Amazon.com
When doctor and author Rachel Naomi Remen (Kitchen Table Wisdom) was young, she was caught between two different views of life: that of her rabbi grandfather and that of her highly academic, research-oriented parents, who believed religion was the opiate of the masses. As Remen gravitated toward academics and serving the world as a medical doctor, her grandfather became an "island of mysticism in a vast sea of science." But over time, Remen discovered that two seemingly divergent paths could lead to the same destination, especially as she learned to blend her spiritual beliefs with her medical treatment.
Remen uses the heart-rending stories of her patients to teach readers how to follow in her example, that is, combining a life of service with a life of receiving and giving blessings (a combination that avoids common problems such as burnout, self-sacrifice, and navel gazing). Remen also includes personal stories of her grandfather, who showered the world with his mystical beliefs and wizened blessings. While this story-by-story structure is similar to the bestselling Kitchen Table Wisdom, it is still a tearful and satisfying formula. --Gail Hudson
Book Description
As a small child, Rachel Remen sat at the feet of her grandfather, an orthodox rabbi and scholar of the kabbalah, and learned the secret of life: that love and blessings given to others heals our loneliness, unhappiness, and in fact all our wounds. Remen uses her power as a master storyteller to bring to life the extraordinary blessings of ordinary existence. These exquisite pieces show us how we bless and serve each other most often without knowing it, how much life gives to us, and how many of our own blessings we have still yet to receive.
There is nothing more comforting than hearing Rachel's grandfather speak of love, life, and God to a small, lonely, and very spiritual child who was trying to find her way in an unspiritual world. These are stories for keeping at the bedside, for those dark nights when we go out in search of our souls.
Rachel's grandfather has blessed not only his beloved granddaughter but, through her, has blessed us all.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful.......2007-09-24
I love this book - it's absolutely beautiful. The stories can help you grow. I would recommend this treasure to anyone.
A Blessing to Read.......2007-09-14
Easy to Read, Much food for thought.....Life lessons for all of us to learn and use. Short chapters with a new theme in each. Can read short snippets at a time.
A Blessing In Itself.......2007-07-22
I feel bad. Apparently, I'm only the 6th person out of 47 people to give this book anything less than a 5-star rating. And there's only one reason I did that. As a writer myself, I feel that there are too many stories in this book. Some of these little narratives just aren't as powerful or focused as others. And I would have left them out. But please don't let that get in the way of your enjoyment of this wonderful work. It is every bit as inspiring, uplifting, and profound as most of the other reviewers say it is. I especially like the common theme I see running through most of the pieces presented here. And that's the idea that the wholeness of an individual not only includes his or her health, talents and accomplishments, but his or her pain, suffering, shortcomings, and illnesses, too. In life we are called to embrace it all, and resist nothing. And that is the key to a life that is truly fulfilling and rewarding.
Steven Lane Taylor, author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat: A Guide For Living Life In The Divine Flow
One not to be missed.......2007-05-19
I have found My Grandfather's Blessings to be among the most moving books I have ever read. Each brief story can stand on its own. The author relates a simple incident, as many of us have lived, but then goes on in a simple and succinct manner to reveal a deeper meaning within the experience. Ms. Remen does not talk down to the reader, but rather sweeps us up into the experience with her. Upon finishing this book, I immediately ordered five more and sent them out to friends.
A wonderful surprise!.......2007-05-10
A friend recommended this book to me, but I wasn't that interested in reading it because the title sounded too sentimental. I took a chance on it anyway and found it to be one of the best books I've read in a long time. It's not sentimental at all. It's a series of true accounts from the author about what it really means to be connected to one another and what it really means to be a human being--open, vulnerable, and accessible. Death too is included in our human experience, meeting it with trust and intelligence. It's a book you can take your time with, savor, and pass along to a true friend.
Customer Reviews:
Three Joe Leaphorn Mysteries.......2005-07-24
---"The Blessing Way"---
"He stirs, he stirs, he stirs, he stirs,"
"Among the lands of dawning, he stirs, he stirs.
The pollen of dawning, he stirs, he stirs.
Now in old age wandering, he stirs, he stirs.
Now on the trail of beauty, he stirs,
Talking God, he stirs..."
It is in the 1970's pre-cell phone where parallel lives take place. We have an Indian wanted for a stabbing who turns up dead. Not just dead but in the wrong place. Not the wrong place but in a mysterious way. There is also a team of archeologists looking into which craft (they just may find it). One archeologist seems to be missing. A strange Navaho has his hat stolen but the silver hat band left. A woman is coming to visit her fiancé is in for an adventure she did not count on. From all of this Joe Leaphorn must make some sort of sense.
It is the descriptiveness of Tony Hillerman that goes beyond the mystery to pant a picture of a different world that we get to glimpse in the process of reading.
