The Year of Living like Jesus: My Journey of Discovering What Jesus Would Really Do Audiobook

" Mr. Dobson ... love your writings. Wish you could write another book! Keeping you in our prayers that you will continue to fight ALS. We have a family member with this too! "

" Mr. Dobson ... love your writings. Wish you could write another book! Keeping you in our prayers that you will continue to fight ALS. We have a family member with this too! "

" Very interesting but a bit rambling. Some amazing insights, though. "

" Very interesting but a bit rambling. Some amazing insights, though. "

" This was an interesting experiment in living consistently with one's espoused values. One of the things which made it interesting was the author's realization that Jesus was Jewish and raised in a Jewish tradition. His attempt to be conscious of his choices and his acts was admirable. I'll probably reread the book sometime in the future. "

" This was an interesting experiment in living consistently with one's espoused values. One of the things which made it interesting was the author's realization that Jesus was Jewish and raised in a Jewish tradition. His attempt to be conscious of his choices and his acts was admirable. I'll probably reread the book sometime in the future. "

" I enjoyed this book's concept. I had never heard that Mr. Dobson was doing this or that anyone had did this. Mr. Dobson writes most of the book in journal form, but does switch to topic form in the last couple months of the book. I felt it should have been longer and a little more in depth. He stated that he kept specific notes that would have made the book longer and I wish he would have. I guess it was his editor's choice to make it more of a quick read. I enjoyed reading about his dilemnas that he experienced about eating, what to wear and who to vote for. I didn't realize that it would be that big of a deal to decide whether to turn your Ipod off when the flight attendent told you to even if you were listening to the Gospels on it. I had no clue that deciding to wear tassels on your shirt would be an issue or if you had a beer or not. I found his thoughts interesting and loved how he explored both sides of different issues. I couldn't give it a 5 star rating just because he didn't go in depth but didn't want to give it a 3 star because of the wealth of information like praying the rosary, using a prayer book and stations of the cross. I really felt like I grew in my understanding of what it means to be a Christian. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about being more like Jesus. "

" Still thinking about this one...a lot. "

" Still thinking about this one...a lot. "

" Good book, great concept... but don't get caught up in living as Jesus did in body. It's more the heart and soul of Jesus you need to emulate, not the Jewish laws... "

" Good book, great concept... but don't get caught up in living as Jesus did in body. It's more the heart and soul of Jesus you need to emulate, not the Jewish laws... "

" I was curious before I started reading, how is Dobson going to define "living like Jesus"? Does it mean approximating the lifestyle of a 1st century Jewish man, from sandals to tzitzit? Living as closely to the instructions in the Gospels as possible? Actually replicating literal events from Jesus' life, which you would think would be pretty much impossible for a mere mortal? While it seems that the second item would be the most logical one for a Christian to pursue (albeit a very challenging project) Dobson goes mostly for the first (and--I report with a cringe--takes a couple of attempts at the third). Unfortunately this means that the book quickly devolves into something like the Twitter feed of a religiously scrupulous obsessive-compulsive. We sit with Dobson as he agonizes about whether Jesus would have cheese on his chili at Wendy's. We are stuck with him as he blathers about ordering himself some Jewish ritual undergarments online--only to realize after paying that he has just broken the Sabbath. I have myself experienced semi-observant Jewish life first hand, so these details don't even bear the intrigue of exoticism for me. And I confess, as someone who tends towards the legalistic mindset myself, I feel liberated by the way Jesus freed people from having to obsess over this kind of minutiae. It is not what goes in to your mouth but what comes out. It is more important to eat and to heal than to observe every dot and iota of the laws of the Sabbath. And finally, that in Jesus there is no Jew or gentile, male or female--it seems to me that Dobson has majorly missed the point. Speaking of male or female, the fact that Dobson dwells so much on playacting that he is a Jewish dude like Jesus brings up another problematic question. If "being like Jesus" means not trimming your beard, wearing men's ritual undergarments, and keeping kosher, what does it mean to "be like Jesus" if you are a woman? I'm not surprised that this never seems to cross Dobson's mind--his gender politics are retrograde even for a guy who used to work for Jerry Falwell (as he did). His wife is a non-presence in the book, in fact women are almost altogether absent from the entire narrative. Looking at the Gospels again, this doesn't seem very Jesus-like either. There certainly were women all over the place in the life of Christ. Seriously, though, how utterly useless to Christian women is a mindset that to be like Christ you must somehow physically emulate his dress and appearance. Again, Dobson does a great job of missing the point. Then there are the numerous tedious and long-winded irrelevancies in the book. Dobson decides he is going to force himself to listen to the Gospels 52 times in 52 weeks. On his iPod. (The irony here goes apparently unnoticed.) He decides to take up not just the rosary (we are supposed to, as alleged fellow evangelicals, to be SHOCKED! just SHOCKED! by this) but the Orthodox prayer rope, and Episcopal prayer beads. We get to hear at excessive length about why he voted for Obama even though his friends mocked him for it. He spends a lot of time hanging out at a Reform synagogue, an institution and worship service that historically speaking bears about as much resemblance to what Jesus knew as does a Catholic mass. Mostly I think we are meant to admire how admirably open-minded Dobson is, but I was left less than impressed. The man takes things so terribly literally, too, it produces some cringeworthy scenes. Perhaps they were meant to be humorous, but for me at least the humor fell flat. Contemplating the idea that if you have two shirts, you should give one away, he pares down his custom-made suit collection, going on in some detail about whether he is meant to give away half of them, or a quarter, or two thirds, or what. In response to "take up your cross and follow me" he dons some ridiculous 10 inch long wooden pendant and describes how embarrassed he was to be seen wearing it all day. Considering the temptation in the desert, he packs some camping gear and goes on a trip to the woods of Michigan. This is some ridiculous stuff. In the end I was just glad when I was finally done reading this book as I had grown tired of Dobson's fussy, somewhat overbearing company. If someone were going to have the gall to write a book like this in the first place, they should have at the very least left behind Wendy's and the iPod and taken it all the way--or attempted to do so and see how long they could last. Would have been far more entertaining at least. "

