6 Priorities that Decide What Books I Read:

1. Reading Scripture: If we neglect Scripture in order to read only other books, we not only cut ourselves from the divine umbilical cord that feeds our souls, we also cut ourselves from the truth that makes it possible for us to benefit from the truth, goodness, and beauty in the books that we read.
2. Reading to know and delight in Christ: The largest topical section in my personal library features books on the person and work of Christ. This is my second highest ranked priority, just after my direct reading of Scripture. If we commit to reading books of solid theology, our knowledge of Christ will grow, because theology (of the right sort) is about knowing God and His Son intimately. Knowledge of Him (not just about Him) feeds, transforms, and vivifies the soul. This is the most delightful pursuit we could ever know.
3. Reading to kindle spiritual reflection: The Christian life is about training the mind, kindling the affections, and learning the vocabulary of the faith (1 Cor. 14:20; Rom. 12:2). This requires deep spiritual reflection on topics like faith, grace, sin, death, and eternal life. The Christian literature that fuels my spiritual reflection comes in a variety of sizes, formats, and genres. (including novels, poetry, and biography).
4. Reading to initiate personal change: These are the books for battle, the sharp weapons for putting off sin and putting on righteousness. These books help me confront and defeat personal sin and unbelief. They help me to honor God in my role as a husband and as a parent. Our growing knowledge of God must lead to growth in conformity to Christlikeness (2 Pet. 1:5–8). This reading category forces me to think proactively about personal growth and to determine where in my life I need to focus my attention. Carefully selected books will set the pace for focused and long-term change. The church is blessed by a wealth of books on marriage, parenting, sex, depression, discontentment, stress, anxiety, fear, anger, and many others.
5. Reading to pursue vocational excellence: Christians are to work as though their boss is the Lord himself (Col 3:23), meaning we are called to pursue vocational excellence. And working with skill requires laboring wisely and thoughtfully. I read for vision, to discover and leverage my God-given strengths, to communicate clearly, to organize, to improve my decision making and problem solving,
6. Reading to enjoy a good story: I read for leisure: non-Christian literature, novels, biographies, humor, and fantasy. Christians should not blush when they read for pleasure, for escape, or “just for fun.” Provided that this is not a form of escapism—and assuming the book does not glorify sin—the practice is enjoyable and honors God.

Learn more about Lit! or read a sample chapter.

Tony Reinke is a former journalist who serves as a theological researcher and blogs at Miscellanies.

1. Family worship must be born of conviction. As parents, you must be convinced that this is something you need. Without this conviction, follow through will be next to impossible.
2. Family worship begins with the head of the household. Wives, don’t demand that your husband start family worship. It needs to come from him.
3. Family worship must be scheduled. If we don’t plan a time to worship, we’ll skip it. It takes about 30 days to form a habit, so forming a worship schedule will help ingrain it into the family pattern.
4. Family worship must be simple. It doesn’t need to be a big production. No power points necessary. All you need is commitment to gather together with the Word of God. Keeping it simple makes it easy to spice up or simplify when you want to.
5. Family worship must be natural. Don’t try to be something you aren’t. This is not the time to pretend or be extravagant. Choose songs that your family loves to sing and study materials that fit your situation in life. Your children can detect a lack of authenticity.
6. Family worship must be mandatory. Nobody gets to skip out, including sulky teenagers. Rebellion and family worship belong in different realms and require separate attention.
7. Family worship must be participatory. It is not a performance by one gifted member of the family that is simply observed by everyone else. Invite your children to join in singing, choosing songs, reading Scripture, praying, discussing issues, etc. Participation will help your children grow, and can even touch the heart of the rebellious teen.

Learn more about surrendering your home to God in Family Driven Faith.

You are retired for your private devotions; you have opened the Bible, and you begin to read.

Now, do not be satisfied with merely reading through a chapter. Some people thoughtlessly read through two or three chapters—stupid people for doing such a thing!

It is always better to read a little and digest it, than it is to read much and then think you have done a good thing by merely reading the letter of the word.

