Prayer without G!d or supernatural intervention

wil

wil

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prayer, an act of communication by humans with the sacred or holy—God, the gods, the transcendent realm, or supernatural powers. Found in all religions in all times, prayer may be a corporate or personal act utilizing various forms and techniques.

I'm going with transcendent realm...A transcendent realm is a realm that is beyond the physical and material universe, and is often associated with divine consciousness, absolute truth, or ultimate reality.

I'm going with ultimate reality.

The way I see it...for me...prayer is an act, an attempt to change my mind, encourage me to work to change some current position or perspective...to shine light on solutions to my dilemna...or perceived dilemma.

Pray but move your feet. In my life I do not believe prayer can do anything without me acting on it. I do not expect to be able to bend the universe to my will...or expect any supernatural force or entity to come to my rescue.

I use concepts of meditation and prayer to examine situations I have put myself in and explore ways to change them and strive not for the best for me, but the best for all, or maybe most, or some, but more than me.

If it is to be it is up to me...used to be my mantra...but I have learned how much I benefit from the good works of others...allnthe time, in every aspect of my life, the food I eat, the place I live, the cars I travel in, the events I go to...are a culmination of human effort put forth for my beneifit...humans that do not know me in China assemble computers and cellphones that make this missive possible...and they are only the last in a chain of scientists, entrepreneurs, philosophers and laborers who have literally moved mountains to make all this possible today...they are my unknown unsung heroes, my gods who have created my world...they have lived (and most have died) for my, our benefit, they are who I revere and am thankful for.

I go into prayer not to beseech some spirit to affect my.health or wealth...but to find a place of calm and acceptance for my.current situation and seek what I can do to change it.

I go into prayer to calm my anxious mind that contemplates the worst, that has a tendency to blame others for my current misfortune. ...and either find and begin the steps to change...or the acceptance of what is.

I feel blessed in the face of the turmoil that os going on in our world and in my body, blessed that the pain and troubles exist...and so yet do I.

I am grateful that I can express and explore my feelings and beliefs here...

Love you all, and my wish is you find the same solace in your beliefs as I do in my nonbelief.
 
wil said:
I go into prayer to calm my anxious mind that contemplates the worst ...
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Thanks for this. I know the feeling.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
Proverbs 3:5-7

It's all I need to know, in practice. God's angels have never let me down.
 
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RJM said:
It's all I need to know, in practice. God's angels have never let me down.
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Sort of same... while I don't believe in any supernatural critters, I believe in an essence of G!d in everything....I believe in G!d as the principle, the underlying, overlying reason matter matters and planets rotate and gravity...that G!d is everywhere and we are all expressions of G!d...in the image.

Therefore from my parents to my surgeons to my garbage collectors G!ds angels on earth don't let me down. Drivers have taken me tens of thousands of miles since I have been unable to drive...the angels are everywhere... I am blessed.
 
@wil
How do you read the 'narrow way'?

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
 
I read it that the divine assistance is within certain parameters. There's a path and a way that may be different for every individual person?
 
wil said:
Love everyone, period.

Note, Jesus didn't ask us to like everyone...we can still turn over tables.
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Actions speak louder than words. It's one thing to say you love everyone but your actions test the truth of it. I'm using "you" but it applies to all of us.
 
Faithfulservant said:
Loving them in spite of their actions... That's the challenge for sure!
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The bots sent this thru my book of faces algorithm just now...

To the church of my youth,

What the hell did you expect me to do?

You told me to love my neighbors, to model the life of Jesus. To be kind and considerate, and to stand up for the bullied.

You told me to love people, consider others as more important than myself.

You taught me to sing "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight."

We sang it together, pressing the volume pedal and leaning our hearts into the chorus. You said that “He loved all the children of the world”.

You told me to love my enemies, to even do good to those who wish for bad things. You told me to never "hate" anyone and to always find ways to encourage people.

