Hello, my name is George Verwer, and it's
a privilege to be able to share with
you right from my own living room here
in West Wycombe, Kent in England, a great
burden that's on my heart, especially about some
of the greatest Christian books that have ever
been produced.
I especially want to thank those of you
who have financially supported our ministry and who
have prayed for our ministry, and especially for
those of you who gave financial support to
enable OM to buy this house so that
my wife and I could remain here.
How we praise God for the privilege of
serving together with you.
I've had two very wonderful weeks as I
was just operated on, a minor operation on
the inside of my nose to help me
to breathe better, while at the same time
they could check my vocal cords, and I'm
very grateful to God they did not find
anything growing on my vocal cords as I
have had in the past.
So this has been the first two weeks
in a long time where I've not had
any public ministry, as the doctor wanted me
to reframe from that during this period.
Often when you're listening to one of my
tapes, it's a message where I'm sharing with
a group or at a conference or my
own international coordinating team, but today this is
a totally different kind of tape.
It's not a message, and I'm sitting here
all alone in my living room with a
pile of books in front of me, and
I'm going to talk to you about those
books.
I hope that many of you already use
cassette tapes to receive challenging material.
It's hard for me to describe how much
cassettes have meant to me.
Ministry, book summaries, magazine summaries, business tapes, Bible
study tapes, all kinds of tapes over the
past 30, 35 years have been a major
part of my own spiritual life.
Books, of course, is the other side of
the coin, but there are many situations in
our modern world, especially when we're sitting in
our car driving down a motorway or we're
doing something else when we can't read a
book but can listen to a tape.
I'm reminded of those words in Ephesians that
tell us to redeem the time, and to
me the whole challenge of making the best
possible use of time is one of the
most exciting challenges in the whole of the
Bible.
When we learn how to redeem the time,
we can really accomplish more for God, but
we can also enjoy life more.
It's not a bondage to be committed to
redeeming the time, but it's a freedom, and
I'm hoping this series of cassette tape book
reviews is something generally that most of you
can listen to when you're doing something else,
though in some cases you may want to
listen to the tape again if the material
stirs your heart in order to write down
titles or take notes.
Books, the power of the printed page.
Even when I was sitting in a vehicle
an hour or so ago reading one of
my latest issues of Renewal Magazine, I noticed
a news article about John Stott, whose book
Contemporary Christian was given a special award at
the Christian Booksellers Convention in Bournemouth.
Addressing the convention, John Stott spoke of the
increasing reluctance on the part of Christians to
read at all.
He called for a new emphasis on cajoling
and browbeating people to read books.
He said that the spirit of truth should
lead believers to devote themselves to study and
applying their intellects.
I'm convinced one of the reasons people often
don't read books is that they don't know
about the great books, and maybe no one's
recommended some of the really great books to
them.
The first 25 books I've chosen are not
necessarily the greatest Christian books.
It's actually taken from a list we circulated
to our OM teams some weeks ago, just
mentioning 25 of the books that we were
trying to push and distribute in our own
meetings and through the post and in other
ways.
So I felt this was a good place
to start, and in my next tape I'll
share another 25 titles.
Quite a few of which will be more
important than perhaps even this first 25, though.
Certainly some of my favorite books and some
of the great Christian books are on this
first list.
I want to start with the book Grace
Awakening, which I think many of you have
heard me talk about.
I guess this book is especially important for
us in OM, where we had such an
emphasis on zeal and discipline, on evangelism, on
redeeming the time, that tended to lead at
times to a lack of grace and to,
in some cases, us even becoming the kind
of grace killer that Charles Swindoll talks about
in his book.
When I first read this book a couple
of years ago, I just got so excited,
especially as I began in the middle of
the book.
In Chapter 5 we have that powerful message
entitled Squaring Off Against Legalism.
Perhaps that's a good place to start.
I think I may have started even more
in the middle and read in both directions.
It was a challenge, though I guess it
was a little confusing as well.
The first part of the book is also
excellent, but it's very basic, especially for mature
Christians who have read other books on this
subject.
The chapter on Oiling Your Marriage Through Grace
and the chapter Graciously Disagreeing and Pressing On,
to me, are prophetic and should be read
a number of times.
It's my hope that you'll not only read
Grace Awakening, which we have available here in
Britain in paperback at just £3.50, but
that you'll get involved in giving this book
away and distributing it to others.
It's truly one of the greatest Christian books
of all times, and I believe the Holy
Spirit is going to continue to use it.
It's not the total answer, and for that
we have to go to the Bible.
We know as we read different books, we
have to always measure that book against Holy
Scripture.
Some people are threatened by this book as
they don't agree with some of the ideas
that Charles Swindoll has, and of course, just
as Grace can be abused, so the book
Grace Awakening can be abused, and people can
try to use it as an excuse for
sin, even though the book itself gives a
very clear call for discipline and holiness.
The second book I want to mention is
a book about missions.
Yes, you guessed it.
It's called Priority One, and the subtitle is
What God Wants.
I wrote the foreword to this book, and
perhaps I could read that to you.
It is my sincere burden and prayer that
people who read this powerful book will do
it with an open mind and a contrite
heart.
I have known Norm Lewis for almost thirty
years, and I know he's a man who
has put into practice what he speaks and
writes about.
I believe many people today are missing God's
will for their lives.
This book is going to help some of
them to get back on target for God.
What Norm has to say about material possessions
is especially important in this day when very
few are speaking biblically and forcefully on this
subject.
May some strong prayers of repentance and faith
be prayed by all of us who read
this vital message.
I hope when you finish this book you
will also decide to do something in terms
of world evangelism, and that many will write
to the organizations mentioned in the back of
this book for further facts and information.
Let's not only read this book, but because
we know how God uses the printed page,
let's get extra copies and distribute them to
our friends.
Norm's book is not a hard book to
read.
It's a hundred and thirty-five pages, but
I consider it one of the most significant,
especially missionary books, of this decade.
