Posts by humbled

15

Congregation meetings conducted in the prison

by His Excellency in

jw
friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-vjlssg3xi.

humbled

I feel sad for this story. the prisoners do need a way to get beyond their bad lives to a mental/spiritual healing. But this is the direction that we all have gone before. It is clear from the faces of these prisoners and the words of Robert that for now they feel good about what they are learning. I remember feeling good too.Until I discovered how against goodness the Organization really was, how crooked it was. These men are riding for a fall when they get out--I suspect while in prison they actually are experiencing the best situation a JW could have-- I believe this is what is called a "contrast gainer" situation.

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

I saw this man in 1984 or 1985.

Google "Is Fr. Ralph Diorio legit?" It's the experiences of people who sought divine healing.

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

Feelings and beliefs commit robberys, rapes and war--and amputees.

Racket & snare on this forum is absolutely opposed to religion and is, I think he has said, an atheist. He is also becoming a doctor/surgeon-- a healer-- for the love of humanity. I do not know the scope of the methodology of God, ADCMS, but when you call foul on God for his limited scope could it be that love is the broader vision?

What we call "God" here-- are there limits to what this reported Being does, which of the stories told about him are true? Do you know? There are mixed accounts you know.

We all have bought into a myth at some level, ADCMS. Even you and EP. I don't know what you do for a living or do in your private time for the world's suffering, life is a struggle that keeps us busy with our own affairs. I mention S&R from this forum because he dislikes this talk of God. But even though S&R has had impatience if not contempt for my thinking on a lot of things, I feel a strong affinity for his feelings and his actions.

Are we all not wanting good things for others? If god really is in us then let's leave our disappointed expectations of the past behind. We all were deluded to some extent--and none of us knows how much.

If I pray for love and the action of love, what will you achieve if you convince me that my prayer story is bogus? I am not able to be a surgeon. And neither are a lot of us--including those who use bombs and pull triggers.

Feelings matter a lot even after a leg is healed.

The main teachings of Jesus was of love but if we want him to give us a sign now, he will disappoint: "By this all will know you are my followers, if you have love among yourselves."

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

Thanks, Peace and love to you, too, tammygirl. I found your candle when all my lights were out. God is good.

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

Actually, believing god answers your prayer while ignoring the vast majority of humanity's prayers is quite arrogant. It indicates you believe you are so special that god can and does suspend the laws os the universe just long enough for you to get what you want...while god ignores everyone else.

ADCMS, I am in no better shape than the vast majority of humanity when it comes to prayer. What I cannot do on my own is what I pray for. I do not bother to pray for something that I can and should do. But there is so much that I believe I cannot change. Can you see that that is a problem, too? Have you never been overwhelmed by disaster?

What can you say to a child who is hungry who has not the power nor means to change a violent world around her, who cannot prevent the cruelty nor the policies that put such misery into her world? Should I tell her NOT to pray for a bread crust because she and I have the power to change it? Furthermore, she is arrogant to ask for a bread crust--it shows how superior she feels to the little boy next door who is as hungry as she is?

If LisaRose says she has never had a prayer answered and I say I have, I am prepared to be the fool here and say I am wrong about my opinion. It won't change what happened to me. It just means I'm silly. Or ignorant.

If I say I don't know whether the thing we call God is merely a coincidence or a phenomenon of string theory, it doesn't matter, does it? I refuse to ask God for a cure for my cancer, I think that is an unfounded hope.

I find in my wonderings about all these questions of God and prayer if the key isn't this: to ask for the power to love in hard situations. I wonder about this.

It requires the action to bring what remedies we can, to put aside selfishness. Certainly my own unformed intentions in my prayer helped me see my own selfishness. And no prayer that has since been answered has varied from that theme.

I too, have wondered if I am praying for help and being assaulted in any of the terrible ways that villagers in these countries have suffered: Nicaragua, Rwanda, Vietnam, etc. I wonder if I will love others still? Or will I become like the ones who rape me and brutally kill my children and my husband?