You told me it's better to give than receive, to be last instead of first. To help the poor, the widow, the stranger at the gate.

You told me that Jesus looks at what I do for the least-of-these as the true depth of my faith. You told me to focus on my own sin and not to judge. You told me to be accepting and forgiving.

So I payed attention.

I took in every lesson.

And I did what you told me.

But now, you call me a libtard. A queer-lover. You call me "woke." A backslider.
You call me a heretic. You make fun of my heart. You mock the people I’m trying to help.

You say I’m a child of the devil.😈

You call me soft. A snowflake. A socialist. You shun the very people you told me to help.

What the hell did you expect me to do?

I thought you were serious, but apparently not.

You hate nearly all the people I love. You stand against nearly all the things I stand for. I'm trying to see a way forward, but it's hard when I survey all the hurt, harm, and darkness that comes in the wake of your beliefs and presence.

What the hell did you expect me to do?

I believed it all the way.

I'm still believing it all the way.

Which leaves me wondering, what happened to you?

(original post by Chris Kratzer. Go
To his profile to see his original writing. Some words modified by author unknown).
 
wil said:
What the hell did you expect me to do?
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Who is the YOU he's talking to? Is he talking to all Christians? Or just to the MAGA 'patriot' denominations? As a grown adult he should be able to discern that not all Christians are like he says

Did Jesus deny God and supernatural intervention?
 
The Catholic Church is the biggest non-gov charity on earth, and has missionaries working with lepers and aids patients in the most difficult and dangerous places in the world
https://catholicherald.co.uk/a-worldwide-force-for-good/

The world’s biggest charity

"Stalin famously said of the Church, “The Pope! How many divisions has he?” Less well known is Churchill’s response that Stalin “might have mentioned a number of legions not always visible on parade”. Indeed, the reach and influence of the Church are not easily described by statistics alone, yet the raw statistics are staggering enough.

The Church operates more than 140,000 schools, 10,000 orphanages, 5,000 hospitals and some 16,000 other health clinics. Caritas, the umbrella organisation for Catholic aid agencies, estimates that spending by its affiliates totals between £2 billion and £4 billion, making it one of the biggest aid agencies in the world.

Even these numbers only tell half the tale. Caritas does not include development spending by a host of religious orders and other Catholic charities, while most of the 200,000 Catholic parishes around the world operate their own small-scale charitable projects which are never picked up in official figures. Establishing like-for-like comparisons is hard, but there can be little doubt that in pretty much every field of social action, from education to health to social care, the Church is the largest and most significant non-state organisation in the world.

A sceptic might point out that that influence can be both positive and negative. So, for example, it might be queried whether the Church’s work in education or health would be more effective if control was switched to the state. In some ways, this is the wrong question – in much of the developing world, if the Church was not involved, the services would not be provided at all. But there is a good deal of research which has attempted to compare the performance of Catholic provision of education or health with that of other providers and, in general, Catholic institutions come out rather well.

The health analyst Kenneth White, of Virginia Commonwealth University, found Catholic hospitals in the US to be on average more efficient than equivalent secular hospitals. This was a particularly remarkable finding given that he also discovered evidence that Catholic hospitals, reflecting their mission to reach out to disadvantaged communities, were providing more compassionate care and stigmatised services (to groups that often face discrimination) than other providers.

In Africa, a recent research review found not only that maternal care at Church-run mission hospitals was of the same or better quality than at public facilities, but that Church hospitals were also more likely to offer services accessible to the poor.

Looking at education, although it is well established that Catholic schools perform exceptionally well on standard academic criteria …"
read full article



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https://www.johnbradburne.com/leprosy/
Mutemwa leper centre in Zimbabwe

Christian doctrine is not a closed system incapable of raising questions, doubts, inquiries, but is living, is able to unsettle, is able to enliven. It has a face that is supple, a body that moves and develops, flesh that is tender; Christian doctrine is called Jesus Christ

Pope Francis
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Removed.
See #13 above
 
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