Reading List

Shiloh gave me the idea for a reading list blog with his blog the other week (africathroughachildseyes.blogspot.com). I started thinking about it, and the more I thought about it, the more thoughts I had. It is the books I'm reading now; the most important to me the last year.

The first book I read since arriving here that really changed the way I think is When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson. Mark and Andrea lent it to me, and I am very grateful! It put into words some thoughts I've had, then there were things new to me. I was never comfortable with the thought of “it's all going to burn up anyways” that I've heard from some Christians. To me it just seems like God is more in the redemption business, and the book follows the thinking that God's plan is for man to be His co-worker in bringing God's Kingdom to earth. He could have wiped out Satan with a word, but He choose to defeat him through mankind. I think in the end times the Church will be glorious, people will be drawn to the goodness of God.

For my birthday, Corné got me two more Bill Johnson books.

Hosting the Presence: Unveiling Heaven's Agenda is about our purpose to live in God's presence. The more we seek him, the more he is with us, and the more he accomplishes His purposes through us. We are transformed in His presence, and that impacts the world around us. Adam and Eve were to rule the earth as God's ambassadors from the overflow of being with Him. Something else that has become clear is spiritual warfare. A candle doesn't struggle against the darkness. Johnson admits it, and so do I , that sometimes I got over focused on the fight, rather than drawing closer to God. All actions come from one of two emotions, fear or love, and we need to examine why/how we feel we must fight. Anyways, there are all kinds of nuggets in this book!

The second book Corné gave me was Face to Face with God. Along the same lines as Hosting the Presence, with more insights. Four cornerstones of thought: God is good, nothing is impossible, we fight from the victory of Christ, and I am significant. This last thought is something I have really grown in since coming to SA. There is also a chapter about other people's encounters with God, the only one still living is Heidi Baker. What is amazing is that many are widely know, but their experience in the physical presence of God seems to have been minimized and tucked away. I believe with Johnson that we are entering a time when the more we are in God's presence, the more we will show the face of God and draw people to Him.

In a totally different line, I felt God leading me back to forex trading. I was doing that for a year and half before we moved, and was just too busy (and didn't have enough internet access) to start again. Also felt that it just wasn't time. Two weeks ago I felt like it was time to get back in, and I reread one of the best trading books I've found, Bird Watching in Lion Country. What I think he admits, which helps him gain an edge, is that the markets are random in the short term. Trying to get in at the perfect price, and then expecting the trade to go your way immediately is really unreasonable. He trades with the general trend, but lets trades go negative for quite a while. He can, because he doesn't put much into each position, so there isn't pain at each point against you. It is true, I've gotten out of many trades for a loss, only to see it come back my way sometimes several hours later, or maybe even a day or two. I was trading with too much leverage, and it was too painful. Now, I am trading much smaller positions, and think my trading career is taking a big step forward.

Lastly, I've been reading Antifragile, by Nassim Taleb (author) of The Black Swan. I think he understands the modern world better than any other thinker out there. He understands randomness, probability, Black Swans, better than anyone else. One of his thoughts is that we are now living in Extremistan-failures of systems have exponentially worse effects now; 1% of the books published make up 99% of sales (one example). Humans are terrible at predicting, and at linking causal relationships. All kinds of insights that are amazing: Switzerland, one of the most successful countries, has a very low level of university educated people, and it's government is a locally run based one-most Swiss can't tell you who their president is, but can tell you local officials, opposite of the US. This links to his main premise-the more centrally planned, federal type of system, the more fragile it is. Organic, small organizations/business/government make more mistakes, but the mistakes are small, and the learning experience from it actually makes it stronger. Trail and error should be encouraged in all areas, not perfection. Having options make one more antifragile, in all areas of life. Another tidbit: “We notice what varies and changes more than what plays a large role but doesn't change. We rely more on water than on cell phones but because water does not change and cell phones do, we are prone to thinking that cell phones play a larger role than they do.” He goes on to point out that life hasn't really changed from his evening plans-we use shoes invented thousands of years ago to walk to a restaurant, use silverware, a Mesopotamian technology, drink wine, like others for the last 6 thousands years, from glasses innovated by the Phoenicians, eat cheese-a young technology, prepared in a kitchen with pots and pans not too different from what has been used for a couple thousand years. There is much more to this book, but I'll end with this quote: “If you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.”

Last book, which I don't know how I got, so it must be a God thing!  I noticed over a year ago, must have bookmarked it on my Kindle, but never bought or downloaded it until two weeks ago, when downloading Antifragility, this book downloaded too!  It is Five Wealth Secrets 96% of Us Don't Know.  Best and easiest to read book on personal finances I've ever read, and it's changed the way I think about some things, and gives me a plan for things I hadn't quite clearly  expressed.  It came at the right time!