Materials to feed your spiritual growth

I have found it difficult to identify which books and materials are 'vetted' by people I respect, and hence, in order to assist others in their quest for such knowledge, I collated many of my readings in the year after I first came to faith into something that bore the title 'Awakened to Spiritual Awareness: What Now?'.

Purely so you can get an idea of what it had contained, being cautious to avoid the plagiarism minefield that bit of work entered (and hence was not published), the contents page of this body of work read as follows:

1. Introduction.

2. The Foundation of faith: Resurrection is key: evidence – extracts from Why Jesus? by David Nasser, and a reference to ‘How Can There Be Only One Way To God?’ by PJ Smyth in the series “Tough Questions’ on the God First website.

3. Simplifying Salvation (what it means to be saved) – Belief and grace, changed identity then changed behaviour - my summary extracts from ‘Grounded - The Teaching About Salvation’ on the Common Ground website, plus extracts from Gospel Revolution by PJ Smyth.

4. Prayer – my summary of extracts of the book Prayer by Philip Yancey

5. Defining Your Life’s Purpose – extracts from the book ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren

6. The Holy Trinity – my summary extracts from ‘Knowing God’ by JI Packer, ‘The Reason for God’ by Timothy Keller, and ‘Invisible God’ on the Common Ground website.

7. Growing in Christ-likeness – my experience and summary thoughts, plus Common Ground sermon extracts.

8. How do you increase your faith? - Rick Warren’s sermon: ‘How God Tests Our Faith’.

9. Personal Evangelism – extracts from Just Walk Across The Room by Bill Hybels, and references to tools in Gospel Revolution.

10. Support Information:

a. My documents ‘Awakening’ and ‘Awareness’

b. Bible extracts: support – my summary of New Testament Extracts, and extracts on ‘The Word’ from the Why Jesus? DVD.

c. Our Daily Bread 2014 extracts.

d. Other Resources, which included:

(1) The Common Ground Website has a sermon series entitled ‘Tough Questions’, which covers the following topics:

· How Could A Loving God Allow Such Suffering?

· Hasn’t Science Disproved Christianity?

· Isn’t the Bible’s Sex Ethic Hopelessly Outdated?

· Wasn’t Jesus Just a Great Man, Not Some Divine?

· Surely There Can’t Be Just One True Religion?

· Isn’t The Bible A Corrupted Product Of Man, Not God?

The website also contains many other series, such as:

· Sex In The City

· Family Matters

· The Bucket List

· Love + Marriage

(2) The God First Website also has many sermon series worth exploring, including the sermon series entitled ‘Tough Questions’, which covers the following topics:

· How Can There Be Only One Way To God?

· How Can We Trust The Bible?

· How Can Christianity Be True When So Many Christian Are Hypocrites?

· How Can Christianity Be True When So Many Christian Are Judgmental?

· How Can A Loving God Send People To Hell?

· Hasn’t Science Disproved God?

(3) ‘The Reason For God’ by Timothy Keller includes topics such as:

· A Leap of Faith (or Doubt) – there cannot be just one true religion

· How Could A Good God Allow Suffering?

· Religion and Freedom.

· The Church is responsible for so much injustice.

· How can a Loving God be a God of Judgment, Anger, and Wrath?

· You can’t take the Bible literally.

· The Argument for God from the Violence of Nature

· The problem of Sin.

· The Difference of Grace.

· The Reality of the Resurrection.

(4) ‘Knowing God’ by JI Packer includes topics such as:

· What Knowing God Involves.

· The Holy Trinity.

· The Nature of Our Judgment by God.

· Gifts of God.

· Christian Behaviour.

· The Guidance and Adequacy of God.

(5) Other resources I have come across include:

· How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.

· Basic Christianity by John Stott.

· Endeavors for God by Timothy Keller.

· Life in Christ by Raniero Cantalamessa

· Searching Issue by Nucky Gumbel.

· Rumours of Another World by Philip Yancey.

· One Minute After You Die by Erwin W. Lutzer.

- The Story - the Bible as one continuous chronological story (NIV version).

It is my sincere wish that the above can result in some meaningful discoveries for at least one person.