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Three Books to Read Once You’re Saved

New believers need lots of encouragement and instruction when the begin their walk with the Lord. Ideally, this should happen within the supportive community of a local church. In addition to the Bible, here are three books that I would suggest.

1. New Christian’s Handbook: Everything Believers Need to Know by Max Anders

Max Anders does a wonderful job of summarizing all of the introductory issues of Christianity in one relatively small and approachable volume. He focuses on what Christians believe, why they believe it, and how they should live in response. Each chapter is organized around a different question like, “Who is God?” and “How Did We Get the Bible?” making it easy to digest. This is a great place to start for new believer.

2. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis is a literary legend. In this book, Lewis helps believers (and unbelievers as well) come to grips with a Christian view of the world. He unpacks a Biblical view of morality and explains how it applies to difficult issues of like human sexuality and personal forgiveness. He cautions against “the greatest sin” of pride and encourages the virtues of faith, hope, and charity (love). This book would especially helpful for new believers who are wrestling with big questions in their life.

3. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney

Donald Whitney recognizes one of the greatest needs of a new believer is growth. In this book, he describes ten personal and corporate habits (spiritual disciplines) that promote spiritual growth. Each chapter has application questions to urge the reader towards action. Whitney has written some related resources, but they point back to this volume. This book is great for new believers who are ready to grow in their faith.

You can find these books at your favorite retailers. Feel free to share this post and share these books with the new believers that you know.

Introducing the “Three Things” Series

Charlie “Tremendous” Jones” once said, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Some have add, “the experiences you have” to Jone’s insight and I would agree. These are the things that have shaped me and they have inspired me to start a new weekly series called “Three Things.”

I will start the series with what I think are the three most important books to read on a particular topic. For example, three books someone should read once they get saved. You will notice that I will be pick categories that should matters to wide variety of believers.

The absolute importance of the Bible will be assumed in all my posts. I write, teach, and preach using the Bible all the time. It is God’s inspired word and it gives us everything we need for faith and godliness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). At the same times, it can be a tremendous help to read how other people think about a particular topic.

You may wonder why just three things. Here are three reasons why:

Focus. The number of choices in our modern world can be overwhelming at times. This includes books as well. The writer of Ecclesiastics warned, there is no end to the making of many books (Ecclesiastics 12:12, HCSB). A book in your hand that you will actually reading is more valuable than a whole bookstore worth of books.
Developement. Reading forces us out of our comfort zones and into a new world of possibilities. It helps us to develop and grew, even when we are defending our treasurer assumptions.
Memorability. Three things stick together. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end. They make an easy list to follow up on.

I will launch this series with three special posts over the next three days covering:

Three books to read once you’re saved
Three books to read on discipleship
Three books to read before you go to seminary