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All the books I read in 2010

My goal was to hit 30, and I did in August. Having a baby and starting seminary slowed things down after that. But here it is, the final list of finished books.

  1. A Sense of Urgency, John P. Kotter (1/11)
  2. The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall & Tony Payne (1/24)
  3. Autobiography of Hudson Taylor, Hudson Taylor (1/30)
  4. The Reason for God, Timothy Keller (2/15)
  5. The Deliberate Church, Mark Dever (2/22)
  6. When I Don’t Desire God, John Piper (3/20)
  7. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell (3/30)
  8. Be Complete, How to Become the Whole Person God Intends You to Be, Warren Wiersbe (3/31)
  9. Why Johnny Can’t Preach, T. David Gordon, (4/2)
  10. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J.I. Packer (4/16)
  11. Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman (4/25)
  12. Crazy Love, Francis Chan (5/5)
  13. The Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards (5/14)
  14. Axiom, Bill Hybels (5/28)
  15. Our Sufficiency in Christ, John MacArthur (5/28)
  16. The Odyssey, Homer (5/31)
  17. Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints, Ed. Justin Taylor, John Piper (6/3)
  18. Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (6/11)
  19. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (6/13)
  20. Spectacular Sins and their Global Purpose for the Glory of Christ, John Piper (6/25)
  21. Writing for Story, Jon Franklin (6/30)
  22. Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World, David Jeremiah (7/1)
  23. How to Tell a Story and Other Essays, Mark Twain (7/4)*
  24. Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton, (7/9)*
  25. What is the Gospel?, Greg Gilbert (7/10)*
  26. On Earth as it is in Heaven: How the Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us to Pray More Effectively, Warren Wiersbe (7/21)*
  27. The Master’s Indwelling, Andrew Murray (7/27)*
  28. Shepherding the Child’s Heart, Ted Tripp (8/3)
  29. Eccentric Preachers, Charles Spurgeon (8/6)*
  30. Leaders Who Last, Dave Kraft (8/9)*
  31. Knowing God, J.I. Packer (9/10)
  32. Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper (9/20)
  33. The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter (9/23)*
  34. Pastor to Pastor: Tackling the Problems of Ministry, Erwin Lutzer (9/26)
  35. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, Arthur Bennet (9/27)*
  36. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin (10/2)*
  37. The Expository Genius of John Calvin, Steve Lawson (10/9)*
  38. 33 Million People in the Room, Juliette Powell (10/12)*
  39. The Thought of God, Maurice Roberts (11/1)
  40. Death by Love, Mark Driscoll (11/10)*
  41. A Taste of Heaven: Worship in the Light of Eternity, R.C. Sproul (11/17)*
  42. Commenting on Commentaries, C.H. Spurgeon (11/20)*
  43. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Mark Dever, (12/19)

* means I read it on my kindle.

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Top 15 posts of 2010

Looking back at the history of the blog posts I’ve written is like flipping through the pages of an old journal. I can remember how I wrote certain things and how I felt at that time. This year is especially that way, since in June I lost a cousin and in July we had a baby. What’s different about a blog is that you can see where the readership increased and where it was, essentially, nonexistent. Here are the 15 most read posts of 2010:
  1. Tyson Larson: No Guilt in Life, No Fear in Death
  2. Tyson Larson: Bringing us all together again
  3. Lindsey Larson: Grace for one day at a time
  4. Tyson Larson: What We’ve Learned
  5. Thoughts on Spiritual Wisdom
  6. Cow Tools: Why is Gary Larson so funny?
  7. Baby Emma Update
  8. Letter of Resignation
  9. A poem to my firstborn
  10. Taylor Mali’s slam poetry: Totally, Like, Whatever
  11. One Million Years Later
  12. Describing the indescribable: my perspective
  13. Life moments
  14. Emma Grace Durso: My firstborn
  15. Emma meets Jackson

My are my blog statistics for the year, from December ’09 to December this year.

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21 Books for 2010

So these were the books I enjoyed most this year. And by the way, if you’re still Christmas shopping for someone who happens to be a Christian bookworm, if you click through these links and by anything on amazon.com, you’ll make me a little money. Tis the season for giving, right?

  1. The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything
    Colin Marshal and Tony Payne
  2. The Deliberate Church: Building Your Ministry on the Gospel, Mark Dever
  3. A Treastise Concerning Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards
  4. Our Sufficiency in Christ, John Macarthur
  5. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, Tim Keller
  6. Why Johnny Can’t Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers, T. David Gordon
  7. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman
  8. Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Tedd Tripp
  9. Thought of God, Maurice Roberts
  10. Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ, John Piper
  11. Pastor to Pastor: Tackling the Problems of Ministry, Erwin Lutzer
  12. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (Ivp Classics), J.I. Packer
  13. When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight For Joy, John Piper
  14. Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction, Jon Franklin
  15. Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell
  16. What Is the Gospel? (9Marks), Greg Gilbert
  17. Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (Re:Lit), Mark Driscoll
  18. Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesteron
  19. Eccentric Preachers, C.H. Spurgeon
  20. The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter
  21. Knowing God, J.I. Packer
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Reading Accomplishments so Far

