My Reading List

In this blog, you will find several posts about the religious persecution of Christian, public school educators. It is a serious, ongoing problem. It isn’t going away. So, maybe it shouldn’t surprise many when you look at my reading list from the past few months. You are going to find a lot of material about enduring suffering, tools for confronting evil, and bringing God’s word to difficult places. I also hope that you will find that, like in the Book of Acts, God’s church is still very much at work. Interestingly, the Book of Acts seems to crop up in many of the following books.

The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown…This book is about the Donner Party as they travelled West across the great prairies and into the mountains where they faced insurmountable odds, starvation, and terrible choices. Lots of great lessons in this book. I think when you are finished, you will gain immense respect for the folks who basically walked to the West Coast along the Oregon Trail.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick…I wanted to learn more about the struggles of the people in communist North Korea. It is about a people who struggle to survive in the harshest of circumstances. The people of North Korea face immense persecution – really beyond anything that I imagined. Famine, forced indoctrination, work and death camps, physical beatings, and a complete loss of privacy.

An Exorcist Explains the Demonic by Fr Gabriele Amorth…Remind me sometime to tell you how I came about reading this book. Another story for another day – Mark 16 if you must have a hint. So, how do we fend off evil? That became a question of mine this winter. What do we do when Satan attacks us? What do we do when he attacks others? This is not a book about horrors. In fact, it is quite the contrary.

The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee…After I finished w/ Nothing to Envy, I wanted to read more about the struggle of the North Korean people. This book talks about a young woman who manages to escape North Korea, and follows her along that difficult and perilous journey. Great book. I recommend reading Barbara Demick’s book first just to gain some foundational knowledge.

The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken…This book, along w/ The Insanity of Obedience, talks about taking the Gospel to places which aren’t safe. It talks about us being as sheep among wolves, and maybe needing to get more comfortable with that idea. Nik talks about being a missionary in Somalia, and the dangers and heartbreak of bringing the Gospel into that region. He travels to both Russia and China. He gathers stories of others who manage to effectively carry the Gospel to the most difficult of political climates.

The Insanity of Obedience by Nik Ripken….This is book is really a continuation and reinforcement of Ripken’s Isanity of God. Don’t expect to pick up these books and knock them out in an hour or two. Ripken really challenges his readers to consider escaping the confines of “safe Christianity.” He talks about how God is working in even the most hostile environments to Christianity.

One More Good Flight: The Amelia Earhart Tragedy by Richard Gillespie…I needed a bit of a break from some heavy topics. So I chose a less heavy topic??? What exactly happened to Amelia Earhart? This is a fascinating book which is written by one of the top minds on the subject and a leader in researching her disappearance over the Phoenix Islands. Lots of great leadership lessons in this book. An underlying theme is a cautionary tale of what happens when leaders stop listening or get trapped in a filter bubble <- fun term but not a term used in the book.

Back to the Jerusalem of the East: The Underground House Church of North Korea by Luther Martin…Great book. This tells about how the underground church in China is working in a missionary context to North Korea. It talks about the immense risks and care which must be taken in the mission field when working in areas which have strong anti-Christ sentiments in the government or existing population. I think you will draw great strength from hearing the courageous actions taken to deliver The Mail.

An Exorcist Tells His Story by Fr Gabriele Amorth…This is yet another book from Amorth. His books tend to overlap a little bit, but wouldn’t we expect that? The Gospel is unchanging. Our weapons against evil remain the same. But I have really enjoyed his books even w/ the overlap. His emphasis on having a strong prayer life is key to withstanding, resisting, and even forcing Satan to flee.

Spiritual Warfare in the Storyline of Scripture by William F Cook III and A Chuck Lawless….This book takes the reader through much of the Bible and examines how God’s people dealt(successfully and unsuccessfully) w/ evil. I am currently finishing this book…about a third to go. It is by far the most detailed and thorough of all of the books which I have read in regards to providing strong biblical context. Excellent read and resource.

ProTip: I told ya those Gabriele Amorth books are good, right? Check out this quote…..

If this Lord is powerful, as I see that He is, and I know that He is, and if the devils are His slaves(and there is no doubt about this because it’s a matter of faith), what evil can they do to me since I am a servant of this Lord and King? Why shouldn’t I have the fortitude to engage in combat with all of hell? ~ An Exorcist Tells His Story by Gabriel Amorth(1994); The Collected Works of St Teresa of Avila (1987)