I think the best Christmas gift to give or receive is a book. It gives hours of entertainment or learning at a very low price. It requires no batteries. Its technology will never be out of date. It will wait patiently until someone picks it up. It can be passed on from person to person and generation to generation. It helps the person who wrote it. It helps the person who gives it. It helps the person who receives and reads it. It enriches all of society.
...so, <grin>, I have several to
recommend for you. These can be bought on Amazon, Kindle, Nook, or iTunes. They are available in paperback, hardback, or digitally. And
I have every confidence in the soundness and helpfulness of their content.
Freed From Sin, A Primer on Holiness
is, as the title suggests, an exploration of what holiness is and is not as
well as a scriptural manual on how to grow into it. This is not a little book,
and I do not apologize for that. I have no interest in being another source of
independent Baptist fluff. Its forty-nine chapters spread over 438 pages are
divided into eight sections discussing and applying nearly 1,000 Scripture
references. I have not written it because I think it will sell; in fact, I
doubt it will. Who reads entire books about holiness these days? I have written
it because it cries to be written. I have written it because God’s people in
this generation are under what is perhaps a fiercer assault of the devil than
any generation has ever been. I have written it because the truths I learned changed
my life foundationally, philosophically, and practically; and that change was
for the better. In short, I have written it to help you because the truths in
it have helped me so very much.
Almost a century ago the independent Baptist movement was born. From its beginning it was deeply marked and widely identified with doctrinal orthodoxy and a vigorous practice. Over the last thirty years that vigorous practice has degenerated seriously in several rather alarming ways. The results of this degeneration are increasingly seen in two mistakes. The first mistake is the tendency on behalf of the brethren to dig in, to admit nothing publicly, and to attack any who assert that something is wrong. In so doing they are simply exacerbating the problem. The second mistake is to overreact. Some overreact by leaving the independent Baptist movement altogether for contemporary Christianity. Others are attempting to transition to some “new” kind of independent Baptist model. In so doing they are abandoning much that is good and ingesting much that is dangerous.
Schizophrenic seeks to take a balanced
approach. On the one hand, it boldly shouts, “We’re right!” On the other hand,
it unhesitatingly confesses, “We’re wrong.” It points to the banners of our strength
and calls on us to lift them high. At the same time, it lifts the rug covering
our dirt and calls on us to clean it up. At all times, it seeks to do this with
a careful adherence to Scripture and a well-researched eye on the facts all
bathed in a spirit of charity.
Jesus was the greatest preacher who ever lived. His greatest sermon was given on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee toward the beginning of His ministry. Over the course of three chapters early in the New Testament it offers us both a connection to the Old Testament and an explicit appeal to a new kind of life It balances inward calls to self-examination with eminently practical instructions relating to daily life.
This book is both an explanation of and
an application of that great sermon. Over the course of thirty chapters the
author walks through its sections and emphases. He lays before us the intent of
Jesus’ message by immersing us in His day while at the same time relating that
message to our own. In the process he directly challenges us to live, inwardly
and outwardly, the truths found in the greatest sermon ever preached.