Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis. This book broke down into simple terms what it means to be a christian. It reminded me that our instructions for life are in the Bible and that you can't twist the words for your own satisfaction. It also remeinded me that God understands our human fallibility and is most pleased when we get up and try again after each failure.

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho. While told in fable form, this story reminds me that God has a plan for each of us and also gives us the choice to follow or not. I love the sense of utter love from our creator that this story gives.

Small Gods, Terry Pratchett. This book is a comic fantasy, BUT, it deals with some of the things taht are very relevant in our churches today. For instance, the institution becomes more important than the reason for the institution, leaving room for the bad guys to take advantage. This isn't for folks who are uncomfortable with pantheistic views, but I think it still can teach us some things aobut faith.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination , Loraine Boettner. This book has been the book that influenced me most in the past 18 years of reading (starts with Bible college years). It has influenced me most in terms of seeing God's sovereignty in the salvation of His people. It has shown me that God is in absolute control.

Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy: The Three essential books in one volume, Francis A. Schaeffer. This book includes three of Schaeffer's books: _The God Who Is There_, _Escape from Reason_ and _He Is There and He Is Not Silent_. It influenced me in terms of looking at the world with a thinking mind, guided by a Biblical worldview.

No Place for Truth, or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?, David Wells. This book has once again reaffirmed my belief that a church with no theology at all is no church at all. This book has written on my heart, with indelible ink, the fact that much of the church has lost its theology. Sure, the church is not vanishing as a sociological presence (look at all the large churches), but because it has lost its theology, it simply remains a mere sociological presence with no hope for people in the afterlife!

The Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul II. This book is revolutionizing Catholic Christianity, and when unpacked, will change the course of culture, society, and life as we know it. It is that amazing. Who God is, who man is, who woman is, and what man means to woman, and woman to man, and both to God. What marriage and sexuality are really all about, what relationships are all about, what living as Christ calls us to; it is all here. It is heavy reading, but there are tons of resources out there to help. For myself, this book has totally changed my outlook on my relationship with God, others, and creation itself. Christopher West's website has also really helped me in understanding the deep and difficult language and concepts JPII introduces. www.christopherwest.com

The Theology of the Body Explained, Christopher West (Pauline Books & Media 2003). Chris unpacks John Paul II's Theology/Gospel of the Body. He really helps to chew through it, and for the english speaking world, he has done a great service. This radically changed the way I think about my life, faith, relationships, everything.

The Lamb's Supper, Scott Hahn (Doubleday 1999). Talk about breaking open the Word and finally giving a more scripturally, historically and traditionally rooted understanding of the Book of Revelation...Man, this knocked my socks off. Scott Hahn has truly been given a great gift and ministry opening up the Scriptures.

The Secret of Significance, Robert S. McGee (2002). The Secret of Significance is a follow-up to The Search for Significance, and clearly explained to me the process of renewing my mind. It really changed my perspective and freed me to rejoice in God's truth.

Breaking Free, Making Liberty in Christ a Reality in Life, Beth Moore (August 2003). This is actually a workbook, but was awesome in helping me to identify my areas of bondage with practical, easy to understand solutions to tearing down strongholds and replacing them with truth.

The Wonderful Spirit Filled Life, Charles Stanley (1992). Opened my eyes to the person and the power of the Holy Spirit.

In His Steps, Charles Sheldon. It made me stop & think if any actions I do, are what Jesus would do

, Max Lucado. All of Max Lucado`s books are excellent & told in a simple, easily understood format.

Dominion, Randy Alcorn. This book which is a sequel to Deadline (which is also excellent) has sucha wonderful view of Heaven.

My Heart's Desire, David Jeremiah. One of my favourite radio pastors, this book brought me back to what worship really should be.

Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning. How much does God love you? Read and see!

Deadline, Randy Alcorn. A novel that moved me to tears -doesn't happen often! I love Randy Alcorn, his books, his lifestyle, his ideas and beliefs.

THE GRIP OF GRACE, Max Lucado. Anything by Max Lucado touches my heart and helps me connect back to God; however, this book is especially precious to me because God reaches out to me through Lucado's words and simple illustrations of life. When I'm feeling too proud of my own accomplishments of life, I take it down from my bookshelf, open it to almost any page, and immediately weep with joy and thanksgiving at God's grace for me in my sinful state.

a defense of Particular Redemption, william Rushton (1831/ current Gospel Press, box 318, ch mt59422). I was converted to the true Christ by God using this book. It teaches from the Bible that God imputes the sins of the elect to Christ, and that the elect are not the ones who do the imputer. A tremendous indictmemt of the false theology of Andrew Fuller

Politics of Jesus, John Howard Yoder (eerdmans). I became a pacifist reading this. Despite Yoder's enmity to the Pauline doctrine of justification (his early endorsement of the new perspective he claims is not an antitheses to Calvin but it is), his reading of the usual excuses to explain away the NT command to not kill the enemy made me a pacifist and started me on a lifelong pilgrimage through anabaptist history

(including the current mennonite retreat from sectarianism back into sacramentalism

by His grace and for His glory, Tom Nettles (Cor Meum Tibi, Lake Charles, La 70612). I first read it for the Baptist history. Despite a dialectical defense of Andrew Fuller, one of the few accurate readings of John Gill. But the second part on theology is a good and polemical presentation of the gospel itself

Shape of Living, David Ford (Baker Books). This is one of the most profound and insightful books I've ever read on Christian spirituality. Ford a Cambridge University Professor of Theology writes clearly, intelligently, and full of wise grace as he describes what shape an incarnational, resurrection spirituality can take.

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. An essential and compelling book on Christian fellowship and community. This book helped changed my life along with going to L'Abri Fellowship. I later enjoyed teaching a Sunday school/discussion class on this book. This book reads like a modern day epistle the apostle Paul would write. Understanding Bonhoeffer's pastoral heart and difficult context helps explains the fire and urgency he wrote as he trained seminarians in exile during Nazi Germany.

Free in Christ, Cecil Hook. This book more than any other early on in my Christian pilgrimage shaped me and began my grounding in the gospel. I was immersed in southern, Church of Christ legalism. This book among other things freed me in Christ from the slavery of legalism and sectarianism. Cecil Hook then a Church of Christ minister in Texas wrote powerfully and asked some very good questions to challenge the status quo of that denomination. He, Rubel Shelley, and others were truly gospel troubadours who paved the way for men like Max Lucado another 'freed' Church of Christ minister.

JAYBER CROW, Wendell Berry. Berry's crafting of sentences is so beautiful in this novel, perhaps b/c he is also a poet. He SEES nature and individals so thoroughly, and his environmentalism is tied to a morality that is Biblical in its source.

HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?, Francis Schaeffer. More than any other, this book has changed my life, a book I read shortly after I became a Christian. For instance, Schaeffer's concern that a desire for personal peace and for affluence tends to keep us from doing what we should do to reach out to others caused me, as a single woman, to adopt a ten-year-old as my daughter (a supposedly 'unadoptable' girl who has been the greatest gift in my life).

THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH, C. S. Lewis. Although I think this book is in need of editing to cut out some 'dead weight,' I keep coming back to it to teach my Honors freshmen in a secular college b/c it presents so well the world we will have if we set aside God's absolutes and substitute God-as-man. This fantasy novel also SHOWS well what true 'submission' in marriage looks like: a real caring for the OTHER which can help eradicate self-centeredness.