In His Image

This book is amazing! I would love to write a short description of each chapter, but I will just list a few of the things that stood out to me. Likeness (Chapter 1): Dr. Brand talks about his teaching in India. He was astonished at how similar to his old college professor the facial expressions of his students were. What he did not realize, was that the reason they made those facial expressions, was because HE was making them. Many times, we do not realize that we are making an impact on someone. However, others are constantly observing us, and we either make an impact for good or for bad. We should constantly be aware of what kind of “image” we are portraying. The Cleansing Power of Blood (Chapter 6): Dr. Brand explains that much of today’s society has the wrong angle on blood. Blood is not a disgusting, ooey-gooey mess; blood is a cleanser. It carries away chemical by-products that would interfere with life, it fights infection, and it carries oxygen throughout our body, giving us life. The Brain (Chapter 11): Dr. Brand talks about how amazing it is that everything that makes us “us,” reduces down to a series of dots and dashes. The brain controls everything we do; eating, sleeping, driving, etc. are controlled by a brain that has never been exposed to anything. It has never touched, heard, seen, smelled, or tasted anything. It does not experience hot or cold, or anything else. Yet we experience the amazing view of the Grand Canyon, or the amazing taste of dark chocolate, because a bunch of neurons are shooting chemicals back and forth at each other. I am realizing how amazing it is that we are created “In His Image.” He loves us and cares about us, and He wants us to live in His image.

What an awesome book! A doctor who worked as a missionary in Asia goes chapter by chapter explaining about the functioning of the human body and comparing it with the functioning of the body of Christ. My favorite chapter was looking at blood. Just as blood cleanses the human body by capturing waste products and then brings them to the lungs or other organs where they are expelled, so the "blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness". If you remember John 6:61 Jesus tells his disciples that his followers must drink his blood and eat his body, which resulted in many followers leaving. Tying this in with the fact that the "life is in the blood", the author explains how terrible this must have sounded to a kosher Jew, but how it is a perfect picture of believers being united with Christ and identified with him through communion. I highly recommend this book to give you a more complete understanding of what it means for believers to be part of the body of Christ.

I liked this book immensely! The author gives a clear description about how to live as Jesus did. How can we model our life following the example of Christ? A lot of the answers are in the book In His Image…

The writings of Dr. Paul Brand are highly regarded by a friend. I decided to see for myself if the contents of the book merited such acclaim. After reading the book i can only say that I will never part with it. It is just that good. Extremely insightful book on such a "mysterious" subject. Philip Yancey is such a compelling writer. Together they do an outstanding job. I thank God for the giftedness he bequeathed to both men.

My family and I enjoyed reading this together. It really was informative and spiritually thought-provoking, a science and Bible lesson all in one. The kids clamored for more. They are 12 and 15 years old.

I found In His Image and Fearfully and Wonderfully Made wonderful companion books. These books compare the human body to the Body of Christ, the Church, in wonderfully creative ways. This is especially interesting since it is written by a physician, Dr Paul Brand. The stories are captivating. A must read, especially for me.

This book, and the companion "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made", provide insights into how the Christian life and community are mirrored in the human body and function. This is especially pertinent to those who work in medical fields. Some of the details are a bit dated, but the basic themes are very evident and timeless.

This book is one you can read time and time again -- and be re-inspired! If you are a Christian, his analogies of the body of Christ and the physical body give you a respect for both -- and an conviction of what good social interaction should look like. If you are not a Christian, this book should inspire you with awe for the incredible body you walk around in everyday and inspire you to take care of it.

I was really impressed by the first book in the trilogy looking with a surgeon's knowledge at how the design of the human body teaches us things about God. So on finishing "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" I immediately bought the other 2 books in the series "In His Image" and "The Gift of Pain" however it took a while for me to start reading "In His Image" partly as I thought since I was so amazed by the first book I was probably going to have such high expectations for the others that I would be disappointed. Well I was not disappointed. "In His Image" looks at the functions of the body in 5 sections - Image, Blood, Head, Spirit and Pain. How the biological functions work are explained very clearly, I have no medical knowledge and found myself once again in awe of how the body works. Brand's brilliance is not only explaining how the body works but relating it to what that may mean in terms of better understanding the way the Bible describes God, for example the section on the Head reflects on what does that mean as we think about references to Christ as the Head of the church and the church as the Body. In the section of Blood what are the functions of blood in the body such as removing the waste products from the system and carrying the life necessary elements where they are required. This book offers a great deal to reflect on. Although it is the second in the series you would not need to read "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" in order to understand "In His image", but since they are both great books I would recommend you read them both.

I read this book several years ago and remembered that I had liked it. This second reading gave me many insights that were far beyond what I learned in the first reading. Sometimes we get more from a book because of where we are in our lives and this was certainly true for me and this book. This is a sequel to Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and the two books should be read in sequence as In His Image builds on what was discussed in the earlier book. A doctor/surgeon/missionary writes about the human body that he has treated and marvelled at as a doctor and surgeon for many years and then relates what he has learned to the spiritual body of the church. The Christian Bible often uses the body as an illustration of the church and how individual believers are a part of that body whose head is Christ. Of special interest is his take on pain. Dr. Brand worked with leper patients and made great strides in how they were treated medically as well as socially. He saw how terribly they could injure themselves after the disease destroyed nerves and caused them to feel nothing when ordinarily they would have felt pain and stopped whatever they were doing. Pain is for our protection, something we should be thankful for. He speaks of many other body parts, too, Blood, hands, feet, the brain and many more, explaining their wonder in terms a layperson can easily understand. Well worth reading.

I love this book,it gives much insight into our physical body - and how we are made in the Image of God! heartily recommend it!

Like the rest of Paul Brands books, this is one great book packed with amazing information about the complex Human Body. We are the handy-work of God and such a complex being could not have been produced by the theory of a "Big Bang".

Great item!