12 Book Recommendations for 2022 | Clip from Recommended Reading for 2022

Recommended Reading for 2022: Lifting Our Hearts Above the Muck of This Life

These are the books that will lift our hearts above the muck of this life. Not that we will then forget it, ignore it, or despise it, but they're the books that will, I think, make us truly heavenly-minded and therefore of most earthly use.

So my first book is going to be this. This is Redemption Accomplished and Applied by Professor John Murray. He was a Scottish Presbyterian author, preacher, pastor, professor, author. And this book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, I think is masterful.

Now this would be more devotional. This is called Christ Precious, and it's written by an 18th-century Baptist called John Fawcett. Now I have it in this edition. It's recently been republished, which is why I'm recommending it on this occasion.

And Fawcett's really asking the question, why is Christ precious to those who believe? Then here's one that's going to tie up some of the roots and the fruits. This is The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall.

And his concern in this book is to make us to understand and to embrace and to pursue what it means for us to be God's people, made new creatures, and therefore because of the realities of the gospel at work in us, seeking after true holiness, pursuing holiness in the fear of the Lord.

Then again, this will be available in a number of different editions. This is called The Saint and His Saviour, and it's one of the early collections of sermons that was published by Charles Spurgeon.

Now I'm going to recommend a biography next. This is The Life of Adoniram Judson. It's called To the Golden Shore, and it's written by somebody called Courtney Anderson. And there are portions of this book that will just leave you utterly humbled before God, and there will be, again, easy gains at some point, and other points where you think, I've got to go away and have dealings with God on the basis of what I'm learning.

Communion with God and the Triune Life of the Puritans

Speaking of dealings with God, and we talked a little bit about John Owen and how he can be a little bit hard to get to grips with, and how some of his works are more accessible and more profitable, more immediately available than others.

This has been put into a Puritan paperback by The Banner of Truth. It's called Communion with God. It's richly Trinitarian. And one of the marks, I think, of the Puritans is they had a wonderful notion of the whole Godhead.

And Owen is one of those who's genuinely a theologian of the Holy Spirit. Now, Owen's contention here is that because our God is triune, we have communion with God as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit.

And that there is, without separating them from one another, there is distinction and that we relate to each in particular ways and along particular channels. And then my bonus. Most of those books are quite substantial.

They're a little longer. They could be quite heavy going. My last book, my bonus book, is much more immediately accessible. And if you're not a great reader, if you've not had much experience of reading or you want something just to get into your reading, this is Life in Christ.

Walking in Newness of Life by a friend of mine named Edward Donnelly. It's, again, based on some sermons that were preached in 2001, so a much more recent publication. But it is, again, I remember, I'm recommending things that have done my soul good.

I remember reading this. And honestly, it lifted my heart closer to God. I felt as if I had a better understanding of my identity as a Christian. It helped me with regard to my pursuit of holiness. I didn't want to offend God after I'd read this.

I was more conscious of my privileges as a child of God. So it's really a study of union with Jesus Christ and the blessed consequences of it.

Knowing Christ, the Life of Christ, and the Spirit in the Life of Jesus

Here's my first book, Knowing Christ by Mark Jones. Now, I haven't read that much that Mark Jones has written. He's a modern author. But Jones, this book is a good starting place in the sense that it gives you all the basics.

So good, clear truths about Christ laid out in a systematic way that will form a foundation for everything that follows. The next book that I would read is a book on the life of Christ by a man in the 19th century named William Blakey, covering the humanity of our Lord.

It's a bit of a strange title, The Humanity of Christ. And it's done in a way that's very warm and very challenging. Another book, Jesus' Power Without Measure, The Work of the Spirit in the Life of Our Lord by Douglas MacMillan.

So again, 20th century writer and dealing with the topic that perhaps you haven't thought about, how Christ as true man does the will of the Father as his Son by depending upon the Spirit. One of my all-time favorite books, The True Christian's Love to the Unseen Christ.

And this is a Puritan, so it's an older book by Thomas Vincent. And it really is very penetrating. So showing the loveliness of Christ and then calling the Christian to love him and warning those that have no response that they are not Christians.

Holiness and the Root Issues of Sanctification

Well, a book from the 19th century, a little later than the Puritans, a contemporary of Spurgeon, a man named J .C. Ryle. And this is his book, Holiness. So after looking at all those books on the life and the doctrine of Christ, moving to holiness to try to bring that down into a practical way, how does living separated unto this Jesus, how does it look?

And this is my favorite book on the topic of sanctification. It really does deal more with the root issues, the big picture issues. So if you come to this book looking for a series of do's and don'ts, which are good, it won't be in this book.

This book is more dealing with, in many ways like Marshall's, dealing with the big pictures of understanding what holiness is and how it works its way out into our life. But staying with the big pictures.

Amy Carmichael's If and the Nature of True Christian Love

All right. And the kind of the odd lady out in my reading suggestions is a little book of just short statements. The book is called If. It was written by the missionary to India, Amy Carmichael, late 19th, early 20th century, well, first half of the 20th century.

And as a missionary, as a leader of missionary ladies who were working with children who were being pulled out of, really out of a sex trafficking trade through Hinduism in her day, she wrote these statements about the nature of true Christian love.

It is a book that makes these simple statements. Each page you can see is just a simple statement up top. And it's a statement about real love. And so for me, this is the book that kind of, of my suggestions.

You'd have to read through it very slowly. You could read the book in half an hour, read through it very slowly. One, one page a day. Do I really follow Christ? Do I really love people and love God? Like I say, I do.

The Priest with Dirty Clothes and the Imputed Righteousness of Christ

So those books. Now, my bonus book is actually not a simple book for a person just starting to read, but I'm going to give a children's book. All right. And this is a book that I really like to give out to the families in the church by R .C. Sproul, the priest with dirty clothes, dealing with just a fable that he gives here that tries to illustrate the issue of the righteousness of Christ, the imputed righteousness of Christ and the transfer of our guilt to him, his righteousness to us.

So remember what Spurgeon said as you read in this coming year, whether it's the scriptures or good, good Christian books, Spurgeon said, I cannot know Christ with another man's mind. I cannot see him with another man's eyes.

I fear a secondhand knowledge. So as you're entering into whatever reading you're doing, and scripture is always primary, labor to avoid that secondhand knowledge. These authors and other good authors can become lifelong friends, but they cannot substitute for you really bearing your soul before your king and grabbing hold of all that he is moment by moment.

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