He Values You!

Each of us is uniquely made by our Creator. He does not value us because we are wealthy or famous or attractive or intelligent. He values us because he created us.

A Prayer begins . . .

Father in heaven, blessed is your name above all others. Teach us to see life from your point of view. Helps us remember that you are in control and that you uniquely love us.

Try this out! On arrival at a page, read the Bible verse on the banner, check out the SoAmazing Card, read our thoughts, pray the short prayer along with us, read the two selected book quotations below, then spend some time on the left navigation column, check out the Bible verses, take note of the blatant pitches to buy things, then pick a Bible verse or other link and Clickle to your heart's desire! Congratulations! You've covered the surface of the page. But there is more, much more. You missed at least four hidden and numerous non-obvious links that only the insiders know about! Hidden what? Non-obvious what!    Read this!    Then Clickle the back button on your browser and come back here!

Two selected book quotations begin . . .

Faithful and True!

Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Harper San Francisco, 1988, pp. ix-x. SoAmazing.com

Category: Christian Living
ISBN: 0060694424
Keywords: methods, spiritual life, Christian, gospel, Christ, character, power, New Testament, message, Father, Jesus, solitude, silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, intense study, meditation, service, truth, faith, heaven, Harper San Francisco, Willard, Dallas Willard

". . . Here I want to deal with methods for the spiritual life, for the life present in the Christian gospel. We can become like Christ in character and in power and thus realize our highest ideals of well-being and well-doing. That is the heart of the New Testament message.

Do you believe this is possible?

My central claim is that we can become like Christ by doing one thing--by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knew how to live. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father.

What activities did Jesus practice? Such things as solitude and silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, intense study and meditation upon God's Word and God's ways, and service to others. Some of these will certainly be even more necessary to us than they were to him, because of our greater or different need. But in a balanced life of such activities, we will be constantly enlivened by 'The Kingdom Not of This World'-- the Kingdom of Truth as seen in John 18:36-37.

But history keeps a heavy hand upon our present thoughts and feelings. Such a faith as just described is strongly opposed today by powerful tendencies around us. Faith today is treated as something that only SHOULD make us different. In reality we vainly struggle against the evils of this world, waiting to die and go to heaven. Somehow we've gotten the idea that the essence of faith is entirely a mental and inward thing."

SoAmazing Review: The Spirit of the Disciplines is an instruction manual on how faith in God not only could, but will, make us different.

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Passion Is Unhappy!

John Bunyan, Translated by Cheryl V. Ford, Calligraphy by Timothy R. Botts, Pilgrim's Progress, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1991, pp. 28-30.    SoAmazing.com

Category: Fiction
ISBN: 0842351450
Keywords: dream, Passion, Patience, Christian, treasure, wants, waits, symbols, world, wisdom, covet, temporal, eternal, carnal, Tyndale House Publishers, Bunyan, John Bunyan, Ford, Cheryl V. Ford, Botts, Timothy Botts

Passion and Patience

"I next saw in my dream that Interpreter took him by the hand and led him into a small room where two little children sat, each one in his own chair. The name of the older one was Passion, and the younger, Patience. Passion seemed to be quite discontent, but Patience was very quiet.

Then Christian asked, 'Why is Passion so unhappy?'

Interpreter answered, 'Their guardian wants them to wait for their best things until the beginning of next year, but passion wants everything now. Patience, however, is willing to wait.'

Then I saw someone come to Passion, offering him a bag of treasure and pouring it out at his feet. Passion quickly picked it up, rejoiced over it, and began to laugh scornfully at Patience. I noticed, however, that before long Passion has wasted all of his treasure and had only rags left for clothing.

Christian turned again to Interpreter. 'Explain this matter to me more fully.'

'These two boys are symbols,' answered Interpreter. 'Passion represents the people of this world, and Patience represents those of the world to come. As you can see, Passion wants his treasures now, this year, that is to say, in this world. This is how the men of the world are; they must have everything they want right now. They can't wait until next year, that is, until the next world, for their good inheritance. That proverb, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,' carries more weight with them than all the divine promises of the blessings of the world to come. But as you observed, he quickly spent it all and was left with nothing but rags. And that is how it will be with all such people at the end of this world.'

Christian said, 'I can now see that for many reasons Patience has the best wisdom. First, because he waits for the best things, and second, because he will have glory, while the other has nothing but rags.'

'Not only this,' said Interpreter, 'but you can add another. Know for certain that the glory of the next world will never wear out, but these present glories are suddenly gone. Therefore Passion did not have good reason to laugh at Patience simply because he had his treasures first. Patience will, in the end, laugh at Passion because he received his best thing last. First must give way to last, and last gives way to nothing, for there is nothing to follow. The one who receives his portion first, therefore, must of necessity spend it in its allotted time. But the one who has his portion last, will have it lastingly. It is said of a certain Rich Man, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony,' '

Then I can see,' said Christian, 'that it is best not to covet the things of this world but to wait for things that are to come.'

Interpreter nodded. 'You are speaking the truth. For the things that are seen are temporal, while the things that are not seen are eternal. But though this is true, since the present things and our own fleshly appetites are so compatible with each other, and since the things to come and our carnal senses are such strangers to each other, the first of these easily become friends while the later are kept distant from one another.' "

SoAmazing Review: Pilgrim's Progress, which John Bunyan wrote from prison, is a classic. Cheryl Ford has created a very readable version. Tim Botts'caligraphy is excellent. It is a very enjoyable read.

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