Posted on 04/30/2010 8:03:48 AM PDT by Quix
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7 When you pray, dont babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Dont be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, --New Living Translation 7And when you pray, do not heap up phrases (multiply words, repeating the same ones over and over) as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking. [I Kings 18:25-29.] 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. 9Pray, therefore, like this: 15But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their [j]reckless and willful sins, [k]leaving them, letting them go, and [l]giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. --Amplified Pray with Simplicity 5"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? 6"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. 7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: 16-18"When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don't make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won't make you a saint. If you 'go into training' inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. God doesn't require attention-getting devices. He won't overlook what you are doing; he'll reward you well. |
Mark Kirby: O Mother of Good Counsel, I am all thine, Most Holy Mary, There is no part of my life that is not open to thee, I want to be completely transparent with thee, Praying in this way, I can be at rest, |
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INDEED.
And some (hopefully few) probably are chronically disappointed that they can’t alter Protty’s coffees similarly.
True.
True.
Though I don’t think they have the sensitivity to detect the difference, sometimes.
It seems to take a DIFFERENCE as big as a red barn door to register on their detectors.
What a far fetched bunch of rationalized groping beyond all reason.
Amazing.
Coulda fooled me.
He has exhorted me quite redemptively and Biblically and forthrightly. I find his Biblical understanding and exhortationis and suggestions quite prayerful, thoughtful and penetrating. My guess is that he’s mature beyond his years.
He certainly can frequently strike to the heart of my priorities and growing edges with Holy Spirit breathed piercing insights and suggestions. I find that quality of iron sharpening iron with one another rare.
And he manages to do it with an uncommon warmth and caring as well. I find him one of the more Christ-like blokes hereon—in my personal exchanges with him, particularly.
One can only imagine. They get the vapors when one merely suggests that she wasn't always a virgin but that she had a normal marriage relationship with Joseph as evidenced by His siblings.
And imply that she was not immaculately conceived, and you're banging on the gates of hell.
And the premise which prompted the very abrasive response suddenly struck me as an opportunity to demonstrate the problem with the kind of charges which fly around here.
We have a seemingly very clear text in Ps 115:3. "Whatever he will to do, he does." ON ITS FACE, that seems to imply that God can do whatever he wants, whichh was the proposition metmom called a 'false premise."
So it was a chance to demonstrate the futility of tit-for-tat texts by doing an "exercise."
It was also interesting to me because, well, because in scholastic thinking, If God cain't do it, it ain't worth doin' (as I believe Aquinas said after an evening of sipping on 'shine.)
Applying this analysis to your statement *** I dont believe he can be unloving,*** we would say, "Being unloving is not an ability but a LACK of ability, a disability."
In the terms of the original proposition, God can't be unloving, but he doesn't WANT to be unloving, so the proposition stands. You yourself suggest this with the single quotes around 'can'.
Regarding your mention of Moses, and the several times God is described as "turning" or "repenting of His wrath" held at the same time that Hebrews says he doesn't change: I think we have to say that some writings are profitably understood and related to ONE way, and others another.
No one should ever despair of the efficacy and usefulness of prayer, even (especially?) petition-type prayer. I think the effects of intercessory or petition-type prayer are (a) undeniable and (b) inexplicable. But I'M okay with that. As long as God understands it, I'm good. But it sure SEEMS like God has done set things on THIS track, and then a lot of people pray and, wow, they're on some other track.
The unchanging quality of God, "projected", so to speak, (in the geometrical sense, NOT the psychological) over a world of time and change, will appear to be change, in a manner analogous to the way the supreme power of God, perfectly manifested in the world, looks like the helplessness of a neonate.
But viewed "systematically" and certainly in the scholastic way, God only wants to do what He can do, and only does what He wants. This is so, despite Jeremiah's plea that God does not "willingly" afflict or grieve the children of men. There is a spiritual, a poetic truth to Jeremiah's words, a truth which should bolster our confidence in God and our eagerness to turn to him in our trials and sorrows.
