the effect is still real..how you value it depends on how you have experianced it.
A couple questions/issues I have on the topic of prayer
- Thread starter Innominate
- Start date
the effect is still real..how you value it depends on how you have experianced it.
right, but it does testify to the power of thought and desire, which imo, are prayers.
you don't want to hear about the weirdest thing that happened that led me to pray?
it's a great story.
you don't want to hear about the weirdest thing that happened that led me to pray?
it's a great story.
does it come with pictures?
god i wish i had had a camera. just so i could prove to myself that it really happened, because it was just so f'ing weird.
spidergoat, have i told the story about the drugged and kidnapped transvestite that i saw in applebee's parking lot?
Testify sister.
ok. yay! *happy dance*
ok, it was about 7-8 years ago, and i was working as a waitress at an applebee's restaurant in the town i live in. i used to work mostly closing shifts, about 5 nights a week. on this particular night, i had closed the restaurant, so it would have been between 1-3 am when i was leaving. i was the last employee there except for the manager, who i had left in the office, which was in the back of the restaurant, counting money and filing his reports and whatnot.
i left through the front door, which locked behind me, and i walked towards the back of the lot where my car was parked. as i was walking it was hard not to notice a car that was parked haphazardly in the back corner of the lot. i was headed straight for it. it was some old car, like a gremlin or a pinto, or an omni...some kind of old hatchback. the driver's side door was open and there was a guy taking a piss in the bushes next to the lot. that unfortunately didn't strike me as unusual, so i walked past the car and on to mine.
i looked back when i stopped at my car and was unlocking it, and i saw something very, very, very strange. the hatchback of the car was open and there was a man climbing out of it. he was average height, nice build, short dark hair, wearing very thick rimmed glasses, tennis shoes, tube socks, tight gym shorts, a women's bra, and his hands were cuffed in front of him.
i noticed immediately that his movements indicated that he was either drugged or extremely intoxicated. he stumbled and ran towards the front of the building where i had just come from. the guy taking a piss turned around and saw that the guy had gotten out of the car and started yelling at him and cursing at him to get back in. then he got in the car and peeled off towards the front of the lot.
and i high tailed it into my car and locked the door.
and i turn around to see the drugged man run around the back of the building and to the other side, behind some bushes. he and those bushes were directly beside my car, about 20 feet away, if that.
and then the hatchback peels around the corner. and this guy was screaming out his window, "get back in this fucking car! get back in this fucking car or i swear to god i will kill you!". his car was beside, and a little bit behind mine, between me and the drugged guy in the bushes. he was looking at me. and if he had run towards my car i would have unlocked the door, but he didn't. he got into the passenger side of the maniac's car, and as they drove past, he stuck his handcuffed arms out the window, looked straight at me, and screamed, "help me! help me!"
can you believe that shit?!?!
What does that have to do with praying?
well, i felt guilty.
that guy was leaning out the window, with his arms outstretched and handcuffed, and looked me dead in the eye, and screamed "help me! help me!"
i started my car and attempted to follow them but i did not catch up with them to see their license plate number or even the direction they went after leaving the shopping complex we were in. i went home, which was only 5 min away, and called the police immediately. i told them what i saw. i called back the next day and they had no reports that matched mine.
i felt guilty.
i felt like i should have motioned to the guy to get in my car. i should have unlocked the doors. i should have done something to help him, and i didn't.
so i prayed, that if i was ever in a situation where i could help someone again, that i would not be afraid.
I doubt anyone was in any danger. They were probably hooking up for some kinky sex, maybe they were on meth. It sounds like a typical night in any American suburb.
Sad, but very true..
man i've lived in the suburbs most of my life and i've never seen anything like that. freaked me the fuck out. even after all of the weird spiritual stuff i've been through and seen, i still look back on that night and shake my head in disbelief like "did that really happen?" i mean, you expect spiritual stuff to be weird, but that scene in the parking lot that night was the weirdest!
anyway, it was a couple of years later when i did go through all of that weird spiritual stuff that i've told you about. and when i did, i was made aware that i was helping someone. my desire to help someone who was crying out for help was what started all the weirdness. and i recalled that night in the parking lot, and there were a hell of a lot of analogies i could make between the experiences.
i think my prayer that night opened up a door. i was led to pray by that experience, and that prayer was a catalyst of sorts that allowed me to experience, or prepared me for the experience i had years later.
do you see why i think prayers like these would be difficult to study scientifically?
i think my prayer that night opened up a door. i was led to pray by that experience, and that prayer was a catalyst of sorts that allowed me to experience, or prepared me for the experience i had years later.
do you see why i think prayers like these would be difficult to study scientifically?
I can understand it as your own personal spiritual journey, but I'm talking about prayer as it supports the premise of a God that intervenes in material events. The idea of God can certainly have an effect on someone's life, that is undisputed, but does that mean there really is a God?
well, the spiritual realm intervening in my life has been much more than an idea. it has been a meaningful, palpable, observable, and sometimes traumatic intrusion, i invited, but could not expect. the existence of that realm implies the existence of a god imo. but beyond that, the meaning that it's brought me proves there is a god.
yes/no lori?
insomuch as ppl choose to do what god tells them...more ppl listen to god = more chances prayer comes true..
so you do understand god can be a good thing..
so then why would you want to delete him?
an old teacher taught me..
You get out of life what you put into it..no more..no less..
i say.. you get out of God what you put into him..no more..no less..
yes/no what? that there is a god? yes.
i just don't think that what's being suggested is what god or prayer is for. i don't think god is something you poke or prod to see what he will do, or prayer and it's results are something you measure to try to prove to someone that there is a god.
i think the whole experience is supposed to be more personal than that.
i had added the words 'TO ME,THAT', which would make your statement more valid. i was asking if it was ok..
god doesn't give us what we want..he gives us what we need..what we need is susceptible to what he thinks we need, not what we think we need.
each of us has different needs..
OH, yes. that's ok.
I personally do not believe God wants to be proven using scientific methods. So if you did run a study on prayer God would cause the study to be inconclusive.
God has made it clear you should not put Him to the test and any scientific investigation into prayer is attempting to do just that.
All Praise The Ancient Of Days
God has made it clear you should not put Him to the test and any scientific investigation into prayer is attempting to do just that.
All Praise The Ancient Of Days
I think Jim Morrison said:
"You cannot petition the Lord with prayer".
Mind you, he was probably being elliptical. And he was probably seriously stoned.
"You cannot petition the Lord with prayer".
Mind you, he was probably being elliptical. And he was probably seriously stoned.