Rating: 
Summary: A Pressure Cooker of Guilt and Repression
Review: I'm a Christian who definitely does not believe in casual sex with any Tom, Dick, or Harry in the immediate area. That being said, I'm not for any person who seeks to say that admitting that humans are sexual beings is sinful. Why should we expect teenagers and young adults to not allow "even a hint" of lust into their hearts? Even when we are married, spouses are afraid to lust, to desire their partners sexually. What do we have then? Men and women, who EVEN IN MARRIAGE, cannot fully express themselves sexually because they were exhorted and disparaged beyond belief when they showed "even a hint" of interest toward sex or merely learning about it. How can we realistically expect young Christian men and women to be ready for marriage when we have shamefully kept them in the dark about sex, a subject that God considers good? With Mr. Harris, it's all or nothing. You, the young Christian man or woman, must be the paragon of virtue. Supposedly, not even a hint of lust or even thinking sexually must be found in your heart, soul, and mind. What a spiritual burden! Recounting your sexual sins as required with Mr. Harris' book is EXACTLY what Martin Luther fought against so many years ago. He had to frequently recount ALL of his sins before he could be sure they would be forgiven. Why not use the precious energy formerly spent recounting sexual sins to severe Mr. Harris to spread the Gospel to those around you and to the world?
Rating: 
Summary: Grace oriented
Review: I'm so thankful for this book. When I read this book I didn't finish with a weight of condemnation but a greater love for the cross and the Saviour. Josh clearly makes it not about sex but about LUST the sin of putting your desire in something other then God. I know in my own heart I often respond to lust in my life to think that I can't even notice a pretty girl.. "It's not lust to be attracted to someone or notice that he or she is good looking." Its all about letting creation point you back to the creator, not yourself. Thank you Joshua. After my first experience with I kissed dating goodbye I knew we had a gifted author in the making. Each book he has written continues to direct me more and more back to the cross and to the life of Jesus and what he accomplished. I recommend this book to everyone, no matter what stage of life you are in.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible book!
Review: In this insightful book, Josh Harris really explores the heart issues behind lust and related issues. He clearly shows how it interacts with the whole heart and life, and really teaches some new stuff as well! I totally agree that lust will be the defining battle of Christian men and women in our generation (I'm 22). Very encouraging, simple, and hard to put down. Feel free to jump around and read some of the chapters first...you'll end up reading the others in order afterwards anyway! I thought his IKDG was good, his sequel BMG was better, but this is by far his best book. I highly recommend this book to any young (or older) single Christian I know. Get a copy for yourself!
Rating: 
Summary: A thoughtful and clear-headed book
Review: Jesus Christ had greater insight into the human soul, what was good for its health, and what was bad for its health, than anyone else in human history. What was his take on lust? "I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Strong words indeed. Joshua Harris follows his master closely in this excellent book on lust. Like Jesus, Joshua thinks that lust should not have any place in the human heart. Like Jesus, Joshua does not think lust is a normal human thing we should indulge every once in a while to avoid the risk of "repression." Instead, Joshua humbly and lovingly tells it like it is. Lust is a deadly enemy that we must kill before it kills us. Ironically, one of the first good things that lust kills in us is healthy sexual desire. That much should be plain to any Christian, and to perceptive non-Christians. But given the fact that many people, including some Christians, attempt to evade the clear biblical truth about lust, I am grateful that Joshua has taken the time to set forth the basic facts about it. He doesn't do it arrogantly or judgmentally -- he just does it. With courage, a clear head, and a clear voice. But this little book's virtues extend beyond stating the obvious. Joshua takes time to distinguish good things, like humanity and sexual desire, from bad things, like sin and perverted sexual desire. Thus, Joshua does not think that having a physical body is a bad thing, or that having a sex drive is a bad thing--quite the contrary. His clarity should help a lot of people accurately identify and kill their true enemy--lust--and not indiscriminately attack healthy sexual desire in the process. Joshua also gives helpful practical strategies for battling lust, while discouraging legalism. The advice Joshua offers and the stories he relates may very well help those in the midst of struggle. But he does not come close to saying that the strategies he offers should be normative for everyone. In short, this book manages to be wise and practical without even a hint of legalism. How refreshing. And how biblical. And no review of Not Even a Hint would be complete unless it mentioned how much Joshua emphasizes the grace of God throughout the book. The mercy of God is essential, not only in our justification and the forgiveness of our past sin, but also in our sanctification, that is, the cultivation of holiness and the eradication of our present sin. Indeed, Joshua writes that no effort on our part will be fruitful apart from the grace of God, and that battling sin without consciously