Read the book but the addition of the voice of George Guidall ads a dimension to the story by helping visualize the people and correcting pronunciation of certain words. I suggest you read the book and listen to the recorded version.
----------------------------------------
---"Dance Hall of the Dead"---
The Fire God is missing
Twelve-year-old Ernesto Cata (Zuñi) is practicing to be the Fire God in a local ceremony. His best buddy George Bowlegs (Navaho) is a Zuñi wana-be.
Ernesto is missing and there is a pool of blood by his bike. The next day his buddy George runs off. It is up to Sgt. Joe Leaphorn to find the boys before anything happens to them (if it has not already.)
As with most of Hillerman's novels everyone has different agendas and stories that overlap. There are alleged stolen artifacts form and archeological dig, and possibly a drug interest. They may or may not interact. We also get a good dose of Zuñi culture, and a feel that we are in the area.
Hillerman is nice enough to leave sufficient clues to let you figure out the mystery before Leaphorn and you then get to watch as he finally comes around to your way of thinking.
Another book by Hillerman "The Boy who Made Dragonfly" further describes the dance hall of the dead (Kothluwalawa.)
Author's Note:
"In this book, the setting is genuine. The village of Zuñi and the landscape of the Zuñi reservation are depicted to the best of my ability. The characters are purely fictional. The view the reader receives of the Sha'lak'o religion is as it might be seen by a Navajo with an interest in ethnology. It does not pretend to be more than that."
--------------------------------
---"Listening Woman"---
A great cliff hanger
Joe Leaphorn can put the loose ends together even when no one else realizes there are loose ends. The story starts out with an old man being bludgeoned and later Leaphorn is intentionally almost rundown by a mysterious man in gold rimed glasses. He tries to tie these together. Then he uses an old robbery as an excuse to get out of a Boy Scout commitment and track down the antagonist. Needles to say the story gets more convoluted for everyone but Leaphorn.
This is an excellent story with the added plus of the description of the area and the Navaho that occupies this area. What seems at first to be over description later enhances the final scenes.
Speaking about the location and Navaho, even the schools, this story is even more enjoyable if you read "Seldom Disappointed" first. Tony describes how he comes by the plot and the people. He even goes out to locations first as research.
I have read the book but the addition of the voice of George Guidall adds a dimension to the story by helping visualize the people and correcting pronunciation of certain words. I suggest you read the book and listen to the recorded version.
You'll Enjoy Hillerman's Flights of Imagination.......2000-07-17
In this volume, encompassing three novels, we are introduced to Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, educated at a White college yet living on the reservation, and discover some of the ways of the Dineh, the people. The subject novels -- "The Blessing Way," "Dance Hall of the Dead," and "Listening Women" were written between 1970 and 1978, and deal with the effects of jealousy, greed, rage, and revenge brought onto the Navajo reservation by outsiders. Hillerman has an unerring talent for using small bits of Indian culture to weave convincing stories laced with an inticate pattern of mystery.
From day one, Hillerman has been a successful mystery writer. He writes with integrity about the lives of the Southwest Indians (emphasis on the Navajo) with perception and understanding. Hillerman has won many fans with his series of mysteries but some in the Navajo nation are disturbed over a White author writing about their "ways" even though Hillerman doesn't get into secret tribal matters. Regardless, Hillerman has fostered a lot of good will for the Navajo, the Zuni, and the Hopi with his large audience of readers.
Over the years, the possibilities inherent in the mystery formula have become exhausted. Hillerman has developed, within the framework of the formula, a Navajo policeman who solves crimes with a mixture of modern and ancient skills and also educates readers about Navajo beliefs. Hillerman's stories don't challenge a reader's intellect. That isn't the author's intention. What he produces is a likable hero, descriptions of fabulous scenery, unobtrusive murders, and the absorbing lives of the Navajo. The author ably works the White and the Idnian worlds as he explains the reality of Whites and some off-reservation Indians intruding on the reservation and the resulting conflicts. In Hillerman's mysteries the reservation Indians always win.
The author's writing skills are evident as he mixes the acts and thoughts of different individuals smoothly and coherently in "The Blessing Way." The author employs McKee, a close friend of Leaphorn, to do most of the work. McKee deduces, faces danger, solves dilemmas, but Leaphorn actually ties the loose ends together at the finale. Leaphorn reveals clues but you'll be none the wiser unless you have some knowledge of Southwestern weather, fauna, hieroglyphics, Indian beliefs, and similar arcana.
The author uses the "Dance hall of the Dead," to really educate a reader in SW Indian lore. The central point to the story is an archeological excavation and the disruption brought by the White man to the reservation. Navajo mysticism pervades this murder mystery. We learn about the Beautiful Mesa Families, who elected to die when Kit Carson arrived in 1864; Zuni Indian spirits who join the Kachinas and become one of them; the Navajo Chindi who spread sickness and evil among the Dineh; and the Shalako Ceremony which grants fertility to crops and brings needed rain to the desert regions of the reservation.
