Customer Reviews

Handbook to Happiness (revision)

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I read Handbook to Happiness during seminary and was very appreciative of Dr. Solomon's biblical advice to stop trying to live the Christian life in your own strength and instead let the Lord live His life through you.

Among the important points Solomon covers are:

1. Our identity is based on who we are in Christ.
2. Definitions of the soul, spirit, and body.
3. Acceptance is based on who we are in Christ, not our work for Him.
4. Until our flesh dies to Christ, we will live futile lives. Yielding to Christ is hard work!
5. Excellent notes on coming to the end of ourselves.
6. Excellent notes on our times in a spiritual wilderness.
7. Before we can be elevated by God we must experience the agony and suffering of the cross.
8. Many Christians try to live the Christian life in their own strength.

After reading the book I was further convinced of the futility of trying to live life in my own strength. Some people may believe this attitude breeds passivity. Quite the contrary, there is nothing more difficult for the Christian than the daily struggle of dying to self by living in Christ.

Read the book, be challenged, and be encouraged! We need not live futile lives!

This book is for everyone who is asking the question, "Is it possible to find true happiness?" This is a book on basics. We all have access to the Bible, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit as our counselors.(page 13). Romans 12:2, it is the mind that needs to change. Dr. Solomon shares his life. Many of us can identify with the ups and downs of depression. God reminds me that "My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts." Dr. Solomon answers many questions on how to address our feelings. What is rejection and its results, page 18? What is the cure for rejection, page 20? Who are you? On what do you base your identity, page 20+? When the joy dissapears, why? What should I do or what didn't I do, page 64? My responsibility is to study and look to Christ. His responsibility is to reveal the life of the Lord Jesus in me, page 80. Nothing man has will lead to happiness, so why not follow the way of God? "You shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." John 8:32 and the fruit of the Spirit is joy, peace...Galatians 5:22 Life is a journey - a spiritual journey. We use a physical map for a physical journey, so why not use a spiritual map for a spiritual journey? This book is to the Bible as trip sheets are to a physical map. Dr. Solomon shows me where I am and how to follow the path to life and truth.

I first read this book in 1978. Charles Solomon came to my home church in Michigan and did a Grace Fellowship Seminar. We had lunch together and talked at length about the Lord and the principles in the Handbook. I was a fairly new believer at the time, and I can't thank God enough for what this book has meant through the years. It is utterly foundational to "walking by the Spirit".

It's original title was "Handbook to Happiness - A Guide to Victorious Living and Christ-Centered Counseling". Why they've now left off "Christ-Centered Counseling" in the sub-title, I'll never know. Next to the Bible itself, the Handbook has been the most valuable counseling tool I've had for over 25 years.

I suppose such terms as "happiness" and "victorious living" have more appeal to the general Christian public, but these are incidental to the simple Gospel truths in the book by which we may be set free. If you feel in bondage, get this book. If you want to walk in the freedom of Christ and avoid bondage, get this book.

The book contains several important diagrams, the most important being The Wheel Diagram. It clearly illustrates the three-part make-up of man, Body-Soul-Spirit, and shows how each part relates to the other. Without this knowledge, which is sorely lacking in typical Anthropology classes, there are many parts of Scripture which cannot be properly understood.

For example,
--If I am a "New Creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17), "born again", why do I still sin, and maybe even have mental or emotional problems?
--How does the Soul (Mind, Emotion and Will) differ from the Spirit?
--What part of me was "born again"?
--What does Galatians 2:20 mean exactly when it says that it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives through me, and how do I make that happen?
--What does Romans 6:14 mean when it says we are no longer under Law but under Grace, and why should that make it so that sin shall no longer be master over me?

The book is revolutionary and foundational, and it's subject is horribly neglected in the Church today.

If you are a Reformed or Calvinistic believer, as I am, you may be disappointed to see that Mr. Solomon is not. But read the book anyway. Too often Reformed believers and theologians correctly understand "Grace" as it affects INITIAL salvation, but then revert to Performance-Based or Legalistic discipleship, not understanding the radical nature of "Grace" AFTER salvation.

This is the Gospel for those who have already believed the Gospel, and it can set you free.

Solomon's Handbook to Happiness basically directs Christians to be crucified with Christ, and then to rise with Him in victory. According to the book, once a Christian does this, all his or her emotional problems go away. I think this is a wonderfull idea. If and when we realize that we are not on this earth to please ourselves, we become almost immune to all and any problems this life can throw at us. However, I think that knowing what to do in your head and actually doing it are two different things. I think this book is especially helpful in assisting a Christian to realize that he or she has not fully surrendered his or her life to Christ. It helped me to understand that, and now I can say that I have, at least in some part, tasted the peace that comes from recklessly abandoning your own ambitions and living for Christ or as the book would say allowing Christ to live through you.

I was very satisfied with the prompt delivery and the excellent condition of the product. I would do business with this sellor again.

Handbook to Happiness is a book that every believer should read (a few times) to better understand the difference between the spirit, the soul and the flesh. Initially, I thought that the book was designed to aid professional counselors but after reading and praying while studying it, I learned otherwise. This book is filled with spiritual treasures from the King Himself to His people. I believe that Father God had mercy on us because we just wasn't getting it; so He blessed this brother to make it plain, just for me. The treasures mapped out in this little book are special treats that could have never been gained in a traditional church setting, as it pulls the veil off of fleshly counseling techniques.

A couple of treasures that I gained and some I already knew but was blessed that he addressed them:

-Working for the Lord does not produce spiritual growth
-There is pressure involved with rejection; every person experiences rejection

Since we are spiritual beings it behooves us to know what our spiritual identity is and the influence that Spirit given knowledge can have on psychological and social functioning.

Wow! The condition of our inner man dictates how our outer man lives and moves. In my own life prior to my March encounter I only desired band aids because I did not believe that total deliverance was possible because "I" had not attained it. One would think that at some point commonsense would kick in and say, because we are created in God's image it only makes sense that deliverance and life come only from Him. But there is no making sense of the flesh with the flesh. It is the Lord who has to do it so that there is no glory to man.

I would recommend this book to searching, struggling and flesh bound believers.