Books I Recommend | Wayne Stiles

Archives For Books I Recommend

This contains books recommend by Wayne Stiles.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft [Book Review]

The only horror in Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is that he preaches hard work as the foundation to good writing.

on writing On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft [Book Review] With a steady dose of encouragement, King challenges writers of all levels to employ discipline as the key to developing one’s craft.

He also affirms his disdain of the passive voice and sings the praises of standard writing volumes like Strunk and Whites’ The Elements of Style and William Zinsser’s On Writing Well.

If you skip the first 100 pages and head straight to the “Tools” section of the book, you will find distilled guidance on writing fiction. With the exception of his advice to just let the plot happen (something only buffoons or geniuses like King should attempt), the book offers useful principles anyone can use. For example:

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time (or the tools) to write.”
“Until you get [a place of your own to write] you’ll find your new resolution to write a lot hard to take seriously.”
Set a daily writing goal and don’t quit until it’s done.
Write what you know, but use imagination. Describe what you see, but then get back to the story.
Never tell the reader a thing if you can show it.
Good dialogue comes from listening to real people talk—and to how they talk.

The book would get five stars if not for a couple of gripes.

Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus [Book Review]

It’s pretty rare to find a devotional book written about the Holy Land.

Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus [Book Review]

In fact, one of the reasons I wrote two of my books was to help fill the void in application of Holy Land study.

True, there are other books that do this. It’s just that so many of them waffle between inaccurate and superficial.

Charles Dyer offers us a refreshing alternative.

As I read Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus, I felt like I was on tour in Israel with a great Bible teacher. The book takes 30 events in the life of Jesus and gives you a geographical and devotional tour of the places where they occurred.

Bethlehem, the Temple Mount, the Judean Wilderness, the Sea of Galilee are only a few places Dr. Dyer leads us on this virtual tour through key places in the life and ministry of Jesus. “Watch your step as you get down from the bus,” it reads in one place.

I felt like I could easily take the book in hand and stand at the very places in the Holy Land. The book could serve as a pocket guide devotional.

If you’re looking for a unique devotional on a part of the Bible most people miss, Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus is a journey worth taking.

I read the Kindle edition, but you can also pick up the softcover edition.

P.S. Charles Dyer has written two other books about the Holy Land also worth having in your library (I have them both):

Question: What place in the life of Jesus would you most like to see? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy [Book Review]

Eric Metaxas should have written the history books I read in school.

The biography, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, is dense with detail, but it reads like the story it was.

bonhoeffer Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy [Book Review] Metaxas has a commanding grasp of Bonhoeffer’s life and theology, and yet he doesn’t use Bonhoeffer’s story as a platform to push an agenda. He lets Bonhoeffer’s amazing life speak for itself.

Bonhoeffer’s theology was biblical—surprisingly, in spite of the many liberal German theologians of his day. But he learned his theology in a context that required one to live it—or deny it. I wonder if the “cheap grace” idea would have matured in his mind without the Nazis.

The discussion questions at the end of the book are worth pondering. They pinpoint many of the same areas of tension I felt while reading the book. Any system of theology gets tested best when it has to face the snags of a culture. I found myself frequently uncomfortable and convicted with how little my culture demands of me—in comparison to Bonhoeffer’s day. Although the winds in America are shifting against orthodox Christianity, and some of what Germany tolerated in Hitler seems to find a contemporary pattern in America.

I’ve heard Metaxas speak more than once, and anyone who has heard him knows the guy is sidesplitting funny. I expected his book to have the same sarcastic wit. There are moments the book offers nuggets of humor, to be sure, but they are rare. They were like finding Easter eggs.

I hadn’t known that Bonhoeffer died only a week after Easter. Somehow, such a life of sacrifice and faithfulness seems entirely appropriate to be associated with Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection. (I happened to finish the book on Easter weekend.)

The genius of this book is that it puts the story in history and holds up a model of a Christian who determined to live what he believed—and also, to die for it.

I read the Kindle edition, but I also have a copy of the large hardcover edition.

