This book is a call back to the true Jesus of the Scriptures and away from the false "bless me" Jesus who is primarily being preached today. The writer is not harsh towards today's Christians but, rather, he writes with compassion.

He speaks of us turning to Jabez's prayer as a model when Jesus gave us the model prayer. That part really touched me. The popular prayer today is not "give us this day our daily bread" - - today's ideals say that daily bread is not enough! Some of our leaders even teach us that "faith" will cause us to ask for more than just daily bread. Why do a lot of us Christians not get as excited about forgiving those who trespass against us as we do getting blessed and having our territory enlarged?

A couple of other things the author says in the book:
"The prayer of self-interest is more interested in getting God's blessings than in discerning God's will." And "What is the will of God? We often make this a selfish search. What does God want for me? What is the best path for me? However, in the context of kingdom of God, seeking God's will is always discerning our role in making earth as it is in heaven."

There are many other things the Mr. Mulholland writes that will cause us to think and repent.

If you've felt that something is lacking in some of the more popular teachings on prayer, this book will bless you.

I read The Prayer of Jabez. Anything that is marketed that heavily just had to play to the Church of American Culture I thought. I was right.

Read Praying Like Jesus, preferably 3 seconds after you've finished The Prayer of Jabez.

What you encounter in Mulholland's book is the real thing folks and an effective antidote to the Christianity American Style embodied in The Prayer of Jabez.

Recently I wrote a review on the book 'The Prayer of Jabez.' I outlined in that review some of the things I appreciated about that book, but also recounted the many things that made me uneasy with both the development and the intention most seem to pick up from the practice of the prayer.

There are few things in our lives that are as personal and touch us as deeply as prayer, particularly our own prayer life. We each feel we are an expert at praying in our own ways, and to a large extent, each of us is. For this deep part of our lives to be co-opted by a feeling of selfish intention for personal gain is tragic. This is why I considered 'The Prayer of Jabez' problematic - the author's intent might not be selfishness, but the message being heard is precisely that.

In searching for an alternative to hold up as a model more in keeping with my own prayer temperament, Charles Allen, a theology professor at my seminary, directed me to James Mulholland's 'Praying Like Jesus: The Lord's Prayer in a Culture of Prosperity.'

The book begins where the disciples of Jesus began -- Thomas asks Jesus to teach them how to pray. In an interesting, fictional conversation, the disciples recount their experience of praying another prayer that seems to work better for them (of course, this is the prayer of Jabez). Many followers of Jesus seem to slink away after hearing Jesus tell people that they should stop asking for an increase in territory, but rather ask God to provide for their needs; that they should stop asking for a blessing in earthly terms, but rather be willing to follow the will of God even to death, to 'take up their crosses and follow'. This teaching is too hard to follow!

'This is not what happened two thousand years ago. Unfortunately, it is happening today in thousands of churches and with millions of Christians. ... Thousands of Christians are repeating an obscure prayer first uttered by a man named Jabez over three thousand years ago. Many have become convinced his words are the formula for prosperity.'

As Mulholland points out correctly, Wilkinson did not intend his prayer to become a manifesto for righteous greed. He also points out that neither Jabez nor the Bible hold up the prayer of Jabez as a model for anyone but Jabez to follow.

'This honour is reserved for another short prayer located in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. We call this prayer The Lord's Prayer, though I prefer to call it the Prayer of Jesus.'

Mulholland does not promise riches or special healing or power; he does not give the magic formula for getting what you want. What he does is reiterate the intentions of Jesus with the Prayer of Jesus -- an opportunity to reconnect with God and with each other through the words that, as the disciple Peter said, 'contain eternal life'.

The first chapter is entitled When You Pray. This, of course, assumes that you pray. Not if, but when. Mulholland talks about the prayer of self-righteousness and the prayer of self-interest. These prayers are one-communication, but even worse than that, they are directive or instructive, as if God needs to be told what to do or informed of something God did not yet know (such as, how good we've been lately). God is put in the mode of Santa Claus. Jesus gives a corrective to this.

'Praying like Jesus offers far more than prosperity. When prayed with sincerity, it cleanses our hearts of self-righteousness and strips our motives of self-interest. It challenges the false and inappropriate ways we approach God and each other. It reminds us of what we so easily forget -- our proper relationship to God and the world.'

Praying like Jesus reminds us of God more than it invokes ourselves. Praying like Jesus also reminds us of our needs as a community. This prayer is a prayer for the world, a world in which the will of God is primary.

The other chapters give insights into the particular parts of the Lord's Prayer: chapter titles include Our Father, Thy Kingdom Come, Give Us, Forgive Us, and Deliver Us. Each of these chapters stress the love of God for us, the importance of community, the importance of relationship, and the need to see who and where we are in right respect of God. This is not a prayer for become rich and famous, which is the trap of much of current culture, including the prayer of Jabez and many other 'Christian' things.

