Christian Books vs. the Bible

I'll be completely honest here, I'm not a big Christian book reader. I have read some of C.S. Lewis's stuff, some Henri Nouwen, Max Lucado, Rick Warren, Barbara Brown Taylor, but that's as far as it goes. A few dating books here and there, because that's important. But in some circles my list is pretty short when it comes to reading Christian Books.

One reason for this is plain stubborness. A few years back I bought a Bible that had no foot notes, no application stuff, just the text and cross-references. I refused to have some editor tell me what Jesus was saying, because the text is supposed to speak for itself. So I figured that's what I would do, let the text speak for itself. I began to go on a Bible reading rampage, because I wanted to know more about God and I wanted to hear it straight from him, not from Beth Moore, C.S. Lewis, not some Bible scholar, just the Holy Spirit. I wanted to form my own theology on the basis of what the Bible said, not take someone else's word for it.

And it was the greatest thing I ever did. Honestly. I found so much in the Old Testament that I thought I would never find. To this day the Bible never ceases to amaze me about how much it reveals about the character of God and his desire to know me inside and out. In my life the Bible has done what it has supposed to do: show me good theology and point me to the God of the universe. It has brought me into a deeper relationship with Christ that no Christian author could have done for me, because I was just too stubborn to take their word for it.

I am completely convinced that if a bomb hit every Lifeway, Cokesbury, and all the other Christian bookstores and destroyed all the Christian books we would pull through just fine. Maybe better off, because we would be forced to read the Bible for ourselves. We would be forced to seek God for ourselves and put all the pieces of the Bible together ourselves, which is exactly what the Max Lucados of the world do.

Now I'm not knocking Christian books, because they serve a great purpose. Their purpose is to point us to the Bible and help unlock some of the hardest to understand passages contained in it. But Christian books cannot replace the Bible or become like Bibles to us. I've heard time and time again, "every Christian should have this book on their shelf". Well I would like to counter that and say, "Every Christian should have a well thumbed Bible on their shelf that has been read and completely cherished".

I think another message I would like to send before I close this post is this: Every Christian book is full of opinions. The author has written the book as their take on the subject and what God has said to them about it. But God may have something different to say to you. Not completely different, but God may give you a different angle. The best way to form your own opinions and your own theology, is to sit down and discover God's word for yourself.

I definitely encourage everyone who happens to read this post to think for yourself. Discover the Bible and God for yourself, and be willing to critique other's opinions. The only thing that matters is what is going on between you and God. Nothing and no one else's opinions truly matter.