- The Bible. – Revelation to Men, Inspired by God
I know… Right? This has become one of the most amazing books. I used to see people list this as the most amazing book and I never understood how. Before I gave my life to Christ, I used to see the Bible as a reference book. A book students were forced to buy to join school. This is whereby I would pick it at random times when someone mentioned a verse somewhere. I did not even use it in church. Sorry, I never even carried it to church. But I had a Bible. Bought it because they were a requirement for school. Then I bought my first Bible in 2008 when I was going to Eldoret for my military training. It was the nice “Youth Bible”. Word had it that I needed God to survive military training. – (God is actually everywhere! You need God everywhere.) My upbringing never required me to have a Bible with me to church. I grew up knowing the priest would read it for you. Why did I need one? I only started carrying a Bible to Church when I started teaching Sunday School. We taught them to come to Sunday school with Bible’s and notebooks, for those who could write. When I realized people actually needed a Bible to be following what the priest, is reading, we developed the idea of printing the day’s readings as I had seen in a church in Nairobi at the time (2008). The idea seemed marvellous and members of the youth picked it up and started producing pamphlets for mass. People started flowing with the day’s readings, so was I. Anytime, I attended mass, I would be comfortable with this. One time, I tried to use my phone’s Bible and I got the weirdest looks ever!
To top up my view of the Bible as a “once-once” reference book, I downloaded a version that was Kindle Friendly. So I could have access to it among other books on my Kindle Library. I loved it and the cross-referencing that came with it. It was so compatible. Things changed when part of my training needed me to read the entire New Testament and actually summarise parts of it. The Senders Training and Exposure Programme conducted by Mission Supporters League at Nairobi Baptist is the best thing that has ever happened to my life. Flying a plane is nothing compared to it. (In case you are wondering, I got born again in March 2015, I flew in August 2015) My ambitions were part of the blessing I was being prepared for. I gave my life to Christ on my second month in the program. I started an active use of the Bible. At some point in between, I didn’t pay enough attention to it (I became lukewarm). Then came 2017.
After enough encounters proving how I am not as wise as I thought I was, I prayed about wisdom and in those conversations with God, the Holy Spirit guided me to His Word – The Bible. As you would notice, I used to read a book every week. On IG and Good Reads, I used to update the book that I had just finished. As mentioned severally, my urge for books is insatiable. I desperately want to be wise and I cannot get enough of knowledge sources. Some point, I decided to listen to God and focus on His Word. HE is the giver of all knowledge. Well, you will say I need the rest. Yes I do. But what’s the point if I cannot understand? Which is where I pray for understanding of all the other content that I read. I mean, I read all those books and exposed to so much content but I am still dumb enough to be cheated by men…Oh! The devil is a liar!
The Bible has become my diet. It is a daily thing, still a reference book and even more than I ever imagined it would be. I reduced the time I used to spend on the other books to spend more time on God’s word. That is what the Bible is. I have seen so much change in my life. I am not even a quarter way, there, but this is one book I will not be putting down soon.
From this point. It is hard to pick 3 of my favourite books. I will just pick books that have made an impact in my life a little, especially those that I liked in recent past. I could write about every book .
- The Secret – Rhonda Byrne.
Someone came up with a theory that you attract what you conceive and perceive in your mind. (Oh, they brought authors, Philosophers, Scientists, blah blah blah) In this book, I cannot remember them saying who, but they thought it was man some 3000BC. Easily said it meant, anything you want can be attracted into your life by drawing it with your mind. The good thing with a book is that you have the freedom to create your own images, and visualize your own things. A movie limits you and sometimes exceeds your imaginations. In most cases, they disappointed. I.e. Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Grey Series… Etc. Now, the movie remake of this book has a guy seated on his couch at home thinking about things including an elephant, and these things came right into the physical. This is a little exaggerated you might think right?
The secret is actually not a secret. It is something that is clear. It is out here. The challenge and difference comes in how we reference this. But before I go there. Let me give my encounters and my testimonies. They are so many I cannot list them all. 2010 when I encountered this, I started practicing it immediately. First physical thing I experienced was a phone, a Samsung Omnia. I saw one and liked it. At the time, 2Go was the chat app to have! If you didn’t have 2Go you were not focused. (If you have a friend you made on 2Go and you are still friends, both of you are keepers) Okay, I posted “Samsung Omnia” on my Status on 2Go and in like 3 months. Someone gifted me an Omnia a pretty new hand me down in exchange for my Sony Ericsson. Later, another Samsung, I posted on my Cover Photo on FB. Most of my cover photos actually, flying itself and most of the things that have landed on yellow stick notes on my wardrobe or the first pages of my diaries over the years have come into reality.
As I grew older, I was curious about this. I even tried to give people shortcuts in line with this principle and others I have read to help them develop positive mental attitudes in line with their dreams and ambitions. However, my curiosity and major urge to be a genius went looking and the answer to this was very simple. GOD! The secret is simply the extension that we are God’s own creation, made in his own image and likeness with the ability to create and to bring to existence things that are Godly. Which explains inventions, Birth, Miracles. Then in his book are many verses reminding us of our God given ability to bring things into being. I cannot sit here and approve an unknown man who discovered a secret. It is in the Bible.