A young man said to me he started
to read it not even realizing it was
a missionary book, and he's now on the
mission field.
If we're ever going to see the people
mobilize that we need for completing the task
of world evangelism, then we need to stock
up on books like Priority One and make
sure we distribute them widely.
The next book is a book called Spiritual
Depression, Its Cause and Cure.
All over the world for the past twenty
or more years I've often been saying that
of the approximate thousand books or more that
I've gone through, Spiritual Depression, Its Cause and
Cure rates number one.
It's a book by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones,
who of course wrote many books.
He was considered one of the greatest preachers
and theologians in all of Europe for a
couple of decades, so he is now with
the Lord.
Of all of his books, I feel that
this book about basic spiritual life is his
best.
Again, the title I think keeps some people
from reading the book.
It's not really in a sense about depression.
It's about walking for God.
It's about being in the battle.
It's about, as he talks about in one
chapter, being in God's gymnasium.
I was thrilled to discover, and we've been
involved in it, that this book is going
into quite a few other languages, and it's
clear that the Holy Spirit is using it
in a very powerful way.
A man I never met, but I had
the opportunity to speak to a number of
times on the telephone, was Paul Billheimer, also
now with the Lord.
His unusual book, Destined for the Throne, has
revolutionized the intercessory life and the prayer life
and the worship life of many, many Christians
all over the world.
Billy Graham writes in The Forward, I have
been inspired and challenged by the insights and
fresh interpretations of the scriptures regarding prayer and
the Church's place in the world.
This is a book that really is going
to help people understand not only prayer, but
why God has created them in the first
place.
What are some of God's ultimate intentions for
our lives?
I really want to urge people to read
Destined for the Throne, and then to follow
up on some of other Paul Billheimer's books,
which we'll be mentioning in a later tape.
The next book I want to mention is
Born Again by Charles Colson.
I've just been listening to a cassette tape
in which Charles Colson is sharing some of
the material from his newer book, The Body.
But if you haven't read anything by Charles
Colson before, and his books are brilliant, you'll
probably want to start with his testimony book,
Born Again.
This book, as many of his books, you
can also give so easily to people who
may not be committed Christians.
A movie was even made in connection with
this particular story.
Charles Colson is a man that God is
mightily using, especially in his ministry, to prisons
all over the world.
You'll want to read Born Again.
It's the kind of book you can carry
with you, and when you have some spare
time somewhere, just pick it up and read
it.
It's also the kind of book you're going
to want to distribute.
Why do we hear so few sermons on
the subject of sex?
Five hundred or more verses in the Bible
about sex, but still, despite so-called freedom,
the Church is often, sadly, silent on this
subject.
Quite a few years ago, John White came
out with his powerful book Eros Defiled, dealing
with the problem of sexual guilt, and it
is truly one of the outstanding books on
the subject.
Again, some Christians have disagreed with a few
ideas that he set forth in this book,
and I know he's made some revisions and
some changes.
Published by InterVarsity, John White's book Eros Defiled
should really be required reading for every Christian,
especially in this age of promiscuity.
Right behind it, a book along similar lines,
yet completely different, is Lois and Nauti's book
The Snare.
This book is about how to avoid emotional
and sexual entanglements.
Published by NAV Press, I consider it one
of the most important books that's in circulation
right now.
It's very down-to-earth, very practical, and
I'm convinced if this book had been distributed
more widely over the past years, then a
lot of the immorality that's taken place among
Christians would have never taken place.
It's amazing how naive we as Christians can
be.
Here's a book that I consider absolutely hot.
We just bought an extra 3,000 copies
for a major sort of campaign right across
the world to get people into this book.
The Snare by Lois Nauti, published by The
Navigators.
A book that you will want to read,
that's for sure.
The next book is one that we have
distributed widely also for the last 10 or
15 years, and I was so amazed to
discover that it also has become somewhat controversial.
I speak of David Seaman's brilliant book, Healing
for Damaged Emotions.
Simply because some people have gone extreme in
the whole area of the healing of memories,
other people overreact and write off everything that's
written along those lines.
It's not fair really, because David Seaman's is
not a psychologist, and that wouldn't necessarily be
wrong, but he's a pastor.
He's a man who's counseled thousands of people,
especially in his many years with his ministry
near Asbury College, and his book is very
basic, down-to-earth, biblical Sermon on the
Mount material.
I remember when I lived in India and
picked up a book, The Psychology of Jesus
and Mental Health.
No doubt these days some people would attack
the cover, but in fact, just like Billy
Graham's book, Secret of Happiness, The Psychology of
Jesus and Mental Health was just an exposition
of the Sermon on the Mount.
There is basic psychology in the Bible, even
if we may, or some people may, reject
the word psychology, which I think actually is
being a bit silly.
Don't miss David Seaman's book, because it's been
used to help hundreds of thousands of books.
I will be talking more about some of
his other books, like Giving Up Your Childish
Ways in one of our future tapes.
Hunger for Reality is my own book, and
it's always hard to know what to say
about it.
It first came out by Tyndale as Come
Live Die, I guess that was a quarter
of a century ago, and has just continued
to sell all over the world in about
two dozen different languages.
The title now is really the original title
I chose, called Hunger for Reality.
This is a book that's brought me more
than 22,000 personal letters over these many
years, and I've tried to answer most of
them.
It does seem that a lot of people
are tired of the status quo spiritually.
They're hungry for God, they're hungry for reality,
and I'm hoping that the few thoughts that
the Lord gave me from His Word, and
in this book, will help people to get
to know God and to run in God's
great marathon race.
Peace with God is the next book I
want to talk about, which is one of
the first Christian books I ever read.
I was converted through the preaching in the
ministry of Billy Graham in New York City
in March 1955, and this book came into
my hands shortly after that.
It helped, I believe, really ground me in
the basics of the faith.
And as a book, it's a book both
for the non-Christian and the Christian.
The edition I have in my hand, published
by Word at only £2.50, and of
course it's available all over the world in
dozens of different languages, is in fact revised
and expanded.
