Source: https://williamcbooks.com/gods-rules-of-thumb.html Book 1 · The God's Rules of Thumb series # God's Rules of Thumb 14 True Stories and the Timeless Bible Principles Behind Them **What you plant will grow.** 71 practical principles from the Bible, brought to life through 14 remarkable true stories, for anyone who wants their faith to work on a Monday morning. [Buy on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) About the book ## Real people. Real faith. Real consequences. A widow rescues thousands of starving girls with a train of bullock carts. A Rwandan woman forgives the man who killed her family. An Olympic champion refuses to run on a Sunday. And a phone giant loses almost everything because it wouldn't listen. *God's Rules of Thumb* takes 71 practical principles from the Bible and brings them to life through 14 remarkable true stories from around the world. Each chapter looks at one rule of thumb, from sowing and reaping to money, family, words, forgiveness, humility and honesty, and shows what Scripture actually says, in context. And it's honest. These principles describe how God's world usually works. They are not a vending machine, and every chapter says so plainly. ### Inside you'll find - 14 true stories from India, Rwanda, France, Finland, Scotland and beyond - 71 Bible principles explained in plain, everyday language - "What this doesn't promise" in every chapter: no prosperity gospel, no easy formulas - Three practical things to do each week, plus questions, a memory verse and a prayer - A cheat sheet of all 71 rules for your fridge - A 14-week practice plan and a small-group discussion guide [Buy now on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) Meet the people behind the stories ## Stories worth retelling **Abraham Lincoln** and the angry letter he never sent **C.S. Lewis** and the late-night walk with Tolkien that changed his life **Horatio Spafford**, who wrote "It Is Well With My Soul" after losing his four daughters at sea **Chuck Colson**, Nixon's "hatchet man", who found faith before he went to prison **Sonya Carson**, the mother who couldn't read but raised a world-famous surgeon **Immaculée Ilibagiza**, who hid for 91 days and then chose to forgive **Pandita Ramabai**, who rescued thousands of girls during famine in India **Eric Liddell**, the runner from *Chariots of Fire* [Read their stories](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) Read a sample · From Chapter 3, The Open Hand ## The woman with the bullock carts Rama Dongre was born in India in 1858, the daughter of a Hindu scholar from the Brahmin caste, the highest in Indian society. Her father did something almost unheard of in his day. He taught his wife and his daughters Sanskrit, the sacred language of the Hindu scriptures, which women weren't supposed to learn. The family lived on the road, travelling from town to town as pilgrims, with her father reading the scriptures in return for whatever people chose to give. Then, in the late 1870s, a terrible famine swept across India. Rama watched her father, her mother and her sister die of starvation. She and her brother kept walking, thousands of kilometres across India, until they reached Calcutta in 1878. There, the scholars of the city tested this young woman on the scriptures, and were so astonished that they gave her the title Pandita, meaning learned teacher. She was the first woman ever honoured with it. From then on she was known as Pandita Ramabai. The hard years weren't over. Her brother died. She married a lawyer from a lower caste, which scandalised many people, and less than two years later he died of cholera, leaving her a widow in her early twenties with a baby daughter, Manorama. Now she knew from the inside what it meant to be a widow in India at that time. Many widows, some of them only children who'd been married off young, were treated as bad luck and shut away from the world. Ramabai decided to give her life to them. In 1883 she travelled to England to study, hoping to become a doctor. There, among a community of Christian sisters, she met Jesus, and she and her daughter were baptised. She went on to America, where she wrote a book about the plight of Indian women and won a group of supporters who promised to help her. In 1889 she went home and opened a school for child widows in Bombay, later moving it to Poona. Then she bought a hundred acres of stony, waterless farmland at Kedgaon, near Poona. She and her helpers dug wells, put up buildings and called the place Mukti, which means freedom or salvation. In 1896 famine struck India again. Ramabai remembered what famine had done to her own family. So she set out for the hardest-hit areas with a train of bullock carts and brought back starving girls and young widows, some of them dressed in rags. In the first couple of years she rescued about 300. When another famine came in 1900, she went again. By 1901 almost 2,000 women and children were living at Mukti. *What happened next, and the Bible principle behind it, is in Chapter 3.* [Read the rest of the story](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) From the introduction ## Rules of thumb, not guarantees Before tape measures, builders and farmers used their thumbs. The width of a thumb was roughly an inch. It wasn't perfectly accurate, but it was close enough, most of the time, to build a wall, plant a row or cut a plank. The Bible is full of rules like that: simple, practical, right most of the time. There's one thing I need to say clearly before we start. These principles describe how God's world usually works. They are not a vending machine. Some books and preachers take verses like these and turn them into promises: do this, and God must give you that. Give money, and you'll get rich. Think positive, and it'll happen. Raise your kids right, and they'll never stray. The Bible doesn't work like that, and neither does life. Good people suffer. Generous people struggle. Faithful parents watch children wander. Job was the most righteous man of his day, and he lost everything. Jesus lived perfectly, and He was crucified. That's why every chapter has a section called "What this doesn't promise", and why chapter 7 is given entirely to what happens when the harvest doesn't come. If you're in a hard season right now, you might even want to read that chapter first. Rules of thumb are still worth living by. A builder who uses his thumb gets the wall roughly straight. A person who lives by God's principles will, over time, usually find life goes better than it would have otherwise. But we don't follow them to get something out of God. We follow them because they're His ways, and His ways are good, and