Guaranteed Cure for Racism

[ZEB]

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
There are reasons I didn’t post this publicly until now. Two Saturdays ago I was out for my morning prayer and worship walk and realized that I hadn’t prayed specifically for a car. It was always for the situation in general. Through a confluence of events I found myself with a low paying, but full time job and no car. My mortgage was three months in default and on the verge heading into foreclosure. I had mountains of other bills as well and a few hundred bucks to my name.

That Saturday morning I told God I really needed a car or, at least as it appeared to me, there would be no hope of avoiding total financial collapse. I told Him I would give Him all the glory if He would rescue us out of this situation any way he saw fit, but that I was prepared to praise His holy name it if be His will that all be lost. I told Him that this whole situation was entirely beyond my ability to escape from without His gracious help.

By 6 o’clock that evening one of my Christian customers had paid my 2800 dollars of back mortgage and my sister, that has called me exactly one time in the last seven years, to tell me our mother was dead in April, called to tell me that she was giving me my mother’s car that was left to her by my step father, her father, who also died in June. I said nothing to initiate this with either one of them. My mortgage is now current and I have an immaculately maintained showroom condition 02 Focus with 58,000 original miles in my driveway. A car a hundred times better than any I would have been able to afford and the money I had scraped together was used to insure and register it. I also had a major blitz in my business where I made enough money to get the other bills at least out of immediate danger.

To Him be all the glory. I did nothing but ask.[/quote]

That is a great story Tirib. I too have had similar things happen to me over and over again in my life. What’s interesting is that you first have to believe that there is a God and that he is a rewarder of the faithful in order for such things to happen. You must come to him as a child in need. As the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Amen brother to God be the glory!

[Tiribulus]

[quote]ZEB wrote:
<<< That is a great story Tirib. I too have had similar things happen to me over and over again in my life. What’s interesting is that you first have to believe that there is a God and that he is a rewarder of the faithful in order for such things to happen. You must come to him as a child in need. As the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Amen brother to God be the glory!
[/quote]I kid you not. That morning I was well beyond the point of clarity that this mountain was officially too big for me to climb. I told Him (as if He didn’t know) that I knew that 24 hr a day work would not cover what I needed. If we were gonna get outta this, at least for now, He was gonna have to do it. In 12 hours it was done. During the previous week or so a sweet elderly old woman, a customer of mine, who has been going to the same church longer than I’ve been alive, called to ask if I could help her with some thing the next morning.

I actually couldn’t because I had to be at this new job. She asked about my business, I told her it wasn’t going well and it came out that our house was in danger. She said she’d pray. How much did we need? She wanted to know how much to pray for. I told her. She called me back 2 Saturdays ago and told me she had prayed about it and I should come over her house with my information and she would transfer 2800 dollars to Wells Fargo and bring my mortgage up to date. That was about 2 hrs after my sister dropped off my mothers 4 to 5000 dollar car. I also got a 50 dollar tip on a 100 dollar job earlier in the afternoon.

My friend from church who is from the Caribbean and quite black came over and was shouting praises to God right on my driveway. He was laughing that if the prophet Elijah had towed that car to my house behind a flaming chariot and there was a gift tag on my door knob signed “just because I love you, your Bridegroom, Jesus”, it couldn’t be more clear that he was moving mightily on our behalf.

I agree. I am still stunned at His merciful faithfulness to a man who deserved to be struck dead and damned on the spot numerous times in my life. I heard Him speak to my heart, “you cannot out sin the power of my blood”.

To the pagans this will all be a happy coincidence or some general cosmic truth coming to pass. Anything except the blessing of the living Christ upon one of His inexplicably beloved children.

[Makavali]

Should thank the old lady more than God. You told her about your financial woes and she was kind enough to help you.

Should thank your sister more than God. She is family and would know about your problems better than you give her credit for, and she was kind enough to help you.

You should thank the person who tipped you more than God. They were kind enough to actually give you a tip.

