Written Works E a Johnston

For those unfamiliar with my pen ministry, this message will give you a list of books which God has seemed pleased to allow me to write. The strength of my pen ministry is Christian biography and books on revival. We will begin in a chronological appearance with a brief overview of each book.

I have written over 30 books, friends, so this message is not a short message, but I will say this before we begin, that in regard to the biographies I have written, I did not begin them without first a call from God to write them. I believe God calls us to certain tasks and undertakings for Him and the spread of the gospel. I am a God-called preacher as well as a God-called writer.

Now some of you will have trouble believing that, but I believe it with my whole heart. God sovereignly opened doors for me in conducting my research on these biographies. He introduced me to the right people and opened the right doors in regard to research and publishing.

None of my books are self-published. I agree with my friend William MacDonald who once told me, if a book is good enough to be published, then it will find a publisher. Bill ought to know, he wrote over 80 books and he introduced me to his Canadian publisher, Gospel Folio Press.

My first book was published by Baker Book House, so we will start with that. My first book was the authorized biography of the British preacher and Bible commentator, J. Sidlow Baxter. I had the pleasure of often traveling to the Baxter home in lovely Santa Barbara, California to meet and spend time with Dr. Baxter's widow, Isa.

Sidlow is best remembered for his magnum opus, his commentary on the Bible entitled, Explore the Book, which has sold over a million copies. My pastor, Adrian Rogers, wrote the foreword to the book and the preface was written by my homiletical mentor, Stephen Ulford. My next undertaking was the most challenging work of my life, a two-volume definitive biography of the great British evangelist, George Whitefield.

I traveled extensively throughout Great Britain and America, visiting the historical scenes where Whitefield preached, where he was born, and where he is buried. My biography on George Whitefield is 1,200 pages in length. J.I. Packer wrote the foreword and Richnald Roberts wrote the preface.

My next undertaking was the challenge of writing a definitive biography on the primary leader of the Second Great Awakening, Asahel Nettleton. You may think the primary leader was Charles Finney, but you'd be dead wrong, friends, as my book historically proves. In conducting my research on Nettleton's life, I traced his footsteps through three states and over 60 scenes of revival.

John Thornberry wrote the foreword and Richnald Roberts wrote the preface. My next biography was on a man I never heard of, but whom God brought to my attention, and this biography is on the Calvinist evangelist, Ralph Barnard, who was used mildly in a 40-year itinerant preaching ministry. And if you want to learn the real gospel, friends, then this book is for you.

The foreword was written by Bob Dune. My most recent biography is on the life of Samuel Porter Jones, who shook America for God in revival, after revival, and who in his lifetime, his name was a household word. Babies were named after him.

Candy bars were named after him. Streets were named after him. His powerful preaching often altered the entire spiritual life of a community, but oddly, few today are familiar with Sam Jones.

Hopefully, this new biography on Sam Jones will change that. The foreword is written by Bobby Lawrence, the great-nephew of Sam Jones, and the great-grandson of Sam Jones, Hal Jones, gave me access to all the family papers. I highly recommend that book to any pastor or evangelist or missionary who is interested in revival.

Now, we will get into my other books, which are largely centered around the subject of revival in Christian living. The last four decades of my life have been given to the study and research of revival, and my first book on revival was Reality's Revival, and the foreword was written by Stephen Offord, who had a large impact on my life. He was my homiletical mentor, colleague, and friend.

There would be no preaching or pen ministry friends by me if it were not for Stephen Offord. That's what kind of influence that man had on my life. Well, that brings me to my next book, which I co-authored with Stephen Offord about his homiletical mentor, Dr. Graham Scroggie.

The book is entitled Offord on Scroggie, and Dr. Offord got so excited about this project, it was the last book he ever wrote, and he had possession of all of Graham Scroggie's handwritten sermons and outlines, which I had the laborious task of deciphering. Dr. Offord would comment, pastors would give the right arm for this book. Well, my next book on revival was entitled The Church in Revival with a foreword by Richard Owen Roberts, and may I state friends, some of these forewords by these men are really the best thing about these books.

The third revival book in my trilogy on revival is Called to Revival with a foreword by Colin Peckham, who was the principal emeritus of Faith Bible College in Edinburgh, and what he writes in that foreword is some of the best writing by anyone on the topic of revival. Get a copy of it and study what he wrote. Each of these three books are loaded with dozens of revival quotes that I've gathered through the years that you could use in sermons or teach in a Bible class.

