Customer Reviews

The Organic God

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read this book in two evenings and now I am re-reading it just to further digest it. I started out highlighting everything I found particularly meaningful but pretty soon it was all highlighted so I quit. This book has also helped mend a broken heart having just lost my mother a couple weeks ago. It reminds me what an awesome God we serve and what a comfort it is to know my mom is literally in His presence. If I didn't know better I would think this book was written just for me....I also got some much needed comic relief (the Valentine Day description). I find Margaret's stories and life so relatable to my own even though our circumstances are pretty different apart from the fact we both live in Juneau. LOVED IT!!

***I just realized I inadvertently gave this book only two stars when it is, without a doubt, a FIVE STAR book if there ever was one. I just can't say enough about it, I laughed, I cried, I was inspired, I was full of joy, I was challenged and I was in awe and wonder Margaret's caliber of talent. After I read "God Whispers" I sent it to all my family and friends that I knew would enjoy it, with this book I'm taking that one step further and sending it to some people I don't know well and am not sure of their faith journey. It's that good

In her book's opening line, Alaskan author Feinberg writes, "The northern lights danced with all the mystery and marvel of midnight rainbows in the sky."

This warm invitation beckons readers to enjoy the natural beauty of her home state as a reflection of the "breathtakingly beautiful" attributes of God.

The daughter of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, both born-again believers, Feinberg challenges readers to dig deeply into Scripture using a technique called midrash, a Hebrew word meaning to "search out."

She writes, "...Jewish midrash urges us to take hold of a passage, wrestle with it, and not let go until we're worn out and forcibly must cry uncle."

As she explores nine attributes of God's character, her Scriptural knowledge and depth of insight make this book one to be savored like a rich cup of coffee.

The author's quirky stories of her childhood and struggles as an unsettled 20-something are good springboards for the discussion questions included, making this a useful tool for both individual and group study.

--Christian Women Online Book Buzz

Oh my goodness what a fabulous book that was. It's not a deeply theological book, it doesn't get into controversial issues, it simply describes the joy of loving God.

The author, Margaret Feinberg, doesn't delve into religious issues that can separate Christians today. Instead, she challenges us to strip away our pre-conceived notions of who God is and what the world tells us abot God. Who does God say He is? The answer is in the bible - pages and pages and pages of God's Word, unpolluted. Untarnished. Organic.

Margaret's joy in exploring God is contagious. God is ever so righteous and holy and pure that it's incedible that he would desire a relationship with us, fallen, sinful people. But He does! And God extends his beckoning in a myriad a way. Margaret doesn't try to tell us who God is - I suppose she'd risk herself becoming part of the pollution - but she tells us where to look and the joy in finding him. I read this book in a single sitting and then read through the thought-provoking questions in the back. Why so quickly? My wife noticed the excitement at such a wonderful, joyful book and wanted to read it when I was done. When I was done, she claimed the book, but I told her when she was done, I wanted to read it again. :)

I am freshly challenged and encouraged to seek God anew. Who is God? What does He want from me? What does He want for me? I have the answers - an indwelling holy Spirit and His Word to study and absorb. I have creation around me that God created to express His beauty. And I have a fresh perspective on finding all God would have me know about Him.

In case you can't tell, I heartily recommend this book.

Michael
[...]

In the Organic God Margaret Feinberg has the ability to make the printed page come alive with the presence of God to renew and refresh the reader. Delightful is an understatement for this book. It is restorative in ways that little in this world of indulgence and abundance is able to effectively restore! I found joy and beauty on every page. As we go with her on her journies we see that she bares her tender heart to God and to us. She exposes the reader to the great treasures of God's covenant of unfailing love. My husband needed to be convinced that " this was not a women's book". In the midst of reading it, he came to me in tears saying that he was so deeply touched by the beauty and the joy in it ! Are you hungry? " The Organic God is for you!!

I found this book in my local Christian bookstore, and must say that I was first attracted to it because of the very cool design of the front cover. (In this case, I think it's safe to say I "judged a book by its cover".) Of course, as soon as I read the back cover, I knew I had to have it.

Margaret's story is very similar to the journey that I've been on. Even down to the songs she listed in the "sound track" at the end. The place where I'm at now can be summed up by the song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". I've been a believer in Jesus for 26 years now, but have come to a place in my walk that says "there must be something more". I'm not satisfied with organized religion, playing "church", or going through the motions. My heart cries out for more of this God, whom Margaret describes as "bighearted, breathtakingly beautiful, amazingly wise, surprisingly talkative, wildly infallible, outrageously generous, unbelievably stubborn, abundantly kind, deeply mysterious".

Margaret shares an experience that happened to her at a church she attended while away at school. The Lord used that experience to "breathe fresh life and hope into (her) weary soul". That is what this book has done for me. I believe this book is a tool that God is using to bestow His love, His gentle rebuke, and His call to bring us "further up and further in". Thank you, Margaret, for being willing to listen to his still, small voice, then being obedient to do what He says. I, for one, am truly grateful.

For those who have not "talked to God" recently or have not "heard from God" recently, this book is for you! The author has talked to God and has heard from God recently and shares her experiences with us. Reading this book is almost as if she is sitting beside you and sharing her intimate experiences with God and with you, the reader. While reading and after reading you will have thought of numerous persons with whom you wish to share this book...