For you might as well read the alphabet backwards and forwards, as read a chapter of Scripture, unless you meditate upon it, and seek to comprehend its meaning.

Merely to read words is nothing: the letter kills.

The business of the believer with his Bible open is to pray, “Lord, give me the meaning and spirit of your word, while it lies open before me; apply your word with power to my soul, threatening or promise, doctrine or precept, whatever it may be; lead me into the soul and marrow of your word.”

Also, it is not the form of prayer, but the spirit of prayer that shall truly benefit your souls.

That prayer has not benefited you, which is not the prayer of the soul.

You have need to say, “Lord, give me the spirit of prayer; now help me to feel my need deeply, to perceive your promises clearly, and to exercise faith upon them.”

In your private devotions, strive after vital godliness, real soul-work, the life-giving operation of the Spirit of God in your hearts.

Evidently he thinks this will help. So don’t call it simplistic. Call it grace. Believe him. Take every reason and preach it to your soul as true. Say,

Soul, this is true. Jesus Christ says so. Trust him. He died for you. He loves you. He created you. He knows you. No one — no counselor, no pastor, no friend — knows as much about you as he does. Listen to him. Let these reasons sink in. Bank on them. Now, let’s get up and do what we need to do. Be gone anxiety.

Here’s a summary of what he said:

1. Life is more than food and the body more than clothing (Matthew 6:25).
2. God feeds the birds and you are more valuable than they are (Matthew 6:26).
3. It's pointless. It adds not one hour to your life (Matthew 6:27).
4. If God clothes ephemeral grass, he will clothe eternal you (Matthew 6:28-30).
5. Unbelievers are anxious about stuff. And you are not an unbelieve r(Matthew 6:32a).
6. Your father (!) knows that you need all these things you're anxious about (Matthew 6:32b).
7. When you seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, what you need is added to you.
8. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Tomorrow's trouble stays there (Matthew 6:34).

via desiringgod.org

The key is to realize that they born out of his conversion, his dark night of the soul, and his rediscovery of the gospel as a Christian:

The way to read my books, then, is to realize that I came through a real struggle in those early days, and I’ve tried to be honest in my study ever since. I try to approach every problem as though I were not a Christian and see what the answer would be.

Later on in my ministry I faced another crisis that equally influenced the writing of my books. It came after I had already been a pastor for ten years in the U.S. and a missionary to Europe for five years. Throughout this period one thing was dinned into my thinking: “Why,” I asked, “is there so little reality among orthodox evangelical Christians? Why is there so little beauty in the way Christians deal with one another?”

This led to doubts about the reality of spiritual things in my own life. I realized that although I had been studying for years and although I had been active in Christian ministry and although I was becoming more and more known in certain Christian circles, the reality of my own spiritual life was diminished. Somehow I had lost what I had when I first became a Christian.

For about two months I walked out in the Swiss mountains. When it rained, I walked in the old hayloft above our chalet. And as I prayed, I went all the way back to my agnosticism. With as much honesty as I could, I asked myself, “Was I right in becoming a Christian as a young man?” The unreality I had found in the Christian world, the ugliness I saw in Christian relationships, the fact that Christians were not able to talk to twentieth-century people—all these things made me ask, “Was I right?”

And finally the sun came out. I saw that my earlier decisions to step from agnosticism to Bible-believing Christianity was right, and I also discovered that I had been missing something vital in my biblical understanding. It was this: that the finished work of Christ on the cross, back there in time and space, has a moment-by-moment meaning. Christ meant His promise to be taken literally when He said that He would bear His fruit through us if we allowed Him to do so, not only in our religious life but in all of our life. Christ meant to be Lord of my whole life. This brought my life to a great shattering moment. What began as struggle ended in a song. Without that crisis, I could never have written True Spirituality, for that book is the outcome of that personal struggle.

- Francis A. Schaeffer, “Why and How I Write My Books,” Eternity Magazine, vol. 24 (March 1973): 64f.

HT: Bill Edgar