Rating: 
Summary: What a terrific book
Review: A very inspiring and good plan for making a sucessful life. I really enjoyed this book. If you want to use sound biblical teachings to encourage your everyday personal growth this is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: What a terrific book
Review: A very inspiring and good plan for making a sucessful life. I really enjoyed this book. If you want to use sound biblical teachings to encourage your everyday personal growth this is a must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing really new here.
Review: After having read books from the likes of Rick Warren, Shelly Rubel, Lee Strobel etc theres's not anything earthshaking or novel here. As well the writing style is tedious and overly long. This book could have communicated the same in half the length that it was. For a more engaging read pick up a book by John Fischer such as "Fearless Faith".
Rating:
Summary: Timely, Humorous, Powerful, and Inspired Message
Review: Anybody can make a profound statement. But the special gift or talent of a good writer, teacher, or preacher is the ability to bring the message home and show why it is important and relevant to the audience.John Ortberg not only entertains and captivates the audience's attention, but he motivates the reader to experience a deeper level of faith. If anything should convince you how GOOD this book is, it might be the many sermons I've heard already given by different preachers who borrowed material right out of this book! It's obviously good inspiration. But everybody should just go straight to the source and read it for themselves. This book came at the right time in my spiritual struggles, and I'm sure it will help a lot of people learn to walk closer with God, learning to trust and depend on Him. At first glance, the book might not seem "deep" but his message is detailed and profound. It is straightforward, but his call for Christians to wake up and step out in faith is powerful. This book is a MUST READ for anybody who calls him/herself a Christian. It deserves 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring book encouraging Christians to get out of the boat
Review: Based on Matthew 14:25-32, this book challenges Christians to trust God, take some risks, and get out of the boat! The chapters are based on the variouos parts of the scripture passage about Peter walking on water. Peter is called by Jesus, he walks on the water, but then he sees the wind and cries out with fear. He starts to sink, but Jesus takes Peter's hand and they get into the boar. It is then that the wind dies down. The author doesn't tell us to just jump out of the boat - he gives helpful advice on discerning God's call on our lives, focusing on Jesus (without which our water-walking days won't last!) and being patient as we try to accomplish things for the glory of God. Please check out my other reviews of Christian books and music!
Rating:
Summary: A CURATE'S EGG AND A FISH SUPPER
Review: Being part of a reading group helpfully exposes one to choices of book not normally made, hence my grappling with this work. Now as I write the group has yet to discuss this book properly, but the early opinion is that it is like the famous curate's egg, good in parts. Or to put it another way, I was once criticizing a certain edition of the bible which has inclusive notes and commentary, noting its theological deficiency in certain Pentecostalist respects to a visiting speaker. He replied, crisply, and with much justice, that I should "Treat it like a fish supper: take the good parts and leave the bones." So it is that I proffer these comments, hoping to take the good, but wary of the bones. And I hope the brother, should he see these few notes, will take them as well meant even if not very laudatory. THE FLESH
The style is down-to-earth, easy reading. The overall tone is positive and encouraging. I am much heartened by his analysis of the parable of the talents and the observation that it was the one-talent servant, not the two or five-talent servant, who buried his gift and denied his master the rewards, and hence lost even his single talent in the long run. As he says, surely both pride and sloth can be causes of this fault. As a thief of time the TV is a great evil, true (p.46), but it is just an excuse for the underlying lack of priority. Get rid of your one-eyed god and you will not regret it! I most happily testify to this truth. He also says that earthly achievement and heavenly reward are related, an under preached truth. Apparently the Quakers are still a force to be reckoned with in the States, he quotes Parker Palmer to great effect on discerning one's vocation, and rebuts humanistic hubris with regard to the 'myth of the limitless self'. [I dub it the 'conceive it, believe it, and achieve it' heresy...it just begs the question of the rightness of your original conception.] He also distinguishes between a career and a calling, and notes that 'work has become our new religion' (p.71). All excellent points; the finest fillets. Speeding on to p.132, I notice that he has noticed that the media in the States are horribly similar to their Brit counterparts: 'The media frighten us because fear sells'. True enough, it is the "Open them up with the emotional can-opener, then scoop out the soft parts" philosophy. AKA the "Beat them into submission, then sell them stuff in the ads, and lard on the political propaganda of the day" theory. Finally, the few pages on the missionary, Frank Laubach, a burnt-out failure in his mid-forties who came back from nowhere, are quite outstanding, and are worth expansion into a chapter. THE BONES
