SUMMARY: Being a Child of God: Your Guide for the Adventure

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Book Summary - Being a Child of God: Your Guide for the Adventure
by Warren W. Wiersbe

Being a Child of God: Your Guide for the Adventure
By Warren W. Wiersbe

Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Nashville, TN, Copyright 1996

Book summary by Paul Monteith

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Unless we are born-again into the family of God we remain spiritually dead. The author begins with the necessity of that divine action, rebirth, and then explores what it means for a life now lived for Christ. Being born-again is just the beginning. A true child of God will mature and exhibit certain characteristics and appetites that are of godly origin.

The adventure for the Christian is one of self-examination, whereby the author prompts us to look at the spiritual state of our own lives to see if we manifest godly attributes. If Christ is truly living in us, and if we have submitted ourselves to the Lord, our new nature will be evident.

The book covers the ideals that ought to be clearly visible in the life and actions of the child of God. It shows us how to live the Christian life successfully, and in the process, how to glorify God and build up His church.

Part 1 - Life

Chapter 1: Birth
The only way to enter God's family is to be born-again. No amount of effort on our part will make us members His family. It cannot be achieved by agreeing with doctrine, adhering to religious practices, serving in ministry, or doing good works.


Our being born-again is the work of God. Being a Christian means possessing the life of Christ within - Christ in us - and this is achieved through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Birth is just the beginning. Just as a baby is born complete yet has to grow, so the Christian is born complete in Christ. God's children possess all they need to become mature Christians who can serve Him and glorify Him. But maturity takes time. Birth is the beginning. Conforming to His image is the process. Being Christ-like is the goal.

Chapter 2: Birthmarks
Every true child of God will bear the birthmarks of the divine nature. God's nature within His children will motivate them in every relationship of life. These birthmarks include: the desire to experience and express the love of God within a selfish and competitive world; a desire to be with God's people; rejecting anything in our lives that keeps us from enjoying God's love and doing His will; rejecting worldly pressures to gratify our desires, satisfy ego, and promote self.

True believers aren't sinless but they don't consistently yield to temptation and sin or deliberately put themselves in situations that tempt them. When God puts His divine nature within His children they acquire new ambitions and appetites.

Chapter 3: Adoption
Adoption is God's way of saying we are His children, and that we will enjoy the privileges of assurance, freedom, confidence, inheritance, and suffering.

The privilege of assurance is experiencing the family love, knowing we are His children by the witness of the Holy Spirit within us. We enjoy freedom in Christ to know His will and willingly obey it for the good of others and to the glory of God.

We have confidence because we know that God treats us like adults in order to take away our fears. We are joint-heirs with Christ who has inherited all things. And, the only way to mature as a Christian is to endure suffering. There is no glory without suffering, which prepares us for the glory that is yet to be revealed. Through adoption, God gives His children an adult standing in the family.


Part 2 - Growth

Chapter 4: Motives
A Christian must grow. If we are filled with this new life - Christ in us - then we will be motivated to let this new life express itself, and allow it to transform us. We must cultivate this new life if it is to bear fruit. God rejoices to see His children grow and become more like Jesus. Christian growth is God at work in us, and He must work in us before He can work through us. As we live for Him we ensure that His grace is not wasted in our lives.

Chapter 5: We Grow From Within
We must care for the spiritual life of the inner person just as we care for the physical life of the outer person. Christian believers should be less concerned about what others think of them and more concerned about what God thinks about them.

A major theme of the Sermon on the Mount is the true righteousness of Jesus compared to the false righteousness of the Pharisees.

"Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and the angels know of us," said Thomas Paine.

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody defined character as "what you are in the dark." When we cultivate the inner person and live to glorify Christ, our values change, and our priorities change with them.

Chapter 6: We Grow In A Balanced Way
Healthy Christian living is maintaining a vital balance through union with Jesus Christ. The goal is to be conformed to the image of His son.

