To some extent, everything we see, hear, experience, or read becomes a part of us, influencing our lives, thoughts and actions, molding us into what we are and will become.  This is why God tells us to be careful with our thoughts (see Philippians 4:8).  I have read quite a few books in my life that made me laugh, cry, angry, inspired, and challenged.  But there are only a select few (not counting the Bible which is the ultimate Life-change source) that have impacted my life so powerfully I can clearly see, and still feel, the mark they left. I’ve begun a list of those books, and the impact they made on me, for posterity’s sake, so to speak. Periodically I'd like to share them here, most probably in the order in which I read them through the years.

One of the first Life-Changing books I ever read was In His Steps by Sydney Sheldon – I must have been a young teenager when I first read this book, and that was many years before "WWJD?" was popular “Christianese”.  I had never before given much thought to “What following Jesus really means”, to quote a character in the first chapter.  I’d never really even considered “What would Jesus do?” in any given situation. In the pages of this book I saw, for the first time, the cost of discipleship and its impact for the Kingdom.  I can’t say my actions drastically changed immediately, but it planted the first seeds of desire to “be” Jesus in the world and honor Him.  That changed my life.