He is good, even when life isn't. A taste of the rules ## Not a guarantee. A reliable guide. Simple enough to fit on a fridge magnet, deep enough to shape a life. Here are three of the 71. ### What you plant will grow What you do today is what you'll be living in tomorrow. Plant good things, keep at it, and in time you'll see a harvest. Galatians 6:7–9 ### The open hand Generous people tend to find their own lives filled up. Give, and it will be given to you. Luke 6:38 ### The way up is down Pride usually comes before a fall. Humility usually comes before honour. Proverbs 16:18 [Get all 71 rules](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) What's inside ## Fourteen chapters, fourteen rules of thumb Each chapter opens with a true story, then looks at one main Bible principle in context, a life from Scripture that shows it, the principle's close cousins, its honest limits, and practical steps for the week. 1 ### What You Plant Will Grow Sowing and reaping: what the Bible says about consequences, patience and the long game. **True story:** Jadav Payeng, the teenager who planted a forest in India **Key passage:** Galatians 6:7–9 2 ### Diamonds in Your Own Field Faithful in the little things: work, diligence and making the most of what's in front of you. **True story:** The diamonds under South Africa's farms, and a 61-year-old potato farmer who won an ultramarathon **Key passage:** Luke 16:10 3 ### The Open Hand Generosity and giving: why open hands tend to be filled. **True story:** Pandita Ramabai and the bullock carts that rescued thousands **Key passage:** Luke 6:38 4 ### Enough Money, debt and contentment: what the Bible says about borrowing and being satisfied. **True story:** Ronald Read, the janitor with a secret fortune **Key passage:** Proverbs 22:7 5 ### Honour Starts at Home Family, parenting and honouring your parents. **True story:** Sonya Carson, the mother who couldn't read, and her son Ben **Key passage:** Ephesians 6:2–3 6 ### Words That Build The power of the tongue: anger, gentleness, listening and encouragement. **True story:** Abraham Lincoln's furious letter that was never sent **Key passage:** Proverbs 18:21 7 ### When the Harvest Doesn't Come Suffering and unanswered prayer: when life doesn't follow the rules. **True story:** Horatio Spafford and "It Is Well With My Soul" **Key passage:** Job and Ecclesiastes 8 ### What Goes Around The Golden Rule: kindness, mercy and how we treat people. **True story:** Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, the French village that hid refugees **Key passage:** Matthew 7:12 9 ### Setting Prisoners Free Forgiveness: what it is, what it isn't, and why it sets you free. **True story:** Immaculée Ilibagiza and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda **Key passage:** Matthew 6:14–15 10 ### Who You Walk With Friendship and influence: choosing wise company. **True story:** C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and a late-night walk in Oxford **Key passage:** Proverbs 13:20 11 ### The Way Up Is Down Pride and humility in leadership, business and life. **True story:** George Washington's resignation, and how Nokia lost its lead **Key passage:** Proverbs 16:18 12 ### Guard the Wellspring Your thought life: worry, hope and what you dwell on. **True story:** Nick Vujicic, born without arms or legs **Key passage:** Proverbs 23:7 13 ### Nothing Hidden Honesty, confession and second chances. **True story:** Chuck Colson, from Watergate to Prison Fellowship **Key passage:** Proverbs 28:13 14 ### Choose Life Obedience and blessing: honouring God with your choices. **True story:** Eric Liddell and the race he wouldn't run on a Sunday **Key passage:** Deuteronomy 30:19 [Buy now on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) Who it's for ## Read it alone, together, or in a group ### On your own One chapter a week, with three simple things to try. The 14-week plan at the back keeps you on track. ### With your husband or wife Read the same chapter and talk through the three questions over dinner or on a walk. ### In a small group A ready-made discussion guide with questions for every chapter. Ideal for Bible studies, men's and women's groups. [Get a copy for your group](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) Questions ## Questions readers ask Which Bible translation does it use? Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB 2020), with references throughout so you can look everything up yourself. Is it a prosperity gospel book? No. Every chapter has a section called "What this doesn't promise", and a whole chapter is given to what happens when the harvest doesn't come. God's principles are reliable guides, not guarantees. Is it good for small groups? Yes. There's a small-group discussion guide with questions for every chapter, plus a 14-week practice plan. Are the stories true? Yes. Every story is drawn from published sources, listed at the back of the book. Where a detail is uncertain or disputed, the book says so. What does the Bible say about sowing and reaping? Galatians 6:7–9 says a person reaps what they sow, and encourages us not to grow weary in doing good. Chapter 1 explores this through the story of Jadav Payeng, who planted a forest one tree at a time. What does the Bible say about debt? Proverbs 22:7 says the borrower becomes the lender's slave, and Hebrews 13:5 calls us to be content with what we have. Chapter 4 looks at money, debt and contentment, with a list of free debt-help services at the back of the book. What does the Bible say about forgiveness? Jesus taught that forgiving others and being forgiven go together (Matthew 6:14–15). Chapter 9 explains what forgiveness is and isn't, through the story of Immaculée Ilibagiza. What does the Bible say about the power of words? Proverbs 18:21 says death and life are in the power of the tongue. Chapter 6 covers anger, gentleness, listening and encouragement, with Abraham Lincoln's unsent letter. What does the Bible say about pride and humility? Proverbs 16:18 warns that pride goes before destruction. Chapter 11 shows humility at work in leadership and business, from George Washington to Nokia. What does the Bible say when good people suffer? The books of Job and Ecclesiastes are honest that righteous people still suffer. Chapter 7 is given entirely to what happens when the harvest doesn't come. [Buy now on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) ## Plant something good today Get your copy of *God's Rules of Thumb* today. [Buy now on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPTNCMW4) Written by [William C.](index.html#about), husband, dad of three, and ordinary follower of Jesus.