In the "Listening Women," Hopi ways are introduced as are the Navajo concepts of -- Remaining in harmony with the universe; Navajo wolves identified as men and women who turn from harmony to chaos and assume the guise of Coyotes, Dogs, Wolves, and Bears in order to spread sickness among the Dineh; Disharmonious sand paintings which can cause death; and Destruction of tradtitional Kiowa medicine bundles when the Buffalo disappeared. While this quantity of information might seem daunting to a reader, author Hillerman allows Joe Leaphorn to solve a murder while smoothly inculcating a reader in Native American lore.
The author has applied a gentle and refined twist to the mystery formula by creating an intriguing product employing Southwest Indian lore, the masterful Joe Leaphorn, and a little murder or two wrappoed up in a pleasing package. Try Tony Hillerman's mysteries, you'll enjoy his flights of imagination.
My first Hillerman book, it made me buy all the others!.......1997-11-10
The Joe Leaphorn mysteries by Tony Hillerman have become one of my favorite reads. I never thought that I would be interested in mysteries set on an indian reservation but this book changed all that. After reading this book I found and read every Hillerman book I could find and watch the lists for new ones. I have also learned a lot about reservation life and have a new-found respect and understanding of what life is like for the American Indian today. Kudos to Tony Hillerman!
Average customer rating:
- Worthwhile if you like Hillerman
- Brilliant first novel
- WHAT HAPPENED TO BERGEN MCKEE?
- In Indian country everyone knows everyone else
- Even Grandma loves this mystery!
|
The Blessing Way (Joe Leaphorn Novels)
Tony Hillerman
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 General
| Mystery
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Police Procedurals
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Hillerman, Tony
| ( H )
| Authors, A-Z
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
( H )
| Authors, A-Z
| Mystery & Thrillers
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Mystery
| Mystery & Thrillers
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Police Procedurals
| Mystery & Thrillers
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Listening Woman (Joe Leaphorn Novels)
-
Dance Hall of the Dead
-
The Dark Wind (Jim Chee Novels)
-
People of Darkness (Jim Chee Novels)
-
The Ghostway
ASIN: 0061000019 |
Book Description
Homicide is always an abomination, but there is something exceptionally disturbing about the victim discovered in a high lonely place -- a corpse with a mouth full of sand, abandoned at a crime scene seemingly devoid of tracks or useful clues. Though it goes against his better judgment, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn cannot help but suspect the hand of a supernatural killer. There is palpable evil in the air, and Leaphorn's pursuit of a Wolf-Witch is leading him where even the bravest men fear ... on a chilling trail that winds perilously between mysticism and murder.
Customer Reviews:
Worthwhile if you like Hillerman.......2007-09-21
This is Hillerman's first novel (at least with NM tribal police). While the character of Joe Leaphorn is not drawn out much, it still is a good read. There is a considerable amount of action taking place thanks to a spunky archeologist trying to save himself and a woman in the Anasazi ruins.
If you compare it with the recent Hillerman novel, The Shape Shifter, there is a dramatic difference. There Joe Leaphorn is on center stage, his wisdom and gentleness coming across, with all of the action happening at the very end.
Brilliant first novel.......2007-03-30
This novel was a brilliant beginning for one of my favorite mystery authors.
WHAT HAPPENED TO BERGEN MCKEE?.......2007-03-30
I have read nearly everything that Tony Hillerman has written and, ironically, I read THE BLESSING WAY, one of Hillerman's first books, last. Doing so has given me some interesting perspectives about Hillerman and his stories.
It's interesting to me, for example, that Joe Leaphorn emerged as such a hero in subsequent Hillerman stories while it is Bergen McKee who is literally the star of THE BLESSING WAY. Truly, Leaphorn, if you think about it, is a supporting cast member in a story that highlights McKee's adventures from start to finish. Had he wanted to, Hillerman could have based an entire series of stories on McKee. His character is absolutely compelling--kind of a nerdy Indiana Jones out to discover the darker side of Navajo mysteries and myths. But even with his more bookish nature, McKee is still resourceful enough to outwit virtually all of the villains that Hillerman puts him up against.
Don't get me wrong. I can certainly see how THE BLESSING WAY spawned Leaphorn and his legend. There is certainly enough of him here to keep things interesting. But I would have loved it had Hillerman chosen to include McKee in a few more of his stories.
THE HORSEMAN
In Indian country everyone knows everyone else.......2007-01-10
In the beginning, Luis Horseman was not destroyed by the Navajo Wolf. He was one hundred miles north of Window Rock where Joe Leaphorn worked. One of Leaphorn's files concerned Horseman. Leaphorn thought he knew where Horseman was. Bergen KcKee, a witchcraft researcher, was in Albuquerque, four hundred miles to the east. McKee's wife had left him six years earlier, after he was granted tenure on the Anthropology faculty of the University of New Mexico. He had lost his enthusiasm for reasearch in his field, Navajo superstitions.
