Books to have on your shelf

I enjoy reading. This was not always the case, for as a young boy I was highly uninterested in reading anything that was not sports related. But when God started working in my life, I became interested in reading the Bible. For a kid who grew up in church, I was shocked how little I knew about the content of scripture and once i started reading it I became fascinated with it. About the same time I began reading the Bible, I also began to like books that dealt with God and faith. I will not lie, my interest in reading books was gradual and was assisted by men like John Piper who serve as a bridge to the great minds of the past. I still remember reading Piper's "Legacy of Sovereign Joy," that was assigned to me my freshmen year at Grove City. The book was a brief biography of the lives and works of Augustine, Luther and Calvin. The common thread that Piper saw in all of their lives was a deep rooted joy in the goodness and sovereignty of God. I was actually interested in this book. I was shocked. The book was not written merely intellectually but had an interesting and pastoral feel to it. It rocked my world.

        My first book recommendation on the Man-Cave was John MacCarthur's 12 ordinary men and my second will be Piper's the Swan's are not Silent Series. There are 4 separate books (I think) Which deal with the life and times of 3 different Christians throughout history who were united by some common theme. The aforementioned "Legacy of sovereign joy," was about finding joy in a sovereign God and other books deal on topics such as suffering and fighting for doctrinal truth. I am so grateful for books like these cause they were the first ones that guided my steps as a Christian and taught me to be a discerning yet grateful believer. If you are a bored church-goer, check out these books. Piper highlights the theology and beliefs of the greatest and most influential christians in history. I guarantee if you read them your eyes will be opened to unchangeable truths that have been blurred out in our age and your heart will be strengthened to fight for those truths. It was books like these that took me from a box-score reading champ  and turned me into someone who was banned by his family from reading anything "theology" related on vacation. (P.S.- I still snuck a copy of Augustine's Confessions onto the beach! Thank you John Piper.)