I remember when a great evangelist came to
minister at a conference in the early days
of OM here in the UK, and he
said to us, and he was a man
that had had considerable experience in evangelism, he
said to us, if you want to know
how to win people to Christ, read this
book, and he held up Peace with God
by Billy Graham.
I feel there's a danger today that because
this book has been around for so long,
it in fact gets neglected.
It's a book, of course, you could easily
give to someone who doesn't know Christ, because
most people have heard of Billy Graham, and
only when we get to heaven will we
discover how many thousands of people have come
to Christ through this powerful book.
A great book at a very, very fair
price, with a great picture of Billy Graham
on the back cover.
Peace with God.
Rebuilding Your Broken World is another one of
my favourite books, because it's so different and
it's so unique.
I think most Christians know that Gordon MacDonald,
many years ago, had a moral failure while
being pastor of a rather famous American church.
Later on, when he was the president of
InterVarsity, this suddenly became public, even though it
had all been repented of and dealt with,
and Gordon immediately resigned from that key leadership
position.
He took an even further time in the
desert, so to speak, in a time of
rebuilding, before being commended back again into the
ministry.
During that time, he was already an author
of many great books.
He wrote Rebuilding Your Broken World.
He shows in this book how many in
the Old Testament and in the Bible had
broken world experiences today.
And if we're really honest, we have to
acknowledge that a high percentage of Christians sitting
in our churches today have had heavy broken
world experiences.
Here's a book, now also in paperback, though
the one I have in my hand is
hardback, that we can give to people who
perhaps are losing hope, who perhaps feel such
a weight of sin and failure.
And this book will be used to bring
many of them back into a bright and
powerful walk with God.
Rebuilding Your Broken World by Gordon MacDonald is
one of the outstanding books, surely, of this
decade.
A unique book I got my reading teeth
into a couple of years ago is called
Your Work Matters to God, again published by
The Navigators.
Most of these books I'm talking about I
have with me right here, but I couldn't
find a single copy of this book around
because we've been giving away so many of
them and selling so many of them.
It's a book that shows that working in
the so-called secular world in the marketplace
is not second class with God.
And I believe that's a message greatly needed
today.
It's so wrong, especially when we give the
idea that those who are missionaries, those who
are in ministry, they are sort of God's
special ambassadors.
And then there's the rest of the people
who have the nine-to-five jobs, who
work in factories they don't like or on
farms they don't want to be at, etc.
This book is revolutionary, and it's a book
that needs to be read and distributed, yes,
in the marketplace.
Probably many of you have never heard of
this book, From the Pinnacle of the Temple
by Charles Farah, Jr., with a forward by
Jamie Buckingham.
It talks about the difference between faith and
presumption.
I don't think it's anything to laugh at,
as we see so many people get into
extremism, even committed Christians, and especially in the
area of prosperity and healing and wealth.
Let me read what it says on the
back cover by Jamie Buckingham.
Health, wealth, prosperity.
Are these the measures of a true faith?
There are so many excesses in the Christian
world in the area of faith.
Dr. Charles Farah, the only man I know
who has the scholarship, the insight, and the
personal experience necessary to write a book on
the balance necessary in the Christian faith, From
the Pinnacle of the Temple will find its
place as one of the most relevant books
of our generation.
It's interesting that Charles Farah, by the way,
received an M.A. from Wheaton College and
a B.D. from Fuller Seminary.
He then received his doctorate from the University
of Edinburgh and has been a professor of
theology and historical studies at Oral Roberts University.
I think he's actually retired now.
This book is greatly needed.
It's not written by a man who's throwing
rocks, for example, at the charismatic movement, because
probably he considers himself a part of that
movement, but it's a man speaking out against
excesses and extremes, and it's a book that
needs wide circulation and wide reading, even though
there have been newer books that have come
off the press recently on that particular subject.
Operation World by Patrick Johnson, and in a
few months we'll have the new edition.
The copy I have in my hand, co
-published by O.M. and Weck, says over
250,000 in print.
This book many years ago died and was
not being distributed anymore.
I found the old blue edition once and
put a note in it across to Jerry
Davey, who was the head of STL at
that time, saying, let's see if we can
reprint this and push it around the world.
It's a great book.
A lot of things happened since then, and
Operation World has become one of the most
widely circulated missionary books in the history of
the Church.
It has prayer requests on almost every single
nation in the world.
To get a copy even of this out
-of-date edition to use over the next
few months before the new edition comes is
still very worthwhile.
In fact, when you read this old edition,
you'll get excited about the many answers to
prayer and the many changes that have taken
place through prayer, especially in what was once
known as the communist world.
It's set forward in a form that you
pray through it over a April 13th.
Information and prayer requests on the Dominican Republic.
Let's see what my birthday is.
July 3rd and 4th, we're supposed to be
praying for Kenya.
Get a copy of Operation World.
Get involved in distributing it.
And keep in mind, a children's edition also
is coming in the very near future.
Continuous Revival is actually a follow-up book
in some ways, on a book I'm going
to mention later called Calvary Road.
Continuous Revival is by Norman Grubb, a man
who's in his nineties and still alive, who
wrote that famous biography of C.T. Studd,
who was his father-in-law.
Continuous Revival is a small little book, hardly
known, but I believe it contains one of
the most significant messages for the Church of
Jesus Christ today.
Revival is our privilege in Christ.
Maybe that's a good lead-on for me
to talk about the next book, Calvary Road.
I guess in some ways, in OM, this
is still number one.
Even some of the new young people in
OM, in saying what they felt was the
most important piece of orientation material, said they
felt it should.
It was Calvary Road.
This particular book I have in my hand,
published by CLC, is actually a combination of
the book Calvary Road and a book by
Roy Hesschen about the Holy Spirit, called Be
Filled Now.
Roy wrote many other books.
He's now in glory.
He was a personal friend, and his books
speak on and on.