It's been a week since my ladies' group and I completed our study of the Organic God. I'm still reminiscing over what I like best, and frankly, its been hard to choose. There are so many facets of God that Margaret discusses, and she's some how made my relationship with Him simpler, clearer, and truly more Organic. Her book, and study, are not the traditional workbook with five days of homework. Rather, she's organized our walk together more like sitting down as dear friends, while sharing together what our own walks with God are like. As the Proverb goes, iron sharpens iron, I have been sharpened by her keen insight, humor and wit. I've found that as I have enjoyed the pages of this book that I've come closer to making a sweet friend whom I adore greatly, one that I'll turn to again and again for wise counsel as I continue to seek God's face. Margaret, thanks for such a sweet book. Thanks for bringing me closer to the God I love! I'll be back often. ;-)

I purchased several books, Leader's Guide and Study Books of The Organic God, by Margaret Feinberg, for a Women's Study at my church. Not only was it received expectantly, but every woman in the study looks forward to each new week. We have almost completed the six-week study and now I must look for another study that is most comparable. All of us have grown in our view of God without the pollution of worldly additives. I highly recommend this book.

Once again Margaret Feinberg has so poetically called us back to the basics of following Jesus as she has done in previous books like God Whispers.

"All too often I find myself tempted to live a distracted life. You know the kind--- the one where, within the busyness of life, you still manage to perform the stand-up, sit-down, clap, clap, clap of regular church attendance; drop a check in the offering plate; hope for a new nugget of knowledge, understanding, or insight in the weekly sermon; and check off a random, albeit short, list of acts of kindness to others. Somehow I'm supposed to feel like I'm living the Jesus-driven life. I'm not."

Performance driven Christianity has taken a huge toll, and the call to pray "There is nothing I desire but you God" harkens us to return to what gives real life. Real life only comes from God, who "in Jesus, put his whole heart on display for the world to see."

This Jesus says to each and every one of us, indeed to anyone who will listen, "I will not only go before you in this journey and make it possible- I will also go with you."

What an invitation, an invitation to life, to a life with God, each and every day!

Feinberg goes on to highlight and illustrate this relational God with many poignant and humorous stories from her own life. Jesus has a magnetic quality about Himself and Feinberg's writing draws us into His orbit in refreshing ways.

This God we follow, this God that we can know and experience speaks to us through beauty, through wisdom, and through an insatiable appetite to communicate with us about generosity, kindness and wisdom.

While we'd like to think that the church helps us along this journey, many if not all of us at some point experience what Feinberg writes of, 'the bruising of our hearts' from institutional church life.

In these times we need to detox from church ideas that 'bigger is better', from 'performance and drivenness', from 'filling our heads with knowledge while our spirits starve'. Time away from church, for a season, can heal our bruised hearts.

I believe true healing arrives when one can articulate along these lines:

"I knew in my mind that church was more than a denomination, a building, or a program, but God was awakening in my heart the reality that the church is the gathering of followers of Jesus. To fall in love with church meant falling in love with God's people. And falling in love with people meant puting my own preferences aside when it came to details like the style of music, the length of servce, or even the takeaway value of the sermon.....I realized that I was a part of a greater story, part of God's story, his plan for redemption which was being worked through saints around the world. God the Healer was doing his work in me." ....

"No matter what causes the pain to surface, I believe its presence is actually a gift from the God who redeems. The pain acts as a wake-up call that it is time to begin the process of healing, repentance, and forgiveness. The pain asks us to make a leap of faith- that no matter what has happened, nothing is beyond God's redeeming power. He can heal the deepest wounds. He can restore the most messed-up lives. He can reach into the darkest corners of our past and shine his redeeming light."

Thank you Jesus!

Feinberg's writing invites God's presence into the pages of the book helping us see that whenever and wherever God speaks, His words to us are 'bathed in kindness.' As we desire to hear him, as our God-volume is turned up, we realize more than ever that God is a giver and not a taker; He is a gentle healer and not an angry drill seargeant.

God is real, knowable, conversational, creative, mysterious, kind, gentle, organic. This book will stoke your desire to hunger after Him!

I stumbled on "The Organic God" while teaching English in Morocco. It was on my friend's bookshelf. The timing couldn't have been better. It was fresh water for my weary soul after being gone from the US for 5 months.

Somehow, God, in His plan to use this woman, has allowed for Margaret to experience at least ONE situation in which you have found yourself. Whether it's college, quarter-life crisis or legalistic religious movements that drain the life out of your soul, you will be able to relate to her and she to you.

"The Organic God" is written from a person and to people who really want a friend to walk with them in their quest and encourage them as they search, earnestly, even wearily, that ability to see God purely and in every aspect of life.

Margaret is honest, vulnerable, TMI-free and her words are akin to a time machine that transport the reader, instantly, to where she needs your mind to be. There is as much depth to this book as you want but it's not overwhelming and although it is loaded with detail you won't be drowning.

She has become one of my favorite authors and I'd entrust any friend to this book.

Do yourself the favor - read it. And do her a favor, because she'll be delighted to share God with you.

-J.Alorda - Texas