This is a tremendous book and I would go so far as to say that the Lord really speaks through Ken. He dives into what marriage is really about and how absolutely vital women are to men within that bond. Ken also brings to reality who the real enemy is within our marriages... and big surprise, it's not our wives!

This book is both a tremendous blessing and a hard teaching. It confronts you head-on and makes you reconsider what relationships and marriage are about. It's an easy read(difficulty-wise), but it may very well blow you away and make you angry. It will show you personally that you--in and of yourself--cannot have a marriage the way a marriage was meant to be... and here is where the challenge becomes manifest. This book, as the other reviewer said, will change the way you think about and see women.

This book will change the world. I have purchased and given away countless copies. Like many other Christian women, I was totally disillusioned with the way the church handles the relationship between man and wife. I knew in my heart that something was awry. I lacked the missing piece of the puzzle. This book is absolutely scripturally sound. It is amazing that we truly do have scales on our eyes...we read words in the Bible and never truly understand them. Now I can see that God's plan for marriage is so beautiful, it benefits and lends true self esteem to both parties. The enmity between Satan and the woman is totally necessary for the Spiritual growth of the man. Woman is the Revealer. Read this book and see if your world isn't totally rocked. You will want to spread the Good News too!!

Words can not express how thankful my husband and I are to have been handed this book in counseling. We had a divorce date set and were a couple of months out when our Pastor suggested my husband read this book. It became a valuable tool. No, more than that, it radically opened my husband's eyes and heart to a whole new way of thinking and since it is totally in line with God's word, it pointed us in the direction of truth.

Not only would we totally endorse the information and its value to anyone's marriage, but we are diligently seeking the author to find out how my husband might attend a seminar in order to share this information with other men/women at our church/in our area.

Again, we thank the Lord for healing us and restoring our marriage relationship; this book was used majorly in this process and we are grateful beyond words.

Dr. McBath's book, "Maximize Your Marriage", provides simplistic yet profound principles. As my wife and I have invested into applying these principles, we have seen a hundred-fold return in our marriage. These principles have enhanced, elevated, and improved the spontaneity in our conversations, sex life, finances, and family. We strongly recommend this book for married couples as well as potential couples.

This book is one of the most poignant and practical books I have ever read related to maintaining a happy, fulfilling, and enduring marriage. In addition to helping you see how important healthy communication is, it does not mince words related to avoiding divorce, having regular sexual intimacy, apologizing when you're wrong, and other issues often avoided or glossed over by other "spiritual" books on the subject.

The book offers a fresh new perspective on marriage by actually encouraging you to make pleasing your spouse and helping them fulfill their hopes and dreams your number one goal---instead of focusing on how your spouse can meet your needs. At the core of the book is an emphasis on having a strong spiritual foundation, which, according to the book's author, is the primary key to ensuring that you truly "maximize your marriage."

I'd recommend the book to anyone - whether they're single and plan to be married, are newly wed, or have been married for twenty years.

If you haven't already, you've got to read Maximize Your Marriage!

Dr. Courtney McBath delivers a timely message in "Maximize Your Marriage"; for the married, to-be-married, men, women, Christian, and non-Christian. His practical and humorous approach makes it hard to put the book down once you've started reading. When you begin to apply the principles that Dr. McBath highlights, your marriage will be on the path to success. Should be REQUIRED READING for all considering marriage!

This is arguably Scott Hahn's best and most important work in print to date. In previous books, the popular speaker and theologian has traced the theme and reality of covenant in Scripture ("A Father Who Keeps His Promises") and examined the covenantal nature of the Church's liturgical worship ("The Lamb's Supper") and Mary's spiritual motherhood ("Hail, Holy Queen"). Now, in "First Comes Love," Hahn plunges even more deeply into the supernatural foundation of the New Covenant -- the Trinity -- and shows how the Triune God is the source and sustainer of both human families and the Church, the family of God. Hahn shows how the Trinity, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church" describes as "the central mystery of Christian faith and life," is inexahustible but not unknowable.