But instead you bestow your praises upon a sky fairy instead of the people that actually helped you. The world isn’t as horrible as you seem to think it is. Going off the assumption that outside of any theological and ideological differences, you are a pretty nice guy, I’m not at all surprised people are nice back.

[Makavali]

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
She asked about my business, I told her it wasn’t going well and it came out that our house was in danger. She said she’d pray. How much did we need? She wanted to know how much to pray for. I told her.[/quote]

I said nothing to initiate this with either one of them.

???

[Tiribulus]

SHE called ME, I hadn’t talked to her in months. Even your unbelief brings Him glory dude. All the way over in NZ. You go right ahead. Far be it from me to interrupt. I’ll revel and marvel in the “dangerous” mind of Christ I’ve been given by His free grace.

1st Corinthians 2:14-16 Emphasis in the NASB translation, means a quotation from the Old Testament:

<<< 14-But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15-But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16-For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. >>>

[ZEB]

[quote]Makavali wrote:
Should thank the old lady more than God. You told her about your financial woes and she was kind enough to help you.

Should thank your sister more than God. She is family and would know about your problems better than you give her credit for, and she was kind enough to help you.

You should thank the person who tipped you more than God. They were kind enough to actually give you a tip.

But instead you bestow your praises upon a sky fairy instead of the people that actually helped you. The world isn’t as horrible as you seem to think it is. Going off the assumption that outside of any theological and ideological differences, you are a pretty nice guy, I’m not at all surprised people are nice back.[/quote]

1-He was praying intently and specifically.

2-He had not spoken with his sister in quite sometime and she called him.

3-The older lady initiated the contact out of the blue.

4-The tip came to him just when he needed it.

I understand that nothing short of God coming down from heaven and smacking you in the face will cause you to believe, but you’ll have to admit that the circumstances above seem more than just coincidental.

[Makavali]

[quote]ZEB wrote:
1-He was praying intently and specifically.

2-He had not spoken with his sister in quite sometime and she called him.

3-The older lady initiated the contact out of the blue.

4-The tip came to him just when he needed it.

I understand that nothing short of God coming down from heaven and smacking you in the face will cause you to believe, but you’ll have to admit that the circumstances above seem more than just coincidental. [/quote]

1. Prayer isn’t proven to do anything.

2. Stuff still filters throughout the family grapevine. You’d be surprised how much the family member you don’t talk to know about how you are doing.

3. He still told her about his financial woes and assigned a monetary value to it.

4. People still tip, contrary to popular belief.

Yes, very coincidental, but nothing that can’t be explained away by non-fairytale based reasoning.

[Cortes]

[quote]Makavali wrote:
Should thank the old lady more than God. You told her about your financial woes and she was kind enough to help you.

Should thank your sister more than God. She is family and would know about your problems better than you give her credit for, and she was kind enough to help you.

You should thank the person who tipped you more than God. They were kind enough to actually give you a tip.

But instead you bestow your praises upon a sky fairy instead of the people that actually helped you. The world isn’t as horrible as you seem to think it is. Going off the assumption that outside of any theological and ideological differences, you are a pretty nice guy, I’m not at all surprised people are nice back.[/quote]

I’m sure he thanked the people who helped him plenty, Mak. It’s not like there’s a limited supply of thanks you have to ration out.

Anyway, have a little tact. For all your talk about how bad/dangerous/delusional/whatever God-believing folk are, I only see one person on this thread with the audacity to piss all over Tirib’s cornflakes. He’s been having a hard time. Something good happened to him. There are plenty of other threads to take up the debate. If you happen to disagree or think he’s a moron you still both live in the world of people and manners and you should know well enough to just keep your mouth shut.

When did you become such an unhappy, vicious person? The person who posts here is not the friendly, funny guy I remember becoming friends with a couple years back.

[ZEB]

[quote]Cortes wrote:
When did you become such an unhappy, vicious person Mak? The person who posts here is not the friendly, funny guy I remember becoming friends with a couple years back. [/quote]

Speaking from my own experience when you pull back the layers on many so called “atheists” they’re not usually very happy. Granted there are exceptions.

