Lessons from San Quentin - My Review

I’m going to state up front that I think every Christian could learn valuable lessons from the book, Lessons from San Quintin. This book not only tells of Bill Dallas’ personal experience of his time spent inside the walls of San Quinton, but it tells of the transforming power of God’s grace and mercy and how He truly orchestrates every event in our life for our good and His glory. Truly readers, this is going on my favorites list. This book is powerful!!

When I first started reading, I was prepared for a dry, autobiographical “look-what-I-overcame” kind of story. What I received was abundant blessing, transforming life lessons and a reminder that through the shed blood of Jesus Christ we can live each day of our lives in joyful victory. I mean I was truly blessed! Bill Dallas states what you would think would be obvious to all of us who name the name of Christ. However, what you learn as you read is that many times, even though we are forgiven, we allow ourselves to become influenced by the “me-first” mentality of the world around us. To live that way throws the door wide open for all of us to become failures – to miss out on the full, abundant life that God has planned for each of us.

Each chapter takes the reader progressively through Bill’s San Quintin experience, but ultimately the chapter closes with thought-provoking major points of focus that Bill gleaned from his time in prison. If you are like me, you will find yourself frantically taking notes and jotting down page numbers. These are insights that you want to remember and implement. I love this thought on page 60: “San Quintin dislodged my perception of the church as an institution and redefined it as a unified group of sinners who were so thrilled to be accepted by God that they accepted everyone who wanted to join them on the journey.” Don’t you want to be like that? I know I do!!

At the end of each chapter there is an even greater distillation of the chapter’s message contained in a “Tansforming Principle.” I’m considering just typing them up in a list as a reminder to myself of what really matters in this life. I know this is a book I will revisit many times. I encourage you to take the time to enjoy this very rich, wonderfully encouraging look into a fellow Christian’s life. I plan to share this with those who attend my class at the local rehab center. I think the impact will be incredible.

This is a NOT TO BE MISSED title folks! Lessons from San Quintin, published by Tyndale….go here to learn all about it, and then purchase your own copy and prepare to be blessed!