Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

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theophilus
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by theophilus »

neo-x wrote:Some things need action, no prayer. Just the will to carry out what is right.
Then how to you explain this?
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
(Philippians 4:6 ESV)
Why does God command us to pray for everything if there are some things that don't require prayer? Actions are good intentions are necessary but they won't do any good without God's help.
Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
(Psalm 127:1 ESV)
The way to get God's help is to pray as well as work.
I only pray when I know its useless to do any action. Because I hope that God takes things in his own hands, my personal experience is, he usually doesn't.
Perhaps the reason he doesn't is that you don't ask him too.
You do not have, because you do not ask.
(James 4:2 ESV)
I believe DRDS' friend can be helped by prayer and I intend to pray for him. I think I should also pray for you, that God will help you to understand the importance and need for prayer.
God wants full custody of his children, not just visits on Sunday.
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by neo-x »

Go ahead, I am stopping no one from prayeing, let me know if its fruitful. I have only explained what I have experienced.

I dont think God asks us to pray for everything. We do that ourselves.
It would be a blessing if they missed the cairns and got lost on the way back. Or if
the Thing on the ice got them tonight.

I could only turn and stare in horror at the chief surgeon.
Death by starvation is a terrible thing, Goodsir, continued Stanley.
And with that we went below to the flame-flickering Darkness of the lower deck
and to a cold almost the equal of the Dante-esque Ninth Circle Arctic Night
without.


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DRDS
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by DRDS »

To give you all a update. He is actually doing much better. And he appears to be very happy that me and others have prayed for him. So from the way it looks, it may easily have helped.
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by Silvertusk »

:ebiggrin:
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by Ivellious »

To give you all a update. He is actually doing much better. And he appears to be very happy that me and others have prayed for him. So from the way it looks, it may easily have helped.
From a variety of perspectives I tend to agree with Neo, but this statement really seals it for me. You might interpret this as the prayer working and God lifting your friend's spirits, but all I see is that he feels good because you told him people cared for him and were thinking about/ praying for him. There's a difference between God listening to prayers and intervening in someone's life and simply making someone feel good.

Doctors and medical professionals have noted the same thing for years. If someone is told that lots of people are praying or thinking about them, their attitude and demeanor is improved, and positive thinking can go a long way toward people getting better. On the other hand, if people pray or think of someone but never tell them, there is frequently no change in their outlook/attitude.

Your example here seems to clearly show how easy it is to mistake simply feeling better for a prayer miraculously working.
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by neo-x »

To give you all a update. He is actually doing much better. And he appears to be very happy that me and others have prayed for him. So from the way it looks, it may easily have helped.
Actually. I believe your friend could be at a very dangerous point, call it wild intuition but I would say what you described is not healthy at all. He is slipping back into his blissful state of faith without facing his objections intellectually to the Bible.

Is this the same friend about whom you said:
He stated a day or so ago that while reading the book of Job, he's now convinced that God intentionally causes evil to get whatever outcome He so wants.
Hello! that is a very apt, serious, challenging objection to theology, one that needs research, brainstorming, intellectual answering and reason. I am baffled that your friend came to terms with it in two days.

I can only say, don't take your friend's "better" state as somewhat of a solace. And if anything, tell him to clear out his objections, unless he wants to go down in depression again and leaving faith.

he also said:
If God is ultimately responsible for all the evil in the world, simply because he solely in charge of everything that happens in the world, then how is it really possible to "depart from evil"
Do you know how much wrong there is in that statement, and your friend is going back into faith with this image of God in his head? even if that's not the case and your friend thinks of God in the old way he did, the bubble has burst. Until he finds or gets an answer for his objection, I would humbly suggest to stay away from apologetics. Look into theology, his own theology and make a sense of things. Sit down and ask himself why does he feel what he feels, ask others for helping him make sense.

And it may sound like I am being extra jumpy on this specific point, experience tells me that it is little objections like these which when remain un-challenged ultimately seals you out of faith.

Bottomline, your friend needs to have the soil of his heart let the roots of his faith reach down to the waters of life. He has to know and understand Christ and his love. One based on intimate relationship. Where you just know the other guy and you know what he and she can and would do. His words echo a far-cry from this. Tell him to Restore relationship, tell him to pray and let God and others guide him.

Intellectual guidance without the understanding of Christ's love means nothing. And in my opinion your friend is missing on both things.
It would be a blessing if they missed the cairns and got lost on the way back. Or if
the Thing on the ice got them tonight.

I could only turn and stare in horror at the chief surgeon.
Death by starvation is a terrible thing, Goodsir, continued Stanley.
And with that we went below to the flame-flickering Darkness of the lower deck
and to a cold almost the equal of the Dante-esque Ninth Circle Arctic Night
without.


//johnadavid.wordpress.com
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DRDS
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by DRDS »

To any of the board MODS. As the OP of this thread, can any of you all LOCK this thread. It turned into something I didn't attend it to from the start and has done nothing but get worse. I can't believe some folks want to turn pretty much anything and everything into a heated debate.

I thought there are other areas on this site for that very thing. It just shows you where people's hearts really are. But that's ok, I'm fine with that, but please, just for the sake of this thing, if any of the MODS are viewing this, please lock this thread. I'm certainly done with it and don't intend to go back to it anymore.
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Re: Prayers needed for a apologist friend of mine

Post by Silvertusk »

DRDS wrote:To any of the board MODS. As the OP of this thread, can any of you all LOCK this thread. It turned into something I didn't attend it to from the start and has done nothing but get worse. I can't believe some folks want to turn pretty much anything and everything into a heated debate.

I thought there are other areas on this site for that very thing. It just shows you where people's hearts really are. But that's ok, I'm fine with that, but please, just for the sake of this thing, if any of the MODS are viewing this, please lock this thread. I'm certainly done with it and don't intend to go back to it anymore.

Please accept my apologies for it turning out this way. I do hope your friend will find that his time in the desert of his faith will strengthen him and bring him even closer to God.
Locked