relying on the mercy of God could actually do us more harm than good. Despite those virtues, I gave the book four stars, not five, because it did not quite fulfill one of its own purposes: to be a book equally helpful to males and females. I say "not quite" because Joshua actually does much, much better here than many. He says that lust is a human problem, not a guy problem. He even acknowledges that some ladies may struggle with varieties of lust that have typically been called "masculine." But still some of the normal stereotypes surface in Not Even a Hint: men are stimulated by sight, women by touch. Men's lust is purely visual and physical; women's lust is emotional and tied up with romantic longings. I don't think anyone can make those generalizations with any confidence, (1) because the Bible doesn't make them, and (2) because (as Joshua acknowledges) lust has been such a taboo subject among women that many of them haven't really spoken of their own struggles. If a young woman who struggles with straightforward visual, physical lust reads Not Even a Hint, she will, thankfully, not come away convinced that she's a total freak of nature, as she might if she read a different book on lust. But that young woman may still think that she's a little strange, and may still feel more isolated than she really is. I am grateful that Joshua started to roll back some of the old generalizations about lust and gender here; I just wish he'd gone a little further. In all, however, this is an outstanding little book. Its content is, for the most part, accurate and wise, and it is very much "PG-rated," as the author desired. Perhaps its greatest virtue, though, is the author's vulnerability and transparency. Joshua doesn't make any vague, general confessions here; he gets pretty specific in places (without being lascivious). In other words, he doesn't just extol the virtues of humility and honesty about sin; he models them. Joshua's humble perceptiveness makes this a work both truthful and graceful: the grace doesn't dilute the truth, and the truth doesn't nullify the grace.
Rating:
Summary: Look for stuff on men's *and* women's forms of lust
Review: More helpful material from Josh Harris, this time about coping with lust. There were a lot of the typical suggestions about lust: being accountable to other brothers and sisters, avoiding tempting situations, being careful with all the immodesty in the media these days, and stuff like that. Good stuff, but nothing all that new. What I did like, however, was how Harris examined the similarities and differences in what tempts men and women, and the way they are tempted to lust. It's not as simple as that men lust in a sexual way, where as women fantasize romantically: there is a lot of blurring of these boundaries. Harris's explanation of these distinctions and how to keep from tempting your brothers and sisters is alone worth the price of admission. There's also a good chapter on masturbation, which he has made available for free online (...).
Rating:
Summary: The pleasures of God vs. the fleeting pleasures of sin...
Review: Most of the reviewers have hit upon some of the main things that makes this great. Yet some reviewers accuse Josh Harris of borderline legalism because of the steps he has personally taken to properly handle his lust problem (and some examples from others who are fighting this sin). As a young man who, like Harris, is weak in this area, struggling with legalistic attitudes on one side and full-blown licentiousness on the other, this book has been a breath of fresh air, a glass of cool, clear water. While it does offer practical advice, Harris is not so arrogant as to claim that this is the one-size-fits-all practical guide to lust. First, he points out a group of young people who would fast if one of the group looked at internet pornography. Instead of praising this method, Harris is disappointed and points out that One has already paid the punishment for every sin we have and will commit. To make other people "pay" for your sin is to deny the sufficiency of the atonement of Christ. He says: "If you were to use the practical ideas I'm about to share with you as a legalistic set of guidelines, not only would it be displeasing to God, but you wouldn't change. Your behavior might change for a while, but your heart wouldn't change." (p. 50) And regarding his friend that stayed outside the video store, was he saying it was right for everyone to do so? By no means! His friend had recognized the areas that caused him to lose sight of Christ, and for that time in his life, video stores were a struggle. This is vastly different than telling everyone, "So, like my friend, you shouldn't go into video stores, either." This is exactly it: Have we really tasted of God to the degree that we want nothing less than satisfaction in Him? What I loved most was his chapter on the sword of the Spirit, adapted from John Piper's book, Future Grace. Truly, the only way to break the power of lust in our lives is to taste and see that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:8). When you taste of the Fountain of Living Waters, the broken cisterns of lust cannot compare (Jer 2:12-13). This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Overall, if you struggle with lust in one form or another as I do, I would, along with John Piper, commend this book for your soul. It correctly identifies how we can turn our fight against lust into legalism, and also how we tend to treat it as "no big deal." So let us also lay aside *every* weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1), because the pure in heart, dear reader, the pure in heart will see GOD (Matt 5:8).
Rating:
Summary: Are the Reviewers Qualified?