" I was curious before I started reading, how is Dobson going to define "living like Jesus"? Does it mean approximating the lifestyle of a 1st century Jewish man, from sandals to tzitzit? Living as closely to the instructions in the Gospels as possible? Actually replicating literal events from Jesus' life, which you would think would be pretty much impossible for a mere mortal? While it seems that the second item would be the most logical one for a Christian to pursue (albeit a very challenging project) Dobson goes mostly for the first (and--I report with a cringe--takes a couple of attempts at the third). Unfortunately this means that the book quickly devolves into something like the Twitter feed of a religiously scrupulous obsessive-compulsive. We sit with Dobson as he agonizes about whether Jesus would have cheese on his chili at Wendy's. We are stuck with him as he blathers about ordering himself some Jewish ritual undergarments online--only to realize after paying that he has just broken the Sabbath. I have myself experienced semi-observant Jewish life first hand, so these details don't even bear the intrigue of exoticism for me. And I confess, as someone who tends towards the legalistic mindset myself, I feel liberated by the way Jesus freed people from having to obsess over this kind of minutiae. It is not what goes in to your mouth but what comes out. It is more important to eat and to heal than to observe every dot and iota of the laws of the Sabbath. And finally, that in Jesus there is no Jew or gentile, male or female--it seems to me that Dobson has majorly missed the point. Speaking of male or female, the fact that Dobson dwells so much on playacting that he is a Jewish dude like Jesus brings up another problematic question. If "being like Jesus" means not trimming your beard, wearing men's ritual undergarments, and keeping kosher, what does it mean to "be like Jesus" if you are a woman? I'm not surprised that this never seems to cross Dobson's mind--his gender politics are retrograde even for a guy who used to work for Jerry Falwell (as he did). His wife is a non-presence in the book, in fact women are almost altogether absent from the entire narrative. Looking at the Gospels again, this doesn't seem very Jesus-like either. There certainly were women all over the place in the life of Christ. Seriously, though, how utterly useless to Christian women is a mindset that to be like Christ you must somehow physically emulate his dress and appearance. Again, Dobson does a great job of missing the point. Then there are the numerous tedious and long-winded irrelevancies in the book. Dobson decides he is going to force himself to listen to the Gospels 52 times in 52 weeks. On his iPod. (The irony here goes apparently unnoticed.) He decides to take up not just the rosary (we are supposed to, as alleged fellow evangelicals, to be SHOCKED! just SHOCKED! by this) but the Orthodox prayer rope, and Episcopal prayer beads. We get to hear at excessive length about why he voted for Obama even though his friends mocked him for it. He spends a lot of time hanging out at a Reform synagogue, an institution and worship service that historically speaking bears about as much resemblance to what Jesus knew as does a Catholic mass. Mostly I think we are meant to admire how admirably open-minded Dobson is, but I was left less than impressed. The man takes things so terribly literally, too, it produces some cringeworthy scenes. Perhaps they were meant to be humorous, but for me at least the humor fell flat. Contemplating the idea that if you have two shirts, you should give one away, he pares down his custom-made suit collection, going on in some detail about whether he is meant to give away half of them, or a quarter, or two thirds, or what. In response to "take up your cross and follow me" he dons some ridiculous 10 inch long wooden pendant and describes how embarrassed he was to be seen wearing it all day. Considering the temptation in the desert, he packs some camping gear and goes on a trip to the woods of Michigan. This is some ridiculous stuff. In the end I was just glad when I was finally done reading this book as I had grown tired of Dobson's fussy, somewhat overbearing company. If someone were going to have the gall to write a book like this in the first place, they should have at the very least left behind Wendy's and the iPod and taken it all the way--or attempted to do so and see how long they could last. Would have been far more entertaining at least. "