It's so sad that today there are many
Christians who do not even know about great
Christian classics like Calvary Road, available in a
couple of dozen languages, a book that's changed
hundreds of thousands of lives.
I don't really know if OM would have
ever continued in some ways if it hadn't
been for the emphasis in this book on
brokenness, on personal revival.
The chapter called Revival in the Home is
worth the price of the book.
My wife and I read it shortly after
our marriage, and it's been a foundation stone
in our marriage ever since.
So few Christians seem to understand repentance, humility,
brokenness, what it is to esteem others better
than ourself, what it is to deal with
things like irritability, bad attitudes, dispositional sins.
Don't miss Calvary Road, one of the truly
great books of all times.
I guess the leadership book we push the
most, even though we distribute many books about
Christian leadership, is Oswald Sanders' book Spiritual Leadership.
It used to be required reading for all
those going through OM's leadership training courses, filled
with powerful quotations from other people's books.
Like A.W. Tozer, and we'll be talking
about some of his books in later tapes,
it's a book that needs sort of recirculation,
even though there are so many other books
now along this line.
Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders, the man who
led OMF, formerly China Inland Mission, for many
years, who ministered the Word of God right
up until around 90 years of age.
In fact, I think it was only a
few months ago he went to be with
the Lord, and even in those senior years
he was writing a book a year.
But in my view, this is still his
very best book.
Knowing God by J.I. Packer is another
Christian classic.
I remember years ago when we first started
to use it as a study book in
Operation Mobilization.
Many great books like Knowing God do have
study workbooks that you can get to use
along with the main book.
Tozer, Andrew Murray, many other men who have
influenced our movement, have also had that similar
emphasis.
Knowing God.
In spiritual work, in ministry, and in the
church, our first burden should be Knowing God.
Then, our second burden, to make God known.
A basic book that every Christian should read.
Knowing God by J.I. Packer, who of
course has written many other books since then.
Michael Griffiths is another man that has ministered
often at OM conferences, formerly with OMF, always
involved with inter-varsity in different ways, then
the principal of London Bible College, then over
to Regent College.
Michael Griffiths is one of God's great marathon
runners.
He's written a number of books, but Take
My Life is his best.
Somehow on this British edition, a sentence of
mine is on the cover.
Let me read it.
One of the truly great Christian books of
our time.
An IVP OM publication.
It's probably one of the very best basic
books on commitment, discipleship, discipline, and wholehearted Christianity.
And it's a book that needs far greater
circulation than it's getting right now.
Chapter 1 is hot.
Balance or fanaticism?
You need to read it.
Michael Griffiths, Take My Life.
Honorably wounded is the other side of the
coin.
We know that when young, zealous people launch
very quickly into missionary work and front line,
trench evangelism, some of them are going to
be wounded.
There will be casualties.
There will be every kind of difficulty one
can imagine, and we'll be referring to that
in one of our future tapes as we
talk about Philip Yancey's book, Disappointment with God.
But this particular book by Marjorie Foyle, a
very close friend of ours, an OM, is
called Honorably Wounded.
It's about stress among Christian workers, and it
covers many, many different areas, including the whole
area of sexual stress, language study stress, talks
about some of the basic problems of re
-entry in Chapter 9.
Praise God, we now have a whole book
on that subject, which I'll be mentioning in
a future tape.
Honorably Wounded is a great book to give
to missionary friends, to people in the ministry,
hopefully before they get back from the field.
Unless we have a greater understanding of some
of this material, which again we find so
clearly in the Word of God, then I
think we're going to have a lot more
hurt people coming back from the mission field
or right out of ministry.
Honorably Wounded by Marjorie Foyle, published by Mark,
but as they've gone out of business, I'm
not sure who's going to publish it in
the future, but I certainly hope it stays
in print.
The Bible.
I put on this list the Bible because
I wanted it to be a reminder to
our co-workers around the world that when
we set up a display of books, we
should always have a copy of the Bible.
There are so many translations, and I'm not
going to go into that right now, but
I believe the neglect of the Word of
God is one of the reasons that so
many people in the church are spiritual midgets
or spiritually immature.
So whatever you do as you read different
Christian books, as you listen to cassette tapes,
don't neglect the Bible itself.
And then lastly, Telling Yourself the Truth by
William Backus.
Actually in my hand I have one of
his other books called Telling Each Other the
Truth, The Art of True Communication.
Absolutely brilliant material.
The insight that this man sets forth in
his books has helped thousands of people.
I'm amazed that he's not more well known,
and I hope that somehow you'll get some
of those William Backus books, especially his original
book Telling Yourself the Truth, which sold over
200,000 copies, and contextualize what you read
in them into your own situation and your
own spiritual walk with God.
It's been a real privilege to be able
to be with you during this time and
tell you about some of these great books.
I hope perhaps you'll listen to this tape
again or share it with friends.
There's no copyright, so you can make as
many copies as you want and give them
away or do whatever you want with them.
It would be great to get some feedback
from you.
I hope you'll go to your Christian bookshop
and ask them for these books.
Maybe give them a copy of this tape.
It urns them to carry these books and
the other books that we'll be talking about
in future tapes.
These are books that have proven themselves out
in the battle fronts of Christian service this
last 38 years since God saved me.
I have seen the Holy Spirit using the
printed page, and I've seen the Holy Spirit
of God using these particular books.
I've read almost every one of these books.
Perhaps there's a few of them I haven't
yet finished, as some of them are relatively
new.
And quite a few of them I reread
and refer to as I prepare for ministry
or as I have times alone with God.
It's a privilege to be able to share
with you in a small way that which
I have been privileged to receive from others
and especially through the printed page.
And remember, readers make leaders, and leaders will
be readers.
If you'd like copies of these books and
can't get them from your bookshop, don't hesitate
to write to us here on the International
Coordinating Team, Box 17, Bromley, Kent, Great Britain.
Or you can write to me, care of
any O.M. office, as post mail is
forwarded to me from all over the world.