A balanced life includes solitude and service; receiving and giving; and, ourselves and others. We need time with God each day in solitary prayer, and time to minister to a needy world.

We need to receive the Word of God through study, this helps the mind to grow; and we need to give or share with others what God has shared with us, this helps the heart to grow.

We also need time for ourselves so that we can be refreshed and, therefore, better able to minister to the needs of others.

A balanced Christian life is one in which the mind learns the truth, the heart loves the truth, and the will obeys and lives the truth.

Chapter 7: We Grow Through Nutrition
The Word of God is spiritual nourishment for the child of God. Jesus is the spiritual bread that gives life, and the living water that satisfies. He is the nourishment of His people. We receive that nourishment through His Word. The Bible provides exactly the diet we need to become mature balanced Christians. Study of the Scriptures cultivates an appetite for His Word that is essential to our spiritual health, strength, insight and maturity. Our Father wants to meet with us each day, and the Holy Spirit enjoys teaching us the Word and revealing Christ to us.

Chapter 8: We Grow Through Exercise
Exercise or discipline transforms spectator Christians into winning athletes who glorify God. Spiritual exercise is an investment in character. It requires dedication in the practice of self-control, worship, prayer, mediation, fasting, self-examination, and confession.

We must become living sacrifices. It requires the commitment of the whole person, the yielding of mind, imagination, heart, will, all the faculties, talents and gifts, offered up voluntarily for the service and pleasure of God.

William Temple: "For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin."

God is the most important Being in the universe. Worshipping Him, therefore, is the most important activity in which we can be involved.

Chapter 9: We Grow Through Cleansing
The Bible commands us to take drastic action when we deal with sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. Yet, God's mercy does not come cheaply. The price of forgiveness was the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.

Confession of sin demands an honest and broken heart. We must understand just how ugly sin is to the God of holiness. After confession, we must root out the sin and plant seeds that will produce fruit to holiness.

Chapter 10: We Grow In An Atmosphere of Love
God's people need God's people. Christians cannot mature in isolation. We need fellowship with other members of the spiritual body. We belong to one another and need one another. There is diversity in the church just as there is diversity in the human body. And like the human body, the church body lives and grows and matures.

Together we build up the church when we bear with one another patiently, speak with each other honestly, and serve selflessly. This kind of love is divine. It is within the church community that we discover our spiritual gifts and these gifts show us how we may encourage and enable other believers to serve, and to build up the Body of Christ.

When God calls us out of this world we belong exclusively to Him.

Chapter 11: We Grow To A Predetermined Image
Humans were created in the image of God. It should humble us to realize the high position God has given us in his creation. Our potential is to one day share His likeness. This should encourage us to seek the God who made us and who alone can meet our inner needs.

Augustine: "You formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you."

God's great purpose is that His people be conformed to the image of his Son, and there is no greater challenge for His children in this life than the challenge of becoming more like Jesus Christ.

Our Christ-like life comes not so much from imitation as from identification with Jesus. This means serving as he served, suffering as he suffered, and sacrificing as he sacrificed. We must set ourselves apart for God so that we can do His will and serve others.

Chapter 12: We Grow To Glorify God
We strive for maturity as God's children so that we can bring glory to Him. We glorify God when, like Jesus, we become servants. Doing good is the best way to get the attention of unbelievers and gain opportunities for witness. Good works make it easier to share God's love with the lost.

Glorifying God means living for the eternal, living by faith, willing to endure suffering of this present time so that the Father's will be done. It means being willing to become nothing so that Christ may be everything.

Part 3 - Maturity

Chapter 13: Maturity
Maturing people don't live in illusion, they don't pretend to be something they are not. They are in control of their feelings and sensitive to the feelings of others. They strive to do better and be better.

Maturing Christians help others mature. They are a resource from which others can gain strength. A child of God treats others with the grace that God has treated them. They are humble and patiently wait for His purposes to be fulfilled.

