Growing Deep In The Christian Life

Chuck Swindoll's book, Growing Deep in the Christian Life, is an exc ellent addition to every Christian's library. I think you will agree as you read the quotes below:

Do you know how long it was that our forefathers stayed on this continent before they established a school of higher learning? A mere sixteen years. They survived those bitter winters. They built their houses. As early as possible they established their government. Some then devoted themselves to establishing an educational center in a little place called Newtown, which was later changed to Cambridge. And they named that school, the first American school of higher learning, after a thirty-one-year-old clergyman who had died prematurely. He had left his library and half his estate to the school. His name was John Harvard.

Every read the cornerstone at Harvard University? When I ministered at Massachusetts, back in the mid 1960's, I remember driving down to that campus. It was during a harsh winter storm that I stood knee deep in sow near the wall that contained the etched cornerstone. I wiped the ice and snow off the bronze and copied these words:

After God had carried us safe to New England and wee had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things wee longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. pp. 24 - 25

Three timeless principles: 1). No one person has all the truth. 2). No single church owns exclusive rights to your mind. 3). No specific interpretation is correct just because a gifted teacher says so. p. 47

Three doctrinal terms you need to remember: revelation, inspiration, and illumination. Revelation occurred when God gave His truth. Inspiration occurred when the writers of Scripture received and recorded His truth. Today, when we understand and apply His truth, that's illumination. That would include discovering new truth for our lives, understanding it, and implementing it. Revelation has ceased. Inspiration has ceased. But illumination is going on right up to this moment! pp. 61 - 62

You can prove anything (yes, anything!) you want to prove from Scripture if you just stop reading soon enough and don't finish the thought, or if you twist a term here and there, "spiritualizing" the meaning. Or if you start in the middle of a paragraph and don't consider the context, you can make it say what you want it to say. And every time you do. . . you abuse! But those who refuse to commit biblical abuse don't go about it that way. p.78

When God gives us a command, it's always for our good---and it's often for our survival. p. 106

Our job isn't to clean up the fish bowl, certainly not initially. It's to fish--just fish. I rather imagine that as time passed the changed woman became intensely uncomfortable with her lifestyle. You can't enjoy walking with a holy God and, at the same time, continue to enjoy living with a person out of wedlock. But before a person can be expected to walk, Chris must come and live within, giving the power that is needed. p.162

It calls to mind the lady who wanted to marry four different men in her lifetime. She said each one would help her with the four things she needed most. First, she wanted to marry a banker. Second, a movie star. Next, a clergyman. And finally, a funeral director. When asked why, she answered, "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go!" p. 264

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9

Never forget that verse! When someone presents to you the idea that God cruelly and gleefully dances about heaven as the last people are dumped against their will into hell, remind them of Peter's words. With patience and grace he offers the gift of eternal life and heaven to all who will accept it. Those who refuse the gift He offers must suffer the consequences, having made their own decision about eternity.

What about those who have never heard? Or, What about those who sincerely follow their own beliefs and their own religion? We must always be careful about stepping into the role of God. Only He knows the destiny of people. People you and I may think are in the family may not be . . . and vice versa. p. 323

"Worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church". A.W. Tozer - p. 389

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