Mark's Notebook

Books I'm Reading Now

I've had a lot of time to read while recuperating. Here are some of the books I've been reading:

• American Faith: Its Religious, Political, and Economic Foundations, by Ernest Sutherland Bates, 1940. More information here.
• Authentic Christianity, by Ray Stedman.
• We Would See Jesus, by Roy Hession.
• I Am : The Unveiling of God by Steve Fry.
• 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (Like Me), by John Fischer.
• Through faith alone: 365 devotional readings from Martin Luther, by Martin Luther.
• Youth Aflame: Manual for Discipleship, by Winkie Pratney.
• Son of Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design, by Vincent Flanders.
• A Little Java, A Few Patterns, by Matthias Felleisen and Daniel P. Friedman.
• Faith of Our Sons: Voices from the American Homefront -- The Wartime Diary of a Marine's Father, by Frank Schaeffer.

I really like all the books and recordings of John Fischer. In my personal opinion, he is one of the few Christian recording artists who genuinely projects the true gospel in his music. Nothing legalistic, nothing phony, but nothing mushy either. He was trained by Ray Stedman at Peninsula Bible Church back around 1970-1975. The two books have similar content. Fischer's book is about how we can be pharisees without even realizing it, and how we have to decide whether we will judge others and be judged, or let others stand by grace, and so stand by grace ourselves. Stedman's book, an exposition of 2 Corinthians, is how we can start to live in the spirit by acknowledging how much we live in the power of the flesh. In both cases, the first steps are humility and honesty.

Anyway, recently I digitized a set of tapes I made at a Lutheran Youth Alive (LYA) congress in Fresno, California in 1975. John Fischer performed quite a bit at that convention, along with Dennis and Danny Agajanian. Listening to that old music was a freeing experience.

Steve Fry and Winkie Pratney are more voices from my early days. Steve's book is a 40-day devotional, with each day covering one facet of God's character. As with most devotional books, I don't agree with everything he has to say, but most days bring a fresh perspective on something. Winkie's book is quite legalistic, but I figure now's a good time to be reading it, while I'm also reading all the other anti-legalistic books.

Mary gave me Frank Schaeffer's book to read. Her son and her ex-husband recommended it. Mary says it accurately portrays the strong and wide-ranging emotions of one whose child is in the service, especially during wartime. Mary's son Matthew is with the US Marines in Iraq, and it is not easy for us to cope with him being in a dangerous place. I'm reading the book so I can better understand what my wife is going through. I intend to post more information about Matthew over time, or maybe I'll have Mary herself write something up.

I was reading some books on ASP and JSP before the accident, but I don't yet have the concentration to work on those any longer. I get stronger each day, so hopefully I'll be back reading the more technical books soon.

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Last updated Tuesday 13 May 2008