Books: Pondering The Pages

Ecclesiastes 12:12 "And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh."

One has said, "the bible is the best commentary on the bible and the bible is the best dictionary on the bible..." and rightly so! For with every page we read of the divinely inspired book comes the leadership of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all paths of knowledge and understanding in the bible. But! One must realize and admit, we have some who have trodden much closer to the Savior and therefore plowed more fields and gleaned more of the harvest of understanding than ourselves. To say we have nothing to be learned is to automatically reject the grand blessing of those whose spirit's are more tender, eyes much brighter, minds ever the more saturated in the things of God and who can shed light on the deeper, more astounding precepts of God's word. Men to whom we owe a debt of gratitude and thanks for their weary work of much study in providing us with books wherewithal we may, too, be saturated in the understanding of the Holy Book. 

 2 Timothy 4:13 "The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments."

No doubt Paul was not only a writer, but also a great reader. A scholastic mind, he was, when it came to the understanding of God's infallible word. He gave instruction to young Timothy to bring with him, the books. Books are not the foundation of the believer (the bible is), but they may be the steel used to strengthen the mud to which we build our knowledge on. The bible is, as Author William Evans penned, "the great anvil that has wore out many hammers." The bible is our sole authority in faith and practice, but what better way to dig deeper into our faith and practice than to glean from the spiritual giants who have penned volumes of great material. Simply put, we should ever be ready to "study to show thyself approved..." Below I have given a list of authors whom have greatly influenced my understanding of the bible (please note: this is not a full endorsement of everything they have written or teach. Simply a guide for those looking to broaden their library of good books).

1. John B. Phillips - Author of the "Exploring" Commentary and other various books. 
   
2. D.L. Moody - Author of many books including, "God's Abundant Grace." 
3. Clarence Larkin - Author of "Rightly Dividing The Word" and many more.
4. E.M. Bounds - Author of many a good books on "Prayer."
5. F.B. Meyer - Author of various books on topical studies and bible characters. 
6. Isaac Haldeman - Author of "How To Study The Bible" and "The Coming of Christ." 
7. John Foxe - Author of "The Foxes' Book of Martyrs." 
8. Lewis Sperry Chafer - Author of various commentaries and theology books.
   
9. R.A. Torrey - Learned under D.L. Moody and author of many books on topical studies. 
   
10. William Gurnall - Author of "The Christian In Complete Armor."  

While this does not exhaust the extend of my library, it is however, a starting point for anyone looking to add to their own list of "good reads." Others we didn't mention would include: Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee, William Evans, Oliver B. Green, Charles Ryrie, John Gill, William Blackstone, Paul Chappell,  John R. Rice, Dave Hunt, J.M. Carroll and many others.