The Evangelical Universalist Forum

What Are Your Top Six Life Changing Books?

Besides the Bible what are the top six books that God has used to change or have a huge impact on your life? In no particular order here are mine:

Future Grace: The Purifying Power Of God’s Promises - John Piper

Finally Alive: John Piper

Warranted Christian Belief: Alvin Plantinga

Alcoholics Anonymous: Bill Wilson

Hope Beyond Hell: Gerry Beauchemin

The Love Languages Books. In particular, God Speaks Your Love Language: Gary Chapman

The Holy bible by various authors
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
Tao Te Ching
The Republic by Plato

The Lord of the Rings
The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination - Boettner. It changed my life by finally turning me away from Calvinism.
The Care of the Soul - Thomas Moore
Systematic Theology (3 Vols.) - Paul Tillich
Collected Works of Wm. Ellery Channing
Little, Big - John Crowley

I need to add one more that I forgot about. This has had an enormous impact on me:

Recapture The Wonder by Ravi Zacharias

Sorry, Cole. No can do (it’s urban slang, folks, for any potential linguistic or grammar purist out there - wishing to make corrections)! That makes it seven and you only asked for six :exclamation: :smiley:

I’m sure i could list many others (i suck at ranking things), but here’s my unusual list, because being usual is no fun.

The Lord of the Rings (because LOTR)
Blue Like Jazz (helped me get past some evangelical rubbish i was sorting through, and broadened my perspectives)
Good Omens (i love how two non-believers of whatever stripe wrote so compellingly about God, and taught me more than many believers. I guess that’s ineffability!).
The Evangelical Universalist (i was on the way anyway, but this book helped me see how compelling a case could be made even from the Scriptures using a more conservative, nearly literalist point of view)
Anansi Boys - well really anything from Gaiman. This one is a huge favourite…it teaches the importance of stories, and how they can bring us together in unexpected ways.
Carpe Jugulum - again, anything from Sir Terry, really. But this one has some GREAT dialogue on the nature of faith.
The Call of Cthulhu - sorry, but it did. It’s not for theological reasons, it’s not because it taught me anything amazing about life. It’s just because this for me is the pinnacle of speculative fiction, and something that helped many subsequent authors not approach humanity as the centre of the universe, which is a humbling step.

I love book threads.

When We Talk About God, Let’s Be Honest- R. Kirbey Godsey

The Divine Conspiracy- Dallas Willard

The Fingerprints of God- Robert F. Capon

Good Goats- Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn

Something to Believe In- Robert Short

I also like The Spirituality of the Cross by Gene Veith, though its not UR.

  1. The Four Memoirs of Christ—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
  2. The Hope of the Gospel, George MacDonald
  3. Unspoken Sermons, Series III, George MacDonald
  4. Short Stories, Leo Tolstoi
  5. The God Who Risks, John Sanders
  6. Christian Ethics, Norman Geisler

In cases of moral conflict, Geisler advocates a hierarchy of moral imperatives. For example, saving a life takes precedence over refraining from lying. Thus it is morally right to lie in order to save a life.

Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck, Taught me tragedy

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, Taught me justice and irony

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, Taught me Wonder

The Cost of Disipleship, Dietrich Bonhoffer, Taught me Christian activism

Two Worlds(1946), Charles Price, Taught me to live from within the veil.

The Release of the Spirit, Watchman Nee, Taught me that brokeness is the primary goal of the dealings of God in my life.

Oh yes! I forgot about The Cost of Discipleship. That taught me that God’s grace is costly, and not cheap. Being a disciple of Jesus costs one his self-serving life. Grace is not cheap—just a means of counting us as righteous when we are not.

yea. Really good book. His life story is very interesting as well.

The Bible

The Bible

The Bible

The Bible

The Bible

The Bible

B Basic
I. Instruction
B. Before
L. Leaving
E. Earth

All the other best books are by people who encourage and enable you to live and work and be like Jesus.

But here are a few critical books:

Creation’s Jubilee by Stephen E. Jones

My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chabers

Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

Gifts of the Spirit, Derek Prince

God Will Make A Way, Henry Cloud and John Townsend

If you make a full surrender to Jesus then you can ask him to enable you with all the Gifts of the Spirit.

A few of these books are online free like Jones and Murray and maybe Chambers.

Nothing Between, Neville Peters

m.youtube.com/watch?v=o62NruWQyBk