Praise Him Forever!

Praise the LORD is a holy command for all those who love God. Let us honor and worship the one true God at all times. We praise him based on who he is and not because of the quality of our lives at any given moment. No matter what our circumstances, in time of distress or celebration, he remains unchanged and worthy of our praise. Let us praise the LORD!

The original graphic on the SoAmazing Card reflects the diversity of the human race. The red and yellow, black and white figures follow the words of the old song identifying the major racial groups of mankind. The brown figure reflects the melding of the races over time, the green figure is for the very young and the gray represents the increasing percentage of older people world wide. All of God's creation together should praise him for who he is.

My special thanks to Carol Burmania and David Wolfe who inspired this graphic by using, before me, the \o/ figure to signify praising the Lord.

A Prayer begins . . .

Our Father in heaven, what a remarkable and awesome God you are. There is no other God besides you. We praise you for who you are!

This image of energized pixels, crafted and whisked by mouse Clickle from our place in Illinois, USA to our webhost in Georgia, USA, to your place wherever in the world your place happens to be, is called a web page. A web what? It is more aptly, a gift of prayed over keystrokes from us to you sent from our hearts.

Two selected book quotations begin . . .

Powered By Grace

Jeff VanVonderen, Families Where Grace Is In Place, getting Free From The burden Of Pressuring, Controlling, and Manipulating Your Spouse And Children,, Bethany House Publishers, 1992, pp. 22, 23.    SoAmazing.com

" 'You are going to stop acting this way!' Chad shouted, his voice seething with rage and hurt.

'I don't have to listen to you!' Steve shot back.

'Oh no? well, I'm going to make you stop drinking if it's the last thing I do,' Chad threatened. 'You are embarrassing me, and you're hurting your mother.'

'You can't order me around anymore.' Steve taunted.

Can you see it? Here are two people, both of whom are trapped in the fruitless effort to dominate or win the other over to their side. And in their struggle to dominate they are actually focused upon, indeed locked into a sick relationship. And so the Curse [VonVanderen uses 'Curse' as an acronym. C: Controlling; U: Unforgiving; R: Reactive; S: Shaming; and E: Ego-Driven] spreads through out all family relationships, unless we recognize that it is in operation and begin to seek a way to cut off its source of power.

There are thousands of sermons, hundreds of books, and scores of seminars designed to help Christians rid themselves of the Curse, as if it were a scab that can be picked off the surface of the skin. I cannot make this point strongly enough: It is not our job as Christians to carry out the Curse. God has given us a new plan. That plan, which is meant to set us free, is not powered by 'more spiritualized' means of dominating: that is only splashing white paint over an old and deadly spirit of legalism. God's plan is powered by grace--that is, He has made available to us the power to be transformed from the inside out, and the power to guide others in our own families as they discover the path of inner transformation, too."

SoAmazing Review: VanVonderan explains how the power of God's grace can be harnessed to transform families from the inside out.

Buy Families Where Grace Is In Place Now!   Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Christianbook.

The Dream Was Over

Jay Bakker, Son Of A Preacher Man, My Search For Grace In The Shadows, Harper San Francisco, 2001, pp. 40, 41.
SoAmazing.com

" As soon as Dad realized that PTL had been stolen, he almost went catatonic. He would lie curled up in a fetal postion at the end of the couch, listening to ministry tapes of pastors preaching and gospel music recordings.

Scared as hell, I thought he was dying. In fact, he wanted to die. He refused to talk. And he refused to fight. He just lay there like this fragile, broken man.

Something did break in my dad the day he realized PTL was gone, because he truly, passionately cared about the partners. Frankly, I think he was more concerned for the partners, staff, and ministries that would suffer than he was with his own reputation. It was as if he knew that the dream was over and that its demise would eventually cost the thousands of people that PTL helped every day.

My dad constantly went out of his way to reach out to the poor, the hurting, and the needy. He had built his whole life on that. I think that's why he became so successful. Sure, he became a little jaded with having to raise so much money and always having to keep up a persona. But my father was genuinely a good man. Even after we'd lost everything, I can remember him taking me to buy a turkey and Christmas toys, including a bicycle, for a very poor family in California. Mom, Dad, and I spent our holidays with them. There were no cameras there. We weren't trying to manipulate anybody. That was just what my folks wanted to do."

SoAmazing Review: Jay Bakker's anguish, disapointment in himself and other Christians and concern for his family are early themes in this startlingly honest book.

Buy Son Of A Preacher Man, Now!   Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Christianbook.

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