My Favorite Fiction

Okay, since I'm a big Narnia fan, and the Prince Caspian movie is now opening, I'm going to plug it, even though this is a blog about books. I've heard from credible sources (including our friend Doug Gresham, the co-producer and step-son of C. S. Lewis) that Caspian is a fun movie, true to the spirit and content of the book (though to work on the big screen there had to be additions and subtractions, of course).

Before getting to Narnia and some of my other favorite fiction, let me go back in time, to my childhood.

I grew up in a nonchristian home. I learned to love reading through comic books: Archie and the Marvel comics among them, especially the Fantastic Four. But mainly I was a DC fan, my favorites being The Justice League of America (Green Lantern was my hero) and The Legion of Super Heroes (go, Lightning Lad). From there I dove into science fiction and fantasy, spending my nights looking through my telescope, then coming to bed freezing and reading science fiction by flashlight under my covers, so Mom wouldn't see the light on.

Much as I would have enjoyed video games and computers as a boy, I'm profoundly grateful they didn't exist then. If they would have, I'm afraid I wouldn't have come to love reading as I did. (Which creates a real challenge for today's Christian parents, doesn't it? How do you cultivate a love for reading in children, especially your boys, when there is so much in our culture working against it? And especially when we remember that those who are not readers will not be readers of God's Word.)

I vividly remember forty years ago looking through the kids fiction section in the old Gresham library, and discovering a book I checked out numbers of times over the next years: Stadium Beyond the Stars, by Milton Lesser. It centered on a journey to the interplanetary Olympics.

Not a great book by literary standards, but a wonderful book to me to this day, not simply the book but how the book fed my longing for something greater, for adventure beyond my world. As C. S. Lewis said of George MacDonald's Phantastes, "it baptized my imagination."

It was a great joy to hunt down Stadium Beyond the Stars online a few years ago, to order and reread it and be taken back in time forty years and forward in time a few hundred years. When I see it on my shelf my heart is moved.

I think of how God had his hand on my life long before I was in high school, when I read for the first time a book that really captivated me...the Bible. That Book came alive to me when I met the Author, who soon became my best friend. Can't wait for all the adventures He has awaiting us, His children, in the new universe.

Okay, here are some of my Favorite Novels: (with apologies to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens, Hemingway, and Steinbeck, who didn't make the cut).

And here's a disclaimer--there are a lot of contemporary Christian fiction authors whose books I've read and loved. But because many of these have become my friends over the years, I just can't get started, or I couldn't stop. I will mention some of them periodically in my blog, but not on this list. (Okay, one example: The Atonement Child, by Francine Rivers; a powerful novel.)

Instead, here are books mainly that I read many years ago, and a number of them I've reread, with delight. As Lewis said, any book not worth rereading is not worth reading the first time. (Walter Wangarin's books are more recent, but since he's not a personal friend I'll keep him on the list; besides yesterday in the car I was listening to an old cassette of him reading his book Paul, on the list, and I was captivated by his mastery of the language.)

The Chronicles of Narnia (7), C. S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings (3), J. R. R. Tolkien
Perelandra, C. S. Lewis (closely followed by the other two in the space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength)
The Singer trilogy, including The Singer, The Song and The Finale), Calvin Miller; okay, Calvin became my friend, but it was twenty years after I first read his books, so that's different
The Odyssey and The Iliad, Homer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis
The Chosen, Chaim Potok
In His Steps, Charles Sheldon
Pontius Pilate, Paul Maier
Ben Hur, Lew Wallace
The Birth, Gene Edwards
The Mantle (name later changed to Elijah), William H. Stephens
Paul, Walter Wangerin
The Book of God, Walter Wangerin

I think it's likely I've not yet read my favorite novel. Not just because it's out there and I haven't yet discovered it, but because it may not be written until after the resurrection, when we're on the New Earth. Think of the book discussions we'll likely have there!

