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10 hours ago, Neopatriarch said:

Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper.  I see that used copies are being sold at Amazon for 1 cent.

I higly recommend AGAINST this book. In fact, I would recommend the book, "John Piper and Christian Hedonism" which is a free ebook available here: http://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/john_piper_and_hedonism.php  Dangerous stuff.

When you say "Easy to read" do you mean you don't read well, or you're not wanting any serious doctrine? I don't like to recommend light, sugary fluff, because that's not what the Christian life is about. It is serious business, so I try to recommend serious books. I would steer clear of Max Lucado, as well. David Cloud is an excellent author with a lot of books about the Christian life. Foxe's Book of Martyrs is an excellent book, but will break your heart for what Christianity used to be.

Bones of Contention, written by Marvin Lubenow, disproving the icons of evolution. Make sure of the author because the title has been used many times.

Touch Not the Unclean Thing, by David Soerenson, about the Bible version issue.

New Age Bible Versions by Gail Riplinger

Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement by Dan Lucarini. He also recently wronte another book on the music issue, "It's Not About the Music", which I haven't read, so while I like him I can't yet recommend it.

 

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Welcome to the forum by the way.  I see that you're from Ireland, what part?  My ancestors left Ireland around the time of the great potato famine.

Lucado and Piper preach against God and the things of God, they are heretics, wolves in sheep's clothing.  

If your wise in heart, which I pray that you are, the book stores at Way of Life.org and Sword of the Lord contain many blessings in the books they've written for you.  

Might I suggest, "Prayer, Asking and Receiving" by John R. Rice?  

This book has been a great blessing to my wife, our children and myself as Preacher Rice continually points us to Scripture and Bible doctrine.

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On 9/1/2016 at 5:40 PM, Ukulelemike said:

I higly recommend AGAINST this book. In fact, I would recommend the book, "John Piper and Christian Hedonism" which is a free ebook available here: http://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/john_piper_and_hedonism.php  Dangerous stuff.

Some thoughts on David Cloud’s eBook John Piper and Christian Hedonism


I should say first of all, ceteris paribus, I consider John Piper to be more of an expert than David Cloud, especially with respect to Christian hedonism, which is not to say that Piper is infallible.  I’m not inclined to accept Cloud’s claims over and against Piper’s just on his say so.


Some issues:
1.     In his introduction, Cloud poisons the well against Piper by condemning him for non-separatism with respect to infant baptism, which he considers heretical.
2.    Cloud claims that the foundational source of Christian hedonism is in men like Blaise Pascal and C.S. Lewis.  It’s the genetic fallacy to claim Christian hedonism is wrong because these men taught it.  The real question is whether it is biblically based or not.  Piper says it is.
3.    Cloud says that “Christian hedonism has played right into the hands of the Christian rock movement.”  With Cloud’s logic, one could claim the Bible itself played into the hands of slave owners because it was used to justify slavery, despite disclaimers over the legitimacy of it.
4.    Cloud says, “There is a great danger in identifying Christian joy solely with emotional pleasure, with a spiritual gaiety.” He appears to be making a distinction without a difference.
5.    Cloud says, “If Piper was right and if the pursuit of joy in God was the only genuine essence of proper Christian motivation, Paul would indicate this, but he doesn’t. Instead, he offers several different motives that would please God. In giving, we are to give ourselves to the Lord (2 Cor. 8:5). We are to minister to the needs of needy saints (2 Cor. 8:4). We are to work out the grace of God (2 Cor. 8:7). We are to prove the sincerity of our love (2 Cor. 8:8, 24). We are to follow Christ’s example (2 Cor. 8:9). We are to seek an equality (2 Cor. 8:13-15). We are to encourage the hearts of Christian leaders (2 Cor. 8:24; 9:3-4). We are to sow in expectation of a reward (2 Cor. 9:6-10). All of these are proper motivations for giving.”  The problem here, from a Reformed perspective, is that we do not *want* to do any of these things so long as we are dead in sin, but we do them because Christ died for us.  “We love him, because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).”  Christ changes our hearts so that we want to do these things.  He changes our desires.
6.    Cloud says, “Consider Job sitting in an ash heap scrapping his sores with a piece of broken pottery in the deepest grief and confusion at the loss of his children and his fortune and station in life.  When Job disregarded his wife’s counsel to curse God and instead bowed before his Creator and said, ‘the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD,’ that was one of the greatest acts of worship ever recorded. Yet there is clear evidence that Job was not happy.”  But James 5:11 says, “Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”  
7.    Cloud defines Christian hedonism as “the doctrine that man’s highest calling is to pursue his own happiness by pursuing God.”  But the most succinct statement of Christian hedonism is: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  And Piper says, “Christian Hedonism does not put us above God when we seek Him out of self-interest. A patient is not greater than his physician.”  The ultimate priority is not our own happiness, but God.
8.    Cloud says, "CHRISTIAN JOY AND REJOICING IS, ABOVE ALL ELSE, STEADFAST CONFIDENCE IN GOD REGARDLESS OF ONE'S CIRCUMSTANCES."  Also, quoting Muller: “Faith has nothing to do with feelings or with impressions, with improbabilities or with outward experiences. If we desire to couple such things with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God, because faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.”  So, on the one hand Cloud says, essentially, that Christian joy is faith.  On the other, faith has nothing to do with feelings.  Does faith have anything to do with joy?  Or is joy not a feeling?

