Category Archives: Pastor’s Picks – Recommend Resources

These are recommend resources that we have been personally encouraged and challenged by and hope they do the same for you. It’s been said before that great leaders are readers, and we are committed to regularly reading through our Bible and never stop learning. May the Lord bless you as you grow! -Pastor Tim Molter

Book: Living Water (The Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Life) by Chuck Smith

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Jesus promised His confused disciples that He would not leave them as orphans, but that He would pray to the Father who would send them another Comforter who would come alongside to help them and would abide with them forever. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things and bring to their remembrance all the things that He had commanded them.

In his warm personal style, Pastor Chuck Smith, a bible teacher for over 50 years, paints an intimate picture of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He is to conform you into the image of Christ. He is to come alongside of you to help you in your walk. He is to teach you all things. He is to give you an understanding of spiritual things. He is to give you the power to be a witness of Jesus Christ.

There is a vast difference between being filled with the Holy Spirit and having the Holy Spirit flow forth out of your life like a torrent of living water. Pastor Smith will lead you step by step into this rich and intimate relationship with God which is made possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. You will experience the refreshing streams of living water filling your life then flowing forth from your life unto a thirsty world.

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Book: Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men

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The Western world is in a crisis of discarded honor, dubious integrity, and faux manliness. It is time to recover what we have lost. Stephen Mansfield shows us the way. Working with timeless maxims and stirring examples of manhood from ages past, Mansfield issues a trumpet-call of manliness fit for our times.

In Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men, you’ll see that: Manliness is not about physical strength but about knowing the deeds that comprise manhood and doing those deeds. Habits have to be formed, and actions have to be aligned with the grace received. Masculinity is a discipline that requires cultivation.

Mansfield offers 30 revolutionaries, inventors, soldiers, philosophers, preachers, and adventurers by sharing their stories, challenges, and triumphs as key lessons that reveal how to grow into a godly man—in work, play, faith, family, and more. A humorous must-read for men of all ages. Mansfield says: “My goal in this book is simple, I want to identify what a genuine man does, the virtues, the habits, the disciplines, the duties, the actions of true manhood, and then call men to do it.”

Dave Ramsey, New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio show host says: “I’m sick to death of seeing men portrayed as bumbling morons in movies and TV commercials. We’re living in a culture that tries to make masculinity a punch line, and it’s having a devastating effect on our families and society. In Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men, Stephen takes the bold, potentially offensive step of calling men to be men again. It’s about time!”

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Movie: Time Changer

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The year is 1890 and Bible Professor Russell Carlisle has written a new manuscript entitled “The Changing Times”. His book is about to receive an unanimous endorsement from the board members at Grace Bible Seminary until his colleague, Dr. Norris Anderson, has a “difficulty with something.”

Dr. Anderson believes what Carlisle has written about morality could greatly affect future generations and fears that teaching good moral values without mentioning Christ is wrong. Using a secret time machine, Anderson sends Carlisle over 100 years into the future, offering him a glimpse of where his beliefs will lead.

Arriving in the early 21st century, Carlisle is shocked to find that half of all marriages end in divorce (instead of 5% in 1890), teenagers talk openly about deceiving their parents, movies contain blasphemous language and people who go to church are so bored by the sermons that they need extra activities. This film cleverly shows us what our society has lost from a perspective that most church going Americans can relate to and that morality alone does not make you a Christian.

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Book: The Case for Christmas (A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger) by Lee Strobel

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From Lee Strobel comes the holiday themed book ‘The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger’. Strobel adapts segments of his previous book “The Case for Christ” to give a shortened version and examine whether Jesus’ biographers can be trusted, if the archaeological and forensic evidence support the Gospels, and if Jesus met the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah.

The narrative is well-written, with Strobel introducing each topic with an anecdote from is career as a reporter demonstrating its importance, and showing a clear line of reasoning for both his questions as a skeptic and what the answers he got mean. And Strobel does a good job at being objective and conveys the journey that took him as a convert to Christianity. A fascinating logic read which will help people find the evidence for the reason for the season.

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