Question: Have you read the book? What did you think of it? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

The Present Principle [Book Review]

Present Principle The Present Principle [Book Review] Claire Diaz-Ortiz’s book, The Present Principle, reads somewhat like Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Though an unfair comparison, what’s true of Einstein’s E=mc2 is true of Claire’s book: there’s a lot of potential represented in a small space.

Claire Diaz-Ortiz uses the word PRESENT in three ways:

as a “gift” you give yourself
as a dedicated time each morning
as an acronym of how to “proactively organize” that time.

She lays out her thesis at the end of the book:

The Present Principle is about giving you a guiding framework for establishing a positive morning ritual that sets your day in the direction you want it to go. By waking in the mornings, and following seven simple steps to Pray, Read, Express, Schedule, Exercise, Nourish, and Track, you will be better able to make your day everything you want it to be (PDF edition, page 32).

Here’s a great takeaway from the book . . .

Offerings in Leviticus—What They Were and Why They Mattered

For most Christians, the book of Leviticus is as untraveled as the wilderness in which Moses wrote it.

It’s not hard to understand why. I mean, who cares about sacrifices no longer needed or diet codes no longer in effect? Can they teach us anything today?

In a word: plenty.

Tabernacle model from above bwb032300501 Offerings in Leviticus—What They Were and Why They Mattered

(Photo: Offerings were made in the Tabernacle. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable.” —2 Timothy 3:16

Here’s a brief summary of the five offerings in Leviticus—what they were and why they mattered. I’ve also included a free chart you can download and a short list of resources to help you make sense of Leviticus.

Top 5 Gifts for Bible Lands and Bible Study

Most of us give Christmas gifts that are quickly forgotten.

After the iPhone gets cracked, or the DVD gets watched, or the sweater gets snagged, they all end up at the landfill.

This year, why not give a gift that will last a lifetime?

Juletræslys Top 5 Gifts for Bible Lands and Bible Study

(Photo by Malene Thyssen)

Bible Lands study tools make great gifts because they take your personal Bible study to the next level. What’s more, they don’t wear out.

Here are my top 5 recommendations for gifts you’ll enjoy giving.

The Problem of Evil and a God of Love

We live in a world where it seems God turns a deaf ear to pain and evil.

Children hunger, immorality runs rampant, injustice occurs in the courts, and our loved ones die of cancer.

All under the nose of an all-powerful God of love.

noevil The Problem of Evil and a God of Love

It feels as if He were a God of love and justice and power, He would and could remove all evil. As it is, evil remains. So do our feelings of confusion.

In a forgotten corner of the Hebrew Scriptures we catch a glimpse of this seeming contradiction with the problem of evil as well as its resolution.

Must-Have Resources for Israel Bible Lands Study

Not everybody can travel to Israel.

But everyone can benefit from including Bible lands in their personal Bible study. You just need some good tools.

Tabernacle model and courtyard tb030807082 Must Have Resources for Israel Bible Lands Study

Photo: Tabernacle Model. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

I have discovered that including Bible lands in my study has given me more understanding of the Bible than learning Greek and Hebrew. The benefits of including Bible lands in the study of Scripture are available to everyone.

I’ve created what I consider a must-have list of resources. These are the tools I reach for first when I study—those resources that have proven most helpful to me for years.

I’ll give you the full list, and then I’ll suggest which ones to get first.

Free Christian E-Books for the Spiritual Life

This summer would be a great time to do some reading.

If you have an iPad or Kindle or some other device (even a computer) that allows you to read e-books, you’ll want to take advantage of some great free titles.

ebooks Free Christian E Books for the Spiritual Life

Photo: Andrea Sánchez, via Vivozoom

Amazon now sells more e-books than physical books. The advantage is that many classic titles on the spiritual life or Christianity are available dirt cheap—and some for free.

Often with free e-books, you get what you pay for. But if you’re willing to sift through the haystack, you’ll find some gems.

I did some digging and I’ve provided links to some great free ones—as well as how to search for others.