" Not nearly as entertaining as A. J. Jacobs. Dobson writes from a serious viewpoint. "

" Not nearly as entertaining as A. J. Jacobs. Dobson writes from a serious viewpoint. "

" Some really good insights, but I felt he was a bit more legalistic than Jesus would have been. "

" Some really good insights, but I felt he was a bit more legalistic than Jesus would have been. "

" I typically love this type of book...where someone chooses to tackle a challenge for a year and live differently....but wasn't really impressed with this book. "

" I typically love this type of book...where someone chooses to tackle a challenge for a year and live differently....but wasn't really impressed with this book. "

" I don't feel ed dobson really lived like jesus. I think he was kind of selfish the whole time. It did make me think though. If you want to learn about being a jew, or about praying with beads, read the book. "

" I don't feel ed dobson really lived like jesus. I think he was kind of selfish the whole time. It did make me think though. If you want to learn about being a jew, or about praying with beads, read the book. "

" Interesting. He went from being an Evangelical to a Catholic and back. Worth reading. "

" Interesting. He went from being an Evangelical to a Catholic and back. Worth reading. "

" Fascinating. Of all the various practices Dobson experiences I was amazed (but not stunned because I live in West Michigan) by what gets him in trouble. "

" Fascinating. Of all the various practices Dobson experiences I was amazed (but not stunned because I live in West Michigan) by what gets him in trouble. "

" Interesting but not quite what I had expected. I appreciated his honesty about how hard it was to live like Jesus. "

" Interesting but not quite what I had expected. I appreciated his honesty about how hard it was to live like Jesus. "

" I don't know what Jesus would really do. I'm not sure it's struggling about which suits to give away while driving your red corvette. Not that there is anything wrong with driving a corvette. "

" I don't know what Jesus would really do. I'm not sure it's struggling about which suits to give away while driving your red corvette. Not that there is anything wrong with driving a corvette. "

" Interesting idea and a few interesting stories, but did not enjoy the style of writing and was often bored. Skimmed a lot of it. "

" Interesting idea and a few interesting stories, but did not enjoy the style of writing and was often bored. Skimmed a lot of it. "

" Ed Dobson is my Hero! "

" Ed Dobson is my Hero! "

" I really enjoyed his journey in discovering what would it be like to really live like Jesus. I learned tons about Jewish lifestyles, traditions and habits. "

" I really enjoyed his journey in discovering what would it be like to really live like Jesus. I learned tons about Jewish lifestyles, traditions and habits. "

" Interesting idea and a few interesting stories, but did not enjoy the style of writing and was often bored. Skimmed a lot of it. "

" Interesting idea and a few interesting stories, but did not enjoy the style of writing and was often bored. Skimmed a lot of it. "

" I typically love this type of book...where someone chooses to tackle a challenge for a year and live differently....but wasn't really impressed with this book. "

" I typically love this type of book...where someone chooses to tackle a challenge for a year and live differently....but wasn't really impressed with this book. "

" Enjoyed it so very much, that I BOUGHT it! Not one to purchase many new books. Now, to transfer my sticky tabs from the library book to my book - gonna take a while. "

" Enjoyed it so very much, that I BOUGHT it! Not one to purchase many new books. Now, to transfer my sticky tabs from the library book to my book - gonna take a while. "

" Ok, I'm a fan of Ed anyway... But I love this honest, candid account of a year trying live as Jesus lived. I love hearing abkut the tensions he felt throughout the year when life wasn't so kosher. This was a great read... "

" Ok, I'm a fan of Ed anyway... But I love this honest, candid account of a year trying live as Jesus lived. I love hearing abkut the tensions he felt throughout the year when life wasn't so kosher. This was a great read... "

" I don't feel ed dobson really lived like jesus. I think he was kind of selfish the whole time. It did make me think though. If you want to learn about being a jew, or about praying with beads, read the book. "

" I don't feel ed dobson really lived like jesus. I think he was kind of selfish the whole time. It did make me think though. If you want to learn about being a jew, or about praying with beads, read the book. "