[GCF]

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
There are reasons I didn’t post this publicly until now. Two Saturdays ago I was out for my morning prayer and worship walk and realized that I hadn’t prayed specifically for a car. It was always for the situation in general. Through a confluence of events I found myself with a low paying, but full time job and no car. My mortgage was three months in default and on the verge heading into foreclosure. I had mountains of other bills as well and a few hundred bucks to my name.

That Saturday morning I told God I really needed a car or, at least as it appeared to me, there would be no hope of avoiding total financial collapse. I told Him I would give Him all the glory if He would rescue us out of this situation any way he saw fit, but that I was prepared to praise His holy name it if be His will that all be lost. I told Him that this whole situation was entirely beyond my ability to escape from without His gracious help.

By 6 o’clock that evening one of my Christian customers had paid my 2800 dollars of back mortgage and my sister, that has called me exactly one time in the last seven years, to tell me our mother was dead in April, called to tell me that she was giving me my mother’s car that was left to her by my step father, her father, who also died in June. I said nothing to initiate this with either one of them. My mortgage is now current and I have an immaculately maintained showroom condition 02 Focus with 58,000 original miles in my driveway. A car a hundred times better than any I would have been able to afford and the money I had scraped together was used to insure and register it. I also had a major blitz in my business where I made enough money to get the other bills at least out of immediate danger.

To Him be all the glory. I did nothing but ask.[/quote]

I haven’t read the posts after this so my apologies is i am going over old ground. One thing I don’t understand about stuff like this is how people can believe that God decided to help them get a car or as my stepson (9 yrs old) told me find a piece of lego instead of actually helping people I don’t know um - not get raped, or burned in a fire, have disabled children.

I know a devoutly religious couple who prayed constantly for a healthy baby. Baby was born down syndrome with a hole in his heart. Lived a miserable two years. Was God punishing them or was he too busy helping my stepson find a piece of lego?

Another one that I don’t get is sports teams praying before the game. One of the sides lose the other believes God helped them win. Did the other team pray wrong?

I have had loads of coincidences in my life. One is an even more striking and involved one than Tribs. It’s personal and I choose not to share the details but it was pretty striking. God had nothing to do with it. It was a coincidence.

On another note, I’m glad things are looking up Trib.

EDIT: What about Hindus who experience miracles from any of their Gods? Are those just coincidences but your ones are real?

[Makavali]

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]Makavali wrote:
Should thank the old lady more than God. You told her about your financial woes and she was kind enough to help you.

Should thank your sister more than God. She is family and would know about your problems better than you give her credit for, and she was kind enough to help you.

You should thank the person who tipped you more than God. They were kind enough to actually give you a tip.

But instead you bestow your praises upon a sky fairy instead of the people that actually helped you. The world isn’t as horrible as you seem to think it is. Going off the assumption that outside of any theological and ideological differences, you are a pretty nice guy, I’m not at all surprised people are nice back.[/quote]

I’m sure he thanked the people who helped him plenty, Mak. It’s not like there’s a limited supply of thanks you have to ration out.

Anyway, have a little tact. For all your talk about how bad/dangerous/delusional/whatever God-believing folk are, I only see one person on this thread with the audacity to piss all over Tirib’s cornflakes. He’s been having a hard time. Something good happened to him. There are plenty of other threads to take up the debate. If you happen to disagree or think he’s a moron you still both live in the world of people and manners and you should know well enough to just keep your mouth shut.

When did you become such an unhappy, vicious person? The person who posts here is not the friendly, funny guy I remember becoming friends with a couple years back. [/quote]

There is nothing vicious about this. I’m genuinely happy that his life is turning around for the better, but I know if I were in the same situation I’d be immeasurably grateful to the people that helped me. I see it as insulting to the people that helped him that it’s implied that he would have received nothing “but for the grace of God”. As if his sister, the old lady, and the tipper needed outside interference to be good people.