Maturing Christians experience a growing sense of freedom, that is, a life controlled by truth and motivated by love.

Chapter 14: Weaning
Weaning is the process of completing, and it is a necessary experience that leads to maturity. Each step in the weaning process prepares for the next stage. It helps us to grow up. It leads to more freedom. This is a freedom to live a life motivated by love and controlled by truth.

Chapter 15: Submitting
To accomplish God's purpose in a hostile world we must submit to Him. Like Abraham on Mount Moriah, we must willingly give up even good things (Gen. 22). Our motivation should be, “Thy will, not my will, be done (Mark 14:36).” God is the potter and we are the clay, and we must yield in order to become useful and beautiful to God (Jer. 18:1-6). Submission to His will makes us living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service.

Chapter 16: Trusting
Faith is about trusting God, and this means to think and act according to His will regardless of our circumstances, feelings and consequences. Our maturity depends on it. Faith is the obedient response to God's Word; it gives us the patience to wait on God; it brings inner joy and peace; and, when we live by faith we bring God glory.

Faith is nurtured by studying His Word, through regular prayer, when we endure the trials of life, and when we consider the lives of the saints who have gone before us.

Faith enables ordinary people to do extraordinary things for God.

Chapter 17: Obeying
"Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes," said Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There is a relationship between faith and obedience.

Sometimes obedience brings pain. It must have pained Abraham when he obeyed God and sent Ishmael away, and when he was told to sacrifice Isaac. Jesus suffered on the cross. Ultimately, however, obedience and suffering glorifies God.

When we trust and obey God we are better able to discern His will in our lives. We must be patient, obeying God even when prayers seemingly go unanswered. He works in our lives to prepare us for what he is preparing.

Chapter 18: Hoping
For maturing believers, heaven isn't just a destination it is a motivation and makes a difference in how we live our lives now. If we truly believe we are going to heaven we will be a witnessing people, wanting others to join us.

We will be a sacrificing people, willing to die to self so that Christ may live for the glory and work of God. We will be a confident people, able to face and endure any trials to the glory of God. We will be a united people, able to love and get along with each other within the community of believers. Because we have hope we will not fear death.

Chapter 19: Sharing
How much we've matured is revealed by the way respond to the needs of others, that is the Christian way of love. We're maturing when we love people.

Life is more than acquisition of things, it is a gift from God and he has put eternity in our hearts (Eccl. 3:11). When God is not part of our lives, life is empty. For the true believer Christ lives in us and Christ in us should compel us to share our life with others.

The motivation behind our sharing is the grace of God. Our sharing or service doesn't have to be some grand deed or sensational sacrifice, we may be asked only to share a cup of water (Matt 10:42).

"Great services reveal our possibilities, but small services reveal our consecration," said George H. Morrison.

Chapter 20: Delighting
God delights in His people and His people should delight in Him.

"Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower, as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are ... two precious jewels set side-by-side in the same socket of gold," said Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

God delights in His creation (Gen. 1:31). Our study of God's creation should lead us toward praise and worship of the One who created everything. And, the creation itself reveals attributes of its Creator (Rom. 1:20).

We delight in God's truth because it reveals his heart and mind. Through the Word we see the beauty of God's moral character, a beauty to which nothing and no one can be compared.

The greatest commandment is to love God with all our being. The mature child of God makes himself available for whatever purposes He wants to fulfill. Holiness leads to helpfulness, sanctity to service. Delighting in God leads to selfless employment (Isa. 6:8). Adore Him. Delight and tremble before Him.

William Temple calls adoration "the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable."

What I got most from this book
Since God is the most important Being in the universe, and since I am made in His image, then the most important activity I can be engaged in is building a relationship with God, developing the fruits of the Spirit, and serving others. This book, which depicts the characteristics and actions of a true child of God, was like looking into a spiritual mirror and helped me examine whether I am a complacent Christian or a committed Christian on the path to spiritual maturity.