The author did put the aim of this book explicitly clear. He would like us to not to neglect the Old Testament, as most of us had focused only on the New Testament, if we really read the Bible at all. Afterall, the Old Testatment was what Jesus read and quote. In this respect, I doubt whether his objective can be served because I really think those who had read the Old Testament at least twice could appreciate the insights that he presented in this book. The fact that he had focused only on Job, Deuteronomy, Psalm, Ecclesiastes and the books of the prophets as a whole made it an ordinary Bible commentary instead of the other Yancey works with clear central themes. Nevertheless, this book is still up to the average but still outstanding Yancey standard, perhaps except the part on Deuteronomy, which some other reviewrs shared the same not so positive opinion with me. Anyway, I would strongly recommend it to all Christians, preferably to those who had read the Old Testament at least once.

As usual in all my reviews, I would like to copy and paste some messages for your reference. Hope they would help you to better understand the goodness of the book.

""Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." We usually interpret that commandment in a narrow sense of prohibiting swearing," said Webber, who then proceed to expand its meaning to never live as though God does not exist. Or, stated positively, Always live in awareness of God's existence. ...Any key to living in such awareness must be found in the Old Testament. pg 29

The Old Testament gives clues into the kind of history God is writing. Exodus identifies by name the two Hebrew midwives who helped save Moses'life, but it does not bother to record the name of the Pharaoh rulng Egypt. First Kings grants a total of eight verses to King Omri, even though secular historians regard him as one of Israel's most powerful kings. In his own history, God does not seem impressed by size or power or wealth. Fiath is what he wants, and the heroes who emerge are heros of faith, not strength or wealth. pg 32

At root, Job faced a crisis of faith, not of suffering. ...At such times we focus too easily on circumstances - illness, our looks, poverty, bad luck as the enemy. We pray for God to change those circumstances.....When tragedy strikes, we too will be trapped in a limited point of view. Like Job, we will be tempted to blame God and see him as the enemy....Job convinces me that God cares more about our faith than our pleasure. pg 63

Many psalms convey this spirit of "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief," a way of talking oneself into faith when emotions are wavering....For the Hebrew poets, God represented a reality more solid than their own whipsaw emotions or the checkered history of their people. They wrestled with God over every facet of their lives, and in the end it was the very act of wrestling that proved their faith. pg 123

Ecclesiastes insists that the stones we trip over are good things in themselves: "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Yet by assuming a burden we were not mean to carry, we turn nudity into pornography, wine into alcoholism, food into gluttony, and human diversity into racism and prejudice. Despair descends as we abuse God's good gifts; they seem no longer gifts, and no longer good. pg 159

Whilst most self help books focus primarily on planning, goal setting, motivation, action etc, this one is a little bit special, not because it's written by an ex fighter plane pilot or an aikido master, but it's just so straightforward and simple emphasis on "practice".

The main theme of the book can be summarized by a paragraph in page 48: "Goals and contingencies, as I've said, are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, hear it, smell it, feel it. To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenely to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them. To love the plateau is to love what is most esssential and enduring in your life." In other words, this book centers around patience, resilence, continuous learning and a little bit of zen, though the former three terms were not present inside the book at all.

Many reviewers gave five stars to this book and some even said that this is the unique self help book one might need. However, I really cant agree so because this book is so targeted to specific segments which the author described as the dabblers (the eternal kids) and the obsessive (the bottom line type), where the lack of patience or persistence appears to be their primal problem. Certainly there are other types of issues that deter "self helpers". Meanwhile, I must say that the passage devoted to homeostasis (internal resistance to change) is brilliant. In short, this book is worth a read.

p.s. I would like to quote two passages which I like the most for your reference.

1. In his book Zen Mind....Suzuki approaches the question of fast and slow learners in terms of horses. "In our scriptures, it is said that there are four kinds of horses:...The best horse will run slow and fast, right and left, at the driver's will, before it sess the shadow of the whip; the second best...just before the whip reaches its skin; the third ....when it feels pain on its body; the fourth...after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones....When we hear this story, almost all of us want to be the best horse....But this is a mistake, Master Suzuki says. When you learn too easily, you'r tempted not to work hard, not to penetrate to the marrow of a practice. pg 66

2. Are you willing to wear your white belt? pg 176, the last page of the book.

First of all, I must admit that I have been one of Lewis' fans since his classic Liar's Poker. How could I miss this one which Tom Wolfe described on the inside back cover as Lewis' grandest tour de force yet? However, being a Chinese trader who's ignorant about baseball, I could only complete the first two chapters (42 pages out of 288) and put it down. The large amount of baseball jargon and player name just stopped me from reading onwards. In fact, this review is written with the sole purpose to warn fellow Lewis' fans that this book, unlike his previous ones, require readers of certain knowledge and interest of baseball. If you're not a baseball fan, I strongly suggest you to give this book a pass.