Beginning with courtship and marriage, and building on the theme of family and love, Hahn moves on to the Incarnation and then ascends to an extended consideration of the God Who is family, covenant, and love. Covenant -- the complete gift of self to another -- is illuminated by the light of the Trinity, in which the three divine Persons eternally give themselves to one another in total love: "Covenant is what God does, because covenant is Who God is." Hahn then masterfully shows how the Incarnation, the Church, and the family logically flow from the reality of the Triune life of self-gift and life-giving love.

Written in a popular and personal style, the book clearly communicates the brilliant, but often dense, writings of Pope John Paul II pertaining to family, love and sexuality. This is particularly evident in Hahn's depiction of the Fall, when Adam and Eve refused to sacrifice their natural desires for the greater, supernatural good. Sacrifice is the way to God; it "is the only way that humans can imitate the interior life of the Trinity. For God is love, and the essence of love is life-giving. Sacrifice, then, became the essential mark of all subsequent covenants between God and humankind."

Insightful, engaging and spiritually challenging, "First Comes Love" demonstrates that Hahn has few equals when it comes to explaining the complex riches of the Catholic Faith -- without watering them down or dulling their power and potency. There is no greater vocation than to be a true child of God, and "First Comes Love" is a fine articulation and explanation of that precious truth.

This slender book conveys a monumental message. Using simple stories to illustrate complex theological concepts, Dr. Hahn (Professor of Scripture and Theology, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville), compares the human family to the Divine, namely, the Trinity. Employing examples from Scripture, the Church fathers, and Magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church, he shows similarities between human and divine expressions of love. Family-specific terminology like brother, sister, mother, and father used in ordinary conversation mirrors the inner life of the Trinity. Essential Catholic teachings and practices find clear expression in the daily experiences of Christian men and women. The 12 short chapters invite the reader to both personal reflection and active imitation. Additionally, the nearly 40 pages of critical documentation add academic credibility to this accessible text. Highly recommended, especially for Catholic readers.

Scott Hahn is always a surprise. You pick up the book thinking that, after a glitzy autobiographical opening (in the American fashion), this will be a re-play of an old record. But then, as you read on, the absolute freshness of the thinking rises up and hits you between the eyes.

Now he has done it for family, Trinity, Church.

If you think the beginning is schmalzy, read on. For Hahn, romance and children break down egoism, but even when our nuclear families are not spoiled by dysfunction, neither romance nor children is good enough. Our longing for love, family, home, can only be fulfilled in the DIVINE family plan -- which is where Israel and Christ, Trinity and Church come in.

He starts from Israel. The twelve tribes, Hahn argues, were "trustee-families," with "covenant" the legal, ritual way to accept new members. But that -- the Israelite experience -- was only a beginning. The Saviour spoke a family language of a new kind, a language of a Father's children, and a God who is (as we would come to say, in shorthand) "Trinity". His aim was to draw people away from even the primal families of the old Israel into a new supernatural family that would be "as big as God".

Just why such re-making was necessary, and why -- in the last analysis -- it took the Incarnation and the Atonement to make it stick, it is the job of the narrative of the Fall in the book of Genesis to explain. Here Hahn's account takes on the tension of a detective story. I will not spoil the reader's enjoyment, but limit myself to saying: Hahn's theology of the Fall is wholly original and wholly orthodox, two qualities that, in such wide-ranging biblical interpretation, are rarely combined.