Job 22: 27-28 “You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways”
Proverbs 18:21 “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
I was not here to try write Rhonda Byrne’s sequel or critique a best seller, all I am saying is, I read this book, practiced, it amazed me, I shared, I was curious, I researched, somewhere along the way I was given understanding and voila! It works. Here is an interesting bit. You can even attract people into your life. Most of the people in your life are actually a result of your mind bringing them into your zone – consciously or unconsciously. On this, I can write my own book – But we are here.
I would have probably written about The Magic of Thinking Big On this list but since the power of the mind is discussed here already, no need to look like I am a mental freak.
- Outliers: The Story of Success – Malcom Gladwell
An ‘outlier’ is someone or something or even a phenomenon that lie outside of what would be considered normal. At the time, I read this book; I was packing my bags preparing for a flight to the UAE for a two-year stay pursuing flying. I was convinced by the third story that I was an outlier in the making. I was almost jumping out of my seat when the pilot featured. We all sing about how we want to be successful. However, most do not know what success is, or what that journey is all about. Let me talk on my own behalf. I defined my own success. It was narrowed down to achieving those things that I have set myself to achieve. This book is a combination of stories of different people who beat the odds, & dismissed success beliefs that the society had set to become the world greatest people in their different fields. For instance, most people would out rightly say that success is having a fat business account; others consider it as having a wife and children… Then there is the source of success, or the path to success. For instance, let us take waking up early and going for a 5Km run along the bypass and then coming to a hot shower before going to a job/ business. How about that person who lives somewhere they cannot run, they cannot afford skipping rope, they cannot afford to warm water for that shower… Does it mean they will not succeed, because most successful people run in the morning? Will they succeed? Under what circumstances? Another example closer to me. The aviation industry, we have pilots who quit aviation for business or other careers, whereas others are fighting to get in. Thousands want to enlist in the military while thousands others want out. Some probably found themselves into a career they did not want for various reasons & maybe it is a family thing, then they decided to take their own path. What would determine if that person was successful as a pilot or not? Two Pilots one went commercial in 3 years courtesy of an environment nurturing that speedy progress & the other struggled to commercial in 10+ years, but still made it there. Which story would be more encouraging? & which story are you more likely to get in the public domain? These are some of the things I thought about while meditating on the content of this book. It is amazing. Then there is a way he relates stories to their lessons, that is not in other writers.
Malcom Gladwell, recorded what made up the people who were successful in their fields. I like it because book because it focuses on the past. It centres on the circumstances that surrounded certain people in their different fields. For example, culture, family, generation, upbringing and those other factors. It gives the reader a deeper perspective of people, their environment and their achievements.
Simply said, “Who we are cannot be separated from where we’re from.”
- Waiting and Dating. Myles Munroe
Wait! The instructions said “Favourite books.” Actually, it doesn’t say 4 favourite books. All this time I was struggling with 4 books. Facepalm! Its day 4. Favourite books. So I am not really expected to review these books. One Day…
I am seated in class looking at the fleet of Dominos delivery bikes and just admiring their morphing blue tint that seems to change like the ocean floor as cars pass by and illuminate them in different shades. I am still fairly new but I have managed to know most of my classmates by name. But haven’t been attached enough to allow myself to walk home with anyone/ any group yet. A few of us have been left in class and I am among them. Suddenly a jovial and ever smiley lady enters the class.
Me, and my ego from Kimuri thinks this lady is smiling at me and I actually smile back. My smile actually went right above her nice black and brown permed hair and hit the other wall. Because she came and sat right next to my friend Naomi. She did not talk to me that day, and the next, but on the third – a week later. I was like “Hio tabia yako ya kukuja hapa na kusalimia mtu mmoja kwa room imejaa watu sio tabia mzuri!” She was all apologetic etc and that is how we became friends. At first only salutation and leaving me to my own business, and later to becoming a fellowship crew of 3. The first opinion they sought was my take on dating (Cross cultural dating – pros, cons & ifs). She was beautiful and I was definitely not looking for a statistics study partner at the time.
With a few of the powers I have vested in myself, I did my own research and learnt that she was truly a born again Christian as she had introduced herself and was dating. She got engaged a few weeks later after our first conversation. Being a Kingdom Person, I was happy that I got people we could discuss, the Bible deeply and life issues based on God’s word at a time I was seeking spiritual growth. Along life, I learnt that if you want to fly higher and better, fly with the eagles. I was at a point in life when I was grooming myself for marriage. Besides prayers, reading God’s word, books, podcasts, etc., hanging out with people headed in the same direction was part of this grooming. I sought to absorb as much as I could from her as she had become an addition to the couples I admired who had taken God’s directives & principles towards relationships & marriage.
& that my friends, is how I landed on Waiting and Dating, by Myles Munroe. She gave me this book one day as part of a follow up discussion and this book sorted out most concerns that were sticking out and areas I personally needed to work on. When it comes to relationships, Myles Munroe is a powerhouse of information and a vessel that God used to pass His message across so effectively, I would want to be like him someday. This book is a gem to any single, unmarried person out there who desires the best in relationships because in here, is a road map towards getting the best of relationships. I made sure, I recommended the book to as many people as possible & gifted a few others. We would all be happier if we spent more time on such gems, as compared to other funny-funny sources of counsel – both verbal and literary. The main sections Include preparing to Date, Friendship-Building: The Purpose of Dating, Myths of Mate-Finding, Discerning the Right Life Partner, Engagement; Preparing to Marry, & Redeeming the Time.
I plan to review this book at some point, or incorporate principles I feel important to share in bits as I continue writing articles related to this topic on this blog.
I feel so bad I have to reduce all the books I have read into 4…