Books I Recommend (How To Worship Jesus Christ)

One of the five greatest books that I have ever read is How To Worship Jesus Christ by Joseph Carroll. Worship is the essential activity and priority of the believer. Truly God created us for Himself and He is worthy of our true devotion. John MacArthur wrote the forward for the book when Moody published the book in 1984. MacArthur says "nothing is more solely needed in the church today than a renewed emphasis on worship."

My introduction to this book and the author took place in the early 1980's. Miss Bertha Smith gave me my first copy while at her home in Cowpens, South Carolina. She had served as a missionary to China and met Dr. Carroll as he served in Japan. Joseph was from Australia but after his mission work in Japan and the Phillippines, he returned to Paris Mountain in Greenville, SC and established a school to train missionaries called the Evangelical Institute.

Joseph and I became personal friends an visited together many times. He preached in several churches I pastored and shared in Christ-Life Conferences with Life Out of Death. This man of God influenced and helped me as a mentor and friend. He was the most holy but also mysterious man that I have ever met this side of heaven. I loved him and he loved me.

His sermons are available for you to listen and learn on the Evangelical Institute website. Joseph labored in the strength of Christ and knew the power of the resurrected life of Christ. May God use this book in your life, if interested please go here for a copy. I have shared this book with all that I have com in contact with since meeting him in 1982. May God keep us weak enough that we may be used as God used Dr. Carroll.

Please be in prayer for my ministry as we enter into the Summer months. This Sunday I start a revival at Unionville Baptist Church. Please pray that God would do great and mighty things in the coming months, and that he would send true real revival to our churches. Thanks again for your prayers and hope to hear from you about how God has used the message of the Christ-Life to change your life.

Books I Recommend (Calvary Road)

Calvary Road by Roy Hession is a classic book on Revival. Roy was a successful evangelist in England but trough his books God has impacted the world with the message of brokenness and repentance. This book was used of God mightily n my life in the early 80's. I have read Calvary Road many times and have always been stretched and challenged in my relationship with others and my fellowship with the Lord.

My friend Bill Stafford knew Roy Hession personally and always shared with me the message of brokenness that Roy preached and practiced. Wayne Barber who is the pastor of Woodland Park Baptist in Chattanooga, Tennessee also knew Roy and told me many stories concerning their friendship and fellowship. I regret that God did not allow me to meet him but it feels that I have by the spirit of the man that flows through his writings. I have read all of his books and only eternity will reveal the impact that this man of God has brought to the church with the message of revival.

The desperate need in the Southern Baptist Convention and especially among preachers is the message of New Testament Revival. I challenge you to read this book with a willingness to be broken before God and a submissiveness to God in all things. Humility is the ground that must be fertile with repentance that a crop of Godly character may grow out of us and touch others.

Contact us at lifeoutofdeath.com and order this book today. It will make a difference in your life! Also if you have read this book I would love to hear how it has impacted your life! Please pray for my ministry and I as we enter into the slow summer months. I have had a very busy spring filled with great meetings and unexpected trials and it has shown me that God is faithful. Pray for me this summer that God will give me rest and that He will truly do great things in and through my life!

Books I Recommend (Bone of His Bone)

The greatest book in the world is "The Book of God" the BIBLE. The Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of the living God. I agree with Augustine, "When the Bible speaks, God speaks." God has promised to make us a success as we meditate upon His Word.

Other than the Bible there is a particular book that God has used in my life to help me to understand "the Christian life." I read this book in 1980 while serving in Anderson, South Carolina as pastor of Varennes Heights Baptist Church. Bone of His Bone by F.J. Huegel is the book that caused me to understand the importance of my union with Christ in death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and suffering. Many of us struggle because we do not realize the significance of our position in Christ. Manley Beasley read this book in 1970 and it transformed his thinking and he told me personally of the impact Huegel's writings had upon his life.

The emphasis of the book is the realization that Christianity is not about imitation but participation. That Christ allowed us to die with Him (Romans 6:6) that we can enjoy His life in us now. Thanks be unto God for the light of spiritual illumination in the inner man to the truth of identification with Christ.

I have shared this book with thousands in my meetings across the world. My ministry has made this book available through my book table at meetings where I was preaching "The Christ Life." Let me encourage you to contact us for this book and begin your journey into understanding the truth that transforms you into the image of Christ.

Those Who Read Usually Lead

When I was a student in school reading was not a significant factor in my life. My Grandmother taught the Second Grade at Rock Springs School in Denver, North Carolina. She would read the Bible through each year and was a faithful student of truth until she died at the age of ninety-nine. Her influence on my life was revolutionary in the aspect of being a learner and being one who pursued Jesus as Lord. Reading and studying was major for her and when I got saved and was called to preach it became the focus of my calling.

The discipline of meditation and reading God's Word has become almost lost among those who claim to love the Lord. There are so many voices from the world that speak loudly and frequently that would distract us from the time that all of us need with the Lord in His Word.

Let me challenge you to spend time with the Lord daily. Stephen F. Olford emphasized in his preaching the importance of the quiet time or what others would call "the devotional life." In fact when he went to preach in chapel at Wheaton College outside of Chicago he preached a sermon titled "Manna in the Morning." This sermon influenced a man by the name of Jim Elliott to start a journaling during his quiet time. Because of that Sermon we now have an amazing book by Jim Elliott called the Journals of Jim Elliott. The quiet time is an appointment that I have sought to keep daily as my love relationship and fellowship have developed in my forty years of walking with the Lord. The blessing of an open Bible with an obedient heart is a work of grace that I have enjoyed. Take time today to listen to the Lord by spending quality time in His presence and love Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.