However, this is a book of 228 pages, and I have leapt over most of it in a single bound. The title of the book is a truism and it fails to avoid tautology: it is a logical loop, an identical proposition, it begs the question, it is a petitio principii, a statement of the obvious, self-evident, garrulous, and otiose. "To do something you have to do something." Well, to do anything takes a step, but not necessarily out of a perfectly good boat into a deep lake. This whole book is essentially a less-than-coherent sequence of sermon vignettes and snippets loosely arranged around the metaphorical get-out-of-the-boat idea, not the actuality of the event. Exegetical opinion is sharply divided on whether Peter achieved anything whatsoever by getting out of the boat and getting put back in. Maybe the majority vote got it right and Peter was just being his famously impulsive egotistical old self. There is simply no way to equate miraculous or metaphorical walking on water with vocational achievement. One is unique action 'in extremis', the other is humble pedestrian action according to one's daily lights. The humanistic hubris he rejected earlier is re-introduced by quoting Susan Jeffer's 'feel the fear and do it anyway' self-assertiveness self-help mantras. They likewise tell us nothing because they beg the question, what SHOULD we be doing? I also question his analysis on p.14 of the Greek verb 'parerchomai' (meaning 'to pass by') as being of any significance here, as he claims it signifies a theophany in the Septuagint Greek OT. I have no Septuagint to hand, but I can say with confidence that in my Greek NT and lexicon this is not the case at all, it is just an ordinary compound verb (cf, 'parabaino'), used because someone 'passed by' in the ordinary way. It is the event that makes the word significant, not vice versa. And to be accurate, in the Greek of Matthew which he quotes, the word parerchomai does not occur, its cognate form 'parelthein' is used. Finally, as the text makes absolutely plain in the Greek and English, Jesus was not a ghost or apparition, he was his solid Incarnate self...the opposite of a theophany in fact. A similar odd analysis of biblical terms occurs on p.222 where 'shalom' is interpreted in a most extravagant style and its obvious dictionary meaning (peace) is not given. Apparently under its magical influence lawyers 'would have really useful jobs like delivering pizza that is non-fat and low in cholesterol'. This is a biochemical paradox as in his broad sense cholesterol is a form of fat, but it is the general sense of the whole section which I question here. I can but wonder at the indulgence of his editor. AN AFTER-DINNER MINT
So I commend this book to Christians as food for the soul, go carefully and you will not choke on a bone.
Rating: 
Summary: A CURATE'S EGG AND A FISH SUPPER
Review: Being part of a reading group helpfully exposes one to choices of book not normally made, hence my grappling with this work. Now as I write the group has yet to meet, but early opinion is that it is like the famous curate's egg: good in parts. To put it another way, I was once criticizing a certain edition of the bible which has inclusive notes and commentary, noting its theological deficiency in certain Pentecostalist respects to a visiting speaker. He replied, crisply, and with much justice, that I should "treat it like a fish supper--take the good parts and leave the bones." So it is that I proffer these few comments, hoping to take the good from it, but wary of the bones. And I hope the brother, should he see these notes, will take them as well meant even if not the most laudatory.
THE FLESH
The style is down-to-earth, easy reading. The overall tone is positive and encouraging. I am much heartened by his analysis of the parable of the talents and the observation that it was the one-talent servant, not the two or five-talent servant, who buried his gift and denied his master the rewards, and hence lost even his single talent in the long run. Surely both pride and sloth can be causes of this fault. As a thief of time the TV is a great evil, true (p.46), but it is just an excuse for the underlying lack of priority. Get rid of yours and you will not regret it! I most happily testify to this truth. He says that earthly achievement and heavenly reward are related, an underpreached truth. And apparently the Quakers are still a force to be reckoned with in the States, he quotes Parker Palmer to great effect on discerning one's vocation, and rebuts humanistic hubris with regard to the 'myth of the limitless self' [I dub it the 'conceive it, believe it, and achieve it' heresy]. He also distinguishes between a career and a calling, and notes that 'work has become our new religion' (p.71). Excellent points, the finest fillets.