I am sorry that I had read this book late, but hopefully it is not too late. In short, this is a book about very long term market timing through 100+ years of "statistical or historical analysis" plus some "trading philosophy". The essence of it came in the first 39 pages (or 3 chapters out of 13), which can be summarized as:-

1. Optimal buy points come in years ending in twos and threes, followed by the incredibly strong five years, then in the fall of any year ending in seven. Most major highs have come in years ending in nine and zero. pg 14

2. Every four years we expect a market bottom. Incidentally one should be looking for significant market bottoms in 2006, 2010, 2014.... pg 19/20

3. March buys in years ending in eights and September exits in years ending in nines gave spectacular results. pg 25

4. The Oct buy April sell % gain is significantly higher than the April buy Oct sell % gain. pg 33

5. Combining all the above, we should have a significant market rally in 2005 and another in 2006. pg 38

Up to this very day on Feb 2004 which is over nine months after it's publication, what the author said was by and large correct. There is no reason not to recommend this book to anybody who got the patience and the courage to place a high probability bet.

p.s. With respect to the trading philosophy part, I would like to quote something from the book for your reference. Hope you like them.

1. October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February. Mark Twain. pg 29

2. Markets dont top because sellers come into the marketplace. Markets top because there are simply no more buyers. Tom De Mark pg 50

3. The opposite of any generally accepted idea is worth a fortune to somebody. Francis Scott Fitzgerald Key pg 97

I am so ashamed of myself because before reading this book I had been quite proud of having read many spiritual books and the whole Bible four times. However, I still failed to realize that the title of the book simply meant the Old Testament, and that I was very ignorant of the Old Testament.

Back to the book itself. The author had expressed that he would like modern christians to re-balance their interest between the Old and the New Testaments, when most of us had certainly put our time on the later one, if we had read it at all. Afterall, Jesus did read and always quote from it. In this respect, I doubt whether his objective can be served because I really think those who had read the Old Testament twice could appreciate the insights that the author had observed and the majority had neglected. The fact that the author had focused only on Job, Deuteronomy, Psalm, Ecclesiastes and the books of the prophets as a whole made it an ordinary Bible commentary instead of the other Yancey works with clear central themes. Nevertheless, this book is still up to the average but still outstanding Yancey standard, perhaps except the part on Deuteronomy, which some other reviewrs shared the same not so positive opinion with me. Anyway, I would strongly recommend this book to all Christians, preferably if one had read the relevant books in the Old Testament at least once.

As usual in all my reviews, I would like to copy and paste some messages for your reference. Hope they would help you to better understand the goodness of the book.

""Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." We usually interpret that commandment in a narrow sense of prohibiting swearing," said Webber, who then proceed to expand its meaning to never live as though God does not exist. Or, stated positively, Always live in awareness of God's existence. ...Any key to living in such awareness must be found in the Old Testament. pg 29

The Old Testament gives clues into the kind of history God is writing. Exodus identifies by name the two Hebrew midwives who helped save Moses'life, but it does not bother to record the name of the Pharaoh rulng Egypt. First Kings grants a total of eight verses to King Omri, even though secular historians regard him as one of Israel's most powerful kings. In his own history, God does not seem impressed by size or power or wealth. Fiath is what he wants, and the heroes who emerge are heros of faith, not strength or wealth. pg 32

At root, Job faced a crisis of faith, not of suffering. ...At such times we focus too easily on circumstances - illness, our looks, poverty, bad luck as the enemy. We pray for God to change those circumstances.....When tragedy strikes, we too will be trapped in a limited point of view. Like Job, we will be tempted to blame God and see him as the enemy.... I hesitate to write this because it is a hard truth, one I do not want to acknowledge: Job convinces me that God cares more about our faith than our pleasure.....In a message to Ezekiel God includes Job in a list of three giants of righteousness. The other two mentioned, Noah and Daniel, learned faith in the midst of a massive flood and a den of lions. pg 63/64

