Preface
Preface
Spiritual transformation is the process through which we grow more and more into the likeness of Christ. Since 1951, when I first came in contact with The Navigators ministry, I have sought to understand and live out the principles of that process. I have by no means “arrived,” either in understanding or application, but I have learned a lot and hopefully have grown some over these sixty years.
Early in the 1970s, God opened opportunities to teach informally what I was learning, first with The Navigators and later to a wider audience in the United States. Then I was invited to teach at several seminaries and Christian colleges. These opportunities required a more disciplined approach to what I was teaching, and I eventually developed a curriculum of twenty to twenty-five lectures, depending on the requirements of the school. In order to reach a wider audience, I condensed that material into ten lectures to be given during a two-day seminar. This book is essentially that seminar in written form.
I do not submit this book as a comprehensive work on spiritual transformation. For one thing, it does not include all that I have written in other books such as The Pursuit of Holiness or Transforming Grace. And there are other contemporary writers who have approached this subject from different angles and have much to say to us.
Why then this book? The answer is to teach what I have learned more deeply in the last twenty-five years about the importance of the gospel in our transformation and the vital necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the process.
I gladly acknowledge that I stand on the shoulders (though somewhat precariously) of some of the great giants of the faith of previous centuries. That is why you will find numerous quotations from them. I hope their words, in addition to the many Scriptures cited, will give you confidence that what I have written is not new and novel but is essentially the teaching of Scripture and is consistent with the teachings of these respected men of the last four centuries.
I want to acknowledge with gratitude the help of several people. First is my wife, Jane, who patiently endured many occasions of frustration as I struggled to put into concise words the thoughts in my head. Then Don Simpson, a personal friend and senior editor at NavPress, who has worked with me chapter by chapter as the book was being written with both helpful suggestions and the encouragement I so often needed.
Connie Trautman, my part-time administrative assistant, typed and retyped my handwritten copy into digital format on the computer. Bob Bevington, Chris Thifault, and the Reverend Bill Vogler read the initial draft of the manuscript and offered helpful suggestions. Bob also wrote the discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Finally, but by no means least in importance, a number of friends prayed for me during the months of the writing process.
Most of all, I thank God the Father who, by His grace and through the Lord Jesus Christ and with the help of the Holy Spirit, gave me the privilege of writing this book. To the triune God be all the glory for any usefulness this book may have among God’s people.