Growing Your Faith: How to Mature in Christ - Softcover

Bridges, Jerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1576834751 ISBN 13: 9781576834756

Publisher: NavPress, 2004

Synopsis

What does it mean to follow Christ?

When we are gripped by the astonishing fact of Christ’s love for us, we want to draw close to Him and worship Him. But what can we do to deepen our relationship with Jesus? What does He expect of us? And how can we be more like Him? Jerry Bridges, author of Trusting God and Respectable Sins, presents the essential elements of Christian life and spiritual formation in a highly readable, practical form that men, women, and teens can enjoy.

Learn how to:

• Feed your spiritual life by taking in the Scriptures
• Rely on the Holy Spirit in obedience and prayer
• Trust God during the trials of life
• Contribute your unique spiritual gifts to serve others

These essentials of the Christian faith can help you disciple others and make genuine progress in your spiritual growth.

About this title

About the Author

JERRY BRIDGES is an author and Bible teacher. His books include The Pursuit of Holiness, The Discipline of Grace, and The Gospel for Real Life. Jerry is currently a part of The Navigators' collegiate ministry group. He and his wife, Jane, live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

From the Back Cover

What does it mean to follow Christ? When we are gripped by the astonishing fact of Christ's love for us, we desire to draw close to Him. But what can we do to deepen our relationship with Jesus? What does He expect of us? And how can we be more like Him? In Growing Your Faith, author Jerry Bridges, one of the most respected Bible teachers of our time, presents the essential elements of Christian life in a highly readable, surprisingly practical form. Jerry shows us how to: -Feed our spiritual life through taking in the Scriptures -Rely on the Holy Spirit in obedience and prayer -Trust God during the trials of life -Contribute our unique gifts to serve others When we more fully open our hearts to the truth of His gospel and acknowledge the role of the Holy Spirit in our pursuit of holiness, we can make genuine progress in our spiritual lives. And that's a big part of what it means to follow Christ.

Reviews

Bridges, author of such classics as The Pursuit of Holiness and The Practice of Godliness, explains in the preface here, "The editorial team at NavPress thought I had addressed key principles of spiritual growth in previous writings, but that they were scattered among eight different books." Bridges revises and blends these strands into what he aptly describes as "Christian Growth 101." Everything here is quite familiar to those schooled in an evangelical understanding of Christian experience and theology. He strongly emphasizes the subtle but crucial difference between disciplined Christian growth and trying to work one's way into heaven, as well as the difference between being saved by grace and being free to eschew holiness. Interwoven in these explanations are accessibly articulated bits of conservative evangelical theology and Bible exposition, as well as practical ideas for the believer who wants to grow. Except for a brief discussion of controversy among evangelicals about what Paul means when he says Christians have "died to sin," Bridges steers clear of contention. He writes that his book "assumes that those who read it want to grow. There are some people who for one reason or another don't seem to want to grow, and that's a different story." These are perhaps the harshest words in this gentle book; while those who do not subscribe to Bridges's notion of Christian growth won't find much of use here, new evangelicals, as well as believers who want a refresher course, will not be disappointed.
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Bible teacher Bridges is the author of numerous evangelical best-sellers, which is important to know up front, for unless one is a staunch evangelical Christian, this book, largely adapted from Bridges' earlier work (two chapters are new), may not be of much interest. Bridges himself makes no bones about that, accurately characterizing the book as "Christian Growth 101"--in essence, a basic instruction manual of spiritual growth for Christian believers. It doesn't try to convert anyone but does preach to the choir. The biggest chunk of the book is devoted to the means of spiritual growth, and here Bridges discusses the spiritual disciplines necessary to achieve this admittedly difficult goal. At the same time, he admits there will always be continual tension between one's desires to do good and one's actual performance. Bridges is a formidable taskmaster, and if you are a believing Christian, serious about your faith, and wish to learn how to best apply the Bible to all aspects of daily living, then Growing Your Faith will be a most helpful guide. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: NavPress
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1576834751
• ISBN 13: 9781576834756
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 189