'This obsession with material blessing, at the expense of the spiritual, is a congenital disease. Being born an American is to be so afflicted. Jim Bakker was merely the most blatant prophet of a philosophy to which most of us pledge allegiance. His lifestyle was an exaggeration of a nearly universal merger of religious life and the predominant values of our culture. He sprinkled holy water on the American way.'

Of course, one of the problems with the Lord's Prayer is that it has become, for most Christians, an almost genetically-encoded prayer routine that it is done without thinking. Unfortunately, this means it is almost always done with comprehension on any level; it is just one more part of the liturgy that we say in our drive to get on and get through on our way to the next thing. Praying like Jesus requires us to pay attention, and pay attention deeply. Mulholland's final word in the conclusion is a charge for us to regain this attention and incorporate the prayer anew into our lives deeply and with meaning that it has in abundance, but which we've missed for so long.

If you're a fan of Gretsch drums and want a one-stop source for the company's history, this book is the only game in town. There are lots of cool photos and it's always great to read the insights of musical legends. If you read this book, you can learn a lot. That said, it could have been MUCH more.

The first concern is that author buys into the myth that the only good Gretsch drums are old Gretsch drums. Since the company has used the same shells, lugs, and rims for the past 40 years or so, there's really not a heck of a lot of difference in sound between a drum from 1965 and one from 1995. An objective observer would also probably have to admit that the lacquer finished drums from the 1970s look a lot better than the older drums wrapped with generic plastic sparkle or pearl wrap. In recent (as in the past twenty) years, the company has made, with varying success, efforts to modernize its mounting hardware and cymbal stands. Despite this, the book only spends about a dozen pages on the last thirty years of the company (and those pages aren't very complimentary).

This book also gives superficial treatment to the fact that Gretsch is a somewhat "unusual" company. How is it that the drums have high levels of craftsmanship and very expensive parts, but seemingly absurd design flaws (I recently saw a drum technician struggle to fit a standard head on a mid 1970's brass snare - all the time cursing how they were ALL like that). When Gretsch had its offices in Ridgeland, South Carolina, the building was nothing but a fairly modest (I don't dare say dumpy, but some might) warehouse with a sign that looked as though it had been amateurishly hand painted on surplus plywood (if I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it). What was up with that? Nowadays, even the drum magazines comment on the company's reputation for notoriously bad customer service. It's almost as if Fred Gretsch doesn't care if he ever sells another drum. Heck, you have to PAY to get a catalog. What's up with that? Does Fred Gretsch have a plan? Is the sales volume and profit margin of the imported guitar line going to eventually lead to the demise of the American-made Gretsch drum? Anybody who knows about Gretch knows about at least aome of these things. It would have been very interesting to read more about them.

Finally, you don't get a lot of book for the money. Thirty five bucks is a hefty price for a paperback with less than 150 pages. Did the page size make the book more expensive? It couldn't have been due to photo rights - most of the pictures come from the author's personal collection (but I give credit where due - there are some fantastic photographs here). I'm not making a quantity over quality argument here, but how can Jay Scott put an extra hundred quality pages in his book on Gretsch guitars, but charge the same thing? The potential buyer should know that the steep admission price gets you a book that's thinner than the average issue of Vogue. I guess the worst part of it is that the author probably knows (and could have written) enough to fill a LOT more pages, but chose, for whatever reasons, not to share the information with us. So much for the legacy of "That Great Gretsch Sound".

Mr. Falzerano, THE authority on Gretsch Drums, has written a wonderful book giving the history of the Gretsch Drum Company, and featuring interviews with many Gretsch endorsers of the past.

Great graphics, photos, and quality paper.

Thanks Chet!

For years,the work of Abbott & Costello have been ignored or even unfairly criticized by many film and tv historians.Except for Leonard Maltin's "Movie Comedy Teams"and "Great Movie Comedians".The boys'efforts have recevied little or no reconition at all.Until now.Film and TV Comedy writer Jim Mullholland has finally written a book that gives us all some insight into the team's careers.Using reserch,interviews with the boys colleages,family members,performers and craftspersons from the films and tv work and from Maltin.Mr.Mullholland looks at the duo's humble beginnings in Burlesque,With The Steel Pier Mintrels,performing on "The Kate Smith Radio Hour"and in nightclubs.To their debut in The Broadcway Musical revue:"The Streets Of Paris!"with Carmen Miranda and Bobby Clark to hosting their own weekly radio series'on NBC and later on ABC Radio.The book goes on to look at their film careers and at their work on tv:First as semi-regular guest hosts/performers on NBC TV's:"Colgate Comedy Hour!"and then as the stars of "The Abbott & Costello Show".The book also has a filmography of their movies and a listing of their second tv series.Plus photos of the time(Many of these pictures are from private collections).While the book does not go into the problems that exsisted behind the scenes(Including the sorid details of the team's second and final breakup in December,1956)and there is only a small ammount of info about the creation of the films.It still gives us a look into the creation and successes of one of show business'most popular teams.This is one book that Abbott & Costello fans should have.Along with fans of comedy history.Bravo Jimmy! Kevin S.Butler.