Greetings,

I have a 19 year old son who has Asperger's syndrome which is an autistic spectrum disorder. He started out completely autistic but through the proper schooling and behavior modification and much prayer and belief that the Lord could help him overcome his obstacles, he went from a nonspeaking somewhat violent child to a very intelligent young man. He was mainstreamed in school in 3rd grade and was always on the honor roll. If you met him you would never think there was anything wrong with him other then he might seem a bit shy.

Aspergers people are very intelligent, very intellectual, very logical and love to learn in general. Their weakness is in social skills and communication. My son has no social life at all. We are currently working with an agency to find him a job and he will receive training to help him with social skills. He is also taking some college courses on line.

He does not believe in God because he says it doesn't make sense. I raised him as a Christian. Read the Bible to him as a child, gave him a childrens Bible to read as well. He doesn't remember much of his childhood because his brain changed as he went through the process of going from being very autistic to a higher level of functioning.

I have been praying about this a lot and I would like to ask him to read some of the Bible. I tried asking him to read the Bible and handed it to him and he said "no thanks". LOL Well, it is a rather large and long book and I'd say the same thing if I wasn't interested. So, I thought perhaps if I just asked him to read say Genesis and Exodus and then give me his opinion on those books then maybe he'd be willing or even if I asked him to do a summary. He loves intellectual challenges so I am trying to approach this from his point of view.

My questions are what books in the Bible should I suggest he read to give him the information he needs to know without having him read the entire Bible? As we all know a lot of the books in the Bible are telling us the same thing just from different people. So, I want him to read the books that will give him the story without being repetitive. Does that make sense?

Also, if anyone knows of any books that would be helpful for someone like my son to read, I'd be very appreciative to know about them as well.
Please pray for my son and I thank you all in advance for whatever help you can give me.

God Bless,
Katzie

I think listening to the Bible on line brings it alive more. It is good to hear sounds. Blue Letter Bible has this facility. Scroll down the main page and you will see how you can hear it on MP3 format. You can hear what Jesus went through then too. I think there are 3 versions you can choose from.

God bless

LLJ

Greetings Sister Katzie,

Gospel of John.

Proverbs.

Romans.

Corinthians.

I would start with John. Then book by book go through the New Testament.

Definitely John.

LLJ's suggestion is good, too. Also available is recordings on audio tape or CD.

Johnny Cash did a video, Gospel Road.

Best of all is your life.... let your son read that...... ask Him if he sees anything different about you compared with the average person out there.... and ask him why he thinks that is.

Bless you.... shall be praying Katzie ....><>

Br. Bear

Katzie, all you can do is keep on LIVING Jesus and praying for him. I have no real advice to offer, but just ((HUGS))

Dear Katzie,

As I read your post I wasn't sure of which books to recommend, but I've been watching The Way of the Master on television and think their approach, which is different, may help your son. They have books and tracts and tv programmes which are interesting to watch - basically they address a person's conscience and effectively bypass a person's intellectual questions although often they do respond to questions with interesting answers. Everyone has a conscience which helps them know right from wrong. The Way of the Master teaches that God speaks to us through our conscience and by addressing a person's conscience you can share the gospel with them in a way they can understand.

However, i realise it can be important to address some of those intellectual questions too - Way of the Master have printed a conversation between an evolutionist and Ray Comfort, one of their team, so that people can see for themselves the kind of arguments that there are. Since I have questions from time to time that come up, I've found a Creationist magazine interesting - I think it was published by Answers in Genesis. Also, as i'm writing, I remember that I've found watching Christian films helpful with my own son, who has yet to make a commitment - the Nativity story was good.

In addition, here in the UK I went to an Alpha course run by the church where I am now at and found it an excellent way to get to know people and a safe place to ask questions and hear other people ask questions and hear honest answers.

God bless,

Yeshualives x