Horseman was wanted by the police for cutting a Mexican in Gallup. Leaphorn and McKee traveled to a trading post where Leaphorn could pursue law enforcement inquiries and McKee his witchcraft inquiries. A boy herding sheep for his uncle's bro.-in-law had actually seen the Navajo Wolf. Joseph Begay was of Navajo-Pueblo blood. He followed the Navajo Way, building his hogan in tradtional fashion. The Navajo Way was the Middle Way, avoiding all excesses. Begay believed an owl was acting strangely. Begay discovered Horseman's body.
An informant, Old Woman Gray Rocks, believed that the Navajo Wolf was a stranger. When McKee returned to the place he and another anthropologist, Canfied, were camping, he found that Canfield was missing, a possible victim of foul play. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn questioned a Navajo elder about whether a witch would be killed by smothering a person in sand. Sand was used in Luis Horseman's death. Leaphorn learned the answer was no. Leaphorn discovered from asking people the witch was a man and that he had been on foot.
Mckee saw the Navajo Wolf with a machine pistol. He entered McKee's tent to reconnoitre. Next the Navajo Wolf called out that he needed to talk with McKee about Dr. Canfield. Joe Leaphorn knew who had killed Horseman, the Big Navajo seen at the trading post, and why Horseman had been killed. He believed that Billy Nez, Horseman's sixteen year-old brother, was going to Horseman's hiding place and he feared for Nez's safety and followed him. Bergen McKee felt that the Big Navajo was a relocation Navajo, someone from a family moved from the reservation in the 1930's to an urban center.
After considerable excitement, Billy Nez ends up saving MckKee's life. Subsequently Leaphorn entered the scene and solved the many strands of the mystery This book contains a considerable amount of cultural information.
Even Grandma loves this mystery!.......2006-11-06
Our family has such a love for Tony Hillerman's novels about Navajo Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee that we pass them around the family so everyone can read them. Once done, we re-read them!
Recently 86-year-old Grandma joined the fun and loves reading them too. The Blessing Way is one of the first in the series, so it's a great starter novel.
Enjoy!
Book Description
This innovative guide to planning a personalized "mother shower" provides a blueprint for woman-to-woman support of expectant and new mothers.
Customer Reviews:
A woman-centered celebration.......2004-10-30
Blessingways: A Guide to Mother-Centered Baby Showers is a resource especially for planning and hosting Blessingway baby showers that foster a bond of community, support and connectedness for the mother-to-be. The distinguishing feature of a Blessingway baby shower is that it is a woman-centered celebration, that especially focuses upon the strength, beauty, and metamorphosis of the female powers of the expectant mother, rather than the more typical baby-centered parties used to accumulate goods for the newborn. Blessingways outlines how to plan and host a mother-centered bonding, rituals such as music, evocations, grooming actions including hairbrushing, headwreaths, and belly art, sharing circles, reaching out across long distance, and much more. Notes on Blessingway variations in response to adoption or grieving the loss of a baby are also included. Black-and-white illustrations and simple music for the songs that can be sung round out this uplifting, meaningful guide to helping new mothers across a difficult yet fantastic journey.
Book For Those Who Appreciate the Beauty of Pregnancy.......2004-10-07
Here is a wonderful tool for planning a really personalized baby shower! This book is great for those wanting to plan a different kind of baby-shower for the pregnant woman in your life. It has so many wonderful ideas and suggestions to make any baby related event meaningful and fun for all involved. It is easy to follow, engaging and fun to look at, and filled with suggestions you can draw from. I have even modified ideas from this book to create an event around other life changes such as for a friend who was moving away and a graduation of a daughter. It really has a lot to offer.
The book also makes a great gift for a pregnant woman. Blessingways is packed with great ideas which a pregnant woman may want to take advantage of on her own. Pregnancy is such a short time and I tell the pregnant women I work with to be intentional about what they want from these 9 months. This book is a great place to go to get some ideas to be sure you make the most of your nine months pregnant with this child.
Finally the book is a good resource for professionals who work with pregnant and expecting couples, providing them with ideas on small touches they could add to their services which would enhance a couple's experience. I highly recommend it!
"Blessingways" builds sisterhood and honors motherhood .......2004-09-17
Not only does Maser inspire us to create beautiful, personalized ceremony for our pregnant friends and family, she writes about the process with wisdom and simplicity. I bought "Blessingways" to give as a gift, but found myself reading it diligently. I am not pregnant, nor do I have close friends or family who are expecting; and yet I was engaged entirely by the history, stories and creative suggestions included in this wonderful book. Every woman should own a copy of "Blessingways", and every woman should consider offering the incredible gift of a blessingway to her loved ones.
