Note: This is a running list that you can refer back to. Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when it is freshly updated. (Last update: 2/9/2023)
Currently reading:
Risen Motherhood: Gospel Hope For Everyday Moments by Emily Jensen & Laura Wifler
Foundations: 12 Biblical Truths To Shape A Family by Ruth Chou & Troy Simons
Your God Is Too Glorious by Chad Bird
Lord Where’s My Calling by Teasi Cannon
The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy by Nancy R. Pearcy
Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes by Nancy R. Pearcy
The Gospel In Genesis by Martyn Lloyd Jones
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled by Martyn Lloyd Jones
Devoted to God by Sinclair Ferguson
Is The Bible Good For Women? by Wendy Alsup
Completed Reading, Book Review Coming Soon (Let us know if you want updates):
The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace
Beholding and Becoming by Ruth Chou Simons
Limping With God by Chad Bird
Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church by Holly Pivec and R. Douglas Geivett (Check out Sola Gratia Life’s Interview with Holly Pivec)
(The following are authors in no particular order of importance)
Author: Gretchen Saffles
Body of work (that I have personally read): The Well-Watered Woman (2020)
Why I like this author: Although she never uses the label “Reformed” for herself, the way she writes in her book The Well-Watered Woman is very much aligned with reformed core beliefs. She talks a lot about how God’s grace is like air for her; without it she would wither away and perish, swallowed up by the weeds of this world. Besides the sound theology that she expresses her insights and encouragements with, I very much appreciate her style of writing. It is soft and sweet, yet doesn’t hold back from grounding truth. It is illustrative and sometimes funny in a non-sarcastic, wholesome way. Reading her book will feel a lot like sitting with a cup of coffee or tea on your best gal pal’s couch, legs folded underneath you while you’re wrapped up in a cozy blanket or hugging one of her throw pillows while your friend is gently convicting you and simultaneously lifting you up. She is a relatively new author. The Well-Watered Woman was only written a couple of years ago. The physical hardcover book itself is gorgeous and the perfect size to stick into a medium purse. I took a long time finishing each chapter to soak up each comforting paragraph. It has been one of my favorite supplemental readings to my Bible studying during my daily quiet time. I look forward to reading more of her books if she ever publishes another.
Author: Michelle Lesley
Body of work (that I have personally read): https://michellelesley.com/
Why I like this author: Everything that I have seen Mrs. Lesley publish on her blog has been doctrinally sound. I appreciate her style of writing shows that she is firmly grounded in truth and is gifted in apologetics. Her wit and humor is also clear in her writing. In addition, she points to good resources for women wanting to expand their arsenal of biblical women authors to glean wisdom from.
Author: Alisa Childers
Body of work (that I have personally read): https://alisachilders.com/podcast/ , Live Your Truth And Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsesssed.
Why I like this author: Although I am not clear on what her stance is on Reformed ideologies, what I love about Alisa Childers in her podcasts, videos, and books is her well-balanced approach. She pulls no punches when calling out falsehoods, but she is also fair-minded and loving. The highly intelligent way she articulates her viewpoint is something I respect as well.
Author: Amy Carmichael
Body of work (that I have personally read): I Come Quietly to Meet You An Intimate Journey in Gods Presence, Fragments That Remain, Whispers of His Power, Mountain Breezes
Why I like this author:
From Ligonier.org:
“It was March 1901. A seven-year-old Indian girl named Preena escaped a Hindu temple where she had been abandoned by her mother as a “devotion to the gods.” (She was to serve as a temple prostitute for life.) It wasn’t the first time she had fled the temple. The first time, Preena had hoped her mother would rescue her. Sadly, her mother renounced her again and the temple women punished Preena’s desertion with hot irons to the hands. Perhaps that would move her mother to see her desperation and keep her. Her second time on the run, Preena wandered across a large body of water and came in the dark upon a church in the village of Pannaivilai—hopefully this church was different than the “church” she had been living in. Was her mother close? Would her mother keep her this time? Providentially, yes. The next day, she embraced and kissed her “Amma” (“Mother” in Tamil). But it wasn’t her birth mother. It was a thirty-four-year-old Irish woman. Her name was Amy Carmichael (1867–1951).
By that time, Carmichael had been in India for six years. When she left Ireland for India in 1895, she would never see home again. She was determined to proclaim the gospel to unreached peoples. Having grown up in a godly Irish Presbyterian family, Carmichael loved Christ from an early age and had begun teaching the Bible to poor girls in Belfast. Her introduction to Hudson Taylor through her involvement with the Keswick Convention heightened her resolve for soul winning and compelled her to missionary work first in Japan and then in India. Her unexpected meeting with Preena years later, however, refashioned the way that she would go about her missionary labors, from itinerancy to sedentation.
Carmichael learned from Preena of the horrific underbelly of the Indian caste and Hindu cultic system, which in turn imposed an insurmountable burden on Carmichael to snatch as many children as possible from its snares. Carmichael’s love for God, which had always fueled her zealous evangelistic efforts, was now notably channeled into a singular, prayerful obsession with rescuing, preserving, educating, and discipling destitute children, especially temple children. Her brutally honest reports about the realities of life for children in such conditions weren’t always welcomed by Christians at home, but Carmichael was convinced that it was necessary. Slowly Carmichael and her comrades began the unpleasant process of discovering the evil realities of trafficking, such as the “secret sources of traffic in the bodies and souls of children [that] were uncovered as we penetrated deeper and deeper into the under life of the land, and came upon things that were hateful even to know.” How could she continue traveling to teach and evangelize when so many children were in danger? Her calling, as she saw it, had fallen into her lap. “The commitment to the children, which Amy came to by 1904, was not an alternative to her passion for all age groups to be brought to Christ. It was very much a part of it.” (https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/missionary-amy-carmichael)
By 1931 Carmichael suffered an accident that rendered her immobile for the remaining 20 years of her remarkable life. In that time she wrote many books. Her deep, soul-piercing way of writing is captivating. It strikes an excellent balance of intellectual and emotional that I find a compelling supplement to my Bible reading.
More authors to be added to this list soon plus book giveaways on special occassions! Sign-up for updates below: