[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by onslowe

Great thoughtful post. Well said and thanks, ChaChaCha.

I sometimes do not have faith and yet I cannot ever put down those who do. I think that the way I was raised in the community that I lived with Jewish and Christian people was a huge blessing. The people that I knew growing up were given guidelines and a moral compass.

Atheists used to quietly not believe in God and now many of them just appear jealous of those with faith and start issues that hurt everybody. If you don't pray...well, just don't pray. Don't use nasties like "wtf".

I don't like how the world has changed in many ways.

So, Kitty, please keep praying for us and I will pray for Don.

[Xavier]

Originally Posted by kittygilchrist

Beloved, i will pray for all your needs. I know many, many, many hearts for God will join in love to pray.
All in love, mercy, peace.

There will be opposition tO tHe thread...yawn...

I strongly "Believe." I have never found the need to advertise my beliefs nor have I ever found the need to pressure others to believe as I do. I'm far from perfect, but I feel that living my beliefs to the best of my (imperfect) ability is a clear way to my salvation. I do pray privately and sometimes not even out loud!

Xavier

[sunnyatlast]

Originally Posted by Gramps666

You are right on. Prayer has no effect on anything except a person's mentality. We usually only hear from those who feel prayer has helped. Never from those who have prayed and then died. Which raises another question. Why does God play favorites by answering some and not others? After all, the Bible tells us that everything will be answered. And don't give me any of that BS about sometimes he says no.

Prayer is not only for relief of our mortal and physical sufferings, but more importantly for our souls that live on in eternity. We are spirits created in God's own image--spirit.

We can choose to deny God exists, disobey Him and exalt ourselves, which results in choosing for our souls to spend eternity in agony, gnashing of teeth and torture with Satan (who defied God's divine authority over him and exalted himself).

Or we can choose to believe the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and believe that His Son Jesus is the promised Messiah who, because of our faith and trust in Him, gives our souls eternal life in heaven.

The two thieves on the cross beside Jesus are a prime lesson preserved in Scripture these two thousand years for our learning.

One chose to mock Jesus and deny Jesus was the Son of God and declared him powerless and an impostor.

The other thief chose to
- admit his guilt,
- repent of his crimes,
- acknowledge that Jesus was/is the Son of God and promised Messiah, and
- ASK Jesus for divine forgiveness and redeem him before Holy God in heaven.

The choice is abundantly clear when choosing Satan or Christ.

Those who choose Christ as Lord over their lives have their mind and soul at peace now thru eternity, regardless of our diseased or dying physical condition.

See verses 33-39 in Luke 23:
scripture

[Gramps666]

Oh yes, good old Satan. Must be dumber than my pet rock. Here was somebody in the presence of The Lord who obviously wasn't quite as blissful as everyone else in Heaven. And he must have know he could never defeat the Almighty. And yet he left all that goodness for a life of eternal misery. Or might he just be a creation of the true believers so they have someone to blame when God doesn't come through?
Another thought. IF Jesus is God then why is Jesus a mass murder? Here are some verses for you. Numbers 31:17; Psalms 137:9; and Isaiah 13:16 are just a few which will give you an idea of just how much God loves his creations.

[Gramps666]

Originally Posted by CFrance

The Bible does not tell us that everything will get answered to our satisfaction.

Mark 11:24 "Therefore, I say unto you, Whatever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
John 14:14 "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."

Sounds to me like anything which is asked for will be given. But then again I understand that the Bible is so ambiguous and contradictory anyone can use it to support any position they want.

[rubicon]

I was truly impressed with the interview Megan Kelly (Fox News) had with Miriam Abrahaim (sp) the Sudanese woman who was jailed for six months for marrying a Christian (Catholic) . she had been Christian her entire life gave birth in jail and remained there with both kids until public opinion (Megan Kelly /Fox pushed for her release. She continually repeated her right to choose her manner to worship. How many Americans have that much conviction? How many people in Sudan and other areas where they are repressed by their government have gained faith hope and courage because of this extraordinary woman. She kept saying I prayed to God and I knew God would answer my prayers. Let'us all pray

[sunnyatlast]

Originally Posted by rubicon

I was truly impressed with the interview Megan Kelly (Fox News) had with Miriam Abrahaim (sp) the Sudanese woman who was jailed for six months for marrying a Christian (Catholic) . she had been Christian her entire life gave birth in jail and remained there with both kids until public opinion (Megan Kelly /Fox pushed for her release. She continually repeated her right to choose her manner to worship. How many Americans have that much conviction? How many people in Sudan and other areas where they are repressed by their government have gained faith hope and courage because of this extraordinary woman. She kept saying I prayed to God and I knew God would answer my prayers. Let'us all pray

Here is Miriam Ibrahim's interview.

Gave birth in prison, in chains.

Q: "Why didn't you just tell them (Imams) what they wanted to hear?"

A: "Faith means life. If you don't have faith, you're not alive."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDqaSwatd8I

[Xavier]

Originally Posted by CFrance

The Bible does not tell us that everything will get answered to our satisfaction.