Or you can write to me, care of
any O.M. office, as post mail is
forwarded to me from all over the world.
Dave White here on the team, together with
my secretaries May and Vera, my own wife
and other people like Kathy Rendell, help in
answering the letters and getting the material out
that people request.
Copies of these tapes, of course, are available.
And if people can send a small donation
just to help with the cost of the
tape, that's always an encouragement.
Thank you.
Hello again, this is George Verwer, and it's
hard to express how excited I am about
this box of books that I have here
on the floor in front of me.
This is part two in this series of
tapes in which I'm really opening my heart
and sharing about some of the great books
that have been a great blessing to me
or that are in the midst of blessing
me because they're new books that I'm just
reading right now.
Like, for example, John Stott's The Contemporary Christian.
The first book, however, I want to mention
is a book that's very historic in connection
with Operation Mobilization, and it's a book called
True Discipleship.
William McDonald wrote this book partly, as he
says in the forward, because of the impact
one of the early OM teams that went
to Mexico made on his life.
Let me just read that forward.
This book is an attempt to set forth
principles of New Testament discipleship.
Some of us have seen these principles in
the Word for years, but somehow concluded that
they were too extreme and impracticable for the
complicated age in which we live.
And so we surrendered to the chill of
our spiritual environment.
Then we met a group of young believers
who set out to demonstrate the Savior's terms
of discipleship are not only highly practicable, but
they are the only terms which will result
in the evangelization of the world.
We acknowledge our indebtedness to these young people
for providing living examples of many of the
truths set forth here.
To the extent that these truths are still
beyond our own personal experience, we set them
forth as the aspirations of our heart.
Bill McDonald's book is filled with powerful quotations
and examples from the lives of all kinds
of disciples.
And it's a book that the Holy Spirit
continues to use in a mighty way as
it's in dozens of languages and continues to
be reprinted and distributed around the world.
It's a small book, 96 pages.
You can easily read it in one night,
but it will take your entire life to
really put it into practice.
Of course, like so many books, it has
to be brought into balance by other great
books, like the first book I mentioned in
part one of this series, Grace Awakening.
The next book in my hand is Ralph
Shallis' From Now On.
Is Spiritual Maturity Only Possible for Super Saints?
Here are seven provisions for spiritual growth.
Again, I had the privilege of writing something
about this book and it ended up getting
published on the back cover.
Let me just read that.
It has been an inspiration and challenge to
know Ralph Shallis over the past 15 years.
Of course, this was written many years ago.
Ralph is now with the Lord.
He is a man who knows God, as
you will soon detect as you read the
pages of this penetrating book.
I find everywhere that Christians are failing to
grow up into fullness in Christ, and this
book in many ways meets the need of
the hour.
It teaches us how we can grow to
become mature disciples of Jesus Christ.
It is written by a man who has
put these things into practice for several decades.
The Lord has already wonderfully used this book
in the French-speaking world and I know
he will use it now among those of
us who speak English.
My prayer is that many will not only
read it, but also distribute it widely in
their ministry to others.
Ralph Shallis was one of the closest friends
of OM here in Europe for 20 or
more years, often ministering in our conferences.
His tapes, distributed by the Things That Matter
tape library, are tapes of in-depth spiritual
sharing that unfortunately many people have missed out
on in the last 10 years.
Don't miss Ralph Shallis' book from now on.
The book I have in my hand now
is relatively new and it's an evangelistic book
entitled Breaking Free by David Hall.
It's the testimony of nine shattered lives who
were made whole by the power of God
and salvation.
A sea captain with a weak heart, which
in fact was Bjorn Kristiansen, the first captain
of Lagos.
An intellectual Frenchwoman, a Czechoslovakian army officer, a
one-time male prostitute with AIDS, a depressive
career girl, a travel-hungry Dutchman, a Lebanese
Muslim immigrant, a housewife from Vienna, a violent
inner city teenager, which in fact was Stuart
McAllister, who has led Love Europe over these
past couple of years.
It's not easy to find evangelistic books that
you can just feel so free to give
to someone who doesn't know Christ and that
they'll read.
But here's that kind of book and I
hope you'll read it and use it in
your ministry.
My mind jumps back to more than 33
years ago when at Maryville College where I
met Dale Roton and before I ever went
to Moody Bible Institute, I picked up this
little book, Through Gates of Splendor.
These five men had just been martyred about
the same year, I think, that I came
to know Christ.
And this particular book brought me to tears
as I saw the commitment of men like
Jim Elliott and his co-workers.
This book has been reprinted again under the
AOM imprint here in Great Britain and it's
available in print in other parts of the
world as well.
A number of other books have come after
it, but this is one that everyone should
read, Through Gates of Splendor.
I believe actually a movie was also done
about that.
Basic Christianity by John Stott.
Again an evangelistic book, but an evangelistic book
that Christians also need to read.
Over a million copies already sold.
Recently a group of people got together and
I guess because of someone's generosity they produced
a new small edition here in Britain that
sells for just one pound.
Only heaven will tell how many people have
come to Christ through this basic, simple, yet
thought-provoking presentation of the Christian faith and
our reasons to believe.
I'm convinced if God's people would begin to
distribute books like this more widely that we
would be seeing more people come to Jesus
Christ.
Philip Yancey, a favorite author of many people.
I have in my hand his book Disappointment
with God, which was published in Britain under
a different title about having faith.
A totally unique kind of book that probably
will upset some people, and I believe people
who really don't want to face the realities
of life here on this very mysterious planet,
where often there are many disappointments, even for
the most committed and spiritual followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of you may remember his earlier book,
Where is God When It Hurts, and the
Lord has used his books in a very,
very powerful way.
Again, let me read what Charles Swindoll says
about this book.
Few are better than Yancey in providing answers
that can soothe a faith that's almost been
shattered.
A Christian magazine called Today's Christian Women says,
offers solace and direction for those who ache
to hear the voice of God.
