So here’s my Summer Reading List. Most of these books are ones that I haven’t read up to this point, but there are a handful that I try to go through two or three times a year because they are not only so challenging for me personally, but they keep gospel-intensive truths in my thoughts with amazing clarity. These books are not for seminary—there’s no class assignment with these. They’re just for enjoyment, challenge, growth, and stimulating thought.
- 1. John Owen, The Mortification of Sin (Christian Focus Publications, 1996).
(Written in 1656) This is one of my favorites of all time. I try to read through it at least two or three times each year, but I haven’t read it in over a year. So, it made it as an enjoyable time for this summer.
Here’s three glimpses from Owen:
"When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all ways”
"The custom of sinning takes away the sense of it, the course of the world takes away the shame of it”
"Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you”
- 2. Tim Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering (Dutton, 2013).
Keller has influenced me greatly in the last few years. I haven’t heard much of his thoughts on pain and suffering so I thought I would use the summer to hear more from him on this.
- 3. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (MacMillan, 1948).
A classic. For many believers, this is one of their favorite fictional books by Lewis. I’ve never read it. I really haven’t read a lot of fiction, especially in the last fifteen years. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve read a fictional book in that time. I know that makes me even more lame in some of your heads.
- 4. Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy (Crossway, 2013).
In a world of ever-ceasing busyness, we’ve tried to back out of the frantic spinning wheel. It’s so easy to think that just because “everyone is doing it”—that it’s normal. DeYoung discusses, among other things, subtle things like pride, expectations, over-commitment, lack of rest, and suffering, that we actually use as justifications that keep us spinning plates.
- 5. Daniel Montgomery, Timothy Paul Jones, Proof: Finding Freedom Through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace (Zondervan, 2014).
I’ve always been most intrigued and in awe of the reality of irresistible grace and how God draws us to Himself. I also believe that it should produce great joy as we discover more of these truths.
- 6. Ken Sande, Peacemaking for Families (Tyndale, 2002).
I’ve been through this one before in a class, but Jamie and I want to go through this again to see God’s mercy and love more prevalent in the lives of the boys as they get older. Three Lynch boys spells conflict. This book is great for families to discover ways to move from conflict to God’s peace.
- 7. C.J. Mahaney, Humility (Multnomah, 2005).
Another one that I try to read through two or three times each year. This one not only addresses one of our greatest blindspots, multifaceted pride, but it gives practical ways of cultivating humility.
Dr. Albert Mohler Jr., President of Southern Seminary gave out his list and unapologetically mentioned that his list is more geared for men. And since it’s close to Father’s Day, you could surprise a man around you with a book from one of these lists!
See Dr. Mohler’s Summer Reading List HERE.
Books have become one of the loves of my life. I don’t know how it happened, but it did. People ask that famous question, “If you were on a remote island and could only bring three things—what would they be?” or “If your house were burning down and you had only three minutes to grab the most important items—what would you take with you?”
As long as everyone was safely outside, I would probably want to grab some family videos and pictures, some guitars my dad handed down to me, and a couple of bags full of books! No tv’s or iPads, no jewelry or clothing, no furniture or fixtures—and definitely not the Wii (though the boys might risk life and limb to get it). Instead, I’d be throwing books out the window to safety.
Why books? Because obviously you can simply replace a book by buying a new one or even getting it on your iPad or Kindle, right? --Wrong!
That’s not the relationship I have with books. I like to open them and smell the different smells that time has deposited on the pages. I like some of the coarse feeling paper in some of the older collections. I tear books up in personalizing them by writing thoughts and notes on parts that stick out to me or catch my attention. I have my own little coded system with asterisks, arrows, circles, underlines, double-underlines, stars, capital notes, normal notes, exclamation marks, question marks, and some with letters assigned to paragraphs that reveal beautiful truths (T), influential thought and application to life (L), and specific steps of implementation with concrete action steps (A).
You can’t do all that to an iPad. You can’t smell or feel the texture of the paper.
Books are special. God, in all His most glorious wisdom, decided to communicate with billions of people and reveal to them captivating truths about Himself, themselves, His creation, and all His incredible purposes—and He decided a “book” would be the instrument He used to do that. A book inspired and set apart like no other book in the entire universe. A book with completely no errors or falsehood. A book that was really greater than simple print on papyrus or paper. The book was all pointing to a Person—and that Person was the very “Word of God,” the second Person of the Trinity. You see, books, even in God’s sight, are very wonderful and powerful.
One of my favorite things is when I find or receive as a gift an old, old, weathered version of one of my top ten favorite books. With some of my favorites, which I may read through more than once each year, I have two or three different older printings. Those are gems!
Books are powerful. They can change so much for so many people and have such lasting influence. Universities and Seminaries could really be simply understood as a very large stack of books that the professors believe are the most intellectually stimulating, growth-producing, mind-expanding tools that can influence culture and the future. If you go to this University or Seminary, you will pay for a stack of books that are purposefully meant to persuade your thinking and attitudes to be formed towards certain ideologies. You go to a different University, they give you a different (but maybe similar) stack of books to read and comprehend. Even the Universities and schools that pride themselves in not “pushing” a person or “indoctrinating” students towards a specific agenda—those places have some of the strongest agendas!
Of course, the dialog, discussions, and lectures of professors shapes some of the intake of these volumes. But have you ever thought about how much influence books have had on history? Great leaders in all of human history had usually read some of the known classics up to their time and had been influenced incredibly by the thought-provoking interaction in their stack of books.
So, books…enjoy some books this summer. Expand your thoughts this summer. You never know, there may be some life-changing things that happen from simply opening up a book!
Sankie P. Lynch
www.nbchurch.info
www.nbfamilies.info
sankie@nbchurch.info
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