Your favorite novels or shorter fiction or fiction writers? Share them in the Comments. I look forward to hearing from you.

Randy Alcorn
http://www.epm.org/
http://www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com/

“Three Winners” Book Giveaway of the Month: Deception

This month we’re giving away Randy’s murder mystery novel Deception to three randomly drawn winners.

Those who have read Randy’s previous novels Deadline and Dominion might remember Ollie Chandler, Deception’s main character, as the gruff yet lovable cop who made an appearance in both books.

Randy writes, “Though publishers and readers have asked me to, I’ve never in my previous six novels felt I wanted to go back and use the main character again as such in a subsequent book. I know it would be easier in some ways, but I’ve felt like each person gets one book on center stage. Ollie Chandler is the first character that has made me feel different about this. When I started Deception I thought this would be it, no more stories centered on Ollie. But once I got inside his head, things slowly changed. I thought, ‘I like this guy, I like his quirks, his sense of humor, the gruff exterior and the soft heart, the head-butting toughness and the vulnerability of a lifetime of hurts’.”

Here’s a short video with a dramatic presentation of the opening scene from Deception and a clip of Randy talking about the book. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwuUxrKUUkA)




The deadline to enter the Deception giveaway is Friday, May 30, and the winners will be announced in a blog post on Tuesday, June 3. (We’re not announcing the winners until June, because I [Stephanie] will be getting married May 24!)

To enter for your chance to win, leave a comment on this post. (If you're reading this post on Amazon or elsewhere, visit http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2008/05/three-winners-book-giveaway-of-month.html to leave your comment.) Need help posting a comment? Click here for step-by-step instructions. For further assistance, contact me at stephanie@epm.org

Please be sure to include your contact information (a blog, or an e-mail address), otherwise we cannot contact you if your name is drawn. However, if you would prefer not to post your e-mail address, please check back on June 2 to find out if you are a winner.

During May, the paperback version of Deception is also on sale at the Eternal Perspective Ministries website for $8.99 (retail price $14.99, regularly $11.99 from EPM).

Since I’m writing about Deception, it’s worth noting that Deception is a 2008 Christian Book Award Finalist for the fiction category, and Randy’s children’s book Wait Until Then is also a finalist for the children and youth category. (Safely Home won the book of the year in the fiction category in 2002.) The Christian Book Awards were established in 1978 as the Gold Medallion Book Awards by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, and are some of the oldest and most prestigious literary awards in the religious publishing industry. They recognize the absolute highest quality in Christian books; finalists are chosen based on excellence in content, literary quality, design, and significance of contribution. This year's award winners will be announced in July at the International Christian Retail Show. Congrats Randy! You can see the rest of the finalists by visiting the ECPA website.

In closing, we've received letters from readers young and old and all ages in between who have enjoyed reading Deception. I thought I’d share a picture of one such young reader. Here’s Ellie, 14-year-old granddaughter of Kathy Norquist, Randy’s assistant, contemplating her fourth read of Deception. She’s already read it three times, and according to Ellie—who’s a big reader—it’s the best book she’s ever read.

I think you’ll enjoy Deception, too. Happy reading!

Stephanie Hallman
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries
http://www.epm.org/

My Favorite Nonfiction Books

God is an author. The universe itself is his book. Each person is a sentence, paragraph or page. History really is His story. Christ is the Word, the very essence of God, and expression of God. We are created in God's image, and made to be what Tolkien called sub-creators, authors who create and weave together both nonfiction and fiction, marvelous stories on which our imaginations can soar. When we write and read such works, He is pleased.

Books and bookstores have had an enormous influence on my own life. I came to Christ as a teenager, at Powell Valley Covenant Church in Gresham, less than a mile from where I live now. My first youth pastor, Paul Siwick, did me a huge favor—he gave me a key to his office, so I could go in any time and read his books, hundreds of them. I read everything I could get my hands on.

