The Big Ten

When I was a senior Bible major at Freed-Hardeman College (1985-86), as part of our exit process, the faculty asked us to name the titles of ten books (other than the Bible).

Specifically, we were asked to the name the books we would take with us if we were going on a long-term overseas mission. Required to travel light, each of us could take only ten. So which ones would we pick?

It was one of the better exercises I was put through at F-HC. I can still remember hoping that my list would be respected by those who scrutinized it. (Nowadays I suspect that no one besides me and the Lord saw it).

I don’t remember every title on my list. I do remember thinking that the two categories I’d need would be (1) information and (2) inspiration. So in addition to a couple of big biblical surveys, I may have named one of the few devotional classics I knew at the time. Or did I?

I suspect that now, twenty years later, I’d be embarrassed to see my “Big Ten.” But maybe it wasn’t too bad. Seems like “Old Testament Survey” by evangelical scholars W.S. LaSor, D. A. Hubbard, and F.W. Bush made my list, and I think I’d probably name that one again.

Anyway, now I put the question to you. Name one or three or ten books that would definitely go with you. Why are those books so valuable?