Here’s what I’ve read for 2010. It’s by far the most reading I’ve ever done in 6 months. Last year I barely hit my goal of 25 books for 2009. This year, it looks like I’ll easily surpass my goal of 30.
* * *
  1. A Sense of Urgency, John P. Kotter (1/11)
  2. The Trellis and the Vine, Colin Marshall & Tony Payne (1/24)
  3. Autobiography of Hudson Taylor, Hudson Taylor (1/30)
  4. The Reason for God, Timothy Keller (2/15)
  5. The Deliberate Church, Mark Dever (2/22)
  6. When I Don’t Desire God, John Piper (3/20)
  7. Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell (3/30)
  8. Be Complete, How to Become the Whole Person God Intends You to Be, Warren Wiersbe (3/31)
  9. Why Johnny Can’t Preach, T. David Gordon, (4/2)
  10. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J.I. Packer (4/16)
  11. Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman (4/25)
  12. Crazy Love, Francis Chan (5/5)
  13. The Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards (5/14)
  14. Axiom, Bill Hybels (5/28)
  15. Our Sufficiency in Christ, John MacArthur (5/28)
  16. The Odyssey, Homer (5/31)
  17. Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints, Ed. Justin Taylor, John Piper (6/3)
  18. Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (6/11)
  19. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (6/13)
  20. Spectacular Sins, John Piper (6/25)
  21. Writing for Story, Jon Franklin (6/30)
  22. Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World, David Jeremiah (7/1)
  23. How to Tell a Story and Other Essays, Mark Twain (7/4)
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10 Habits for a Life of Integrity

I found this in a old moleskine. These were given to us by David Gunner Gundersen in a dorm chapel. Extremely valuable wisdom here.

1. Learn to do things you don’t feel like doing.

2. Learn to take responsibility and recognize when you’re making excuses.

3. Learn to be faithful to the details.

— read and respond to emails.

— call people back

4. Learn to follow the rules, not to ask for exceptions.

— expect law, appreciate grace

5. View women rightly.

6. Learn to be tough.

—mental toughness: stick to a task until you are done.

— learn to wake up when you’re tired.

7. Develop a work ethic instead of depending on your gifts.

8. Learn to control sarcasm and scoffing.

9. Learn to handle conflict wisely and patiently.

10. Find a mentor.

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25 Things I Get Joy From

Sometimes God gives us great blessings in this life. I am going to assume that the fact that all real joy is in Jesus is implied, and make a list of other things I derive joy from.  Here it goes.

  1. A good book
  2. A word in season
  3. Laughing with Ashley
  4. Thinking about the church
  5. A board game
  6. When a kid is seeking
  7. When a kid is working alongside me
  8. A good quote
  9. A good dinner
  10. Time with family
  11. Early morning
  12. Cloud formations
  13. Palindromes
  14. This blog
  15. Poetry
  16. Playing football or basketball at the park
  17. Word games
  18. Preaching
  19. Used book stores
  20. Backpacking
  21. Watching and playing with little kids
  22. Friends (not the TV show)
  23. World traveling
  24. Climbing trees
  25. Writing

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2009: Some Top Tens

Here are some top 10’s. More to come.

top 10 books I read:

  1. Autobiography of George Muller, George Muller
  2. Future Grace, John Piper
  3. Comeback Churches, Ed Stetzer
  4. Spiritual Leadership, J. Oswald Sanders
  5. Brothers We Are Not Professionals, John Piper
  6. Tortured for Christ, Richard Wurmbrand
  7. Developing the Leaders Around You, John C. Maxwell
  8. Oikos: Your World Delivered, Tom Mercer
  9. How People Change, Timothy Lane & Paul David Tripp
  10. Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry, Doug Fields

top 10 things Ashley and I did

  1. Got pregnant
  2. Went to Nicaragua on a mission trip (and had our first anniversary there)
  3. Toured Washington for a week
  4. Spent a week at Lake Tahoe
  5. Went beach camping in San Clemente a few times
  6. Went to a Lakers game and watched them beat the Grizzlies
  7. Went to Las Vegas twice
  8. Celebrated our anniversary in downtown San Diego
  9. House-sat for a rich couple near Fallbrook. Funny experience.
  10. Went to see the Beatles live in San Diego (not the real Beatles of course, but a covered band that looked and sounded just like them).

top 10 songs I enjoyed

  1. A Day in the Life, Jeff Beck
  2. San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, Eddy Tenderloin
  3. He Reigns, Newsboys
  4. Everything’s Ok, Chris Rice
  5. Ticket to Ride, The Beatles & Baby You’re a Rich Man, The Beatles
  6. Barlights, fun.
  7. Good News, Chris Rice
  8. Sparrow, ScatteredTrees
  9. All the Pretty Girls, fun.
  10. Cath…Death Cab for Cutie