After God healed my spirit--or perhaps I did myself, whatever suits you--We, my little girls and I used to pray for "The boat people and all the little children" at meal times and bed time. I had heard that pirates in the South China Sea were boarding the overloaded boatloads of refugees trying to escape the horrors of Pol Pot and the retributions that were following in the wake of the SE asian wars. One particular account sickened me. a woman was left adrift in the ocean having beenwitness to the drowning of her children,the murder of her husband and enduring the gang rape of the pirates. At first opportunity we opened our home to sponsor some refugees. Yes, my atheist/agnostic husband did too. We had no utilities and it was a stretch for all of us (had a baby boy by then). Love moved us, prayer was a part of the matter.

The love that I perceived as God's gift of healing was possibly what you say it is--a natural occurance. But I have to ask for that love allthe time. My husband alternately praises me and complains of me. I am in a constant search to understand what this world is about. There has been a lot of trouble in my family. Drugs, violence, prison. And also much that is wonderful.

I dread my inadequacy. I do live with a measure of peace--but I have lived with a lot of violence too.

I am horrified as you are by the daily misery in the world, ADCMS. In small and large ways I can only understand that love may be the only portion I have to give. 33 years ago the woman in that boat was found by Christian missionaries. Was that a good or bad thing? It made me think for the first time-- what did they have to say to HER about the love of God? I doubted they knelt down with her to tell her the way of salvation. The horror is overwhelming. Is it better to love or not?

Do you really think me arrogant to pray that I can love people that treat me badly? Do you think me foolish that I cannot generate love in my own heart to do these things? I don't find myself able to do it. some day it may be found that people like myself were tricked into believing in god by their primitive prejudices. It may be so. But I am still going to pray and hope I am fooled again.

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

I wonder a lot about prayers, LisaRose, how the answers come---or don't. I wonder ,too, about t he power of the mind and where and what God is or isn't. Whether prayer's answer it is a function of our own brain or of a being or power outside our brain. Why or how can work for one person and not another? Or, for that matter, how it will work one time when a particular person makes a petitions and then not "work" the next time that same person asks. What's that about?

I say God answered my prayer because the strange timing of things made me think it took place outside of me. But I don't know how it happened.I don't know what God is exactly--is he in our mind? Is God a universal principle of love and surrender into whose stream I fell for a time? Was is a cosmic incident that sometimes happens like the equinox or an eclipse? I have wondered about the words to describe these adventures of strange causes and effects. I wonder how that goodness that set me free couldn't or didn't keep me from the Witnesses. But there is so much to wonder at.

I have wondered if the power of thought is alluded to by Jesus as when he warned male disciples not to allow themselves to look lustfully at a woman because it effectively would make them adulterers. Or faith being enough to move a mountain. I don't think it is wrong to recognize the wild variation of outcomes. I do think it is wrong not to acknowledge that something is going on.

For a long time I was depressed not to have a theology to hang this stuff on. I have had other prayers answered. I am not able to understand how this god/mind action works. and some prayers just hang in the air for a long time getting faded and worn, nearly forgotten.

I can't grasp God not answering your prayer. If he answered mine then he must answer yours. so I don't get it either.

ADCMS, about the world's suffering---shouldn't WE DO something about it ? Whether there is or isn't God there are human policies that starve and kill children. The U.S. should quit with it's national day of prayer and fast once a week instead and send the money where it's needed or else press that the U.S. be less oppressive to third world economies. that's the relationship I have toward prayer and the starving oppressed people.

I told my own story--if people starve it doesn't make me a liar. I may not know how things happen. But starvation and cruelty--we need to do more than leave these people to pray for relief, we should help them however we can

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

I surrender, the thread is back on track, ADCMS. Your point is well taken.

As an explanation not an excuse, I said i got in a bind about how to cast or edit my answer in a way that framed the events meaningfully. It was a strange situation, that time in my life. At least I didn't cut and paste :)

Before I even started I wondered if punkofnice would have preferred a pm from me. maybe that's the way I should have gone but --O,well...It's done now.

This thread is a heavy one. It needs to allow for being more than a skeet shoot . You know, where someone throws out a quick short example that is shot down even faster for "lack of evidence".

I hope others share their stories--and, personally, I don't care if they take a little time to tell it. It's hard to sort this stuff out.