And this, sort of, difference of truth value depending on the kind of discourse, the kind of analysis is, to me, one of the reasons that a lot of the so-called 'debates' here will go nowhere and accomplish little. That is to say, there's a way in which Campion's proposition is indisputable. AND there's a way in which metmom's disagreement is sound. But there's NO way saying "This is right and THAT is wrong," is going to do a whole lot of good a whole lot of the time.
The Bereans did a plenty good Job.
Same Holy Spirit resides in all AUTHENTIC BELIEVERS.
I gather you think Holy Spirit has lost HIS EDGE AND CAPACITY TO LEAD BELIEVERS INTO ALL TRUTH in the modern era.
Fascinating, these fantasies of the Vatican Edifice.
I wonder if there’s something spiritually genetic about Roman Catholic et al blindness—particularly amongst the rabid cliques amongst them.
The worship of Mary, the hierarchy of priests, the moral rot, mark all such statements of heresy and pridefullness as
laughable.
The wheat and weeds were growing even before the apostles died and each is bearing its fruitage for all to see.
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INDEED.
Quix, we do not worship Mary. It is disturbing that you’ve probably been told that by others thousands of times, and you still refuse to accept the doctrine. Could your soft-stance on Satan be responsible for your continual need to interpret the Church from your own selfish standpoint?
You guys are not stupid. You are capable of reading and understanding the clear meaning of the Bible. It doesnt need to be interpreted FOR you by other mere men. They are human just like you are and are just as likely to be prone to error as you are.
They have no special inside track on the truth, any more than any one else has.
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WELL PUT.
THX.
There is no precedent in Scripture for comparing the Ark to Mary or that the Ark is a type of Mary. No writers of Scripture ever even suggested that.
It’s a fabrication by those who want to justify their erroneous, useless doctrines about Mary.
The atheist, who starts out being a fool (which is also in the Psalms) does not understand the concept "God" enough to understand that his idea of "Whatever he wants" is jejune and won't hold water.
There are some theists -- usually those who find name calling and insult more congenial than thinking -- who are stampeded by the atheists who make bogus arguments out of their misunderstanding of God and willing, freedom and power, and the rest.
But it is illogical, ahem, to conclude that because SOME theists cannot argue against the abuse of the proposition, there is something wrong with the proposition. We should also consider that there just might be something wrong with the thinking of the theists in question. Other theists may be quite well prepared to affirm, interpret and explain the proposition in a way which is both responsible to Scripture and to reason and at least thought provoking to the atheist.
If you're going to debate something, at least start with something that can even be remotely considered true.
Let all see and let the record show that when you are not castigating Catholics for failing to yield to Scripture you are characterizing a clear statement of Scripture as something that cannot even be remotely considered as true.
Length of time from the actual events recorded in Scripture is not a measure of infallibility. There was error creeping into the church well before all this Mary stuff. Peter and Paul both addressed it in their writings.
I've documented worship in OFFICIAL ROMAN CATHOLIC ET AL writings.
I've seen it on these threads.
I've observed it in the lives of a number of Roman Catholics et al I've known.
A rose is a rose is a rose by any other name is still a rose.
Ditto Worship.
Thankfully, NOT ALL Roman Catholics et al do.
If you can read the quotes I've made from Ferraro's book and not recognize worship, then I don't think we are on the same planet, not in the same galactic cluster and
CERTAINLY NOT READING FROM THE SAME
UN-RUBBERIZED DICTIONARY.
BTW, I'M NOT AT ALL SOFT ON SATAN. I just don't think he's worthy my hate. I don't allow him to be in charge of my emotions--even toward him.
I gather you are different on that score.
Save your breath. This isn’t about conversation. This isn’t about thought.
I thank God that he considers us worthy to be insulted and abused in this way for the service of the Gospel.
AND A VERY CONVOLUTED PREPOSTEROUS IRRATIONAL GROPINGLY JURY-RIGGED PROPOSITION AT THAT.
It’s incredible the lengths the system will go to embellish the caricatured pseudo-Mary personage.
The Authentic Mary, if she knows about such at all must be disgusted by it all to the max.
Anything based on a false premise can’t stand.
It will result in an error in logic.
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