Books...

I love books!

To those who know me personally, aren't surprised by this 'confession' or realization.  I have grown with the assumption that most preachers love books.  I would venture to say that for a minister or even a public speaker to hate reading, books, or thinking - are, in a real sense, committing occupational suicide. 

At last count, I had atleast 5,000 books in my library.  Many of my books are autobiographies/biographies; some are textbooks from Dallas Baptist University and Southwestern Seminary; there are quite a few sets of commentaries (I don't subscribe to the belief that commentaries are hazardous or poisonous); much of my library are books dealing with the languages, lexicography, morphology, textual criticism, figures of speech, interlinear works, etc.; then many of my books are from Christian thinkers and theologians.  Admittedly, some of my books are secular and many are from various leaders who don't frequent any given church.  However, their writings have been invaluable to me through the years.  I credit many preachers, namely my Father, and also Dr. R.L. Sanders (who pastored for years the Pleasant Mt. Gilead of Forth Worth, TX) for their cultivation in my of my love for older writers and old books. 

The writers I cherish most (among the writers of old) are:
- Vance Havner
- Harry Emerson Fosdick
- Robert G. Lee
- M.R. Dehaan
- Grechem Machen
- W.W. Melton
- Hershcel Hobbs
- George W. Truett
- Bernard Ramm
- W. Herschel Ford
- Samuel Shoemakker
- John Calvin
- Robert Lenski
- H.P. Liddon
- John R. Bisagno
- A.W. Pink
- C.H. Spurgeon
- Alexander MacLaren
- G. Campbell Morgan

Of course, while these writers are so rewarding and enriching, the writings of Calvin Miller, Charles R. Swindoll, John F. MacArthur, John R.W. Stott, Watchman Nee and Andy Stanley are also quite rewarding. 

As I write this blog, I have no real understanding where I intended for this blog to go; just simply communicating in writing one of my favorite pastimes - BOOKS!