The message of Jesus life and death is clear: only a blameless life given to another, for another -- given sacrificially, then -- could reverse the Fall and reveal the Trinity. The Trinity is the only family bond that can last for ever, and the proof of its reality is Eucharistic communion in the Real Presence. And so finally to the Church. The great trustee family of ancient Israel moves to the margins but Jesus's disciples are not left orphans. In the Church, Christ has a bride that is also his body -- not as strange as it sounds, for a woman was so to cleave to her husband as to become one flesh. And this bride is, through our baptism, our Mother. Or rather, it is because the Holy Spirit's mothering of believers happens through Mother Church that she -- the Church -- can regenerate in baptism. As the communion of saints, human sin notwithstanding, this is a family that is always functional. And in its context, all those domestic realities from which Hahn started -- the married couple, children, sexuality, and indeed single people, whether consecrated celibates or not -- can find their home at the sacred hearth of God.

The delicacy with which Scott Hahn reaches out in his conclusion to those who have suffered in the family circle, or suffered from having no family circle to call their own, is not the least strength of this remarkable book.

I would personally like to thank Ms. Mckinney for this book. With so many God loving women searching for help in the dating arena and so much advice in magazines and talk shows that definitely goes against the word of God, this book lays it on the line. It gives a clear understanding of God's way for women to obtain their man of God. Ladies, enjoy! It is fresh manna from heaven.

For those who normally don't enjoy reading books, this book would keep you turning the pages. It's very easy to read and written in a conversational style (as opposed to preaching down).

In this book, Michelle encourages singles to not put our life on hold while waiting for the right one, being busy doing what God calls us to do in whatever season of life we may be in, and preparing ourselves to be godly. To find the right kind of person, we must first be the right kind of person. In submitting to God and waiting for the right timing, we discover God's true purpose in our lives. Her sense of humor, godly advice, gift in counseling and writing make this an excellent book.

I would also recommend her other book "What to Do Until Love Finds You." My favorite book by Michelle would be "Secrets of an Irresistible Woman."

This book is truly wonderful. Through scripture, poetry and humor, Michelle McKinney Hammond gives bible-based insight on how to live happily single while God prepares you for your equally-yoked mate that He has already prepared for you. The answer is to get on the RIGHT bus, at the RIGHT time, going to the RIGHT place.

Truly wonderful and inspiring.

Dallas Willard's examination of the disciplines of the Christian life is an unparalleled book on the subject. I have never read its equal. In Christianity today, there is so much emphasis on a quick conversion and the love and mercy of God, but rarely does a teacher speak on the difficult topic of the strain and pain and longevity of the daily walk with Christ. The disciplines of a Christian are similar to the disciplines of one running a marathon, the Apostle Paul teaches, and Dallas Willard has taken a careful examination of these disciplines. He declares that Christianity can only be a relevant guide for modern humanity if it takes the need for human transformation through the Holy Spirit seriously, and clarify and exemplify realistic methods of this transformation by modeling it ourselves as Christians. Willard goes into great detail concerning the disciplines as the method by which Christians model the work of the Spirit in their lives. He declares that they are the very nature of life itself for Christians and that only by consistently teaching and practicing them will Christ's church be the force required for true spiritual change in today's society. A masterful work, this book should be in the library of any Christian that seeks to truly live the life of Christ and be a light in the world today.

Dallas Willard's examination of the disciplines of the Christian life is an unparalelled book on the subject. I have never read its equal. In Christianity today, there is so much emphasis on a quick conversion and the love and mercy of God, but rarely does a teacher speak on the difficult topic of the strain and pain and longevity of the daily walk with Christ. The disciplines of a Christian are similar to the disciplines of one running a marathon, the Apostle Paul teaches, and Dallas Willard has taken a careful examination of these disciplines. He declares that Christianity can only be a relevant guide for modern humanity if it takes the need for human transformation through the Holy Spirit seriously, and clarify and exemplify realistic methods of this transformation by modelling it ourselves as Christians. Willard goes into great detail concerning the disciplines as the method by which Christians model the work of the Spirit in their lives. He declares that they are the very nature of life itself for Christians and that only by consistently teaching and practicing them will Christ's church be the force required for true spiritual change in today's society. A masterful work, this book should be in the library of any Christian who seeks to truly live the life of Christ and be a light in the world today.

