Reading Many Good Christian Books but Living in the Bible

Here's a quote from C.H. Spurgeon that I can really take in my study of Reformed Theology, "Visit may good books but live in the Bible."  What does that mean?  When I start to think of the meaning of that quote, Christians are encouraged to visit as many good Christian books as they can but remember, they are not a substitute for the Bible but rather, like spices, the are complements for the Bible.  If you happen to know this, Charles Haddon Spurgeon himself was also a writer of books such as the Sword and the Trowel, and Lectures to My Students.

During my early stages of my Christian life as an immature believer struggling with sin, I always wondered if reading good Christian books was going to be helpful for my Christian growth and one of my former mentors in the faith, Pastor Armando Candido Borja had allowed me to read a few of his books.  The first piece of Christian literature I read through was "Not Just Sundays: Being a Christian in the Everyday World" by William Girao.  Later on, I would get involved with other Christian writers such as Randy Alcorn (a King James only-ist), and D. James Kennedy.  Later on, I would start to become more or less Reformed, I would be taking crash course lessons in Calvinism through the books of Dr. John F. MacArthur, a preacher I once so wrongly misrepresented for some time, but later, he becomes one of my favorite authors and the other would be Robert Charles Sproul and Ray Comfort.  But it would be good to have books also written by John Calvin who is considered the pioneer of Reformed Theology.

A good reason why I would say it's good to read many good Christian books is that it builds a sense of awareness of both past and present.  Reading about the history of Christianity like from the Foxe's Book of Martyrs or Fifty Years in the "Church of Rome" helped me appreciate why I left Roman Catholicism and by God's grace alone, I became a born again Christian.  When I read through Reformed literature, I always felt like I am drinking from a fire hydrant because many times, today's evangelism is so loosely done.  As I can say, while I can, I will try to get as many Christian books as possible whether it's by print or by soft copy so I can continue to grow in grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.