Good to Great in God's Eyes

Chip Ingram

Description

Now poised to reach a new readership, Good to Great in God's Eyes shows how Christians can honor God with lives of great faith and excellent work. Believers become great in God's eyes by applying the ten common characteristics of great Christians:- think great thoughts - read great books - pursue great people - dream great dreams - pray great prayers - take great risks - make great sacrifices - enjoy great moments - empower great people - develop great habitsUsing Scripture, personal stories, and examples from Christians who left a lasting legacy, bestselling author Chip Ingram offers practical steps for becoming great in all areas of life, in spiritual growth, family, relationships, and career. Includes a foreword by Bob Buford and helpful discussion questions to facilitate group or individual study.

Sujets

• Christianity
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 04 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781493406951
• Langue: English

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2007 by Chip Ingram
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Revised and updated edition published 2017
Ebook edition created 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0695-1
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.Lockman.org )
Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Attorneys and Counselors, Orange, California.
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Foreword by Bob Buford 7
Introduction 11
1. Think Great Thoughts 19
2. Read Great Books 47
3. Pursue Great People 71
4. Dream Great Dreams 97
5. Pray Great Prayers 129
6. Take Great Risks 155
7. Make Great Sacrifices 187
8. Enjoy Great Moments 215
9. Empower Great People 241
10. Develop Great Habits 267
Notes 297
About the Author 301
Other Books by Chip Ingram 303
Back Ads 304
Back Cover 307
Foreword
What makes someone great? What does it take? How do you measure it?
Perhaps more important, who measures true greatness?
These are the kind of questions I’ve been asking myself the last few decades.
I have written and thought much about the journey from success to significance. My book Half Time seemed to strike a chord in the hearts of many who were longing to move beyond success and make a difference in the lives of others. My passion, quite simply, has been to help people discover their Core (the best they have to offer), to create Capacity (make time and money available to fulfill their God-given calling and design), and to discover the Context (the unique role and place they fit to make the greatest difference) for the glory of God.
A few years ago God sent Chip Ingram to our Leadership Institute to explore the answers to those pivotal questions of Core, Capacity, and Context. I knew of Chip and had heard his teaching, but I didn’t know the man, the passion, or the heart behind his vision. Thanks to twenty-six solid hours together and some help from a handful of men, we launched a relationship that changed the course of Chip’s life and allowed me to do what God called me to do—“grow fruit on other people’s trees.” My life mission is to grow 100X fruit on trees that God has designed to grow 100X fruit!
As Chip and I have partnered together we’ve seen God produce 100X fruit in the context he has been called to as a local church pastor and the president of Living on the Edge. Since our time together I’ve watched God place him in a context where he thrives. As a result, teaching resources and discipleship tools have been created that are now being used in millions of lives and thousands of churches across the country as well as around the world.
From my view, Chip’s unique ability is to get people in the game. He helps us discover those God-given dreams deeply embedded in our hearts and then gives us practical, biblical, and inspiring tools to turn those dreams into reality. In an evangelical world filled with material designed for beginners, Chip’s sweet spot is motivating and equipping high-capacity leaders and mature believers who really want to make a difference.
As I’ve worked with leaders over the years and men and women with great and godly ambition, I’m still amazed at how many start well and finish poorly. Whether it’s the hubris of wealth, pride, or fame, or the discouragement that comes as dreams are refined and the souls of visionaries are molded by God, there seems to be a woefully high rate of attrition. This book provides the practices, not the theory, that great Christians have in common. This book is not for the slow of heart or weak of soul. It is not for the casual believer who wants a quick fix. It is for those who thirst for more, who want to go deep, who long to become even more than they want to accomplish .
This book provides a spiritual challenge that’s covered in grace. It provides a mentoring pathway for growth but no cheap formulas for success. Chip provides hope and help for those who are weary of “spiritual light” and long to turn their passion to make a difference into reality.
On the last night of Jesus’s life on earth an argument arose among his closest followers. The argument was about who was the greatest among them. Far from reproving them for their desire to be great, Jesus gave them a new paradigm and metrics for achieving greatness—greatness that would not be measured by fame, money, position, or intellect . . . but greatness in the eyes of God.
Oh that God would raise up a generation of young and old alike who would pray as George Whitfield did: “Oh God, make me a great Christian!” If your heart resonates with his, this book’s for you. I highly recommend it.
Bob Buford author of Half Time
Introduction
This book’s first edition was launched with a question that I’ve wrestled with on and off for most of my Christian life . . . Is it really wrong to want to be great? Is it self-centered to want your life to really make an impact? Does ambition indicate a spiritual problem? Am I “ungodly” for thinking such things?
The answer emerged after tossing and turning for most of the night. Eventually, I got up, made some hot tea, found my wife’s rocking chair, and stared into the fireplace, mentally reviewing all the things God had been teaching me. One idea in particular seemed to capture my attention: what does “greatness” in God’s kingdom look like?
I had recently spent some time in Luke 22, a passage that raises this question. Near the end of Jesus’s earthly ministry, the disciples argued about which one of them was the greatest. Surprisingly, Jesus never rebuked them for their longing to be great. He gave them a completely new paradigm about what greatness is, but he didn’t condemn their desire. I was intrigued by that.
I also had been reading Good to Great , Jim Collins’s bestselling book about the practices of companies that are a cut above the rest. 1 Collins and his team thoroughly researched hundreds of businesses and came up with a list of characteristics that distinguish great companies from good or mediocre ones. It continues to be one of the most popular business leadership books of all time. I was fascinated by the idea that such a small handful of principles can make such a huge difference in success.
As I sat up that night with these thoughts turning over in my mind, I realized that greatness is nearly everyone’s ambition in nearly every area of their lives. Corporate leaders want their companies to be great; professionals want to have great careers; men want to be great husbands and fathers, and women want to be great wives and mothers; athletes want to be great competitors; scholars want to be great thinkers and researchers; artists want to create great art; and on and on. Mediocrity is almost no one’s ambition.
I’ve asked a lot of people about their hopes and dreams, and I usually get unapologetic answers about their desires to be great at what they do. But when I ask believers if they want to be great Christians, they seem to be afraid to answer the question. They become unassuming and deferential, concerned that an ambition to be great in this most important aspect of life would seem arrogant. To talk about ambition in following Christ sounds like the opposite of humble spiritual maturity.
Yet what’s the alternative? Should we aspire to be mediocre Christians? Is it really prideful to want to honor God with lives of great faith and excellent work?
Even after spending three years with Jesus, the disciples didn’t seem to think so. They argued about which one of them was the greatest, and though Jesus had to redefine greatness for them, he didn’t tell them they were being unspiritual or arrogant because of their intense desire and ambition to be great. Instead he laid out a clear but counterintuitive pathway that eleven of the twelve eventually fulfilled. And their greatness, as they followed that pathway, turned the world upside down in less than a century.
As for Jesus himself, he didn’t seem prone to mediocrity either, did he? In fact, in a long prayer the night before his crucifixion, he said to the Father: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). He went on to ask that the Father glorify him and that his glory be shared with his disciples. Those are bold statements about greatness, yet we would never accuse Jesus of being arrogant and immodest. His statements were true, and from God’s perspective, his desires were godly.
God’s perspective. That’s the context that makes greatness a desirable quality. It’s one thing to be great in terms of financial success or popular opinion; that’s usually a self-centered, immodest ambition. But to be great in God’s kingdom? That’s a noble desire. We are designed to be great in God’s eyes. When he created humanity, he proclaimed us not just good, but “very good” (Gen. 1:31). We exi