I'm Back! Books I Read Fall 2014

I’m back.

Of course immediately after I began my resolve to blog regularly, our house sold. Moving with 3 small children is a lot of work. I don’t recommend it.

But I didn't lose my resolves on quiet times and studying. I didn't read everything I wanted to, but it was all good. 

So here’s what's convicted me, struck me, amazed me, or challenged me this fall (along with some photos of life along the way)... 

The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson (so many quotes I could share)

“I don’t just want my kids to be moral… I want them to leave my home with a hunger and passion to know God personally and to be used by him to accomplish great things for his kingdom.” (pg. 80)

Knowing God by J.I. Packer (about halfway through now)

"Today, vast stress is laid on the thought that God is personal, but this truth is so stated as to leave the impression that God is a person of the same sort we are – weak, inadequate, ineffective, a little pathetic. But this is not the God of the Bible!  …He is eternal, infinite, and almighty. He has us in his hands; we never have him in ours." (pg. 83)

The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer (How do you choose just one quote? – Everyone must read this book. It’s an easy, wonderful read.)

“How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.” (pg. 47)

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs

"A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage, but all the world and ten thousand times more will not content a Christian for his portion."

"A godly heart can be filled by nothing in the world, it must only be God Himself. A godly heart will not only have the mercy, but the God of that mercy as well.”

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I was struck by this description of what hospitality is not:

“Lady Middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table, and of all her domestic arrangements; and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties.” (pg. 30)

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney (about halfway through this one re-reading it after studying it at church last year - you should at least read the first 4 chapters)

“Isn't the main reason we don’t witness because we don’t discipline ourselves to do it?” (pg. 107)

The Poems of Alfred Tennyson (just over a third of the way through)

“One writes that ‘other friends remain,’

 That ‘loss is common to the race’—

And common is the commonplace, 

And vacant chaff well meant for grain. 

That loss is common would not make 

My own less bitter, rather more. 

Too common! Never morning wore 

To evening, but some heart did break.” 

(In Memoriam, Part VI)

William Tyndale: A Biography by David Daniell (I definitely skimmed sections of this large scholarly volume, but I gained so much from what I read)

“And when the gospel is preached unto us we believe the mercy of God, and in believing we believe the spirit of God, which is the earnest of eternal life, and we are in eternal life already, and feel already in our hearts the sweetness thereof, and are overcome with the kindness of God and Christ and therefore love the will of God, and of love are ready to work freely, and not to obtain that which is given us freely and whereof we are heirs already” – William Tyndale in The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (quoted on page 164-165)

The Radical Disciple by John Stott

“We are all designed to be a burden to others. You are designed to be a burden to me and I am designed to be a burden to you. And the life of the family, including the life of the local church family, should be one of “mutual burdensomeness.” ‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ’ Gal 6:2” (page 110)

Portrait of Calvin by T.H.L. Parker (available for free here: )

“In an interesting passage in the Institutes, Calvin summarized the gospel that he himself preached. When we preach, we must tell a man ‘that he was alienated from God by sin, an heir of wrath, liable to the punishment of eternal death, excluded from all hope of salvation, a total stranger to the blessing of God, a slave to Satan, a captive under the yoke of sin, and, in a word, condemned to and already involved in, a horrible destruction; that, in this situation, Christ interposed as an intercessor; that He has taken upon Himself and suffered the punishment which by the righteous judgment of God impended over all sinners; that by His blood He has expiated those crimes which make them odious to God; that by this expiation God the Father has been duly satisfied and atoned; that by this intercessor His wrath has been appeased; that this is the foundation of peace between God and men; and that this is the bone of His benevolence towards them.’” (page 70)

Habits of a Child’s Heart by Valerie E. Hess and Marti Watson Garlett (about halfway through)

“Prayer is not a free-will offering to God; it is an obligatory service, something God requires… God requires that we take time for this service.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer (quoted on page 36)

Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers by Patrick Kavanaugh (I'm just about done with this one)

“Having begun the habit in childhood, Anton Bruckner always stopped to pray whenever he heard a church bell. Often, when he was teaching, a distant bell would ring, and his students remembered that “in the middle of a lesson they suddenly became aware that his mind and spirit were no longer with them: the church bells had rung, and Bruckner was praying.” (page 135)

The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson (perhaps it’s not even right to include this on the list since I read probably less than half of it and skimmed the rest – the reading is a bit dense – however I did appreciate the part I read)

“Let it not be said that repentance is difficult. Things that are excellent deserve labour.” (Preface)

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

No quotes. I liked this book quite a lot until the ending. And not even because the ending was weird (it's weird), but because she wraps everything up so suddenly and abruptly!

Spectacular Sins by John Piper

“It seems to me that Christians in the West are being coddled. We suffer little in the name of Christ. Therefore, we read the Bible not with a desperate hunger for evidences of God’s triumph in pain, but with a view to improving our private pleasures” (page 12)

“If you embrace the biblical truth that God ordains spectacular sins for the global glory of his Son, without God in any way becoming unholy or unrighteous or sinful in that act, then you will not shrink back from the cross of Christ as a work of God (page 105)

Autopsy of a Deceased Church by Thom S. Rainier

“’And…’ Tears welled in his eyes. He started again. ‘And we stopped praying with the passion we once had. That’s it. That was the beginning of the decline that led to our death. We stopped taking prayer seriously. And the church started dying.’ No prayer. No hope. And the church started dying.” (page 68)

Oh, and yes, in case you were wondering, the kids and I also read millions of picture books. They also loved listening to Little House in the Big Woods in the car. 

Stay tuned for my January reading. :)

Lynette