Ministry book recommendations

[lostfaust]

Just wondering if anyone had any ministry books inside/outside the local churches you could recommend as a Christian who wants to reconnect/know more about God? I feel like I need some sort of guidepost or baseline knowledge as a lukewarm Christian, as I'm really lacking in this area. I suppose the ministry books from the local churches gave me a somewhat adequate base (?), but I don't really want a one-sided perspective written by the same person or peoples. Also I find it difficult to discern whether a particular ministry book is biblical or not. I'm trying to apply this to the ministry books I'm reading, and would appreciate any form of advice or help.

Another question I have is whether it's still possible to use the Recovery bible but simply ignore the footnotes? Correct me if I'm wrong, but are most of the bibles released translated accurately?

[JorgeP]

Fraternal greetings. The greatest ailment in God's family is reading the Bible on your own. The tendency is to read many books or Christian literature but not read the Bible for yourself. The first thing I encourage you to do is read the entire Bible for yourself first. The more you read the Bible for yourself, the more you will be able to exercise and mature your spiritual discernment so you can test all Christian literature, taking the good and discarding the bad.

Regarding the Recovery Ministry, I can recommend the 14 Messages for New Believers and the Orthodoxy of the Church. In the case of the 14 Messages for New Believers, you must filter out the Asian culture evident in the messages and apply it to your own personal experience and your own filter of your local or national culture. Regarding the Orthodoxy of the Church, you should include the Recovery Ministry in the Laodicean section and not in Philadelphia, as they claim. I was able to get a lot of benefit from these two books, and you save time and research because it's also common for us to invest a lot of time in researching things that are secondary and not really important.

When we talk about basic truths for new believers and the orthodoxy of the church, which are very necessary truths to advance effectively in our Christian walk, we need to understand that these revelations belong to the Body of Christ and not to a particular ministry. So you can test them as you see fit, because all Christian content is for the family of God and not for a single ministry. So feel free to benefit from the Christian content of these books without committing to the recovery ministry.

You can continue reading the recovered version, but without the footnotes. I continue reading it because it's an excellent version (A useful brother named John Ingalls paid a price for translate it). I usually use three versions to read and compare in Spanish: Reina Valera 1960, Dios habla hoy 1994, and the recovered version. Bendiciones

[bearbear]

JorgeP’s suggestion to primarily read the Bible is a good one. One of the unhealthy mindsets in the local churches is the tendency to treat the Bible as a complex puzzle that must be deciphered- an approach that may apply to certain prophetic books like Daniel and Revelation. However, the majority of scripture, especially the New Testament, was written to be read plainly and understood literally.

For example, when Paul wrote letters to the churches, he intended his audience to understand his words directly and clearly, not to decode hidden meanings.

In the early church, scripture was often read publicly because most people did not have personal access to written texts, and the New Testament canon had not yet been fully compiled.

1 Timothy 4:13 – “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

Justin Martyr (c. 155 AD), First Apology, ch. 67:
"On the day called Sunday... the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits..."

One thing I really enjoy is listening to the audio Bible in my car. One of my favorite versions is the Breathe edition of the NLT, which features voice actors. I like to imagine that God is speaking directly to me as I listen, and I often notice things I might miss when reading the text on my own.