Dakota Beacon

            Christmas ‘tis the season for giving! What better way to say “I love you” than with the gift of a book? As a prerequisite, a recipient should harbor a wee bit of inquisitiveness about the world around them. Suggestions to follow include books meant to broaden a person’s perspective. They are all quite readable but not at all superficial. They might resonate with bad timbre or good. Take the bad first.

            In previous years I have suggested an important genre of books tracing the regression of Western culture in general. However, in those suggestions I did not include a book by Mark Steyn. Risking a spoiler alert, Steyn sees demographics as paramount. His well thought out, insightful, and witty book “America Alone” portrays an ugly demographic reality confronting the West. In the contest between Islam and Western Christian civilization, demographics plays a major role. Demography is everything. An expanding Muslim population in terms of birth rate as well as migration forms the crux of the issue. Steyn speaks bluntly to this reality.

            Early in his book Steyn illustrates that a country must produce 2.11 live births per adult woman just to sustain its population and therefore its culture. At that rate the population would neither shrink nor grow. This represents the American birth rate today. Canada on the other hand has a shrinking birth rate at 1.48. The overall European rate stands at 1.38. Russia’s rate has shrunk to 1.14 births per woman.

            On the other hand, Muslim Pakistan has a birth rate of 5.08 and Saudi Arabia 4.53 children per adult woman. Their growing populations migrate uncurtailed filling the gap of the West’s declining populations. That France has a 30% Muslim population under the age 20, and growing, is symptomatic of the problem. Add to that a lax immigration policy and cultural demise is imminent. The same holds true for England, Germany, Denmark and other European countries with declining populations.

            And now for the good news. Why not speak unabashedly of Christ in this season of His nativity? Every home should have a Bible. Whether or not folks know it or appreciate it, the Bible remains foundational to Western Civilization. Consider owning the New King James Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible, American Standard Bible, or New Revised Standard Version. If it were the only book in the house, and read diligently, that would make all the difference.

            For Christians among us, or for those who are just curious, I strongly recommend the following three-book series worthy as a gift to yourself or to others. After 63 years as a Christian, I found this set intensely influential. Re-reading the Biblical account of Jesus’s last prayer to the Father in John 17 opened a whole new vista of “Christ in you” as a theme covered in these books. Little did I realize this theme runs throughout the Bible but is seldom discussed. Three books written by Gene Edwards help.

            Volume I: “Living by the Highest Life: Living with the Indwelling Lord”. If you've tried to be a “good” Christian and still do not "measure up" take heart. This book will help you break out of your banal view of religiousness and “the Church.” Read the Bible, pray, go to church, tithe – the Christian Life consists of far more. Once you finally catch on, you will realize that you cannot live the Christian Life by your own effort. Only He can. Jesus could not do anything apart from His Father and we cannot do anything apart from Christ in us. He is the "Door" to another realm. Edwards does an excellent job explaining. In the end, we enter fellowship, both individually and corporately, with the Father and Son!

            Volume II: “The Secret to the Christian Life: Fellowshipping with the Lord”. This second book of the series by Gene Edwards repeatedly emphasizes that you cannot live the Christian Life on your own. This may only be accomplished by the Father's Life in Christ (who is in you). There are several practical exercises that are meant to help you enter the Fellowship that is going on between the Father and the Son – the very fellowship that we have been called to enter. This book helps to break the mindset of “Churchianity” acquired during our intellectual pursuit of knowing about Christ rather than knowing Christ and having intimacy with Him beyond space and time.

            Volume III: “The Inward Journey: The Road Towards Transformation”. Edwards takes practical look at the Cross in the life of the believer. Its simplicity arrests even the newest Christian in their walk. Edwards delves into the hidden workings of the cross in our lives, a subject seldom touched upon with believers. It brings into perspective brokenness and pain from a divine point of view. In a world of prosperity, books, prophecies, and "name it claim it" doctrines, Gene cuts through the shallowness of it all and confronts hard issues with spiritual substance.

            Gene Edwards, an American author writing about Christianity, has published over 25 books. He is a biblical scholar with the pen of a poet and a master storyteller who causes scriptural truth to become an adventure in revelation. Edwards entered college at the age of 15 and graduated from East Texas State University at 18 with a bachelor's degree in English history. He received his M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

            For the book lover, a lifetime of learning never ceases. Leave the formal “continuing education” programs to others. Pursuit of a self-directed reading program beyond the classroom intensifies a love of learning which the four walls of a classroom may only stifle.

            Nicely put, Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas credits his love of reading as follows. “My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.”

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).