My Top 3 Christian Resources
My Top 3 Christian Resources
These can alter your life and change your reality
Hello, and happy Thursday!
Here’s a quick bit of history ➼ we founded Rapt 2020. We conducted our very first interview in August of that momentous, calamitous year. Since then, we’ve gotten to interview some of the most fascinating people in the world. More than 200 thinkers and creators who devote their lives to God. It’s been thrilling and a tremendous honor.
One of the aspects that sets Rapt apart from our peers is that we ask all of our interviewees the same set of questions—our “Standard 8.” We love how our readers then get to see and compare how people from different places, with disparate backgrounds and perspectives, and with varied talents and gifts, answer our deep, distinctive questions.
Of the Standard 8, No. 7 is one of my favorites:
“Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out? What changed the game and changed your heart? What radically altered your life? What changed your reality?”
Why is this one a fav? Well, Rapt gives us access to super-smart, uber-talented people, and we don’t take that for granted. In a posture of humility, we want to learn from them. Walking beside and behind them, figuratively, we want to explore the wide expanse of the faith-based landscape to discover the best things—the most impactful books and articles, the most gripping podcasts and podcast episodes, the most beautiful music and poetry, the most helpful apps and tech, and the most stirring talks and sermons. We want to uncover the worship songs that change hearts, the movies that change minds, the Bible studies that change lives.
Why? Well, mostly … because of you. We want you to know about these things. We want to bring you the things that have the potential to make a real difference in your faith life. The prime mission of Rapt is to serve up the “game changers”—the things that will connect you most easily, deeply, and often with God.
“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting for our response to His presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.” —A. W. Tozer
The great gospeler knew it. The God of the Universe, our Abba Father, is here. Now. With us. The very essence of our Heavenly Dad dwells within our hearts. His wonderful fiery Spirit inspires and fuels our creativity. And we here at Rapt are so, so grateful for the anointed, transcendent artifacts that result from this sacred alliance: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Saint Ignatius’s The Spiritual Exercises. Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son. J. S. Bach’s “Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor.” John Newton’s “Amazing Grace.” George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons. T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy. Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God. Housefires’s Good Good Father. Elevation Worship’s “O Come to the Alter.” And so much more.
God reveals himself to us through wonderful things like these—and through things like prayer, fasting, silence, community, service, confession, and celebration, too. All of them help us reckon upon the reality of his spiritual kingdom. They help us come alive to it. Experience it. Not someday. Here. Now. Right when we engage them.
That’s why I love asking ol’ No. 7—which we’ve done more than 200 times now. And that’s why we’ll keep asking it again and again—about a hundred more times this year alone. (Just so you know, we track all those responses in our database. We then surface the most-mentioned of those resources on Rapt’s front page and update our list as new data comes in. Check it out! The classics are the, for sure. But there are surprises, too.) But, as for me, I’ve never answered No. 7. Because it’s never really made sense; I’m Rapt’s editor, not one of our interviewees.
But, if you’ll indulge me, I kind of want to join the fun. :)
So, here goes. Here are my top three resources, in no particular order.
I’m a big Jonathan David Helser fan. I love the music he and his wife, Melissa, create. I love their hearts, their songwriting, and their musicianship. (“No Longer Slaves” is truly one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my life.) But what made their song “Inheritance” a game changer for me is the spoken-word section in the middle of it. And those words are spoken not by a Helser but by a man named Graham Cooke.
Cooke is from Manchester, and a rough childhood there led him to prison. One time, breaking parole, on the run from the police, he walked more than a hundred miles to a particular town on the English coast. You see, his prison visitor had moved there. (Prison visitors are people who look in on British inmates who have no one else to visit them.) Lacking an address for his friend and needing shelter one evening, he encountered God in a farmer’s field. And it changed everything. He now travels the world telling people about God—telling them about God’s tremendous love.
When I first heard Cooke’s prophetic words in “Inheritance,” they somehow enabled me to let go. To finally surrender my protestations. In my heart, I simply said … okay. And I started to believe that my Father God actually does love me. Me. Not all humans, me thrown in. But me. And I began to comprehend that he always has. A lot. More than I could have ever imagined.
