The Best Book Ever Written is Second Best

[Dave Knauss]

I cannot figure out how to enter the book contest entry area of this website (I can't find a link anywhere--but then my wife always has to find my stuff anyway), so I'll just enter it here as a discussion. I think the "second" best book is "Pilgrim's Progress And Christiana's Progress" written by John Bunyan, while sitting in the Bedford Jail in the 1500s. (We all know the number one book, of course, lived and written by the Author of Authors.) The first time I read Progress, there were passages so deep I couldn't understand them at all, so I focused on the story. Nice plot. The second time I read it, I looked up the Scripture references in the margins. Wow, what a revelation of Scripture and profound understanding Bunyan received from the Lord. The third time I read it, I began to see all the ways satan attacks a Christian's life. These ways are true even now--satan hasn't come up with any new ideas--we've just forgotten his old ones. From this viewpoint, the book is so contemporary that it seems Bunyan wrote it a few years ago in the 1990s to describe our world right now. The fourth time I read it, I teared on nearly every page over the wonderful love and grace of the Lord, who walked this path before us and continues to walk each of us along the same path. Many precious gold nuggets are in this book. Do you want to know how to relate to every kind of objection toward the Gospel? Do you want to know how to deal with every possible kind of temptation and deception? Did you know Jesus gives us two coats of righteousness and how He got them to give? How much of the Holy Spirit do you understand (House of the Interpreter)? Do you know how Faint-Heart demonstrates how much Jesus will never break a bruised reed nor quench a smoking flax? What are the temptations that could happen to Christians at various Christian maturity levels? Did you know Jesus bore all the real pain of the Valley of Death and suffered its death, but we only walk in its harmless shadow? I read sections from this book to my kids every morning before getting on the school bus throughout their upper elementary, middle school, and high school years. Over the years, we read the book several times. As married adults and well-grounded Christians, they now thank me for teaching them daily how to deal with the world. What about the old-English? No problem, you can either interpret it for yourself and kids, or buy a revised English version. Along with the printed book, I suggest you buy an audio version as well to place on your kids' iPods. It's great to listen to while traveling back and forth on the bus ride.