My next book is on discipleship, and it's entitled No Turning Back. William MacDonald told me while I was writing it not to state the obvious and to take the gloves off. His book, True Discipleship, is a real challenge to anyone who reads it.

In this book, I tried to make it challenging. I had for years in my home discipled a group of men on a weekly basis, and I did that for really a couple of decades. In this book, I give the layout I use with those men, and it's helpful to anyone interested in discipleship and discipling another person.

My next book was a devotional workbook entitled The Master's Plan, Unfolding God's Blueprint for Your Life. After that, I wrote a Bible survey on every book of the Bible called Know the Book. It's a handy tool for Sunday school teachers, and this also was translated into the Swahili language by an African missionary and used in Africa in teaching the Bible there.

Next, I wrote a book on having a closer walk with God entitled Walking With God, and the foreword is written by Ted Randall. This later was republished as Going Higher With God, and that edition includes a little booklet I wrote entitled Why God Used Stephen Olford. Next, I wrote a book on the doctrine of repentance called Return to Me, and the book deals with backsliding believers.

Then, I wrote an evangelistic book called Are You in the Book of Life? I'm a big believer in a gospel tract ministry. I've handed out tracts for years, and I've even written several gospel tracts that I use in evangelism. I recommend you do the same, friends.

I then wrote a book for pastors called Sermons for Revival, where I distinguish between preaching about revival and preaching for revival. One is informative. The other is disturbing.

My next book was Lectures on Revival for a Laodicean Church. It's about preparing a church for revival. God is sovereign in revival.

He's the only one that can send it, but we can set ourselves to be ready to receive that revival wind when it blows, and this book will help you do that. That was followed with a devotional book I called How to Have a Daily Quiet Time. Based on truths I learned from Stephen Offord, who taught me personally how to have a daily quiet time, rather a vibrant daily quiet time with the Lord.

Next, I wrote a book for preachers entitled How to Preach for a Revival, where I outline the great doctrines of ruin, redemption, repentance, and regeneration, and urge their necessity in our preaching today. Then I wrote a book on faith, which is one of my favorite books. It's entitled Faith Lessons in a Dynamite God, and he's a dynamite God who does super-duper things, that's for sure, friends.

That book was followed up with another book called The Man God Uses, and if you desire further usefulness to God, that book will be a help. That was followed by, I feel, one of my most important books on the gospel, on rather the God-centered gospel that we've seemed to have lost today. This book is called Recovery the Gospel.

The man-centered, easy-to-believe gospel of our day has deceived and damned its millions, for sure, and hopefully this book, The Recovery the Gospel, will encourage a return to the old God-centered gospel of our fathers. That book was followed by a book for pastors and evangelists called 10 Alarming Sermons, Smoking Like a Volcano. Unfortunately, today, many are teachers instead of preachers who dish out nice little messages that don't disturb anyone.

Gone are the days of searching, preaching, and probing sermons of the Puritans, and that's why so few are being saved today. This book was followed up by a collection of my sayings through the years. I've had these little quotes I've given through the years, such as, whenever I get too big for my britches, God puts me on his grill and barbecues me, and faith is going out on a limb for God when all your other limbs are exposed, and God is looking for the Moses who will take time to turn aside and encounter him to experience change, so God can send him to deliver a nation or one of my favorites.

You are either out and out for God or on the outs with God. This little book of my sayings is entitled Hope for Hurting Hearts and Challenge for Hungry Hearts. Lastly, my latest book, friends, is on the doctrine of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and in it is the remarkable story of Stephen Alford teaching a young Billy Graham the spirit-filled life as they were holed up together in a bed and breakfast in Wales, of which that time Billy Graham has said, this will change the whole course of my ministry, and if you are a who wants power in the pulpit, then this book is for you.

It is entitled A Power Higher. Most of these books can be purchased through amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com or other internet sites or my own publisher's website, which is oldpathspublications at their bookstore. Well, I hope some of these books will be helpful to you, friends.

I can't emphasize enough the need to study good Christian biography. It seems like nobody wants to read books anymore today. It's a real shame.

It's hurt our churches. It's hurt our pastors. It's hurt our personal lives.

We need to men who in former times God has used to bring forth revival so we can prepare ourselves for revival so we can recognize revival when it comes. We need to study Christian biography.