[Cortes]

[quote]Makavali wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]Makavali wrote:
Should thank the old lady more than God. You told her about your financial woes and she was kind enough to help you.

Should thank your sister more than God. She is family and would know about your problems better than you give her credit for, and she was kind enough to help you.

You should thank the person who tipped you more than God. They were kind enough to actually give you a tip.

But instead you bestow your praises upon a sky fairy instead of the people that actually helped you. The world isn’t as horrible as you seem to think it is. Going off the assumption that outside of any theological and ideological differences, you are a pretty nice guy, I’m not at all surprised people are nice back.[/quote]

I’m sure he thanked the people who helped him plenty, Mak. It’s not like there’s a limited supply of thanks you have to ration out.

Anyway, have a little tact. For all your talk about how bad/dangerous/delusional/whatever God-believing folk are, I only see one person on this thread with the audacity to piss all over Tirib’s cornflakes. He’s been having a hard time. Something good happened to him. There are plenty of other threads to take up the debate. If you happen to disagree or think he’s a moron you still both live in the world of people and manners and you should know well enough to just keep your mouth shut.

When did you become such an unhappy, vicious person? The person who posts here is not the friendly, funny guy I remember becoming friends with a couple years back. [/quote]

There is nothing vicious about this. I’m genuinely happy that his life is turning around for the better, but I know if I were in the same situation I’d be immeasurably grateful to the people that helped me. I see it as insulting to the people that helped him that it’s implied that he would have received nothing “but for the grace of God”. As if his sister, the old lady, and the tipper needed outside interference to be good people.[/quote]

Well like I said, I’m sure he didn’t forget to say his sincerest thank yous to the humans who helped him, too.

For perspective, what if you posted somewhere about what great friends you have and how thankful you are that they helped pull you out of a pretty bad place. I imagine you’d be pretty annoyed if the Christians started jumping in telling you that you friends had nothing to do with it and it was by the grace of God that you were saved.

I just think that in certain situations it’s better to just leave things or talk about them elsewhere.

Take care, bud.

[Makavali]

[quote]Cortes wrote:
For perspective, what if you posted somewhere about what great friends you have and how thankful you are that they helped pull you out of a pretty bad place. I imagine you’d be pretty annoyed if the Christians started jumping in telling you that you friends had nothing to do with it and it was by the grace of God that you were saved.[/quote]

Except I’d be annoyed for the same reason as I think something is wrong here - it belittles what the people did to help.

Take care, bud.

You too, have an unrelated pic.

[Brother_Chris]

[quote]Makavali wrote:

1. Prayer isn’t proven to do anything.[/quote]

I know Mak, that you do not believe in God, but I have to say right here. That you should be able to logically figure this one out.

Anecdotes have taught more people than “studies.” Common sense trumps conventional wisdom, especially when that wisdom is bullshit.

Here is an anecdote, I had lost my sunglasses. My desk is organized and clean (computer, phone, and speakers that is all). I looked all over my room for my sun glasses. I also have no room mate, and I am the only one with a key to my place. I give up looking as I have class in 45 minutes and need to get to the other side of campus.

I pray to St. Anthony as I head over to class and once more as I walk up to my place. I come back after class and my glasses are on my desk. How’s that for some bullshit, I looked for an hour, nothing. A five second rhyme to St. Anthony and I come back and my glasses are on my desk.

[Brother_Chris]

[quote]GCF wrote:

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
There are reasons I didn’t post this publicly until now. Two Saturdays ago I was out for my morning prayer and worship walk and realized that I hadn’t prayed specifically for a car. It was always for the situation in general. Through a confluence of events I found myself with a low paying, but full time job and no car. My mortgage was three months in default and on the verge heading into foreclosure. I had mountains of other bills as well and a few hundred bucks to my name.