PS. sorry to hear about your sickness Pervof a truth. I don't know how the economy of it all goes-- I got diagnosed with stage 3 anal canal cancer in February of this year (which is why I got to come back to this forum for awhile during treatment in town). I don't pray about a lot of the aspects of it for some reason. But like you, when the pain is exruciating I do feel hung out to dry, but then I figure that there is bound to be some pain for me as there is for others?I hope for you to find peace. It is elusive for me too.

62

This is my first time. Please be patient.

by Miss.Fit in

i have never posted before.

i have been lurking for a few days and have decided to give it a try.

the subject of child abuse caught my eye.

humbled

I'm glad you girls stuck together-- also glad you heard that God hated what had been done. Love of God and just knowing that love can be a great strength. You have come through a lot with that, haven't you?

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

I'll get this thing done as fast as I can.

Any one who has done "church" much knows how to read a parking lot. When we got to town there was no action in the church parking lot. Early to church:folks visit as they go in. Ontime: they saunter. Late: they trot. Really late: no one is there at all. this parking lot was dead and it was the last mass of the day. i asked my husband to wait while I stuck my head in the door. the service was half over.

I felt sick. My husband said'"No problem"he'd get me in next week. But it was a disaster for me--and worse--a betrayal.

God had been silent throughout all this engineering and plotting of mine--so it was silly to think of His doing me wrong. But at first opportunity I was telling him what a dirty deal he had done on the clock-winding--I told him that it was an easy thing for him to have had it be fast rather than slow. " I know how you do these things" and "What are you , really? a demon?"

At home that week the routine went as before. And I read the bible again. But now there were two stories I read and they meant something to me for the first time ever. I read that God forgave a man, David, who had killed and committed adultery. Why had he forgiven him? because he was genuinely sorry. No priest. And i could understand something else. Genuins sorrow is not an easy thing to arrive at. It had not been easy for me. Also David had NOT been told to throw the woman aside after he was accosted for his wrong.

The other story was the story of Abraham trying to kill his boy, Isaac, because he thought God asked him to. But god stopped him saying not to harm the boy, but said he was going to bless all nations for Abraham listening to him. I had tried to finish off my own marriage for God's sake, too. Had I understood God well? If God had stopped Abraham from killing the boy I wondered if I had understood God. One day I realized that God cared less about who I was married to than if I was going to let anything come between me listening to him.

So I promised then and there that If he helped me understand I wouldn't turn away ever again. I never wanted to live without him. And I would count on him stopping me from doing harm in foolish ignorance.

When we did a repeat of the last trip to town the clock was well-adjusted. As we drove down the mountain I told my husband about the two stories: the grace of forgiveness and the story of Abraham's listening. My husband still thought I was batty but glad to share a bed with me again.

We got to mass but no confession for me--I had God's forgiveness. In the service there was nothing extraordinary in any way until the priest gave us the sermon. The text was from Genesis 22. It was the story of Abraham. It was a story that likened Abraham's trust in God to that of a boy in a burning house: Hearing a voice call from outside to trust, to jump through the smoke to safe and strong arms of his father below. The boy can't see anything at all, but he jumps anyway. and the father catches him. I cried and cried through it because I knew for sure that God had finally gotten through to me. He had set me free.

And I don't know more or less than that.

I am glad for kindness and sad for the pain off loss. I don't know why 3rdGen lost her only son. It makes me love the huggers on the forum because I don't know what else more we can do than that when all goes badly for others.

It's quite a laugh that I know so little about God but will always be certain that he answered my prayer: "speak but the Word and my soul will be healed."

Thanks for the encouragement,((((( Lois))))

259

Prayers that God answers. Any examples?

by punkofnice in

when i believed in god i tried not to pray for anything selfish.. after a while i began to think that a lot of things i was asking my imaginary friend in the sky for were selfish for some reason.. i do not ever remember a single thing i prayed for ever being answered.

if there was the appearance of an answer it was because i did mental gymnastics to make it fit the delusion that god had actually answered me.

there was never an obvious message/answer from god.

humbled

My apologies to you, ADCMS, it's a problem to give a serious answer to a question that is seriously posed.

The thread will go the way of all threads here and die its natural death. My story will die with it, so no worry there.

i considered a separate thread when i realized what was happening--but that seemed inappropriate too.

It is a risk, to put oneself out once in a while. Perhaps I could be briefer and you could be kinder.

Maeve