Godgrown

Tagged: book review RSS

• 

  Mark 9:36 am on December 1, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: book review, control, lust, seth cox   

  Book Review: Seth’s Seashell Methods of Marriage by T. Seth Cox 

  Some books catch you with their cover design, others with a famous author.  This book’s title: Seth’s Seashell Methods of Marriage: Meeting Needs, Understanding Controlling Personalities, and Standing for Your Marriage the Seashell Way is what gave my noggin about a quarter-turn.  What is the “seashell method?”  I wondered immediately, “And what does it have to do with marriage?”  I was hooked.

  This book is about seashells and marriage, yes, but it goes deeper than any marriage book I’ve read before.  I’ll get to that in a minute – but first, SEASHELLS?!?  Do you remember the old saying,

  “She sells seashells by the seashore.

  The shells that she sells are seashells I’m sure.”

  Seth Cox (http://www.marriagewalk.com) takes this simple rhyme and asks the basic question: “SHE DID WHAT?” You’ve got to be a pretty smart cookie to sell seashells right on the beach – where they’re strewn about the sand for anyone to pick up free!  You’ve got to be a incredible salesperson using everything in your arsenal to sell seashells by the seashore.  It takes determination, customer care, patience and persistence, timeliness (the early bird gets the worm – or in this case, the best seashells,) and more.  Cox describes this as the “Seashell Method” – you can apply it to any realm of life – business, sports, and of course, marriage.

  This book proposes that if you are (or once were) married, you were at one point the best salesman in the world, for at least one person – your spouse.  Think about it – you convinced your spouse that that against all odds, you would be the right choice out of billions of others to spend, not money, but an ENTIRE LIFE with!  To cultivate a vibrant marriage, we must continue to care for our most important customer (our spouse).

  Throughout the book, Cox attempts to make us better “salespeople” in our marriage using the Seashell Method.  By giving us practicals on developing a life-long relationship, on meeting our spouse’s needs, on communicating our own wants and desires, on gaining your spouse’s trust, and more, Cox offers advice that quickly goes beyond the slightly-stretched metaphor of sales to the deepest issues facing marriages across the globe. He takes on issues that no other marriage book I’ve read ever has, and deals with them not through anecdotes, but through his deep, learned wisdom.  You can sense he’s been there too – but he never makes this book about him, instead keeping the focus on the simple practices he knows will make a marriage last.

  Few books on marriage take you past the feel-good topics of “meeting each other’s needs” to less popular topics like unwinding yourself from destructive patterns of controlling your spouse, or the personal temptation of lust.  How many other books on the subject give you a firm, steady hand in guiding you when your spouse has left you and your left to stand for your marriage on your own?  Millions are struggling with these issues, and I’m thankful that for the first time, I see them dealt with on the printed page.  Cox handles these raw elements of life and marriage with gentle wisdom, and offers hope and practical advice.

  Marriage is not what we see in movies, though that is often our expectation entering into such a sacred covenant with another person.  While it seems marriage is the most ancient of human endeavors, there is still such a mystery surrounding how to simply live together.  I doubly recommend Cox’s book, as well as his popular Marriage Walk website.  Anyone with Cox’s ability to speak with courage and honesty to the rewarding, yet tough reality of married life ought to stay close to the keyboard – keep writing Seth!

  
   

  Reply Cancel reply

  Required fields are marked *

  Name *

  Email *

  Website

  

• 

  Mark 9:18 am on April 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afterlife, book review, moody   

  Book Review – Who Goes There? 

  Who Goes There? by Rebecca Price Janney is a tumbling book on how cultures throughout history have viewed heaven and hell.  Here’s an excerpt.  The book was sent to me by Michael Morrell as part of the Viral Bloggers portion of the OOZE e-zine. This is a report on the book.

  Much of the book is the America’s relationship with a Christian theology of heaven and hell.  Janney walks us through the earliest days of America, as it was finding its footing, and through grissling wars that forced people to question the fate of loved ones lost in combat.  The later chapters are full of quotes and analysis of some of the most culturally famous (or infamous) who passed away in the public spotlight.  Janney considers the public reaction in newspapers, or radio and TV broadcasts to be indicative of the broader culture’s position on heaven and hell.

  While it was great to walk through America’s history again, I found the book fairly predictable with nothing interesting to really catch or keep my attention.  Janney appropriately stays out of the realm of theology and instead reports on the historical events.  This makes for a great history lesson, but does little for a practical theologian.  Where are we today in our conversation about heaven and hell?  How does culture use or misuse the Bible to assume life after death?  Surprisingly little is unpacked on contemporary times, and it was disappointing.

  While there is little to take away from this book for those wanting to integrate it into their ministry or life, there was one point she made in the last chapter.  Quoting C.S. Lewis, she writes, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”  If the whole book had been a history on the lives of such people and their understanding of heaven and hell  (Martin Luther King Jr., St. Francis of Assisi, etc) I would have devoured this book.  I chose this book because I believe that what we believe about our final destination helps our trajectory through this life.  I regret to say this book doesn’t do much for me.

  There was a pretty neat video Moody Publishers put out to promote the book.

  We do have wildly diverse beliefs about heaven and hell.  Mostly, we just believe whatever we want to, or let our theology slide when good things are said about ‘bad people.’  “He’s up there looking down on me.”

  But why not stop assuming people are one place or another?  What good does that do?  Why not begin to join Jesus in bringing heaven to earth, and send hell off in a hand basket?  Maybe I’ve been in too many conversations of guesswork, trying to figure out who the heretic was – my life will not be defined by judging “who goes where” but rather “where am I helping this world go?”

  

  Sean is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Sean 12:36 am on April 8, 2009 Permalink

    two things came to mind as I read this, your comment, “I believe that what we believe about our final destination helps our trajectory through this life.” Is an incredibly amazing statement. It says something about how we view human nature, and our individual persons as well. I don’t know the origins of this conversation but I think its probably from the beginning of time.

    I’ve always felt like the fire and brimstone argument negates the purpose behind Jesus description of heaven and hell. I think Jesus descriptions are about where you are in relationship with God. Fire and brimstone creates a selfishness that I’m afraid may push even honest intentioned people in the wrong direction. Its not about saving your ass! Its about enjoying and loving God.

    The other thing I got here is more of a question. I remember reading somewhere when “centered” was being worked on about the difference between a bounded set and spheres of influence. Does that sound familiar? Anyway it sounds to me like you have fleshed out that theology into a little praxis here.