a Luther, a John Newton, and other great men and women of God. Now we see in Colson’s conversion and complete commitment an additional impressive evidence of the gospel’s might. I enjoyed observing the progress of his spiritual maturity, from Born Again, to Life Sentence, to Loving God. He has a real call from God and is being faithful to it.

—Fred Russell Esty, Jr.

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