Journeys

Discovering God's Paths of Spiritual Formation Building to a Strong Finish

By: Neil Cole

Narrated by: Neil Cole

In this completely rewritten and updated work, bestselling author Neil Cole takes us on a journey that makes the book of Acts come alive and the epistles of the New Testament fit into place in an easy-to-understand story.

Journeys provides fresh insights into the Apostle Paul's missional strategies and the lessons he learned that can help you to become a more effective agent of God’s work. Cole draws real-life applications for the adventures we all must face from Paul’s exceptional life.

This book has a narrative style that weaves together the story of the Apostle Paul, a running commentary on the book of Acts, and an insightful guide to the stages and processes that are integral to spiritual formation. New believers can find an accessible road map for their spiritual growth, and yet an accomplished New Testament scholar can discover solutions to life-long unanswered questions. You will learn the ways God forms your soul so that you can rise to have greater influence and finish stronger than you started.

©2024 Neil Cole (P)2024 Neil Cole

The biblical accuracy of the journeys of Paul.

I loved the simplicity and easy to understand narrative of this book. Journeys gave me an insight that I never had seen before nor understood regarding the Journeys of Paul and the early disciples. All four of Paul’s journeys seem to come alive as if I was there. Neil Cole closes the book with a statement I had to post on social media. It reads, “"If I had to choose, it would be to finish well in obedience to God rather than to finish comfortable.
A greater comfort is just a blink away from our final breath." In all of Paul’s travels you will see just how devoted to finish well he was. I highly recommend the audio version for those who are like me, and enjoy listening over reading. Hearing it from Neil Cole gave me a glimpse at how passionate and genuine he was when writing it. This book should help the “people of the way” to consider the tremendous price to pay in finishing well.

Finally, there are some great questions after each chapter that help with small group study or personal reflection.

Not a commentary on Acts

The book description describes it as “a running commentary on the book of Acts” that “brings Acts to life”.
It is not that.
There are entire chapters of Acts which don’t even get mentioned. And Cole spends most of his time trying to make personal applications to our lives from cherry picked episodes of Paul’s life.
Cole actually tells you up front that he id building the book on a particular model of stages of spiritual growth. That’s the driving force behind the book. Paul’s life and Acts are placed in service of illustrating this particular model (I can’t remember the name at the moment) of spiritual growth.
If that appeals to you, you might enjoy this book. But it’s definitely not what I thought I was getting.