That Saturday morning I told God I really needed a car or, at least as it appeared to me, there would be no hope of avoiding total financial collapse. I told Him I would give Him all the glory if He would rescue us out of this situation any way he saw fit, but that I was prepared to praise His holy name it if be His will that all be lost. I told Him that this whole situation was entirely beyond my ability to escape from without His gracious help.

By 6 o’clock that evening one of my Christian customers had paid my 2800 dollars of back mortgage and my sister, that has called me exactly one time in the last seven years, to tell me our mother was dead in April, called to tell me that she was giving me my mother’s car that was left to her by my step father, her father, who also died in June. I said nothing to initiate this with either one of them. My mortgage is now current and I have an immaculately maintained showroom condition 02 Focus with 58,000 original miles in my driveway. A car a hundred times better than any I would have been able to afford and the money I had scraped together was used to insure and register it. I also had a major blitz in my business where I made enough money to get the other bills at least out of immediate danger.

To Him be all the glory. I did nothing but ask.[/quote]

I haven’t read the posts after this so my apologies is i am going over old ground. One thing I don’t understand about stuff like this is how people can believe that God decided to help them get a car or as my stepson (9 yrs old) told me find a piece of lego instead of actually helping people I don’t know um - not get raped, or burned in a fire, have disabled children.

I know a devoutly religious couple who prayed constantly for a healthy baby. Baby was born down syndrome with a hole in his heart. Lived a miserable two years. Was God punishing them or was he too busy helping my stepson find a piece of lego?

Another one that I don’t get is sports teams praying before the game. One of the sides lose the other believes God helped them win. Did the other team pray wrong?

I have had loads of coincidences in my life. One is an even more striking and involved one than Tribs. It’s personal and I choose not to share the details but it was pretty striking. God had nothing to do with it. It was a coincidence.

On another note, I’m glad things are looking up Trib.

EDIT: What about Hindus who experience miracles from any of their Gods? Are those just coincidences but your ones are real?[/quote]

coughThy Will be Donecough

Prayer is not the action of telling God what to do, but to hear what God’s will is.

God doesn’t have control over people’s free will. And sometimes an ill child is God’s way of bringing you closer to Him. Who knows.

[Brother_Chris]

[quote]Makavali wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:

[quote]Makavali wrote:
Should thank the old lady more than God. You told her about your financial woes and she was kind enough to help you.

Should thank your sister more than God. She is family and would know about your problems better than you give her credit for, and she was kind enough to help you.

You should thank the person who tipped you more than God. They were kind enough to actually give you a tip.

But instead you bestow your praises upon a sky fairy instead of the people that actually helped you. The world isn’t as horrible as you seem to think it is. Going off the assumption that outside of any theological and ideological differences, you are a pretty nice guy, I’m not at all surprised people are nice back.[/quote]

I’m sure he thanked the people who helped him plenty, Mak. It’s not like there’s a limited supply of thanks you have to ration out.

Anyway, have a little tact. For all your talk about how bad/dangerous/delusional/whatever God-believing folk are, I only see one person on this thread with the audacity to piss all over Tirib’s cornflakes. He’s been having a hard time. Something good happened to him. There are plenty of other threads to take up the debate. If you happen to disagree or think he’s a moron you still both live in the world of people and manners and you should know well enough to just keep your mouth shut.

When did you become such an unhappy, vicious person? The person who posts here is not the friendly, funny guy I remember becoming friends with a couple years back. [/quote]

There is nothing vicious about this. I’m genuinely happy that his life is turning around for the better, but I know if I were in the same situation I’d be immeasurably grateful to the people that helped me. I see it as insulting to the people that helped him that it’s implied that he would have received nothing “but for the grace of God”. As if his sister, the old lady, and the tipper needed outside interference to be good people.[/quote]

Well, I believe that Tirib probably thanked them for their generosity, as well. Atheists have to have it one way or the other. Either God does everything or humans do everything. Ever think that some of might think there is a mixture? We do have free will after all.

[GCF]

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
coughThy Will be Donecough

Prayer is not the action of telling God what to do, but to hear what God’s will is.