Sometimes folks find that they don't like the answer they get. This old (clean) joke makes that point:

God granting miracles

A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says "get in, get in!" The religious man replies, " no I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle."

Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in god and god will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again cause "God will grant him a miracle."

With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grand me a miracle and I have been let down." St. Peter chuckles and responds, "I don't know what you're complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter."

Xavier

[kittygilchrist]

Originally Posted by sunnyatlast

Here is Miriam Ibrahim's interview.

Gave birth in prison, in chains.

Q: "Why didn't you just tell them (Imams) what they wanted to hear?"

A: "Faith means life. If you don't have faith, you're not alive."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDqaSwatd8I

Thank you, that is totally awesome. I prayed for her and then lost track of her. I'm glad God took care of her.

[Villages PL]

This is a story of something that happened over 18 years ago but I don't think I will ever forget it:

I went to the house of a minister because of an ad I had in the shopper. I was the caregiver for my mother and had bought a large amount of Depends. To get a good price I bought several cartons. After my mother passed away, I put an ad in the shopper to sell the left over 3 cartons.

So I got a call from a woman in the next town and I went over to show her what I had. She was taking care of the minister and his wife. They were both in the slow process of dying at home. The minister had emphysema and was in the living room hooked up to oxygen. His wife had something else and was confined to bed in the bedroom. She was down to skin and bone from her illness.

So the caregiver went in to see if the Depends would fit the dying woman. In the mean time, I sat and talked to the minister in the living room. What surprised me was that he told me he was afraid because he didn't know where he would go when he died. I could hardly believe I was hearing that from a minister who said he had his own church for many decades in Florida.

I honestly didn't know what to say; talk about being in an awkward situation.
I wanted to help him but in what way could I possibly do that? I didn't really know why he doubted where he was going. Had he done something terrible that he thought was unforgiveable? Or, did he somehow lose his faith? Perhaps it was the situation he was in with both he and his wife being incapacitated at the same time. I suppose that could do it.

He might have wondered why God had forsaken him and his wife and left them both to die slowly in such a miserable way. They couldn't help each other and couldn't themselves. The only help seemed to be the neighbor who came to look in on them a few times a day.

Where was his congregation? I don't know. His yard looked like a jungle of trees, bushes and weeds. It all looked like it hadn't been cared for in over a year.

If he was a minister who served God most of his life, where was God in his time of need?

[Bill Tasker]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I sometimes do not have faith and yet I cannot ever put down those who do. I think that the way I was raised in the community that I lived with Jewish and Christian people was a huge blessing. The people that I knew growing up were given guidelines and a moral compass.

Atheists used to quietly not believe in God and now many of them just appear jealous of those with faith and start issues that hurt everybody. If you don't pray...well, just don't pray. Don't use nasties like "wtf".

I don't like how the world has changed in many ways.

So, Kitty, please keep praying for us and I will pray for Don.

I couldn't agree more with Gracie. If you are not religious or faithful than why are you even looking at Kitty's post. Just move on. The world has become such a snarky place.

[kittygilchrist]

Some wish to know God, and read in hope...and post wanting an answer....
some snipe at the words that convict them of evil.

[Villages PL]

Originally Posted by Bill Tasker

I couldn't agree more with Gracie. If you are not religious or faithful than why are you even looking at Kitty's post. Just move on. The world has become such a snarky place.

I would say the same thing about the subject of food and health. I often start threads about food and health and I get lots of people being disruptive and not contributing to the purpose of the thread. There's often so much disruption that the thread gets closed. If they don't like the subject or are anti-health, why don't they just move on?

Health and religion share something in common it seems. Those who are not religious don't want anyone else to be religious. And those who are anti-health begrudge anyone else who's interested in promoting health.

The only difference is: Many more people will show up to defend and support religion.

[jbdlfan]

First of all, anyone who thinks prayer is easy must pray differently than I. Next, check out this link about common misunderstandings about Christianity. I love how athiest and agnostics want to pick and choose. They accuse me of it when they want to take the Word of God out of context themselves......
http://www.faithfacts.org/search-for...t-christianity

[kittygilchrist]

Originally Posted by jbdlfan

First of all, anyone who thinks prayer is easy must pray differently than I. Next, check out this link about common misunderstandings about Christianity. I love how athiest and agnostics want to pick and choose. They accuse me of it when they want to take the Word of God out of context themselves......
Common Misconceptions about Christianity - Faith Facts

Jdb, that is my heart. I just went to israel to pray. The Armor of god is a full set of armor..google it for anyone wanting to know about it. We wrestle with principalities of darkness, not flesh and blood.

Rockets did not fly from gaza aug 28 to sept 14. Cease fire exactly coinciding, or my trip would have been no go. Prayer is spiritual war.

Everyone knows this: thy will be done on earth, thy kingdom come.
That is what prayer does...brings the creation in agreement with creator. Earth is entering her time of groaning to be cleansed and made holy.

The beginning of birth pangs...if u want more info on that.