A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
by Fred G. Zaspel
The full title of this book is, We Will Be Changed: 9 Inner Glories the Spirit Is Cultivating in You (How the Fruit of the Spirit Produces Christlike Character). Here Alistair Begg addresses important topics like the following:
- How the Spirit is cultivating 9 Christ-like qualities within you
- Why experiencing the Spirit’s transforming power brings relief, joy and peace
- What it means to keep in step with the Spirit
- Greater confidence that God is faithfully shaping you day by day
Begg writes, “God saves us just as we are, but he is not content for us to remain just as we are.”
Table of Contents
Introduction: Your Life Is a Sermon
1 The Fountain
2 A Gloriously Inappropriate Joy
3 We Have All We Need
4 Formed on Stormy Seas
5 What Kindness Looks Like
6 Faithfulness > Success
7 Strength Under Control
8 How to Win Each Day (in the Battle that Actually Matters)
A Different Kind of Conclusion
Selected Quotes
- Christianity is about both justification—the work of God in our lives to bring us to faith in Christ, that he might take our judgment and give us his perfection—and sanctification—the ongoing process in which God is at work to make us more and more like our Savior. (9)
- The great secret of growth in true Christian character is to look far less at ourselves and far more at Christ as we depend less on ourselves and more on his Spirit. (17)
- The outpouring of the love of God is the story of the Bible; and the overflow of the love of God in and from his people is meant to be the story of the church. (19)
- Love, then, is the nonnegotiable of the Christian life. With it, all else grows and flourishes. Without it, all else is useless. (27)
- This is uniquely Christian joy, and it springs from the gratitude of knowing that I am guilty and God is gracious. That’s why the Bible is full of joy, because it is full of people who are willing to accept that first truth and therefore glory in the second. (36)
- The creator of this world is very, very patient. So, as with each of the parts of the fruit of the Spirit, we need to lift our eyes away from this world and from ourselves, and see what this aspect of Christian character looks like by gazing at the character of God. (54)
- The fruit of faithfulness is seen in fidelity to the truth and reliability in our dealings with others. It is to say what you mean and mean what you say, and to be consistent in doing so. (74)
- That is how you guard your heart: through having your emotions in check and your thoughts captive to Christ. It is once you have a guard over your heart that you are able to exercise self-control over your body. (99)