It goes on to say here on the
back cover, step-by-step Philip Yancey retraces
a long journey toward understanding the answers to
those and other difficult questions, like is God
unfair?
Is God silent?
Is God hidden?
Here's a book that I've had the privilege
of sending out, giving to a lot of
people, that I personally have read, still read,
because it's so significant.
The book I have in my hand right
now is actually a large book, a hardback
book, and it's in Spanish, Renovado Día a
Día.
It's actually a daily devotional book of the
writings of A.W. Tozer.
Few committed Christians have not read something of
A.W. Tozer, one of the most powerful
authors of this century.
I'm reading one of his new books, that
is material that recently has been put together
in book form, and again it's speaking so
powerfully to my own heart.
Perhaps his best book is the book by
that title, The Best of A.W. Tozer.
There was a little booklet that we published
and distributed widely years ago that you may
find in magazine form.
I'd be happy to send you one called
Gems from Tozer, quotations from many of his
other books.
Absolute spiritual dynamite.
Please read some of the books by A
.W. Tozer.
You will not regret it, and you will
find that Tozer has a way of being
able to shatter some of the superficiality that
is so prevalent in the Church and among
the Lord's people in these days.
It was Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I believe,
who really initially introduced Tozer to Great Britain.
They were very similar in some ways, but
also very different.
I have in my hand a book called
The Best of Martin Lloyd-Jones, compiled by
Christopher Catherwood.
In our first series we talked about Dr.
Lloyd-Jones, and especially his book Spiritual Depression,
Its Cause and Cure.
He's written so many books, including two volumes
on the Sermon on the Mount, that it's
hard to know what to say and what
book to recommend.
Perhaps the next book to go to is
this particular book, because again it draws chapters
from his many different books.
Joy Unspeakable, Healing in Medicine, The Cross, Enjoying
the Presence of God, Life in the Spirit,
Preaching in the Preacher, Knowing the Times, Final
Perseverance, Growing in the Spirit.
There are chapters from those books in this
one volume which was only published last year
in 1992, The Best of Dr. Martin Lloyd
-Jones.
I have two books in my hands right
now, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, and Evidence
that Demands a Verdict, Volume 2.
Josh McDowell has probably helped more people to
get established in their faith than any man
living in the world today.
These two amazing books have been distributed widely
across the world and in a number of
different languages.
It says on the back, over a million
copies in print of Volume 1.
It also says a serious-minded work for
every person who wants to overcome doubts about
the Bible.
I know in my own spiritual pilgrimage, it
was only as I read books like this,
and later on this material as well, that
I had some of those tough intellectual questions
answered that really helped give me strength and
stability in my own faith.
Sometimes we presume that young people don't need
books like this, but in fact I believe
time shows that we need that solid intellectual
grounding in our faith that books like this
can help us to have.
The next book is very, very new, and
most of you probably haven't heard about it,
unless you read my international updates.
It's called Sarian Chips.
It's written by Ram Gudamal, a converted Hindu.
It's a book showing the clash between Asian
culture and Western culture.
Steve Chalk says, shrewd, compassionate, full of fascinating
insights.
Actually, Ram Gudamal was an Asian who arrived
in Britain in 67 and reconciled his own
identity crisis when he became a follower of
Christ.
In Sarian Chips, he observes how tensions arise
and suggests realistic ways in which individuals, families,
communities, schools, and churches can work together to
overcome them.
This is a book that's getting a lot
of publicity right now, and it's very, very
relevant.
I just urge you to read this book,
because wherever you are in the world, you're
living together with Asian people, and this will
help you understand them and demonstrate love to
them.
Some of you listening to this tape are
Asians, and this book will help you understand
some of the struggles that you may face
as you move to a different part of
the world, or even as you attempt to
relate to people of other cultures, wherever that
may be.
Another brand new book that I've been waiting
for for over two years, because I met
the author and knew it was coming, is
called The Contemporary Christian Music Debate, Worldly Compromise
or Agent of Renewal.
Josh McDowell said on the back cover, a
well-documented, biblically based, and culturally relevant insight
into the debate on contemporary Christian music.
Steve Miller has done a tremendous service for
the church and the cause of Christ.
For every mom, dad, and pastor, this book
is a must.
Then Robertson McQuilkin says, Steve Miller addresses a
church-splitting and generation-splitting issue, which through,
with thorough scholarship and a Renwick spirit, he
persuades with a gentle approach that respects opposing
viewpoints, and he charts practical ways for local
churches to incorporate newer forms of music, while
maintaining harmony in a music ministry for all.
Again, some people may not think this book
is so important, or that it's not relevant
for them, but I believe this issue is
ten times more relevant than many people would
imagine.
People are actually preaching anti-music messages in
various parts of the world.
Accusations are being made that are hurtful and
that are causing people, many many people, to
become confused or discouraged.
We need a more sound, balanced, intellectual approach
and biblical approach to this subject, and here's
a book that I believe presents just that.
Now in my hand, I have the book
I referred to already, called The Contemporary Christian,
by John Stott.
When I was with John some time ago,
he gave me a copy of this book,
and of course that always motivates you to
read it.
I was on my way to minister in
Italy, and so got through a good part
of the book, even on that trip.
It's a 432 page book, and to me,
the word balance especially comes to my mind
as I think of this book, because in
talking about and ministering to us about a
number of major, difficult, important issues, he seems
to have the kind of biblical balance that
is so desperately needed in the world today.
I want to urge you, if you're looking
for a really serious book to get your
spiritual teeth into, to get a hold of
The Contemporary Christian as soon as possible, published
here by Inner Varsity, and having been given
a special book award at the recent Christian
Booksellers Convention.
The Contemporary Christian is also a study guide
you can get to go with it.
Love Covers by Paul Bilheimer.
We mentioned him in our last series.
I was so excited about this book that
for one or two years, I think I
gave copies free to everybody who came on
the summer campaign.
Again, some people are not going to agree
with everything they read in this unique book,
but it's a book that needs to be
read.
It's about Christian unity.