Customer Reviews:
Three Joe Leaphorn Mysteries.......2004-11-02
---"The Blessing Way"---
"He stirs, he stirs, he stirs, he stirs,"
"Among the lands of dawning, he stirs, he stirs.
The pollen of dawning, he stirs, he stirs.
Now in old age wandering, he stirs, he stirs.
Now on the trail of beauty, he stirs,
Talking God, he stirs..."
It is in the 1970's pre-cell phone where parallel lives take place. We have an Indian wanted for a stabbing who turns up dead. Not just dead but in the wrong place. Not the wrong place but in a mysterious way. There is also a team of archeologists looking into which craft (they just may find it). One archeologist seems to be missing. A strange Navaho has his hat stolen but the silver hat band left. A woman is coming to visit her fiancé is in for an adventure she did not count on. From all of this Joe Leaphorn must make some sort of sense.
It is the descriptiveness of Tony Hillerman that goes beyond the mystery to pant a picture of a different world that we get to glimpse in the process of reading.
Read the book but the addition of the voice of George Guidall ads a dimension to the story by helping visualize the people and correcting pronunciation of certain words. I suggest you read the book and listen to the recorded version.
----------------------------------------
---"Dance Hall of the Dead"---
The Fire God is missing
Twelve-year-old Ernesto Cata (Zuñi) is practicing to be the Fire God in a local ceremony. His best buddy George Bowlegs (Navaho) is a Zuñi wana-be.
Ernesto is missing and there is a pool of blood by his bike. The next day his buddy George runs off. It is up to Sgt. Joe Leaphorn to find the boys before anything happens to them (if it has not already.)
As with most of Hillerman's novels everyone has different agendas and stories that overlap. There are alleged stolen artifacts form and archeological dig, and possibly a drug interest. They may or may not interact. We also get a good dose of Zuñi culture, and a feel that we are in the area.
Hillerman is nice enough to leave sufficient clues to let you figure out the mystery before Leaphorn and you then get to watch as he finally comes around to your way of thinking.
Another book by Hillerman "The Boy who Made Dragonfly" further describes the dance hall of the dead (Kothluwalawa.)
Author's Note:
"In this book, the setting is genuine. The village of Zuñi and the landscape of the Zuñi reservation are depicted to the best of my ability. The characters are purely fictional. The view the reader receives of the Sha'lak'o religion is as it might be seen by a Navajo with an interest in ethnology. It does not pretend to be more than that."
--------------------------------
---"Listening Woman"---
A great cliff hanger
Joe Leaphorn can put the loose ends together even when no one else realizes there are loose ends. The story starts out with an old man being bludgeoned and later Leaphorn is intentionally almost rundown by a mysterious man in gold rimed glasses. He tries to tie these together. Then he uses an old robbery as an excuse to get out of a Boy Scout commitment and track down the antagonist. Needles to say the story gets more convoluted for everyone but Leaphorn.
This is an excellent story with the added plus of the description of the area and the Navaho that occupies this area. What seems at first to be over description later enhances the final scenes.
Speaking about the location and Navaho, even the schools, this story is even more enjoyable if you read "Seldom Disappointed" first. Tony describes how he comes by the plot and the people. He even goes out to locations first as research.
I have read the book but the addition of the voice of George Guidall adds a dimension to the story by helping visualize the people and correcting pronunciation of certain words. I suggest you read the book and listen to the recorded version.
Customer Reviews:
Godly Wife.......2007-06-27
WOW!! This book is great at telling women what God says about being a godly wife. This can be a touchy subject in todays society cause women want to be in control, but we must follow God's ways. Submission is freedom. This book has changed my marriage and helps me guide other women as well. I give this to my girlfriends as a gift to their family. All women should read this book if they are married or thinking about marriage.
The Obedience of the Christian Wife.......2007-05-01
This is a discussion of the submission of the Christian wife. The first chapter explores the reasons God commanded it, and then the book goes on to cover the Scriptures that direct wives to submit, and what they mean. Biblical examples are given, and questions about rights and tyrannical authority are answered. Basically, the author shows that God expects the wife to always obey her husband. She understands that sometimes husbands request or require things contrary to the Word of God, and in that case, disobedience is necessary. However, she says that she has never seen a husband being abusive or insisting that the wife sin when the wife has been in submission with a sweet spirit. Just because she has never seen it, of course, doesn't mean it doesn't occur, but she says that usually the spirit of a truly submissive wife will provoke tenderness in her husband. After all, Handford's audience is not primarily those in arranged marriages, but those who entered marriage voluntarily, as did their husbands. She shows from Biblical directives and examples that no matter the husband's character, we are to respect and submit to him. If it is not his virtues (as most are sinners), we are at least to honor his position as husband and head of the home. But then on the other hand, this should not be too hard, as most of us at least entered marriage with love for our husbands.
