further encouragement:

Here are some works of literature, worship songs, and Scriptures that have encouraged me greatly over the years. I cannot reference all of them in my sermons, so I thought I would put them here! This list is always going to be incomplete and will always be added to, so keep checking back! I hope that these beautiful books, poems, songs, and verses will encourage you as much as they did for me!

 

works of literature!

  • Paradise Lost by John Milton

  • The Confessions by St. Augustine

  • A Shorter Summa by Thomas Aquinas, edited and explained by Peter Kreeft

  • The City of God by St. Augustine

  • Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

  • The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

  • Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

  • Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation by M. Robert Mulholland

  • The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg

  • Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

  • Systematic Theology (2020 revised edition) by Wayne Grudem

  • The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible by Michael S. Heiser

  • A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller

  • Jesus M.D.: A Doctor Examines the Great Physician by David Stephens, M.D. and Gregg Lewis

worship songs/hymns!

  • “Promises” by Maverick City Music

  • “Man of Your Word” by Maverick City Music

  • “Move your Heart” by Maverick City Music

  • “Champion” by Dante Bowe

  • “Goodness of God” by Bethel Music

  • “Nothing but the Blood” by Carrie Underwood

  • “Great is Thy Faithfulness” by Selah

  • “How Great Thou Art” by Carrie Underwood

  • “Wake Up Sleeper” by Austin French

  • “Good God Almighty” by Crowder

  • “Unstoppable God” by Sanctus Real

  • “Haven’t seen it Yet” by Danny Gokey

  • “Over and Over” by Riley Clemmons

  • “Truth be Told” by Matthew West

  • “Be Thou my Vision” by Audrey Assad

  • “Who Am I” by NEEDTOBREATHE

  • “Counting Every Blessing” by Rend Collective

  • “Rescuer” by Rend Collective

  • “There was Jesus” by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton

  • “Less Like Me” by Zach Williams

  • “Make Room” by The Church Will Sing

  • “Springtime” by Christ Renzema

  • “Echo Holy” by Red Rocks Worship

  • “Hold Onto Me” by Lauren Daigle

  • “This I Believe (The Creed)” by Hillsong Worship

  • “Then Came the Morning” by Guy Penrod

  • “Make Room” by Casting Crowns and Matt Maher

  • “Here Comes Heaven” by Elevation Worship

  • “Weary Traveler” by Jordan St. Cry

  • “When Love Was Slain” by Guy Penrod

  • “Come Thou Fount (I Will Sing)” by Chris Tomlin

  • “Until Grace” by Tauren Wells

  • “Mercy” by Elevation Worship

  • “It is Well” by Bethel Music

  • “Alabaster Heart” by Bethel Music

  • “Extravagant” by Bethel Music

  • “My Hands are Open” by Bethel Music

  • “Another in the Fire” by Hillsong

  • “On Repeat” by Hillsong UNITED

  • “Hymn of Heaven” by Phil Wickham

  • “Worthy of my Song” by Phil Wickham

  • “Build a Boat” by Colton Dixon

  • “Stand in Faith” by Danny Gokey

scripture!

  • Genesis 50:20

  • Exodus 14:14

  • Joshua 1:9

  • 2 Chronicles 7:14

  • Proverbs 31

  • Isaiah 43: 18-19

  • Jeremiah 29:11

  • Jeremiah 29:13

  • Luke 1:45

  • Luke 18:27

  • John 1: 1-5

  • John 20:29

  • Acts 20:24

  • Romans 8:37

  • Romans 12:2

  • Romans 13:4

  • 1 Corinthians 13

  • 2 Corinthians 5:17

  • 2 Corinthians 10:5

  • Galatians 6:9

  • Ephesians 3:20

  • Ephesians 4:29

  • Philippians 4:8

  • Hebrews 11:1

  • Hebrews 12: 1-2

  • 1 Peter 1:24-25

  • 1 John 3:16

  • All of Revelation (I’m not kidding, you MUST read all of it! It is amazing!)

 

Quotes!

Here are some beautiful quotes from works of literature that I have found especially encouraging when thinking about the Lord and how we are to walk as Christians. They all come from my list of literature to read, so go check them out! These quotes in particular are my favorite because, when I first came across them in high school, they put a new spin on things that I already knew. I love these quotes because the authors that wrote them take Christian knowledge and present it to the readers in a new and fresh way. I hope these encourage you and get you thinking!

 

From Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis:

“The very first step is to try to forget about the self all together. Your real, new self will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The principle runs through all life from top to bottom: Give up yourself and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end. Submit with every fiber of your being and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in.”

From Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on; you knew these jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

From Paradise Lost by John Milton:

“Love refines the thoughts and heart enlarges, hath it’s seat in reason and is judicious, is the scale by which to Heavenly Love thou mayest ascend.”

From Paradise Lost by John Milton:

“Man shall not be quite lost, but saved who will, yet not of will in him, but of grace in Me.”

From Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot:

“For us there is only the trying, the rest is not our business.”

 

From Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience on earth can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

From A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller

“By contrast, the simple Christian, the humble person, the Shepherd’s sheep can stand up proudly and boast. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd - I shall not want’. I am completely satisfied with His management of my life. Why? Because He is the sheepman to whom no trouble is too great as He cares for His flock. He is the rancher who is outstanding because of His fondness for sheep - who loves them for their own sake as well as His personal pleasure in them. He will, if necessary, be on the job twenty-four hours a day to see that they are properly provided for in every detail. Above all, He is vert jealous of His name and high reputation as ‘The Good Shepherd’. He is the owner who delights in His flock. For Him there is no greater reward, no deeper satisfaction, than that of seeing His sheep contented, well fed, safe and fourishing under His care. This is indeed His very ‘life’. He gives all He has to it. He literally lays Himself out for those who are His. He will go to no end of trouble and labor to supply them with athe finest grazing, the richest pasturage, ample winter feed, and clean water. He will spare Himself no pains to provide shelter from storms, protection from ruthless enemies, and the diseases and parasites to which sheep are so susceptible.”