Speeding ahead to p.132, I notice that he has noticed that the media in the States are horribly similar to their Brit counterparts: 'The media frighten us because fear sells'. (Open 'em up with the emotional can-opener, then scoop out the soft parts, that's the way they do it.) Finally, the few pages on the missionary, Frank Laubach, a burnt-out failure in his mid-forties who came back from nowhere, are quite outstanding, and are worth following up.
THE BONES
However, this is a book of 228 pages, and I have leapt over most of it in a single bound. The title of the book is a truism and it fails to avoid tautology, it is a logical loop, an identical proposition, it begs the question, it is a petitio principii, a self-evident statement of the obvious. "To do something you have to do something." To do anything takes a step, but not necessarily out of a perfectly good boat into a deep lake. This whole book is essentially a less-than-coherent sequence of sermon vignettes and snippets loosely arranged around the metaphorical get-out-of-the-boat idea, not the actuality of the event. Exegetical opinion in the commentaries is sharply divided on whether Peter achieved anything whatsoever by getting out of the boat and then getting put back in. Maybe the majority vote on the lake got it right, and Peter was just being his famously impulsive egotistical old self. There is simply no way to equate miraculous or metaphorical walking on water with vocational achievement. One is unique action 'in extremis', the other is humble pedestrian action according to one's daily lights.
Most serious among the charges I have to level may at first blush seem odd (as the author has written a whole book on the theme), which is that the miracle of Jesus walking successfully on the water and the three gospel accounts of it--Matthew 14, Mark 6, and John 6--are not taken seriously. In fact they are treated superficially and carelessly. The most obvious point is that only Matthew's account is discussed, who alone mentions the fact that Peter tried to walk on water and failed because he was a "little-faith". So, as even a beginning reader of the gospels can see, having multiple accounts of a gospel event is like having multiple witnesses of an event in court: it allows us to build up a full picture of the happening. We may also compare and contrast the attitude of the gospel writers in this case.
I also refute his analysis (p.14), of the Greek text concerning the meaning of the verb 'parerchomai' (meaning 'to pass by') as he says it signifies a theophany (an appearance of God to man) in the Old Testament Greek Septuagint, which was translated 300 years before Matthew was written. Analysis of the NT Greek, and consultation with a lexicon, shows that here this is not the case at all, it is an ordinary compound verb (cf, 'parabaino'), used because Jesus wanted to 'pass by' in the ordinary sense. It is the event that makes the words significant, not vice versa. In the Greek of Matthew which he quotes, the 'parerchomai' does not occur at all, or anything like it. This word does NOT occur in any of the three accounts. In the account of Mark alone is the cognate form 'parelthein' used. Finally, as the texts make absolutely plain in the Greek and in translation, Jesus was not a ghost or appearance, he was his solid Incarnate self...the opposite of a theophany in fact.
THE AFTER-DINNER MINT
So I commend this book to Christians with reservations: there is food for the soul here, but do not choke on a bone.
Rating:
Summary: The book of the decade
Review: Classic Ortberg - taking a complex topic (in this case, hearing God's voice and obeying) and making it accessable; easy to comprehend and apply without oversimplifying. No one does this better than John Ortberg and this book is the classic example. This book is a must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Who Moved My Boat?
Review: Here it is folks. Another book you can read in fifteen minutes like "Who Moved My Cheese". This time, God is there to guide you. How is it that the Bible says no one can know the "mind" of God and all these religious people dismiss it anyway. At least there's no maze or mice in this one. Yes, if you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat. Meaning of course, that to succeed you have to do something....
Rating:
Summary: Get ready to get your feet wet!
Review: I am only half-way through this book, and I would recommend it whole-heartedly. I had never read anything by this author before, but the title intrigued me. Well, this book is right on target. With wit and wisdom, Pastor Ortberg walks you through each area, and helps to address why we don't get out of our boats and trust the Lord more. His writing style is as easy to read as if he was sitting across the kitchen table from you. Each chapter has questions after it to further help you address what was discussed to your particular situation. There is even a "Bob-Prayer Challenge" issued by the author! (If you want to know what that is, you will have to read the book!) You will not regret getting this one - if you are serious about your walk with the Lord. It brings to light things that have held us all back from our destiny, our callings and generally fulfilling all that God has planned for us. But..... we will have to get out of the boat!
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