God did not condemn Job's doubt and despair, only his ignorance. pg 70

Bear it up; keep smiling; suffering makes you strong, say some spirtual advisors - but not the psalmists. They do not rationalize anger away or give abstract advice about pain; rather, they express emotions vividly and loudly, directing their feelings primarily at God. pg 122

Many psalms convey this spirit of "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief," a way of talking oneself into faith when emotions are wavering....For the Hebrew poets, God represented a reality more solid than their own whipsaw emotions or the checkered history of their people. They wrestled with God over every facet of their lives, and in the end it was the very act of wrestling that proved their faith. pg 123

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility. Humility is endless. T.S. Eliot pg 154

Ecclesiastes insists that the stones we trip over are good things in themselves: "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Yet by assuming a burden we were not mean to carry, we turn nudity into pornography, wine into alcoholism, food into gluttony, and human diversity into racism and prejudice. Despair descends as we abuse God's good gifts; they seem no longer gifts, and no longer good. pg 159

Unless we acknowledge our limits and subject ourselves to God's rule, unless we trust the Giver of all good gifts, we will end up in a state of despair. Ecclesiastes calls us to accept our status as creatures under the dominion of the Creator, something few of us do without a struggle. pg 160

Why read the prophets? There is one compelling reason: to get to know God. The prophets are the Bible's most forceful revelation of God's personality. pg 180

If I were not in one of the two most painful moment of my thirty seven year life, I certainly would have avoided this book though it's written by Philip Yancey, my favorite Christian author. I am still in great pain, but I must say that this book does help.

Even God Himself did not explain to Job why Job had suffered, so the author just focused his discussion on the "meaning" or "to what end" of suffering. He had covered many topics, like the clear distinction between pain and suffering, the biological necessity of pain, how well intended consolation or even gift cards of christians can do more harm than good, the importance of hope as a pain killer, the notion of "the wounded healer" first preached by Nouven that God enables christians to help others in future through their suffering, the death of Christ as evidence that God knows our suffering and cares, etc etc.

No matter what, as somebody who's suffering and strongly believe that my current experience will endow me with stronger capability to help others in the future, I can tell this is a very good book that helps. If I have only one complaint, it is that most of the examples quoted by the author were about disease and death. It would be better if he could talk more about those who suffer under divorce.........

p.s. As in all my recent reviews, below please find some copy and paste from the book for your reference.

-- If I spend my life searching for happiness through drugs, comfort and luxury, it will elude me. Happiness recedes from those who pursue her. Happiness will come upon me unexpectedly as a by product, a surprising bonus for something I have invested myself in. And, most likely, that investment will include pain. It is hard to imagine pleasure without it.

-- Until you know a little more about running the physical universe, Job, dont tell me how to run the moral universe.

-- Guilt is a pain message to the conscience, informing it that something is wrong and should be dealth with.

-- Paul had learned the lesson of the Beatitudes: poverty, affliction, sorrow, and weakness can actually be means of grace if we turn to God with a humble, dependent spirit. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul concluded. The weaker we feel, the harder we may lean.

-- At the instant of pain, it may seem impossible to imagine that good can come from tragedy. (It must have seemed so to Christ at Gethsemane. ) We never know in advance exactly how suffering can be transformed into a cause for celebration. But that is what we are asked to believe. Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.

-- I have mentioned that no one offers the name of a philosopher when I asked the question, "Who helped you most?" Most often they answer by describing a quiet, unassuming person. Someone who was there whenever needed, who listened more than talked, who didnt keep glancing down at a watch, who hugged and touched, and cried, someone who was available, and came on the sufferer's terms not their own.

First of all, I must say that this book is worth a read. The author discussed quite many ideas so as to lead readers to the key theme of the book which can be summarized by the following sentence in pg 201, "Without seasons of prayerful waiting for fresh power (the fueling/filling of the Holy Spirit, if I got it right), we will see little or no divine assistance in doing God's work."

The author did elaborate with many scriptures, real life examples, strong and straight messages against the negligence and misunderstanding of some churches on Holy Spirit, love, prayer etc. However, the chapters just seem so dissociated that made me feel that I was just reading past records of weekly sermon. I am sorry that I still cant answer some questions like: Should I pray for it or should I pray to it? How can I know that I am filled or fueled by it? I know that there are many things about God that cant be fully understood until we were raised to heaven. But as the author stressed so much on it, I think he should give me a better answer. I really believe he could.

