You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions [Paperback]

Tim Chester (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2010

It's about heart change, not behavior change. That's theconviction of Tim Chester as he seeks to help everyday Christians"connect the truth about God with our Monday-morning struggles."This interactive book, laid out in workbook fashion, is for newerChristians struggling with sin and for more mature Christians whohave plateaued in their faith as they seek to find victory over sinin their lives.

With a conviction that sanctification is God's work and thejourney to holiness is joyful, Chester guides readers through a"change project"-beginning with the selection of one area of lifethey would like to modify. Each chapter includes a question (e.g.,Why would you like to change? What truths do you need to turn to?)to guide readers as they deal with a specific sin or struggle,truths from God's word, and a reflection guide to help readersthrough their change project.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“We are called to be salt and light. Yet often the church fails to live differently. In our busy culture, we rarely spend time dealing with sinful areas of our lives; instead we try to sweep them under the carpet. Tim’s book is a biblical and practical challenge to the very root causes of ungodly patterns of behavior. Read it and allow God to change you!”
—Andy Frost, Director, Share Jesus International

“A wonderful book for those who are serious about personal change. For so many Christians the gulf between our aspirations and the reality of our daily Christian walk is very large. Here is very helpful material to help us bridge this gap and become the whole people God intended us to be.”
—Stephen Gaukroger, Senior Minister, Gold Hill Baptist Church

“A book about Christian growth that is neither quietistic nor moralistic is rare. A book that is truly practical is even rarer. Tim Chester’s new volume falls into both categories and therefore fills a gap.”
—Timothy Keller, Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City

“There are few books that are shockingly honest, carefully theological, and gloriously hopeful all at the same time. Tim Chester’s book You Can Change is all of these and more. He skillfully uses the deepest insights of the theology of the Word as a lens to help you understand yourself and the way of change and, in so doing, helps you to experience practically what you thought you already knew. The carefully crafted personal ‘reflection’ and ‘change project’ sections are worth the price of the book by themselves. It is wonderful to be reminded that you and I are not stuck, and it’s comforting to be guided by someone who knows well the road from where we are to where we need to be.”
—Paul David Tripp, President, Paul Tripp Ministries; author, What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage

About the Author

TIM CHESTER (PhD, University of Wales) is codirector of The Porterbrook Network, which equips individuals and churches to rediscover mission, and director of the Northern Training Institute, which provides integrated theological and missional training for church leaders. He is coleader of the Crowded House, a group of church-planting networks. Chester co-authored Total Church (Re:Lit), published by Crossway.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books (March 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433512319
• ISBN-13: 978-1433512315
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr Tim Chester is a director of the Porterbrook Institute which provides affordable, Bible-college level training for church leadership and missional church in the context of your ministry (www.porterbrookinstitute.org). He is a leader of The Crowded House, a church planting network (www.thecrowdedhouse.org). He blogs at www.timchester.co.uk. He has previously been Research and Policy Director for Tearfund UK and a part-time lecturer in missiology. He is the author of a number of books and series editor of The Good Book Guides (The Good Book Company). He is married with two daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best recent book on sanctification, November 16, 2010

By 

Joshua D. Reitano (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions (Paperback)

How does life change actually happen? This is a question I get asked as a pastor all the time. The best place to go to answer this question is, of course, the Bible. But then you need to walk through and synthesize a fairly wide range of passages in order to develop a coherent understanding of how real life change actually occurs. This is what Tim Chester attempts in his book YOU CAN CHANGE. And he does it extremely well.

Chester takes a gospel and heart centered approach to life change. Chester is indebted to the work of Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp (HOW PEOPLE CHANGE), but in many ways his book is superior to theirs. It is more concise, more clear, and the application exercises at the end of each chapter are extremely helpful. It's jargon free and accessible to people in pretty much any stage in the Christian life. This is a book I'd gladly hand out to people in my church. It works really good in study groups. This book would also be useful in teaching people to counsel others.

Highly recommended.

I am thinking too how one could build a teaching series on the themes in this book. This is my first stab at coming up with a topical-exegetical series:

1 - Be Transformed - 2 Cor. 3:13-18

2 - How Change Happens - Luke 18:9-14

3 - You Need a New Heart - Ezekiel 36:25-27

4 - Where Does Sin Come From? - Luke 6:43-45

5 - Replacing Lies With Truth - Eph 4:17-19

6 - Repentance - Colossians 3:5-11

7 - Godly Grief - 2 Corinthians 7:8-13

8 - The Harvest of Holiness - Galatians 6:7-8

9 - Community of Change - Ephesians 4:1-16

10 - The Long Haul - 1 Peter 2:11, Gal 5:17

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfu Book, April 20, 2010

By 

ryan - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions (Paperback)

Have you been looking for a book that does an amazing job of explaining clearly from the Bible about how we transform into becoming more like Jesus? Than stop and buy this one.

Many book on change, even if labeled Christian, can largely be filled with self-help content that fails to root our purpose, problem and solution in the Bible. This book does not do that. Tim Chester sets out to tell us exactly what this life is for and how God is in the business through the power of the Holy Spirit of transforming us more into the image of Jesus. He provides wonderful analogies and illustrations along they way of unpacking how people change and the good work that God is doing in us.

This is a book that anyone could read and profit from. From a pastor thinking about how to teach on the subject to their church, or a new believer trying to figure out what it means to leave their old sinful life behind. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and I am sure I will be buying many copies in the future and handing them out to friends.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grace and Hope for True Change, July 30, 2010

By 

Jeremy Oddy - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: You Can Change: God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions (Paperback)

This is another book to be added to your library if you are looking for a gospel-centered, God-empowered, application-friendly resource to help you and others. I highly recommend this book. The author rightly teaches that change is beyond and deeper than external behavior. It begins deep into our hearts to affect our thinking, behavior, and even our desires. Be challenged and encouraged by reading this book. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book: "A renewed affection for God is the only thing that will expel sinful desires...Tell someone to stop sinning and at best they may do so relunctantly and partially. But give them a vision of knowing God and his glory, and they'll gladly root out all that gets in the way of their relationship with God (Hebrews 12:1-3)" (p. 139).