It's about the great controversy that has come
between people who call themselves charismatics and people
who call themselves holiness, and people who would
be thought of as evangelicals.
I'm so excited about books that are biblical
and that bring greater unity in the body
of Christ.
It's so easy for people to generalize, especially
about other groups and other churches, when they
don't really know the facts.
They really haven't studied it that much.
I would ask people to at least study
this book before they continue making generalizations about
this group and that group, and especially on
the controversial subject of healing and spiritual gifts
and all that kind of thing.
A newer book on prayer is Don't Just
Stand There, Pray Something by Ronald Dunn.
People, when this book first came out a
couple of years ago, didn't expect it to
get wide-scale distribution because I guess they
thought there's so many books on prayer and
many of them don't seem to sell that
well, but people were surprised.
And it seems there is a movement among
the Lord's people to put prayer on a
higher priority, and this is a book that
the Spirit of God is using to cause
that to happen.
Richard Buse, Rector of All Souls Laying in
Place, said, this is not only the most
encouraging book I've ever read on the subject
of prayer, it is quite simply one of
the best books I have ever read.
Very basic, very clear, easy to read, packed
with scripture, a good book to read as
part of your morning or whenever you have
it, devotional time, and it'll help you to
stay inspired in your praying.
The next book I have in my hand,
I have both in Spanish and English, Un
Barco Llamado Lagos, The Ship or the Lagos
Story by Elaine Roton.
I guess certainly it's not a very famous
book except within Operation Mobilization, but I wanted
to mention it because I think it will
help many of you who are interested in
OM, and that's probably why you got a
hold of this tape, to get a greater
grasp of the ship ministry, and especially Lagos,
the first ship administered around the world for
17 years until on January 5th, 1988, in
God's sovereign purposes, allowed us to lose that
ship as it ran aground on some rocks
off the very southern tip of Latin America.
Here's a picture of the ship on those
rocks.
It's the kind of book you can give
to anyone.
It's what probably Dr. Francis Schaefer would consider
to be a pre-evangelistic book.
It can break down prejudices, especially in a
day when we see things on television, we
read things that make Christians look bizarre or
weird or cultic.
These, well when I say these I'm referring
to Spanish and English, but this book really
is dynamite.
The photographs also are very, very challenging.
Keswick Gold, another interesting book.
A lot of them went up in the
fire when we had the big fire in
the warehouse in Carlisle some years ago, but
they decided to reprint it.
Again, we have a series of messages taken
from the Keswick Convention over the past ten
or more years Eric Alexander, we will give
ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of
the word.
Alan Neitch, the face of God.
Raymond Brown, Isaiah the King.
One of my own messages about the Laodicean
Church is there.
John Stott on the Lordship of Christ.
Life Samuel with all your heart.
It's a brilliant book to give as a
gift and I've had the privilege of giving
many of them away.
Some people I know in North America have
never even heard of Keswick and for such
people this book is especially important.
If you can't find it in a bookshop,
you can always get it from OM Lit
in Waynesboro, Georgia.
And if you don't have their address, you
can write them care of any OM address
or through me and we'll be happy to
forward your request.
Living with your passions by Erwin Lutzer, who's
been the pastor of Moody Church where Alan
Redpath once was, back when I was a
student, for many years.
A brilliant cover.
A Christian's guide to sexual purity.
Some people will find this book even more
appropriate and straight forward than Eris Defile that
I mentioned in part one.
How to get God-given grace and power
to deal with sexual desires.
It says on the back cover, sexual passions
have a even committed Christians need to choose
between indulging sexual desire and maintaining God's standard
for purity.
Erwin Lutzer presents a rationale for sexual purity,
giving special attention to the inevitable consequences of
permissiveness.
He deals specifically with adultery, lust, homosexuality and
masturbation.
Throughout he points the reader to God's grace
and power for living victoriously with passions.
If I had my way, I'd make this
required reading for everyone that came on OM,
because we know this is always one of
the big fiery darts in missionary work.
Please don't miss reading Living with Your Passions
by Erwin Lutzer.
C.S. Lewis is one of our favorite
authors in OM and we'll be mentioning some
of his books in our later series.
The one I have in front of me
now is called Mere Christianity.
Who knows how many people have come to
Christ through reading this book.
The impact of the writings of C.S.
Lewis cannot be measured and I would urge
you if you haven't already started to read
books by C.S. Lewis to pick up
Mere Christianity and read it as soon as
possible.
You'll find you'll want to get a lot
of copies and distribute them to others and
especially people who think that Christianity is not
intellectually acceptable, that it's just some kind of
escape from guilt cop-out, some kind of
a crutch because that book shows otherwise.
Perhaps the greatest book on prayer in my
view that's ever been written was written by
a Norwegian called Hallowsby and it's simply called
Prayer.
I remember when I read this as a
young Christian how it collided with some of
my extreme thinking.
But about ten years later during a day
of prayer in Denmark I read right through
the book or most of it and became
impressed with it in such a way that
I though I've read many books on prayer
really felt it was number one.
I'd urge you to get this great book
on the subject of prayer the late Dr.
Hallowsby one of Norway's leading preachers was for
forty years professor of theology in the independent
theological seminary in Oslo.
Again published by Inner Varsity a book that
is absolute dynamite.
Alan Redpath is a man that I've already
referred to and he also became one of
Operation Mobilization's closest advisors and friends.
It was an emotional moment to be at
his funeral a few years ago and I've
been in regular contact with his dear wife
Marjorie who has put together this new book
called Victorious Christian Living.
Well I made a mistake I don't think
this is the newest book because she has
put together a book that I'll mention in
a later series of quotations from his other
books.
But Victorious Christian Living on the subject of
attaining spiritual maturity is one of Alan's greatest
books.
I'm not sure if it's still in print
I hope so but if not his newer
book that I'll refer to later certainly is.
And if you go to a library you
can find Alan Redpath books even though some
of them may be out of print today
and they will be a challenge and encouragement
to your own heart.
