Recommending a Couple of Good Reads

Have you seen the old Twilight Zone episode: Atomic Irony, where the main character (played by Burgess Meredith) loves to read books but can’t find the time or a place to read. He just wants to be left alone to read. The ending holds the punch. Here is a two-minute cap of that episode, if you dare to enter the TZ:  Atomic Irony.

I have no idea how that memory has survived locked up in some moldy, dungeon cell in my brain. You would expect some memories to give up and just die after a decade or two. Obviously there are some that won’t give up and go away, even though you starve and deny their exist. I’m digressing.

We all have favorite books that we recommend to our friends. Here are two from completely different categories.

#1.  Category:  Suspense novel

Title: Deadline, by Randy Alcorn (one of my favorite novelist).

The Publisher’s Description: “Involved in a tragic accident under suspicious circumstances, award- winning journalist Jake Woods teams with detective Ollie Chandler to uncover the truth. This alluring repackage of the Randy Alcorn bestseller finds Jake drawing upon all his resources in an ever- intensifying, dangerous murder investigation. Unaware of the imminent threat to his own life, Jake struggles for answers to the mystery at hand and is plunged into a deeper search for the meaning of his own existence.”

http://www.amazon.com/Deadline-Randy-Alcorn/dp/1590525922/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375557610&sr=1-3&keywords=randy+alcorn+books

 

#2. Category: Biography

Title: George Muller of Bristol, by Arthur Tappan Pierson.

If you read biographies you know that the author can make the person’s life exciting or make him/her a bore. This is the former.  George’s life didn’t need much help, and Pierson went over and above. It is organized, wonderfully written with quotes, details when they mattered, and Pierson’s own commentary that showed his own spiritual maturity and knowledge of Muller. The book feed me as well as broke me. This book put George Muller on my hero list.  I have it marked up and pages tagged. In a nutshell, this book not only captured my heart, it cut my heart so that I may grow more towards Christ.

Who is George Muller? Click his name for a short audio and text bio.

http://www.amazon.com/George-Muller-Bristol-Hendrickson-Biographies/dp/1598562525/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375552626&sr=1-3&keywords=george+muller+of+bristol

If you have read either one, tell me your thoughts.

James Montgomery’s “Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desirer”

ImageI reference James Montgomery in my previous post, which is the Intro to my “soon-to-be” latest novel. His famous poem from 1819 paints a wonderful and insightful description of the depths and beauty of prayer, which can lift us up and carry us closer to our God. Enjoy.

1 PRAYER is the soul’s sincere desire,
Utter’d or unexpress’d;
The motion of a hidden fire,
That trembles in the breast.

2 Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear;
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.

3 Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.

4 Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air;
His watchword at the gates of death:
He enters heaven with prayer.

5 Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning from his ways;
While angels in their songs rejoice,
And cry, “Behold he prays!”

6 The saints in prayer appear as one,
In word, and deed, and mind;
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.

7 Nor prayer is made on earth alone;
The Holy Spirit pleads;
And Jesus, on the eternal throne,
For mourners intercedes.

8 O Thou, by whom we come to God,
The life, the truth, the way!
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord! teach us how to pray. [i]

[i]       Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). Our Own Hymn Book: A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Public, Social and Private Worship. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1883. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

“The Place of Prayer” – My Latest Book’s Introduction

The Place of Prayer will be released soon. Here is the introduction.

——————————-

Yes, another book about prayer, as if there weren’t enough already. Yes, this is a fictional novel, and we have plenty of those also. But the focus of this book is more about teaching than just telling a story. The idea is to mix the two together, which isn’t a new idea, but I think it is a good one. I hope that you do also.

The purpose behind this book is to help others discover what James Montgomery calls the “path of prayer.” Many people long to have a heartbeat in their prayers, as well as a heart that continually beats to pray—to commune and fellowship with the living God and Savior. They want to understand and know how to pray, as the apostle Paul prayed:

… always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints … [i]

For some, the desire is already present, which helps to get the engine started, but then what? How do you make the practice of prayer a part of your everyday life? How do you keep the spirit of prayer alive in your soul? It is as Charles Spurgeon wrote: “To commence prayer is easy, but to continue in it is another thing.”[ii]

So, what if you had a personal mentor to teach you, to walk with you, and to show you by example how prayer grasps eternity and holds on? What if you had a friend, a confidant, who met with you and helped you bring such a heavy-weighted subject down to your level and into your daily life? Well, here lies the unique journey that you can take within this book. You can share the struggles, the joys, the pursuits, along with the sacredness and beauty of prayer that are discovered as one man finds the place of prayer.

It should go without saying that it is impossible to cover with any thoroughness even one dimension of one aspect of this infinite subject, even in a thousand lifetimes. In fact, no one but the Perfect One—Jesus Christ, the God/man, has tapped fully into the eternal nature of prayer. Therefore, we will look to Him as the master teacher in this spiritual journey. He will teach us how to build a practical foundation one layer at a time, one step at a time that will last a lifetime. Along the way, common questions and obstacles will be tackled and important theological truths put into practice. But most importantly, I hope, by the work of the Spirit of God, the wonders of prayer will be unveiled in the shadow of the infinite and sovereign God. And by the time you turn the last page, your heart will long to seek the face of God through prayer and the Holy Scriptures with more fervency and joy. May the end result of such a pilgrimage, as with and in all things, result in glory and praise to His Name, and to His Name alone–Sola Gloria Deo.

Long as they live should Christians pray,

For only while they pray they live. [iii]

 

In Service to Christ and His Church,

Jeff Beard

[i] Ephesians 6:18

[ii] Spurgeon, C. H. The Interpreter: Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009.

[iii] Spurgeon, C. H. Flowers from a Puritan’s Garden, Distilled and Dispensed. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1883.

O’ Lord, “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.”

All that God does is good. Everything; all of the time. It is His nature. God does not choose to do good, it is good because He does it. The same is with His love: He does not choose to love, rather it is love because He loves. The nature of God is good, as it is righteous, just, eternal, and other perfections. For instance, in the six days of creation He made everything good. It was good because He made it. Therefore all that He is, by virtue of being by and from Him, is good.

A person may disagree that everything that He does is good, but can you really make that claim? Are you perfectly good and therefore able to discern and judge that God is not?

Nothing God does is in the slightest bit strayed from pure, perfect good. He is good and does good.

Isn’t this a “good” thing for us? That is a “good” question. We want God to be good, perfectly good, right? We can trust all that He does, allows, and plans as being perfectly good. We want that, at least most people do. But is there a negative to Him being perfectly good? Yes, there is. Not negative to Him, He remains good. But if He is good, what are the ramifications towards anything that is not good? I’ll post more on these questions later.

For now, relish in His goodness and be fully assured that all that He is doing is righteous, just, and perfectly good.