Dallas Willard has written a compelling argument for a revival of the spiritual disciplines. It's a book that goes beyond "what would Jesus do" into the deeper question of "how would Jesus live." Willard argues that for us to live the life of Jesus "under pressure" we must adopt his overall lifestyle, which was punctuated by the spiritual disciplines. Though individual disciplines are examined, "The Spirit of the Disciplines" isn't primarily a book about "how to" practice the disciplines but "why to" make them a central part of your life. It is challenging, thought provoking, and potentially life changing.

Charles Swindoll does an excellent, if not remarkable, job of not only presenting the trials of David in modern day life, but he also vividly illustrates the psalmist's shortcomeings into lessons for today. Without a doubt, this book was written with God's guidance (no slight intended towards Mr. Swindoll), and I recommend this book to be used as a tool for the Christian of today in his/her walk with God. Upon finishing, I not only had renewed insight upon David, but also within myself, and found newborn strength to conquer my own daily struggles. God has annoited this book, of that there is no doubt, and I strongly urge Christians to delve into it.

Chuck Swindoll is an excellent author that helps me under stand the bible very easily. in an exsample of how much I enjoyed what I have learnd, i'll tell you that I have started reading the book "Moses a man of selfless dedication" and have the one on Josphe on the book self that I bought through amozon.com. Seindoll pours over all the detail to bring King David into a real sence and not a bible caricter that lived 3000 years ago, but some one that I can understand and see in life, or in someone around me, I loved what the book tought me and what makes me different then david and how to become more of "a man after Gods own heart".

Consistent with Swindoll's writing style, the reader sees the character as described by the Bible - both good and bad.

While David was Israel's greatest king, he also committed grevious sins that adversely impacted those around him. Even so, he was described as " a man after God's heart".

Some of the excellent points Swindoll covers in his book include:

1. God can use our talents and use them for His glory.
2. Do not fight battles in your own strength! Rely on the
Lord and His timing and methods.
3. How our bad decisions affect others.
4. God cares about the details of your life - the better you
know your standing with the Lord, the freer you are.
5. We must not abuse God's grace to sin and expect no
consequences.
6. When God says no to our dreams, it may be because of
redirection in our lives.
7. The importance of having a thick skin - if you want God
to use you, you need to shed your ultrasensitivity.
8. Important notes about true friendship.

All in all, an excellent read that can encourage us and sober us about the impact we have on other people!

My aunt suprised me one day with the LOVE COMES SOFTLY series she had had for a couple years. I put off reading them for a couple years because I was only eight! I started the first book when I was 11 and just could not put it down! I read the whole series and it had a very big impact on me. I've read the first three books at least ten times each, never getting bored with them and the rest of the series at least three. Please consider these books. They are the bomb!

This is a wonderful story about family life at a time when people did not possess much material things but instead loved and cared for one another unconditionally. The story begins with Clark and Marty and goes on to include the lives of their children. What drew me to read and reread this series of books is the way it is written with so much love and understanding. There are many moral issues dealing with the Christian God and how the righteous man would behave. It is therefore also a book of learning. I would highly recommend this series. This is one of the few series of books that I would consider to be worth spending money on. I know that I will reread it many more times. Janette Oke is an excellent storyteller.

Imagine you1re living in the midst of the 19th century. You1re 19, far from friends and family, and to top it all off, your husband dies and you are two months pregnant with his child.........

Love Comes Softly is an eight book series written by Christian author Jannette Oke. I thought when my mother-in-law tried to get me to read her books, that I was in for another mushy Harlequin Romance novel, filled with people involved with three, four or five men, and definitely no sign of God in their lives. Boy, was I in for a VERY pleasant surprise. Mrs. Oke leads us through the life of a very young Marty Davis, who has just left her family in the east, to travel west with her new husband , Clem. Clem and Marty had been living out of their wagon, eating pancakes and drinking coffee EVERY day, because that1s all that Marty knew how to make. Unexpectedly, though, Clem dies, and Marty is left alone with child and no home, no money, and just what she has in her wagon.