There was an elderly couple in our church, named Bill and Martha Kuntz. They had a Christian book store in their house in Gresham, my hometown, right near the corner of Burnside and Powell Valley Road, by what is now the big Fred Meyer. I would go there several days a week, for hours at a time. They would point out books for me to read. They introduced me to Lewis, Schaeffer and Tozer, and books such as Tortured for Christ, God's Smuggler, Through Gates of Splendor, and The Cross and the Switchblade.

Over the years I bought and read portions or all of thousands of good books, many of which are now in our church library. I cannot divorce God's works of grace in my life from good books. In my book Heaven, I talk about books the Bible says are now in Heaven, and I give arguments for believing other books will be written and read on the New Earth.

I love a good movie, but I find that for me television is incapable of having the deep and profound positive effect on my spiritual life that books do. That's one reason I'm so concerned about the plunging literacy rates for young people, especially boys. In a day when we are drowning in popular culture and TV shows and video games, may we and our children and grandchildren break away from obsession with the trivial and become creatures of the eternal. Those who don't grow up to be readers will not be readers of God's Word.

When you discover something really good, you want to share it with others. Here are some of my all time favorite nonfiction books. In the next blog I'll move to fiction.

I'd love to hear some of your favorite nonfiction books in the Comments. (And, no, I am not fishing for my own books, I'm thinking about other people's.)

Some Favorite Nonfiction, after the Bible:

The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer
Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
Knowing God, J. I. Packer
Desiring God, John Piper
He is There and He is Not Silent, Francis Schaeffer
Loving God, Chuck Colson

Books I've enjoyed in recent years include titles by John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Calvin Miller, Joni Eareckson Tada and D. A. Carson. Here's a great book I finished a couple of weeks ago: The North Face of God, by Ken Gire. And here are some books I really enjoyed when I read them long ago:

Your God is Too Small, J.B. Phillips

Through Gates of Splendor, Elizabeth Elliot
Tortured for Christ, God's Smuggler, and Foxes Book of Martyrs (three books on the suffering church that greatly impacted me many years ago)
Peace Child, Don Richardson
The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton
Principles of Spiritual Growth, Miles Stanford
The Calvary Road, Roy Hession
George Mueller of Bristol, A. T. Pierson

The Church at the End of the 20th Century, Francis Schaeffer
Where is God When it Hurts, Phillip Yancey
The Joy of Fearing God, Jerry Bridges
Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Disciple, Juan Carlos Ortiz
Kingdoms in Conflict, Chuck Colson
No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Max Lucado
When People Are Big and God is Small, Edward Welch
From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, Ruth Tucker
The Pursuit of Holiness, Jerry Bridges
The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel
How Now Shall We Live?, Chuck Colson

Well, that's enough to get us going. What nonfiction titles would you add? (And be thinking ahead to novels for the next round.)

Randy Alcorn
http://www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com/
http://www.epm.org/

Can We or Should We Talk to Loved Ones in Heaven?

I love this painting by my buddy Ron DiCianni, for the book we did together, Tell Me About Heaven. As the angels carried Lazarus to Paradise in Luke 16, this is Gramps being transported to Jesus.

I’d like to address a recent question that came up in a blog comment last week. I figure other readers might have read the question and may be interested, since I've been asked it many times over the years.

The question was, from a biblical standpoint, is it okay to talk to our loved ones who've gone on to be with Jesus?

First, would it even be possible for someone in Heaven to know what's happening on earth, and be able to hear us say anything? Many assume the answer is no. But in Matthew 17, Moses and Elijah clearly already knew the events going on when they appeared with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. In Luke 15 Jesus speaks of rejoicing in the presence of the angels, not BY the angels but in their presence, whenever a sinner repents, suggesting God's people in heaven rejoice at God's work in lives on earth. To rejoice at it, they obviously must be aware of it. And Revelation 6:9-11 shows martyrs in Heaven who are clearly aware that God hasn't yet brought judgment on those who persecuted them, and are wondering why. So they know some of what's happening on earth.