Review: Note that the the reviewers who did not like this book (with the exception of one) all stem from a psychological perspective that teaches that man is a "sexual being" as though this means that lust is not wrong. In psychology lust isn't. THere is no sin in psychology except the sin of not obtaining happiness and self fulfillment. The people who had a problem with it obviously felt condemned because they wish to justify certain actions the book condemns that they most likely practice and/or approve of. One cannot deny the Biblical and Orthodox nature of the book. We are spiritual beings, not sexual beings, in that that is our primary nature. Are we going to lose our humanity in eternity because we're not desiring sex? Harris is simply trying to (as the Bible does) preserve our spiritual focus over our sexual/temporal desires. Everything should be evaluated Biblically, but by someone who can interpret the Bible according to the way the Church has been interpreting it from the beginning(otherwise everyone will just use the Bible to justify his or her own opinion). If you want a book that's going to tell you to do whatever you want because God's love and forgiveness makes Him apathetic toward sin; and you want the book to justify and validate your warped practices, then this is not the book for you. Watch MTV or read a "christian" psychology book instead. But if you want something that honors God and has a spiritual view of man rather than a materialist/animalistic view of man, then this a good read for you.
A note for the reviewer before is that Wallace did not refute Harris on the Matt 5:30 passage. He simply offered an interpretation (and added words to the text to do it by the way). The conditional marker can be taken as Harris indicates and has always been by the CHurch. The Eph 5:3 comment is probably splitting hairs. Overall, this book is much better than anything else I've seen out there on dating, since most of them simply take the existing cultural standards and "christianize" them in an effort to sound more conservative than their more liberal counterparts. The Bible however needs to be our standard, not the 1950's or 80's for that matter.
Rating: 
Summary: As with the rest of his works, BE CAREFUL!
Review: One must be aware that Joshua Harris is not a scholar, not an exegete, and most definately not trained to engage in these issues. First, the very title of the book is based on one translation [the NIV] of Ephesians 5:3. This translation is not found in any other translation I am aware of. Other errors are assuming that when Jesus says we are to cut off our hand if it offends us, he means we must be ready to take "drastic action." This interpretation was fully refuted by Daniel Wallace in "Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics" P.693. He also refers us back to his first two books in which he discusses concepts such as "direction of purity" have been responded to well by Cloud and Townsend in "Boundaries in Dating." The problem with Joshua Harris is to this day he will not honestly dialogue with anyone capible of responding to him. He has not dialogued with anyone on the level of a Daniel Wallace, D.A. Carson, Bruce Metzger, Craig Bloomberg, Kenneth Barker, William Mounce, or [although he is dead] F.F. Bruce. To my knowledge, none of these people have ever given support to Joshua Harris and his work. It is easy to see why when Joshua Harris is unaware of the facts I mentioned above, and refuses do engage in scholarly dialogue on the subject. In fact, I have found that his points will often times disappear if one simply goes to another translation. Hence, sometimes linguistic study is not necessary.
However, I have given the book two stars for a reason. There are some good things in it. Things such as disposing of things like underwear catalogues, and dirty movies because God has told us to think on whatever is good and noble [Philippians 4:8]. However, one must use wisdom and discernment when reading his books ignoring emotionalism and things which may have the appearance of wisdom but are actually folly [Colossians 2:20-23]. Make Joshua Harris prove every point from scripture, and hold him to the highest standards of biblical interpretation. Then you will be able to get the best from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Grace in Action
Review: This book is a must read. It does not get all deep on a person. Harris just gives a simple biblical solution to a serious problem. The way he writes it really allows you to understand and embrace the grace of God. Of course one should always have the Word of God as a foundation in reading this book. But ultimately this is a good book and it was a tremendous blessing to me. Harris told it like it is.
God bless Him
Rating:
Summary: Christianity affects all of life
Review: This book is a very nice read. It is very concise and makes the reader want to keep reading. As far as content, I was proud of my fellow brother in Christ to take such a hard Biblical stand against lust. The world thinks that it is ok, but God does not. It is time that we as Christians take stock in our personal lives and see if we are living, "...being conformed to this world's pattern, or being transformed by the renewing of your mind." Rom. 12:2 I was impressed with Joshua's dealings with this subject and his slam against legalism. If there is one thing I hate is a false righteousness, and Harris makes sure that the reader understand that this righteousness does not come from us, but from Christ. Not only that, but he makes sure that we understand that it is our love for God because of what He has done for us that is to motivate us to good works. Youth today are being attacked by the world, and so many in the Christian circle say its okay to have a little lust, but I would rather see what God has to say in his holy and inerrant word, keep yourselves from all sexual immorality. Thanks Joshua for treating this subject so well.
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