The Love Comes Softly series then begins to take us through the struggles Marty has to overcome and Mrs. Oke guides us so beautifully, that we feel like we are right there with Marty. The eight books lead us through 40 years in Marty and her family1s lives. I enjoyed every minute of the readings. Never has a book so captured me like Mrs. Oke1s did.

I try to count my blessings every day, but after reading this group of books, I found more to be thankful for. I never stopped to realize what the generations before us went through. With Marty, I learned what is was like to bear a child with no husband and no doctor around--just a local lady that had delivered many babies. I learned what it was like to leave family behind, knowing that you will probably never see them again--or even hear from them again.

The funniest part of the series was in the very first book. Marty decides she will try to make her new husband a chicken and dumpling meal. Well........she goes to the chicken pen to try and catch one. After tearing apart then pen, she finally catches one of only two roosters (she didn1t know she was supposed to only kill the female). Once she gets him, she has no idea as to how to kill him, so she decides to tie him up and kill him--that didn1t work, and she wound up cutting off the beak of the prize rooster. When her husband, Clark comes home, he finds the pen in disarray, and sees his rooster with no beak and he comes to find out that Marty was just trying to cook him his first real meal. This part cracked me up, along with the part where she tries to fix biscuits and they turn out as hard as rocks.

You have to read the books in order. They just keep continuing with this saga. The best book in the series was book four. I can1t tell you why, for it would give the ending for the rest of the series, but it was the book that kept me the most fascinated. The hardest part about the series was the way she wrote it. She wrote it with the accents as they would have said things. It was hard at first, but I got used to it by the second book. I highly recommend her books, and am looking forward to the next series I am about to read. The new series is from the Canadian West. It involves new characters, and therefore new lives.

I would really appreciate hearing from others who have read her books--especially the Love Comes Softly series. It would be enjoyable to talk with others about Jannette Oke1s books. You can find her work at any Christian bookstore or even the library. They are expensive, between $9-13.00, but they are worth their price. I found twelve of her books at the library, though. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. It is definitely a series I would read again and again, and I look forward to my two daughters growing up and wanting to read them as well. They are written in the same manner as the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. ENJOY!!!!!!

A great book to get you thinking about how you relate to your kids and how to begin teaching them about money management. Ellie Kay is a chocolate loving, coffee drinking, and deeply religious military wife who is a mother of five. "Money Doesn't Grow On Trees" is a fun, practical book with stories from the family of the author. Throughout the book runs a theme that saving money is a skill that you can teach your children, not only so that you and your children can avoid being crushed by consumer debt, but also so that you will have money to help others in need. Ellie Kay tells you how she does it, and how you can do it. "Money Doesn't Grow On Trees" is a fascinating read, so make sure that you budget at least five hours when you get started - you will not want to put the book down!

Ellie is such a gifted author! As someone who doesn't usually like to read self-help books, I must say that this book has humor and real life illustrations that keep me going. I didn't want to put it down! Her ideas for training your children how to manage money are so helpful and realistic. And the best part about it is that she weaves in all the principles we adults need to know for our own financial management, too!

I have read Ellie's other two books and really enjoyed them, but this one is the best yet!! As usual, it is full of wonderfully funny stories to which any parent can relate! It is very entertaining, but also very practical! I believe every parent can benefit from the wisdom in this book. Ellie gives you the tools you need to raise financially responsible children with a strong work ethic - something often missing in today's young people. You will learn how to handle a child's desire to wear only name brand clothes and to "keep up with the Jones'", and how to encourage your children to raise money themselves for the items they feel they must have. This gives a child the confidence and self-assurance that money cannot buy! Great book!! I highly recommend it!