Brené Brown is a powerhouse academic. Here’s how she describes herself:
“I’m a research professor at the University of Houston, where I hold the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair. I am also a visiting professor in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. I’ve spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. I’m the author of six #1 New York Times bestsellers.”
Shame. I had shame. I have shame. We all do. But I’d accepted mine as a permanent fixture. I knew I couldn’t change my past. I couldn’t erase the pride, the anger, the greed, the lust. The selfishness. The unkindness. The cynicisms and criticisms. So, I became resigned to the “fact” that shame would trouble me until I died. And carrying it was brutal. I felt separate, less worthy of love and belonging than everyone else.
But Scripture says something different. It says not shame but “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6, ESV). And that’s proven absolutely true. Because God’s grace reached me through Brown’s TED talk. Seriously.
Years of research revealed to her that by doing the exact opposite of what we want to do in the face of shame (read: hide), we can overcome it. In her talk, she explained that being vulnerable with the people in our lives destroys shame’s most potent message: if they ever knew the “real” me, they would reject me. So, I found my courage. I let people see the imperfections and mistakes. I confessed the dark places of my life and my heart.
And through my confessions, I discovered a deep sense of worthiness. And all my relationships deepened, too.
Manning was born into a chaotic home in Depression-era Brooklyn. After attending St. John’s University, he fought in the Korean War as a U. S. Marine. Upon his return, he studied journalism. But then something happened; Manning encountered God, too.
This journey began, in the fullest sense, in an unexpected encounter with Christ in 1956 in a little chapel in Pennsylvania. I had a powerful experience of the love of Jesus that sealed the call of God on my life. At that moment, the entire Christian life became for me an intimate, heartfelt relationship with Jesus.
His 1956 encounter led Manning to return to school to study philosophy and theology at Saint Francis University. He was then ordained as a Franciscan and went to Europe to join a religious congregation committed to a contemplative life serving the poor. Upon his return to the States, he began writing and speaking and spent the remainder of his days traveling the country, telling people the truth about God’s love.
I feel like a little boy who kneels at the edge of the seashore. At first, I could sense the waves of Christ’s love coming up very gently on my legs, lapping around my ankles. Over time those waves have swept me off the beach and carried me further and further into the heart of Jesus Christ.
In the bestselling Ragamuffin, Manning explained that instead of trying to be better human beings on our own—and thereby somehow earn God’s acceptance and salvation—we simply need to embrace the grace that’s already and always available to us as his outrageously loved sons and daughters. If we do that, he wrote, the power to change will come flooding into our lives.
Manning’s message unwrote what I thought I knew about God. Reading and re-reading Ragamuffin’s pages and chapters, my heart began to understand God’s true nature, his furious love for me, and how his grace accomplishes what could never.
Makoto Fujimura (Rapt alum) recorded "Finding God Through Art.”
Heather Morton wrote "Finding God in Fictional Stories.”
Sandra Glahn wrote "Finding God in Literature.”
Sample Chapters ➼ The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
Sample Chapters ➼ Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
Sample Chapters ➼ The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
We updated Rapt's 'Best of' lists this week, and there's lots of new stuff for you to check out. Take a peek!
Worth a special look is the new book by John Mark Comer, celebrated author and founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon. Comer, known for his profound insights and approachable style, invites readers to embark on a journey of spiritual formation. His book emphasizes adopting a ‘Rule of Life’—a set of practices and rhythms to open our lives to God’s transformative work.
Tamisha Tyler is an artist, poet, and visiting professor of theology and culture and theopoetics at Bethany Theological Seminary. Come be inspired!
Kristen LaValley is a writer whose perspective on God and spirituality resonate with those who carry tension in their faith. Come be encouraged!
Nick Connolly is lead pastor of Bright City Church, a faith community located in the heart of downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Come be equipped!
P.S. Who should we interview next? Click here to let us know. And what new question would you like us to ask them? Click here to submit your suggestion.
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.”
—C. S. Lewis
Considering the full sweep of your faith journey and everything you encountered along the way, what are your top three resources? What’s changed the game for you?
Send me an email and let me know. 🙏🏻
And make sure to bookmark Rapt’s front page!
We’re in this together, my friend. Have a great rest of your week,
Editor-in-Chief, Rapt Interviews & WiRE for Men
Co-executive Director, Gather Ministries