God doesn’t have control over people’s free will. And sometimes an ill child is God’s way of bringing you closer to Him. Who knows.[/quote]

Yo BC, thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. This line of questioning is just a fact finder for me. Let me state now I am an atheist and I am genuinely interested to understand/or at least have an idea where religious people stand on this - or at least get closer to an understanding.

That said I really don’t understand your post. Can you elaborate or put it another way for me?

The child dying to bring you closer to God is something that to be honest I find extremely distasteful. I don’t see how that sits with the loving God thing. But I get the whole “mysterious ways” thing used to explain it. Personally I have real problems with it but OK.

I just don’t get you think God is hooking you up with cars and sunnies when you really, really need them and he can’t whip up a plate of grub for a starving person, or arrange for a rapist to accidentally snag his balls on a fence post or something?

Again what about the Hindu people who really, really need a goat and low and behold a goat walks in to their shack. They think well my elephant/monkey/platypus God hooked me up! You guys go nah, actually a fence broke two villages away and he wandered here. But when you find your aviator ray bans - God is looking out for me!

BTW the sunglasses story has happened to me countless times. Not once did it iccur to me that God was helping. I spent 15 minutes looking for a flashlight one night only to realise I was holding it in my mouth and using the beam to help me look. I would like to say that God put it there but a far more rational explanation is that I had a severe brain snap.

[Brother_Chris]

[quote]GCF wrote:

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
coughThy Will be Donecough

Prayer is not the action of telling God what to do, but to hear what God’s will is.

God doesn’t have control over people’s free will. And sometimes an ill child is God’s way of bringing you closer to Him. Who knows.[/quote]

Yo BC, thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. This line of questioning is just a fact finder for me. Let me state now I am an atheist and I am genuinely interested to understand/or at least have an idea where religious people stand on this - or at least get closer to an understanding.

That said I really don’t understand your post. Can you elaborate or put it another way for me?
[/quote]
This isn’t a black and white situation. This isn’t I pray and God just does everything while I sit up in my lazy boy drinking liquor and smoking on a cigar. God is king. So, when you ask God for something, and Him being all knowing and all powerful sees that it is not within his will to do that for you. He won’t. If you don’t ask for it, he probably won’t. As well, as I said before God is king. And as St. Augustine said, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

We gotta work at it.

The child dying to bring you closer to God is something that to be honest I find extremely distasteful. I don’t see how that sits with the loving God thing. But I get the whole “mysterious ways” thing used to explain it. Personally I have real problems with it but OK.

Of course you do, most people don’t like babies dying. It is a sad situation, which I wish on no one. However, I don’t think you can really say God killed the baby, but he presents you the opportunity of a dead loved one to become closer to Him. Kind of like, instead of divorcing your husband because you have a miscarriage it is an opportunity to become closer to the loved ones you still have and cherish them deeper.

I just don’t get you think God is hooking you up with cars and sunnies when you really, really need them and he can’t whip up a plate of grub for a starving person, or arrange for a rapist to accidentally snag his balls on a fence post or something?

Oh trust me, there is plenty of stories of God providing for hungry folks. Let’s see, I’ll have to get names and specifics later, I believe this was set in Baltimore. But there was a friar up in the soup kitchen on a Thanksgiving or something big like that. Well, they had ran out of food from their bank. Had nothing in the pantry, complete out. Well, they invited the hungry and homeless folks in to get out of the snow. The friar sat down with his trust folk and knife and wait there for his people’s food to show up. Not a minute later, big truck full of food rolls up and thanksgiving for all. It probably wasn’t thanksgiving, but it is a good touch to a true story none the less, I’ll do some research and find the story again.

Again what about the Hindu people who really, really need a goat and low and behold a goat walks in to their shack. They think well my elephant/monkey/platypus God hooked me up! You guys go nah, actually a fence broke two villages away and he wandered here. But when you find your aviator ray bans - God is looking out for me!