This was the first Max Lucado book I have read and I was completely enthralled by his writing. His continual references to the scriptures and his real-life examples really made me feel like he was talking directly to me. More so, I felt like God was speaking directly to me through the pages of the book. This is a must read for all Christians, but especially for new Christians like me.

Max Lucado does it again! With this book, He portrays a picture of how much God cares for us. If you are not sure how much God loves you, definetely recommend this.

I gave this book a 5 for a good reason. And the reason is that I like books that make me think about how and why I do the things I do in life. I also like that Max will put God lessons into everyday life

The story of how David Wilkerson came to found Teen Challenge should be a must read for anyone who follows Jesus Christ. The Cross and the Switchblade describes how Wilkerson put feet on his faith that took him from rural Pennsylvania to the streets of New York City. It's the story of how a pastor followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and reached out to minister to people with whom the churches would not associate.

Wilkerson describes in his book how essential it is to meet the unloved where they are, rather than waiting for them to show up in church all dressed up and ready to worship within the ranks of the clean and respectable. He also rightly emphasizes the importance of follow up, how one can't just expect to go out and distribute tracts or preach from street corners without also developing real, loving relationships with people and ministering to their needs, both spiritually and physically.

Now that Teen Challenge International has grown to over 200 centers around the world, it is interesting to note that the struggle in recovery ministry continues to be much the same: It's extremely difficult to get people to reach out in love to those who have never been loved, and it's nearly impossible to get church members to venture outside their doors to love their neighbors as they love themselves.

I praise God for Rev. Wilkerson and the way that he listened to God and ventured out in faith. I thank him for sharing the story of his work.

A powerful book that will send God-bumps down your spine! Even if you are not a fan of David Wilkerson's later writings, this book is truly a God send. Read this book if you want to learn of the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of others.

What a tremendous message this book has to give. Miracles happen right in the worst parts of New York, away from the glamourous bits, right in the middle of the hard, the tough, the smelly and the nasty - and it actually keeps on happening.

These days, so much has changed. A local pentecostal preacher once told me that he went to Leeds one Saturday; that he was so disgusted by the beggars, and used to see the same ones all the time, how awful that they should always be there; and once he got real close up to one, who was (from what he told me) probably very weak, maybe even dying, lying on the ground, got about six inches away from their ear, and shouted at the top of his voice, "GET A JOB!!!"

Stand this in contrast with the Wilkerson man. This guy, realizing that the zonkos and beggars know that they're sinners, possibly scarcely realizing anything else at all, goes and gives them a bed for the night - feeds them - gives them a bath and warm clothes. The tells them that God knows them and has already fixed up a plan for them - that to the God who made the sun and the outer planets, THEY matter - "whosoever will" can come and drink from the waters of life, that they can repent, and be made blameless before the king of kings.

[Life isn't cheap to this man.]

Then the guy fixes up this organisation called "teen challenge", held together by almost no money at all, but lots of prayer, who pulls loads of dropouts and folks who are very nearly dead from all over the place and stands them on the the higher ground...

Man, this book is so good. I know that these days, many of the big churches... (I used to be in Perth, Western Australia) and there was this huge church near to the Casino. The car park was full of BMWs, and all the evidence was that the church was really inwards looking, far too concerned with "signs and wonders" to remember about the plan of Salvation at all. So much for the lost, no place for them. When I went to Yorkshire, I was amazed how the church had similarly split along these lines - those who preached the gospel, the same one as David Wilkerson preached - to the lost sheep - (go and READ this, will you) and those who prayed for (and maybe got) bigger houses, fatter share options, sports cars, foreign holidays, etc. The contrast is huge.

Read this book and find out what the cost of discipleship to Christ really means - how many days and nights of prayer it really takes to move those mountains - and what faith is REALLY about. And the failures, when Sonny does not come back, and all the disappointments when it doesn't seem to go to plan and they're just about to get kicked out of the building...

I was brought up with this book, and as far as I can remember, I have worn out probably six copies. Time I got myself a new one....