Customer Reviews

Prison to Praise

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The true story of the author, this book has an amazing ability to reach the unreachable, to help the depressed, to change the course of a life forever! This wonderful book has set many prisoners, inmates, and losers onto the course of success.

This book has been a best seller for many years for one simple fact. It is annointed! It will help the one who is a skeptic, who is an agnostic, who is an atheist, but most of all for the believer it will rekindle the fire of your faith.

It is one of the best books ever printed! It has saved many lives, it has changed the course of history for so many who were on a trek of tribulation and destruction.

For the psychiatrist, psychologist, the mental health professional, for those who work with the severely depressed, this book is a wonderful resource. It should be on every chaplain's desk.

Years ago I read this book and decided to pick it up and read it again, I am glad that I did. Many times in our Christian walk we
need to remember that we serve a God who loves us. This book helped me to remember that.
The Word of God says, " Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you!" (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18).
That my friend can be a hard pill to swallow, but the author helps you to understand what God is actually saying to you in this Scripture and many others.
We are here to learn, to love and to show others through ourselves a God that loves them. Adverse situations come to us all, that is part of our training, but how well we handle it and how well we use the weapons that are in God's Word depends on us.
Praise is a force that can move mountains and bring great peace and victory to Christians. This book will help you understand just how important praise is to a Christian. If you have an opportunity, pick up a copy and put into practice what you will learn reading it. Remember, God inhabits the praises of His people...........you are never alone!

As someone who has drifted away from religion and was facing a difficult situation in which my child has some intense special needs, this book was given to me to read. It truly reaches to your soul and spirit and helps put you back in touch with God. Simply by thanking and praising God for everything. This book is a blessing. Overnight, I feel calmer and more content in my life, simply by saying "thank you" to God.

Although I do not agree with every single teaching in this book, it is a great testimony of one man's journey to draw closer to Jesus. It is full of spiritual foundational building blocks that are essential for a successful and fulfilling walk with Christ. As a missionary with almost 40 years on the foreign mission field, I have lived by the same basic spiritual lessons taught in this book and can share many similar testimonies which prove that this is sound doctrine and firmly based in scripture and is the ultimate will of God for all Christians attain to. As I read through these reviews I found a negative review by, Ron "Truthdetective", that totally missed the whole point of this book. Ron felt that the book was saying that we should praise God for all the evil in the world. Obviously, Ron is not a spirit filled Christian and that is why he missed the point. Ron dismisses the miraculous personal testimonies of God's power working in people lives through praise because he does not believe God still does miracles today. This is evident in his statement when he says "modern testimonials" because he believes that God did do miracles in the past but has ceased to do them in modern times. People like Ron hate this book because it directly contradicts everything they believe and because the book offers real unquestionably testimonies to back up what the book is saying. The most irritating thing about this book, to people like Ron, is that, as Merlin clearly illustrates, even though he had been through bible school and seminary and had wholly devoted himself to understanding the bible, he understood nothing until he was filled with the Holy Spirit. In this book, Merlin, shows that he was a person exactly like Ron "Truthdetective", that was obsessed with searching scripture and understanding the truth. And just like Ron, he ridiculed and openly mocked spirit filled Christians as foolish and phony. But of course, this all changed when he himself was filled with Holy Spirit. After which he dismissed all of his former beliefs and let the Holy Spirit be his teacher. This is the true foundation of the Christian walk and is entirely based in scripture. Jesus said in John 14:25-26 " These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you."

If you are a Spirit filled Christian going through a trial and need encouragement, then you should read this book. If you are a lost person that has been ravaged by the consequences of your bad choices in life and are searching for truth and meaning, then you should read this book. If your are a hard-shell, bible thumping, religious person that has been indoctrinated to believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit and miracles are not for us today, then get down on your knees right now and ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit, and then read this book. Otherwise you are not going to understand it, just like Ron.

This is quite possibly the best book (aside from the Bible) that the believer (or nonbeliever for that matter) could ever read! If you are stuck in a spiritual rut, or just want to get closer to God, Prison to Praise will help you jump-start your faith. I was so amazed how close I got to God so quickly simply by praising Him! You just have to see for yourself. It is impossible to be skeptical of this book after reading it-- I guarentee it will change the life of anyone who reads it and puts praise to work!

