All those times Jehovah answered my prayers... (page 2)

NVR2L8

At one time I was fevently praying for a close friend who was battling cancer...at the same time I was also praying to find a job after the company I worked at for almost 3 decades was shutting down...Guess what? I found a new great new job and never missed a day of work but my friend died a few months later...I wonder how God decided whichof my requests he should fullfil? I would have very much preferred he saved my friend as I could have gone without a job for a few years after receiving a large severance pay...Nope...I guess it was easier for God to get me a job.

cofty

Praying to god is like praying to a rock that can give 3 possible answers..

Yes
No
Not yet

Add some wishful thinking and confirmation bias and praise Jeeebus.

adamah

TEC said-

But God, the Father of Christ... does answer prayers. Though one might want to keep in mind the prayer that Christ taught people to pray. There wasn't a whole lot of asking things for themselves. Christ did say that we could ask for holy spirit, and we can ask for ears to hear Him, and faith, all to do His will.

Holy Simoly.

That would be asking for ourself, since the theme of the Bible is understood by even a five-year old: seek God's favor to do his will is the key to OUR salvation (AKA saving one's own arse), and hence why prayer is as selfish a concept as they come. It's asking God for blessing and special favors so WE can survive his wrath. It's no less morally-reprehensible than grown men who push small children and women aside to secure themselves that last seat in a life boat.

Even if the one asking in prayer is requesting God's favor for others in their lives, it's STILL a selfish request, since praying for OUR loved ones to be blessed is to OUR benefit.

The ONLY possible neutral "moral" prayer is to ask God to give complete strangers living on the other side of the Planet blessings, since their blessing likely would never benefit you. However, that's just to get one's prayer to 'neutral' morality and motives: if you want to actually help strangers living in Africa, then donate funds to an organization that actually does something to IMPROVE their living conditions (eg sohip.org, a group that provides water that's safe for drinking and for basic sanitation, using raw materials that were readily-available back in Jesus' time).

Speaking of Jesus, note that he poo-poohed the value of handwashing; unlike Jesus, the sohip volunteers actually understand modern science, for as the Center for Disease Control says, "handwashing is the single-most important intervention for reducing the transmission of microorganisms that cause disease".

Unlike Jesus, the volunteers at sohip are actually doing something to help people living on the other side of the Planet in Zambia, and are NOT discouraging a proven intervention that is well-known to actually help improve people's lives in the here and now.

(Donations are accepted at their website.)

Adam

KateWild

On another board at 14 this person said they prayed to God as the dad raped them in the KH office. An elder walked in during the rape. This mean't the prayers were answered? No

The elder said to the Dad, Oh I am sorry for interuppting brother. Then did not say a word about the abuse to the child or anyone. That was the last time the 14 yr old prayed to God.

I don't think God cares about anyone

tec

You notice that you can't let a comment of mine go by, Adamah, without fighting against it, lol.

I said there wasn't a 'whole lot of asking things for themselves'... then said some things that are good to ask for.

Your handwashing example is absurd. Christ was making a point about putting on a front... appearing clean (like the wts puts on a front to outiders)... when in reality, inside, they are filled with 'dead man's bones'. With all of your deep research and thinking, surely you understood THAT?

Peace to you,

tammy

Ucantnome

i got more faith

Sayswho

According to the Lords Prayer, god is supposed to GIVE us what we need...it doesn't say to beg for what we need!

And since children don't know how or who to pray to, god lets them DIE?

I used to pray but found god unproductive...at least in a positive way.

However if anyone prays for people to die...lets say from malnutrition...he answers that one!??

***Global hunger now afflicts nearly a billion people worldwide. Severe acute malnutrition, however, is the more immediate killer: it threatens the lives of 19 million children. Every year at least 3.5 million of them die from malnutrition-related causes.

The prayer as it occurs in Matthew 6:9–13

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

problemaddict

Adam,

Can you help me with the jesus wasn't big on handwashing claim? I haven't heard theat before. Not doubting you, just trying to see how I could have missed that.

tec

Mark 7:1-23. (consider making sure you read from the start to see who was taking issue for who, and why)

Peace,

tammy

adamah

Problemaddict said-

Can you help me with the jesus wasn't big on handwashing claim? I haven't heard theat before. Not doubting you, just trying to see how I could have missed that.

As TEC pointed out, the account of Jesus denouncing handwashing as worthless is a by-product of his rant against the Pharisees and their so-called "man-made" and burdensome oral traditions, which eventually came to be written down in the Talmud, long after Jesus' death (circa 200CE).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Torah

As the article says, the Sadducees were big critics of the 'oral laws', and in this regard Jesus sided with them against the Pharisees. However, the Sadducees didn't believe in concept of resurrection (which obviously was a show-stopper for Xianity!), so Jesus didn't really 'fit' into either of the sects of his time. Besides, Jesus wasn't a joiner/follower, but a leader (which is an expected personality trait for a would-be Jewish messiah claimaint).

Read the article, and you'll see that there's actually some compelling evidence to indicate such an oral tradition existing in Hebrew society, and many parts of the written Torah (i.e. Genesis-Deuteronomy) contains gaps and/or references to that found in the oral law (as later recorded in the Talmud). The critics (Sadducees) rightly pointed out the problem with a possibility of introduction of laws over time, since it wasn't written down.

But for all of the issues to pick with the Pharisees over their "useless" and "burdensome" oral traditions and to denounce as "worthless", Jesus had to pick the ONE example that science later confirmed as having some actual public-health validity to it: the benefit of handwashing before eating a meal.

Since handwashing before eating IS KNOWN to be beneficial and healthy practice from the 'germ theory of disease' standpoint, Jesus sure doesn't look like he knew any better (Jesus of course cured based on the old, "disease stems from sin" theory, where his cure was based on the concept of his being authorized by Jehovah to cure via foregiveness of their sins).

Xians inevitably will protest Jesus' denouncement, claiming that handwashing at the time wasn't effective anyway, or that the water wasn't clean, blah, blah, blah. I'm writing an article on my blog that will address all those weak-sauce apolegetic claims.

Adam

All those times Jehovah answered my prayers...

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