My mother gave me this book a few months before I was married, and I thought it was very helpful. I already wanted to bless and honor my husband, but this book reinforced the Scriptures, and I think it was good for me to remember to keep the right attitude toward the Lord and my husband. I would definitely recommend the book to engaged women, new wives, or wives unsure of their position, or wives who simply want to review what God says about submission to their husbands.
Modern Day Tragedy.......2006-08-01
A book encouraging women to give up their free will and obey their husbands as though they were children. You'd think it was an urban legend, but no. In fact, this tragic misuse of the Bible has been going on for centuries, begun by the fact that Paul's comparison of the relationship between the husband and wife to the relationship of Christ and the church has been grossly misunderstood. People have taken this to mean that the husband has irrefutible authority over the wife, just as Christ has absolute and unquestionable authority over His church, but this is NOT the case. Paul was speaking of the give and take relationship between Christ and the church, the love and devotion it takes both sides to commit. Now, of course Christ is the authority of His church AS WELL as the source of it, but Paul was, in that particular passage, only speaking of Christ as source and nurturer of the church because it is THAT aspect of His relationship with it that marriage is supposed to reflect, not the authority part. Furthermore, the reason Christ is the authority is because He can never, will never, lead the Church astray! He is perfect, unerring. Husbands, on the other hand, are not; like any other human, they can lead others astray. This alone should be enough to dissuade wives from wanting to obey their husbands.
If you believe in obeying your husband inspite of these facts, that's your choice. However, I still don't recommend you read this book. Even if we were to obey our husbands, it wouldn't be in the way that this book advises; heck, children shouldn't obey their parents the way this book says! Handford advises that you should not refuse your husband even if he asks you to get an abortion. Rather than getting an abortion or outrightly disobeying your husband, she says you should pray for the problem to go away, and it will. Two major logical faults with this: number one, by not getting an abortion, you ARE disobeying your husband; just because you don't tell him doesn't mean that you're not. Now, I'm not saying that a woman SHOULD get an abortion; I'm saying she should say no outright instead of hoping and praying it will go away. That leads me to problem number two with Handford's advice: why keep silent? If ANYONE tells you to do something sinful, don't beat around the bush; give them a flat-out NO. That is your right.
The idea of obeying your husband is always accompanied by the equally wrong idea of using him as your spiritual covering. Our husbands can NOT cover us from sin; that is God's job. To expect a husband to do so is frankly unfair to him. Our spouses have their own sins to worry about; don't expect them to shoulder ours as well, as this book encourages. It seems to me that certain overburdened women would like to believe that they can relinquish their burdens by placing them on their husbands. Ladies, I think you are sensible enough to know that this is not only wrong, but unBiblical! God wants us to humble ourselves, true, but that doesn't mean placing ourselves beneath our husbands.
I find it sad that certain women think Satan tries to hurt us by keeping us AWAY from these books. It's the opposite; he'd love for us to twist God's words about submission to the point where we're idolizing our husbands and that's exactly what Handford has done. So many times books advise women not to treat themselves like goddesses and then advise treating their husbands like gods instead. That's just as wrong as treating yourself like God; there's only one God and He is not us or our husbands. It is beyond me why certain women glorify the position beneath a man's shoe, particularly with comments such as "submission is freedom" (meaning one-sided submission, not the healthy sort). Sure..and war is peace, ignorance is strength, etc. Whatever you say, Big Sister (see Orwell's "1984" for more examples of twisted principles). If you really consider reading this, I suggest you read the other reviews first, both the good and the bad. I think they speak for themselves.
Side splitting.......2006-07-14
This book is a godsend. It taught me that when my husband beats me, sells drugs & molests our children, all I have to do is submit and ignore it, because it's not my responsibility. I don't have any right to question the high holy decisions of my husband. I feel so much better now!
I applaud Elizabeth Rice Handford, for she recognizes that God has not changed, neither does the Holy Bible........2005-10-08
This book is a must. Some women have found out the hard way and some are going around helping others to save their marriage. The truth cuts like a two edged sword. If your not practicing the Holy Bible, then your practicing what the Holy Bible tells us to abstain from. Two kings cannot maintain residence within the same household one will kill the other or one will leave, but a queen can live with a king very happily may I might add. What the critics who gave bad reviews must not have read the book or just don't know how to read. (1 Cor 11:8 KJV) For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. (Eph 5:22 KJV)Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. (Eph 5:23 KJV) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. (Eph 5:24 KJV) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. (1 Cor 11:9 KJV) Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. (1 Cor 11:4 KJV) Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. (1 Cor 11:5 KJV) But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. (Luke 2:23 KJV) (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) (Titus 2:4 KJV) That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, (Titus 2:5 KJV) To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. (Col 3:18 KJV) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. (1 Pet 3:1 KJV) Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; (1 Pet 3:5 KJV) For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: (1 Pet 3:6 KJV) Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. (1 Pet 3:7 KJV) Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. (Gen 3:16 KJV) Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (1 Tim 2:11 KJV) Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. (1 Tim 2:12 KJV) But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. (1 Tim 2:13 KJV) For Adam was first formed, then Eve. (1 Tim 2:14 KJV) And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (1 Tim 2:15 KJV) Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. I applaud Elizabeth Rice Handford.