This book helped me through a crisis time in my life. It came just in time. It is a faith builder. When i first read it absolutely couldn't put it down. I couldn't believe that thanking God could be so powerful. I just couldn't accept that this little book's stories were true and this guy was for real. But I put it into practice and it does work. I have preached the message and the fire spreads. But I cannot stress enough to keep on thanking God throughout your life. If you stop you can definetly tell the difference. It is worth your time.

The key suggestion from the book is:
We should praise Lord always;
for even the bad situation in which we are put.
Generally we are trained to pray for solution for the problems,
and if the prayers are answered
we praise the Lord for thankfully.
He shows the other way:
if yor are sick, instead for praying for healing,
Praise the Lord for the sickness, because it is will of Lord.
He gives an auto-biographical essay how Lord leads him to this discovery starting from a earlier life phase in prison.

There are a lot of interesting examples where such Praise giving
led to peace, power, joy , healing and solutions of problems, in his life and lives of others.

He also points out this is superior form of spiritual commuion with Lord.
He draws attention to the fact that baptism by Holy Spirit may be needed for such effective Praise giving.

Read:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

"Prison to Praise" is an uplifting, inspirational story of Merlin Carothers and his walk of faith during his career as a U.S. Army chaplain. But more than that, it the inspiring story of an ordinary man used by God in extraordinary ways.

Carothers doesn't sugar coat the truth or his own life: he was a thief, deserter, and criminal before finding saving grace that set him toward his destiny. In him, we see ourselves; failings and fallings as well as redemption.

He discovered important truths contained in the Bible about salvation, filling of the Holy Spirit, and the power of God's Word. He also discovered for himself and many others the key to answered prayer: thankfulness and praise. Exercising faith in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you!"

Carothers discovered a key to unlocking the power of God in our lives. Ministering on the strength and promise of this word, he has helped countless people in their walks of faith. He has helped mountains to be moved.

This book is a blessing to believers and a bright light to those looking for truth and a way home to the Father.

I know the Lord put this book in my hands! I was at the end of my week of prayer and fast, searching for a breakthrough, and on my last night I read this book! What a revelation....I never realized the POWER in "praise". And Mr. Carothers writes beautifully....just makes you want MORE! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul writes about the ways of God seeming foolish to man.
In Isa 55:9 God says through Isaiah : For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
In Prison to Praise, Merlin Carrothers shares with us something that sounds so foolish to my human ears. Unlike some other books, it doesn't have promises of great things like the Prayer of Jabez - only a heart change.
I was assigned this book as part of a Biblical Counselor program. I found others to read because this looked like a 'formula' book.
When my husband first starting reading this book, he was transformed - and encouraged me to read it....but still, my way was to put it off. One day I picked it up - and I was furious - "Praise God for the evil? Praise God for the bad?". I just couldn't line it up with my theology.
Then, I was in a crisis in my life - and anxious, fearful, and discouraged and in despair. When I prayed for God to hear my cry, the verse "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise" (Ps 100:4) came to me, with "be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" Phil 4:6.
I have spent a month listening to God open up this teaching to me, and show me "If this had not happened in your life, you would not have this blessing....If that had happened in your life, you would not have that blessing" as well as opening up stories in the Bible where the ugly looking things ended up being the path to glory. This book opened the door in my heart to a new relationship with the Father, only behind my salvation in 1969 and my Baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1977.
I don't know the deeper meanings of the words, I can't speak to whether we give thanks 'in' or 'for', but I know that as I embrace the principles illustrated in this book, my heart is changed, fear is chased off, and I am in the presence of the Lord more and more, and in His presence is fullness of joy(Ps 16:11).

I didn't get cars, houses, lands or money - but I have the peace that passes understanding that keeps my heart and mind in Christ Jesus - I am walking in the joy Jesus wanted me to live in - and that is of far greater worth than anything on this earth!
So if you are ready to give up fear for faith, despair for hope, and confusion for clarity in Christ, pick up this book. To me, that is worth trying something that seems foolish, and I encourage it, I challenge you to read this book, and open your heart to God.