Transcript
Ben Fallon: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the “Ask Paul Tripp Podcast.” Paul, you'll be relieved to know that we have an easy question today. A listener asks, “What are you reading right now?”
Paul Tripp: This year I decided that I would do a deep year-long dive into the book of Exodus. I have learned things from Exodus, I have preached Exodus, I have done Bible studies in Exodus that I have never seen before. I'm taking my time. We're almost in March, and I'm just beginning the fourth chapter of Exodus. I'm talking a deep dive, and I'm using a lot of online commentary help, preachers that I appreciate, ESV study notes, but really seeking to get inside of sort of the “Gospel according to Moses” there. And it's been just so helpful, so encouraging, so convicting. So, I think it's great to read through the Bible in a year, but I think there are times where it's really important to take a deep dive.
In terms of reading, here are some things that I have on my shelf that I've either finished or in the midst of. Just Show Up by Drew Dick. Just Show Up is a wonderful capturing of how life is formed by little steps and by little faithfulness. God doesn't call you to be great; He calls you to be faithful. And it's just so well written and easy to read, and I really enjoyed that.
How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key. I'm listening to that book. It's an incredible story of just the destruction of a marriage and the rebuilding. I just think it's a marriage chronicle that everybody should read.
Just recently, I worked through Blessed by Nancy Guthrie. And it's a book I will return to. It is going to be one that I regularly refer to. It's on Revelation, and it just really makes the book of Revelation approachable.
You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble, and the title sort of tells you what that book is about.
What I'm just beginning is Burning in My Bones. It's a biography of Eugene Peterson. Eugene Peterson is one of my pastoral heroes. I've read just about everything he's written. And I'm just excited about just reading the biography of his story. I know a lot about his story because he's told the story in his books. But I'm excited about that.
And then part of my daily devotional life is reading Charles Spurgeon every morning and reading one of the prayers in Valley of Vision. If you don't have either one of those, you ought to get them. Valley of Vision is just awesome if you want to learn how to pray. It's just a wonderful, wonderful book of Puritan Prayers that just, again, they're just convicting and encouraging every day.
So, my morning habit is to get up, I tweet the gospel three times, and then I study Exodus, I read Spurgeon, I read Valley of Vision, and then I pray.
Oh, I want to say one other thing I forgot. For fun reading, I read biographies of great chefs. I love to cook. I love to cook and I think they're all just, I don't know I could say one that's my favorite, but anytime I can find a biography of a chef, I'll read it.
BF: So, are you an e-book reader or audiobook listener, or do you prefer turning the pages of a physical copy of a book?
PT: So, I do a variety of all the above. Some books are in my hands. Blessed by Nancy Guthrie was physical. Just Show Up was on Apple Books. And then, How to Save Your Marriage is an audiobook. So, I do a little bit of all of that. I mean, one thing nice about audiobooks, it's a great thing you can do while you're exercising, or you are grocery shopping, or whatever, it's very helpful. And then I get, because of the influence God has given me, I get sent copies of the current books in Christian culture. And so, I'm always quickly reading through those, but those are too many to mention. But I do a lot of popular Christian reading.
BF: Well, if you yourself are a reader and you're listening to this podcast, it's probably because you know Paul as an author. He's written more than twenty-five books connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life on a myriad of topics.
You can find all of those titles in e-book, audiobook, or print at paultripp.com/books, or wherever you'd like to order. But when you order from Paul Tripp Ministries specifically, it supports our not-for-profit ministry so that we can use those funds to create resources like the “Ask Paul Tripp Podcast.” Thanks for listening, and we'll be back with you next week.
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