Book Description
Between the covers of this book are testimonies from Christian role models from the worlds of film, sports, and music. The stories are real and powerful, and are presented in a way that believers and seekers alike will find compelling.
Customer Reviews:
Review: How Do You Know He's Real?.......2007-06-14
In the book, How Do You Know He's Real, you'll get an inside look into the spiritual lives of 34 celebrities. Hagberg has compiled testimonies ranging from Kirk Cameron to Rudy Sarzo (former bass player for Ozzy Osbourne). Each story is remarkably different and it's amazing to read how God has worked in the lives of each of these well-known people.
Celebrities Share Their Christian Faith.......2007-05-31
The author has collected very readable stories telling how celebrities have become Christians, and they share their low points and their joys here. This is a welcome peek into the lives of well known people who typically are more secretive.
Ricky Skaggs, Kirk Cameron, Gloria Gaynor, Bethel Johnson (34 people in all) tell about their struggles and their early days as new Christians.
Billy Ray Cyrus tells of singing in his grandpa's Pentecostal church when he was 4, and includes the touching lyrics to the song he wrote "The other side."
Jackie (Jacklyn) Zeman, star of General Hospital, advises that when you are at a crossroads "cry out to God and ask for His guidance."
Al Kasha's story resonated with me; this Academy Award winning songwriter overcame agoraphobia, and talks about how Hollywood is a tough place for a Jew who came to Christ, and how he started a Hollywood Bible study group.
There are stories here for anyone to enjoy and find spirit lifting.
Celebrities talk about God in their life.......2007-04-27
(Hagberg has written a companion book with the same title, subtitled God Unplugged)
How Do You Know He's Real? is a collection of celebrity essays about God acting in their lives. The contributors include athletes, musicians, and actors. Their stories often follow a familiar pattern of fame leading to drugs and alcohol before hitting bottom and being turned around by an encounter with God. That's not to say the accounts are all stock and cliched, but rather that God meets each person in their need--and for celebrities that need will be similar. And many of the tales include growing up in stable Christian homes, but still needing to make personal decisions about God and Christ and how that decision impacted their careers.
The stories are collected alphabetically but Hagberg has provided a topic finder so a reader battling discouragement or frustration can find offerings from Billy Ray Cyrus, Nancy Stafford, Zorro, Gary Burghoff or John Schneider.
Each essay begins with a picture and short biography of the contributor, listing their accomplishments. Following the selection is God's Road Map, a few sentences about the issues raised by the author, with Bible verses for teaching and encouragement.
The essays themselves are as varied as the contributors. Some of them read as if they were written to be given as speeches. Several sound like the writer could be sitting at your kitchen table, chatting over the coffee pot. All of them are honest and share from their heart how God has acted in their life and how they know He's real.
Reading the accounts of God acting in both miraculous and mundane ways reminds us that no matter what a person does for a living, each of us are created beings who need a loving Savior and merciful God.
Armchair Interviews says: Up close and personal stories from celebrities.
COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!!! Terrific Read!.......2006-05-18
I received this book as a gift and once I started, I couldn't put it down. Ms Hagberg has captured the beliefs of these well known and respected celebrities, sports figures, and musicians. I'm anxiously awaiting the next book in the series and can't wait to give copies of this one to all my friends. Order 2!
The book of a lifetime!.......2006-04-18
This is a book that you will no doubt want to share with everyone you know! (I certainly am!) It was so hard to put the book down - but worth it - just to extend the time and joy of reading it! GREAT content! GREAT author! I can't wait to read the next books in the series!
Product Description
Deepen experience along your spiritual path. Some days, this book brings fresh ideas to enhance skills you already have, like prayers and affirmations. Other days, easy-to-learn techniques activate your hidden gifts for deeper perception.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book.......2007-03-17
This book is a gem. For those who are experienced seekers of God, or new to the idea, each day offers insights and practices to co-create with this elusively defined and extraordinary force we call God.
Rose offers the reader explorations into what it means to be a co-creator with God, and she facilitates her writing in such a way that it is all-inclusive of whatever background or belief system one comes from. I am flabbergasted as I see new ways of perceiving the age old question of how we can all be co-creators with God, even if we have different backgrounds. Many of her ways of framing our existence and our ability to participate with this divine force, and to accept ourselves and others in the process, has been a welcome relief.
For me personally, the book has miraculously coincided with guidance on or a response to a question that I had been holding for that day. There have been amazing coincidences in this regard, which makes me believe that when Rose wrote this book, she created it with the intention that it would serve us all, in the moment that we need it, with the insight that may serve us.