Okay, so if it's possible someone in Heaven could hear us, is it right to talk to them? First, there's a huge difference between talking to someone and praying to them, and it's critical we keep that clear. When people pray to Mary and the saints, they are calling on them as intermediaries, asking them to intervene and exercise power in this world. There is no biblical basis for this. Since 1 Tim. 2:5 says Christ is the only mediator between God and men, it would violate this to pray to those in heaven. We're not to pray to people or to angels, but only to God.

But would it be okay to say, "I'm not sure you can hear this, Mom, but if you can I just want to say thanks for how you always watched out for me. I love you and I'm looking forward to seeing you again and talking and having you show me some special places there."

That's talking to someone, but it's NOT praying to them, calling upon them to do something, or to exercise power or talk back.

Seeking to call up from the dead or to hear from the spirits of the departed is a forbidden occult practice (Deut.18:9-14). But that's very different than doing what I just described.

Personally, rather than talking to a loved one, I am more comfortable simply praying to Jesus or the Father (there are biblical examples of praying to each) and saying, "Lord, would you please give my mom a hug, and tell her it's from me?" Now I think my mom sometimes sees what's going on here and might hear this when I say it, but I KNOW God hears it. And I trust God to do what He knows is best. Does that make sense?

I have some old friends in Heaven, Greg and Jerry among them, that I sometimes think of and ask the Lord to greet for me. Whether He does that is His call, but my relationships with those brothers was a gift from God, and one day I'll see them again in His presence. I suspect God is pleased with my sense of connection to them, and certainly He understands the bonds of friendship. Jesus called us his friends. He is the best friend I've ever had.

I could see how a person speaking to their departed loved one, even if they're not violating Scripture (since they're not praying to them or calling on them), could become unhealthy or obsessive. But that's not likely to happen when we're talking to God about them. He invites us to come to Him with what's on our minds and hearts. Obviously your loved one is on your mind and heart. If your child or wife or husband or parents or best friend are with Jesus, God understands your desire to feel connected to them, and to want them to know of your love for them, and that you miss them and look forward to seeing them again.

I have every reason to believe God would honor the request to pass on our warm greetings to loved ones. But again, that's up to Him. It's one thing to ask God for something like this, but entirely another to insist on it. We're the creatures, He's the Creator. He's the Potter, we're the clay. (And what a privilege to be His clay, as well as his sons and daughters.)

So, bottom line to the person who asked the question, as long as you're not praying TO your loved one or FOR your loved one (who needs no prayer now), but to God ABOUT your loved one, and your feelings, and your desire for them to know something, I think there's nothing in that which violates a Scripture. Just be careful it doesn't shift into anything that treats them as intermediaries or leads to obsession or seeking contact with them, which is expressly forbidden.

Here's a picture of my Mom at our house, holding our oldest daughter Karina. Mom died just four months after our Angie was born. I said at both our daughters' weddings, in the summer of 2001, that I believed their two grandmothers were watching from heaven. And since Nanci's mom had been blind her last few years here, she was seeing the wedding in a way she couldn't have even a few months earlier before she died.

I firmly believe this is true, but even if I was wrong on that point (since of course I can't know exactly when God allows people to see events on earth and when He doesn't), I would not be wrong in praying "Lord, please tell Mom her precious grand-daughters love You with all their hearts and married young men that do too. That will mean so much to her."

My guess is that Mom knows all that anyway, and that she is enjoying seeing God at work in the lives of our grandchildren, her great-grandchildren she hasn't yet been able to hug. (It's odd to me that so many assume people in Heaven are ignorant of what's going on here on earth where the great drama of redemption is unfolding--wouldn't we think they'd be more enlightened, not less?).

Still, it doesn't hurt to ask God, the Giver of special relationships. He is gracious and understanding of our thoughts and feelings and love for the precious people He has put in our lives.

Randy Alcorn
http://www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com/
http://www.epm.org/