20 May 2008

Seven Tips on Book Reading

1. Read books that are devotional as well as intellectually stimulating. Don’t focus on one or the other or limit yourself to one or the other.

2. Read books that are challenging. It’s OK if you don’t understand every fifty cent theological term like presuppositionalism or infralapsarianism. You can start learning now.

3. Read dead guys. Like Mark Driscoll has said, “Read dead people. Living people could still blow it in the end, right? Dead people, they finished well. Ya gotta pretty good idea that they made it through…Read about dead people that loved Jesus…"

4. Read biographies. There is often nothing more inspiring than reading about someone like ourselves who God has used to do His Kingdom work.

5. Read everything by your favorite theologian/author. I think it was Iain Murray who once gave this advice. Find a theologian and make him your life’s work. Read everything written by him.

6. Read and write in your books. Jot notes in the margins, highlight the important bits, write notes in your journal – keep track of what you’re learning and where God is leading.

7. Read books that you don’t want to read. Let’s face it, there are areas of service and parts of our lives we don’t want to confront and yet those are often the places where God is just waiting to reveal Himself and to bless us. Don’t overlook these books.

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