I highly recommend this book to all who would like to read it. I use it everyday to deliver me into that extraordinary realm where I too am a co-creator with God.
Co-Creating With God.......2007-01-10
Rose Rosetree is a fountain of spiritual insight, which she delivers in a humble, delightful way to those lucky enough to find her books. When I read Empowered by Empathy my entire way of being in the world and with people was changed -- from confusion to confidence. In Let Today be a Holiday, 365 Ways to Co-Create With God Ms Rosetree has done it again. She has gifted us with practical techniques for developing our partnership with God and awakening Spirit within. From my heart I thank you Ms Rosetree.
Co-Create With God - What a Gift!.......2006-11-20
Let There Be a Holiday is a lovely book of meditations that is inspirational and so very, very real in the sense of inviting each person into the creativity and joy that each experience can be. In some cases, indeed one must use the imagination to create a conversation, a "What If" type of scenario that isn't fantasy but an alternative way of living defying negativity and/or despair.
For we live in a world, according to this author, that requires us to be alert to how things simply "are" or "could be." For example, how does one truly love the uniqueness in each person? By seeing the special quality of the other person or by loving one's self first? The meditation advises "...just be willing to see God in that person - not as some abstract transcendent perfection, but in a way that's both humbler and harder - uniqueness turned human." Now that's different!
Or perhaps it's taking time to discover what thrills your soul in an activity, or choosing to be with another person or even a pet! Maybe it's the decision to work with antidote affirmations - affirmations following a reaction to an idea or a previous affirmation - the final one being a healing and freeing moment that truly changes one's moment, day, and probably the people around us!
Whatever your penchant is, it's guaranteed that these meditations will touch some aspect of your being!
And just in case that is only minimally experienced (highly doubtful!), there are poems and meditations that one can read which will elicit some definite blessing to follow, as in "Lace," "Hold me in all softness...Let me, so I may/unbind the veil that now covers my eyes...How You, who have crocheted me to be lace,/must laugh to watch the untangling of this knot."
Lovely, Ms. Rosetree!
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on November 17, 2006
Rose is nobody's fool . . . .......2006-04-26
What a genuinely wonderful book; I haven't gone "Oh,ick" once. In a world of increasingly simplistic solutions and worn-out pseudo-wisdom, this is a rare joy. Good, helpful, affectionate ways to regularly make your life, and the lives of those whom you love, sweeter and stronger.
Valuable tool for daily reading on a deeper level.......2006-03-08
Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (3/06)
At first glance of "Let Today Be a Holiday," I realized that it was going to take me a whole year to go through this book. Rose Rosetree provides the participant a daily inspirational reading on how to co-create with God. Each day, Rosetree takes us deep within to contemplate and reflect our lives.
For instance, day 11 is titled "Speedy You". She starts off with a question "Do you have any idea how fast you can move?" She goes on to explain that instead of being a weightlifter we are a light-lifter, and we do it with consciousness. Rosetree says "Quick as thought, your consciousness travels in, out and back again, landing inside your body to rest a while....Faster than a candle flickers, you travel in consciousness." Rosetree uses a variety of examples so that the reader has a clear concept of her message. The daily reading ends with "How could such an effortless part of yourself be all that and more? Bring awareness within, to stillness and silence. When you no longer meet with speed or muscles, effort or effortlessness, you will be in the presence of That full magnificence."
Rosetree's writing is short and to the point. She writes like she talks giving the reader a more personal touch to her messages. Each reading stands alone, although she does have a two day sacred ceremony for the reader to participate in. Occasionally a poem is included in the reading for the day, however, most of the pages are narrative.
I feel that Rosetree's book is a valuable tool for those that would like to have a daily reading that is more than inspirational. It is a book for those who want to take their life to a deeper level, on both the conscious and subconscious level, and come to a place where they can co-create each day with their God.
Books:
- Old Souls: Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives
- Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions
- Out: A Novel
- Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sexual Addiction
- Physik (Septimus Heap, Book 3)
- Practical Aspects of Interview and Interrogation, Second Edition (Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigations)
- Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War
- Return To Me
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Business Communication: Process and Product
- The Tremor of Forgery
- Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition
- Standard Soil Methods for Long-Term Ecological Research
- Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership
- The Next Great Globalization: How Disadvantaged Nations Can Harness Their Financial Systems to Get R
- The Shifting Tide: A William Monk Novel
- Crisp: Wake Up Your Creative Genius
- Simplified Engineering for Architects and Builders, 9th Edition
- Death of a Domestic Diva: A Toadfern Mystery
Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal
Kitchen Table Wisdom 10th Anniversary
Kitchen Table Wisdom & My Grandfather's Blessing (2 Volume Set)
The Art of being a Healing Presence
The Will to Live & Other Mysteries
