OPINION:
Bestseller book lists reflect both the times and its people, a snapshot that’s sliced and diced by genre and format.
As we approach National Booklovers Day on Aug. 9, Sen. J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” tops the various nonfiction lists, but there’s another book that’s consistently in the number one slot year after year: The Bible.
Subscribe to have The Washington Times’ Higher Ground delivered to your inbox every Sunday.
By most estimations, upwards of 7 billion Bibles have been sold over the years, making it the most popular title of all-time. Breaking it down even more granularly, 6.4 Bibles are sold every 10 seconds.
Augustine of Hippo called the Bible “our letters from home.” Abraham Lincoln once reflected that the Bible, “is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book.”
The late Dr. Adrian Rogers, former pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church and a longtime member of the Focus on the Family board, said, “The Bible is not a book of the month, but the Book of the Ages. It’s so majestically deep that scholars could swim and never touch the bottom. Yet so wonderfully shallow that a little child could come and get a drink of water without fear of drowning.”
Aren’t those terrific?
I love to listen to the Bible as I walk. No matter the scene or setting, it comes alive to me. I suspect you have your favorite place to take in God’s Word, too.
Listen to the ReFOCUS with Jim Daly podcast, where Jim digs deep and asks the hard questions to help you share Christ’s grace, truth and love.
John Piper’s ministry, Desiring God, sums up the tremendous power of the Bible in a simple video I want to share with you.
In this piece, Mr. Piper reads a poem he wrote.
“God wrote a book,” he starts.
“That reality blows me away every time I stop to think about it,” Mr. Piper continues. “Pages and pages … of GOD. His thoughts, His words, His heart.”
It’s been said when we open our Bible, God opens His mouth. If that’s true, why don’t we read our Bible more often?
Each year, Focus on the Family sponsors Bring Your Bible Day (formerly Bring Your Bible to School Day) It’s the first Thursday in October (it’ll be Oct. 3 this year so mark your calendar). Last year, more 1 million children participated, an enormous witness in a culture that often mocks and maligns people of faith.
I received an email some time ago with a provocative subject line: Our Bible v. Our Cellphone. Here’s what the author of the email wrote:
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets? What if we flipped through it several times a day? What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it? What if we used it to receive messages from the text? What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts? What if we used it when we traveled? What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go….hmm…where is my Bible?
Oh, and one more thing.
Unlike our cell phone, we don’t have to worry about our Bible being disconnected, because Jesus already paid the bill.
Makes you stop and think ‘where are my priorities’?
And no dropped calls!
Although not everybody has the luxury of enjoying a summer vacation, the season invariably lends itself to setting aside some time to read a good book.
If you’re more inclined to invest in the classics (including some modern ones), the following list should be helpful to you. It was compiled by several of our senior members on the Focus team. It’s by no means exhaustive, but it’s a good start.
After you review it, I’d like to invite you to add to it. Please share a favorite title or two. I, and your fellow readers, would appreciate it!
10 Books Every Christian Should Read (in alphabetical order)
- “Basic Christianity,” by John Stott
- “The Cost of Discipleship,” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- “Desiring God,” by John Piper
- “How Now Shall We Live?,” by Chuck Colson
- “Knowing God,” by J.I. Packer
- “Mere Christianity,” by C.S. Lewis
- “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” by John Bunyan
- “The Practice of the Presence of God,” by Brother Lawrence
- “The Pursuit of God,” by A.W. Tozer
- “The Screwtape Letters,” by C.S. Lewis
Whether you’re reading the Bible, any of these 10, or the last biography or novel, Happy Booklovers Day. If you have a book in your hand, you’ll never be lonely.
–
Jim Daly is president of Focus on the Family and host of its daily radio broadcast, heard by more than 6 million listeners a week on nearly 2,000 radio stations across the U.S. He also hosts the podcast ReFocus with Jim Daly.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.