 

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Here is a very short list of secular books that I have read that gives a taste of some of the types of books I like to read. I like to read historical books with a message, books on the Presidents, Military achievements, and Biographies of worthy people to emulate. With some exceptions, I normally do not read fiction (including Christian fiction), mysteries, or fantasy books or articles. 

1. "An Army at Dawn," by Rick Atkinson. It is a historical book about the war in North Africa, 1942-1943. It gives an insight in the battles that ordinary G.I's went through.

2. "The Loneliest Camapign," by Irwin Ross. It gives detail of the 1948 Presidential Campaign by President Harry S. Truman. It details the Truman Victory for President of 1948.

It has some stiking parallels with the current presidential campaign of Trump and Clinton. Truman was down in all of the polls, the press hated him and was baised. But, his strategy of campainging in a train and crisscross America led to great results. Everywhere Truman went to he attracted crowds of folks with a lot of enthusiasm. On the contrast, the Dewey campaign, like Clinton, was met with small crowds,  no enthusiasm, and the press backed Dewey exactly like it is backing Clinton today.

I do have several books on Truman and books that Truman wrote. Almost all books about Truman are worth reading.

3. "Long Knife," by James Alexander Thom. Long Knife is a novel based on Georgre Rogers Clark. Clark led a small, but fierce army, during our early history, against the British and there outposts in early America. Excellent historical novel based on true incidents.

4. "John Adams," by David McCullough. An excellent book on the history of President John Adams. David McCullough is a very good historical researcher.

God bless!

Alan 

Edited by Alan
written to read capatilize Long
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On August 30, 2016 at 4:58 PM, julisback said:

Hi, could you suggest any good books for me. Easy to read. I like Max Lucado's books a lot.

Anything new evangelical should not be read, at least in my notion. There are no new evangelical materials in this house. Some theological works I enjoyed are Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Luther's response to Erasmus' On the Freedom of the Will called On the Bondage of the Will, as well as Henry Ford's The International Jew. Ford seemed to love the Lord Jesus per his writings. Though vulgar at times, Anne Rowe Seaman's expose called Swaggart was a useful resource tool on the Pentecostal movement and that wave without wind in Baton Rouge. JA Wylie's The Papacy is Antichrist and The Jesuits are true treats. His book on the Vadouis or Waldensians is highly praised. Luther's The Jews and Their Lies has useful information; he was wrong to advocate certian things in the book. When they say the word "Jesu", it is actually a cipher for 316, mocking John 3.16. Cornwell's book Hitler's Pope on Pius XII is revealing into how the Unholy See supported Hitler during the Second World War. 

 

Edited by Particular Baptist
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On September 1, 2016 at 4:40 PM, Ukulelemike said:

I higly recommend AGAINST this book. In fact, I would recommend the book, "John Piper and Christian Hedonism" which is a free ebook available here: http://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/john_piper_and_hedonism.php  Dangerous stuff.

When you say "Easy to read" do you mean you don't read well, or you're not wanting any serious doctrine? I don't like to recommend light, sugary fluff, because that's not what the Christian life is about. It is serious business, so I try to recommend serious books. I would steer clear of Max Lucado, as well. David Cloud is an excellent author with a lot of books about the Christian life. Foxe's Book of Martyrs is an excellent book, but will break your heart for what Christianity used to be.

Bones of Contention, written by Marvin Lubenow, disproving the icons of evolution. Make sure of the author because the title has been used many times.

Touch Not the Unclean Thing, by David Soerenson, about the Bible version issue.

New Age Bible Versions by Gail Riplinger

Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement by Dan Lucarini. He also recently wronte another book on the music issue, "It's Not About the Music", which I haven't read, so while I like him I can't yet recommend it.

 

 

GA Riplinger believes in her book Hazardous Materials the Authorized Version and other previously unknown texts were exhaled at Pentecost. Beware! The double inspiration view is historically spurrious as well as unsubstantiated.

You are right to warn against the Fullerite Hedonic Piper. He is a mess from beginning to end, unlike the Lord's commandments. Here is my friend pastor Benjamin Winslett's article on the topic of Fullerism or new Calvinism courtesy of that old heresiarch Andrew Fuller. John Piper arguably is one of the patriarchs of the Fullerite movement. Here is what Cloud documents about him.

Also suggested is Christopher Ness' Antidote to Arminianism.

Edited by Particular Baptist
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If you have not read it, the original Felix Salten book, "Bambi," is an absolutely wonderful read.  It is almost nothing like the Disney film whatsoever, save for a few names of characters.  The follow up book called, "Perri," about a young squirrel, is also a wonderful read.  Then there's also, "Bambi's Children," and "A Forrest World," also by Salten.

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