Some of his tapes are available as well
and what a blessing and challenge they are
because in some ways his preaching is more
powerful than his writing.
A relatively new book is by Dr. Larry
Crabb called Inside Out.
For a couple of years this seemed to
be one of the most widely read books
especially among leaders and people who had been
in OM for a number of years.
I think as we get down the great
Christian marathon track we begin to realize that
especially in certain areas of our lives we
haven't changed as much as perhaps we thought
originally.
This book deals with the whole area of
how to bring about in depth change.
Again not everybody is going to agree with
everything they read in this book and perhaps
there's some straw which is true probably in
every book.
But I'm convinced that if we're hungry for
God and there's a book that's going to
help us become more godly and more like
Jesus Christ then it is well worth reading.
Nav Press and Scripture Press together here in
Britain have produced this book and the Holy
Spirit is using it in a powerful way.
I think there may be a study guide
that you can get as well.
Serving as Senders I guess became my hottest
book in 1992.
I discovered this book in California when after
a prayer meeting I had the privilege of
meeting Neil Parolo the author.
Looking back over these 37-38 years of
serving Christ I've never seen much on this
particular subject based very much on a verse
in Romans 10-15, how shall they go,
how shall they preach unless they are sent.
I've seen so many, hundreds, probably thousands of
people who've wanted to go into world missions
never see it happen because they didn't grasp
the importance of sending and how to find
senders, how to find people who will pray,
how to find people who will stand with
you, how to find people who will give.
And this is a book I believe that
really is going to help turn the tide.
Distribution is greatly increasing and now we have
a special OM edition where chapter 8 is
completely changed so that basically chapter 8 is
now something about Operation Mobilization.
This is a book that needs to be
priority on our book tables, in our own
reading and in distribution to others.
Ralph Winter says this, this key book makes
the strategic point that mobilizers, the senders are
as crucial to the cause of missions as
front line missionaries.
It is a book just crammed with solid
exciting insights on the most hurting leak in
today's missions movement.
I also wrote something that's printed on the
back cover.
It says I strongly believe that this is
one of the most significant missionary books of
this decade.
Unless the church and God's people respond to
its message, the work of reaching the unreached
is going to be greatly hindered.
Every committed sender needs to get involved in
distributing this book.
Serving as Senders is distributed by the organization
that Neil Parolo founded called the Emmaus Road
International, but it's also available through our OM
Literature Ministry in Waynesboro, Georgia, especially this new
edition with the new chapter 8.
Two other books right along that line that
I want to mention are called Friend Raising,
which I've just started to read, but I've
read enough to be very excited about it,
by Betty Barnett.
This is a youth with a mission book
published by then with a forward by Lauren
Cunningham.
Again, young people today and people who are
not necessarily young need help in raising up
their support team, in getting that necessary foundation,
and this is a book that everyone preparing
for the mission field needs to read and
study and put into practice.
It's loaded with scripture, it's loaded with practical
advice, and in a sense it goes right
together with another YWAM book called Re-Entry,
Making the Transition from Missions to Life at
Home, written by Peter Jordan with a forward
by Floyd McClum.
When I saw this manuscript I got very
excited.
They asked me to evaluate it and I
sent back this little quotation which is published
on the back of the book.
I'm really excited about this book, and thank
God for its important and vital message.
It is 30 years overdue.
Short term missions without this emphasis in teaching
can easily end up as a tragedy instead
of a triumph.
I cry out to the Lord that Re
-Entry will have a very wide circulation.
It's interesting that Dick Hillis said something much
stronger.
He said this, as I read the Re
-Entry manuscript I keep thinking if only Re
-Entry had been written by William Carey 200
years ago, thousands of missionaries would have been
spared the shock and the difficulties of Re
-Entry.
And then finally I want to mention Loving
God by Charles Colson.
Probably in almost every series I'll be mentioning
a Charles Colson book because they're so powerful
and they're being so greatly used of God.
How vividly I remember reading this book and
getting so excited about it.
It's a book you can send to people
in high places and I've had the privilege
of doing that.
It's a book that is powerful for Christians
but it's powerful also for people that don't
know Jesus Christ.
Get a copy of Loving God as soon
as possible.
Get extra copies for your friends.
Isn't it amazing how any ordinary person can
get a hold of powerful Christian books and
not only be blessed through reading them but
can be blessing the lives of others through
loaning them out, through giving them away.
Why not have a book party where you
get a lot of great books there in
your home and bring people over for a
cup of tea and coffee and some refreshments
and then offer them the books?
If we don't see a grassroots movement in
connection with Christian literature then a vast number
of people in our countries will never even
read one Christian book.
How about it?
It says in James, let's not be hearers
of the word.
Listening to all these book reviews would be
included in that but let's be doers.
Let's get these books, let's read them, let's
allow the Holy Spirit to work through us
in touching other lives as we share our
books, as we distribute books in various ways.
I look forward to hearing from some of
you about how these books that you start
to read end up a mega blessing and
a mega help in your own life.
Thanks.
I look forward to sharing with you again
on some other great books that I'm in
the midst of reading, some of which have
just been published even in the past year.
Don't forget for more information or to write
to me personally, you can write here of
any OM office or to me here on
the International Coordinating Team, Box 17 in Bromley,
Kent, Great Britain.
God bless you.
Things That Matter, which produced this cassette copy
from a recording made by George Verwer himself,
is a free loan cassette ministry.
We list a large number of messages given
by George and other speakers over the whole
period since Operation Mobilisation began.
You can write for a copy of our
current catalogue listing about 500 titles to the
address on this cassette label.
The catalogue is 17 pence and the postage
28 pence, making a total of 45 pence
which you can send as stamps.
There is a second catalogue called Voices from
the Past which is a 60-page booklet
containing 1,500 more titles and costing 36
pence with postage at 34 pence.
Both are available together for just £1 inclusive.
We are a registered charity financially separate from
Operation Mobilisation and all other groups.