No matter what, bright and meaningful messages are plenty. So sorry that the book does not shine as a whole. I would like to quote some below for your reference:-

For the New Testament without the coming of the Holy Spirit in power over self, sin and the devil is no better a help to heaven than the Old Testament without the coming of the Messiah. pg 25

What God calls us to do, he will also be faithful to equip us to do. pg 80

The acid test for a real Christian experience is our love for one another. pg 95

Most people plot and plan themselves into mediocrity, while now and again somebody forgets himself into greatness. pg 141

If the Master whom we follow was crucified, on what basis do we think we will escape all trouble? pg 177

Any voice that says, Clean up your act first and then come to Christ, has to be from Satan. pg 199

Lord, I am weak. I know that many things in my life really need to change, but I must have your empowerment. I want it to be different in my life, my family, my church, my ministry. But I cant do it in my own strength. Coem fill me now with your Holy Spirit. pg 200

With recommendations on the back cover from John Bollinger, Burton Malkiel and Victor Niederhoffer, I did have high expectation on this book but I had been a little bit disappointed. The recommendation or the content is very straightforward. As concluded by the author, they include 1) buy stocks that are receiving upward earnings estimate revisions and sell stocks that are receiving downward earnings estimate revisions owing to "analyst creep" and delayed price response. 2) buy companies that are reporting earnings better than expectations and avoid companies that are reporting earnings worse than expectations owing to post earnings announcement drift and "cockroach effect". 3) subscribe the Zacks Rank, which somebody did the homework of the above for you with a fee 4) focus on changes in analysts' recommendations over time. The catch is: I doubt only a very small percentage of home investors have the time or resources to execute any one of the recommendations above for long and as a result they can only go to Zacks Investment Research for help, and thus bringing the whole book to something not far from a sales talk.

In short, if you are already aware of the innate problem with any analysts' recommendation and you are not going to subscribe to any fee based research, this book is not for you. However, if you are a green hand in the investment game, prepared to shop for a research report and pick the stocks yourself, this book may still worth a read.

This is a relatively "recent" song from the trimmed down version of Duran Duran first published a little over 10 years ago. I like it very much. Everytime I stumbled over big problems like loss of love or in financial crisis, I replay it time after time after time, trying to remind myself about how little my problems are compared to wars and starvation all over the world. The world goes on, and I have to survive. Hope those of you who are in deep trouble can get some consolation from this song. Believe it or not, I am weeping when I am writing this review. In short, a classic and a good buy for value. For your reference, I like the following lyrics the most:

but I won't cry for yesterday
there's an ordinary world
somehow I have to find
and as I try to make my way
to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive

Papers in the roadside
tell of suffering and greed
here today, forgot tomorrow
ooh, here besides the news
of holy war and holy need
ours is just a little sorrowed talk

As promised by the book title, the author tried to deliver something "insightful" about Jesus to anybody who might even had read the whole New Testament several times. In my opinion, he did the job very well, no matter whether one agrees with his relatively liberal perspective manifest in his later and more well known book "What's so amazing about grace?" or not. Though I think "What's" is even better, I do recommend this to any christian who wants to know more about Christ our Savior.

Below please find some copy and paste for your reference. Hope you like them.

The temptation in the desert reveals a profound difference between God's power and Satan's power. Satan has the power to coerce, to dazzle, to force obedience, to destroy....God's power, in contrast, is internal and noncoercive....As every parent and every lover knows, love can be rendered powerless if the beloved chooses to spurn it. pg76

Jesus did not mechanically follow a list of "Things I gotta do today,", and I doubt he would have appreciated our modern emphasis on punctuality and precise scheduling. He attended wedding feasts that lasted for days. He let himself get distracted by nobody he came across...Two of his most impressive miracles (raising of Lazarus and Jairus's daughter) took place because he arrived too late...Jesus was "the man for others,..He kept himself free - free for the other person. pg 89

As a child, I saw the miracles as guarantees of personal safety.....According to tradition, the eleven disciples who sruvived Judas all died martyrs' deaths...Faith is not an insurance policy...but rather give a secure base from which to face their consequences. pg 181

Jesus' healings are not supernatura miracles in a natural world. They are the only truly natural things in a world that is unnatural, demonized and wounded. pg 183

When I ask a stranger, "What is an evangelical Christian?" I get an answer something like this, " Some who supports family values and opposes homosexual rights and abortion." This trend troubles me because the gospel of Jesus was not primarily a political platform....Jesus did not say, "All men will know you are my disciples ..if you just pass laws, suppress immorality, and restore decency to family and government," but rather "...if you love one another." pg 247