I wouldn’t dismiss that as not being God’s work. So what if a fence broke. God’s been hooking up pagans since the beginning of time. Aviators but not Ray Bans, they are the Oaks from Book of Eli, except I had them a year and a half before Book of Eli.

[quote]
BTW the sunglasses story has happened to me countless times. Not once did it iccur to me that God was helping. I spent 15 minutes looking for a flashlight one night only to realise I was holding it in my mouth and using the beam to help me look. I would like to say that God put it there but a far more rational explanation is that I had a severe brain snap.[/quote]

You really don’t have to believe me, but I do not have much stuff in my place. So, if I can’t find something in my place within three to five minutes. It is not in my place. And, as I said my desk only had three things on it a computer, a telephone (yes I still have a landline), and speakers. When I left my place I grabbed the keys off the corner of my desk right next to where my glasses were when I came back. I searched several times (through out an hour) and if I had did something like had them on my head (which they were the clothe case they give you to clean your lens) I would have found them. I am not a forgetful person, so I highly doubt I did the whole object in hand while looking for object for an hour.

[GCF]

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Of course you do, most people don’t like babies dying. It is a sad situation, which I wish on no one. However, I don’t think you can really say God killed the baby, but he presents you the opportunity of a dead loved one to become closer to Him. Kind of like, instead of divorcing your husband because you have a miscarriage it is an opportunity to become closer to the loved ones you still have and cherish them deeper.
[/quote]

BC, again thanks for the reply.

I guess it has helped me see where you are coming from although I still find it hard to believe that people go for this stuff.

Take the above for example. I wouldn’t say God killed the baby. But if the child had been born healthy you would have gone, well done your prayers were answered, God gave you a beautiful baby. But you don’t say your prayers weren’t answered God is angry with you.

The Baltimore story you heard is a great story. But if the truck hadn’t arrived you wouldn’t have blamed God. That truck had been booked weeks in advance, loaded hours before and been on the road for sometime before arriving it didn’t materialize out of nothing. Had it arrived the day before or a day later you wouldn’t have claimed divine intervention. To me that is hardly even a coincidence. It’s a delivery truck arriving.

How about all the times when you did lose something? All the times you really needed something you didn’t get? It seems like good things are due to the power of prayer, bad things are unfortunate coincidences.

I would’ve thought that good coincidences would be a more rational explanation.

[Magicpunch]

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
This will be the first and probably last “religious” thread I will start here.

We are going through the most horrifically challenging trial of our lives. If it we’re not for my faithful risen Lord and my loving brothers and sisters in Christ I would be unable to bear up under the crushing pressure of this season of exceedingly hard providence.

Last Sunday I was on my face at Church beseeching God for wisdom and strength to get us through this in a way that is pleasing and glorifying in His sight. I wound up with other men of God laying their hands on me and praying with and for me for quite a while. This church is deep in the heart of the Detroit ghetto (Grand River and Schoolcraft) and 90 plus percent black. These people could not possibly care less what color anybody is except red, covered in the blood of the lamb.

Unlike social temples of political idolatry like Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ, here we have nothing but the pure Gospel of repentance from sin and living the life of the risen Son of God. That transforming power simply does not allow for idiotic pettiness revolving around somebody’s anthropological origins. We love each other because He who’s name is above every name first loved us and sacrificed Himself for us. Let there be a revival of the true Gospel of God across this land and we will witness how He who commands light to exist and is Himself the light of the world chases away all darkness including the abominable scourge of racism.

Edited for an embarrassing spelling error.[/quote]

I don’t buy the “sacrifice” part.

It isn’t a sacrifice/big deal if you:

a) rise up from it three days later and;
b) go sit around in heaven

He so loved us that he sacrificed his only son? Nah mate, true sacrifice would’ve been if he’d stayed dead (since sacrifice implies a loss). But the big guy in the sky knew that JC would rise again … so he wasn’t in fact sacrificing anything.

Wolverine doesn’t sacrifice himself, because he knows he’ll regenerate. Same goes for your guy.