Allowed or not ?

Forked tail indeed!!


For there are places even angels fear to tread........and mentioning bigfoot, or insulting shotguns around ole Ron B is one of them!!!

 

You are going to hell based on starting this thread alone! Not to even mention the other one! : : :

 

Walks Again, I was going to let this post fade to black, but you irritate me.

This comment really highlights the ridiculousness. ~ "Are you another one of those people with a direct line to God? If so, do you abuse it like EA by only using it for selfish reasons?"

You have the same direct line I do. I chose to use it, you chose to refuse it. Your Loss.

How can prayer be abused? ... Is it similar to filing frivolous lawsuits that tie up the courts? Am I filling Gods head full of so many requests that he just doesn't have time for anyone else?

Speaking of courts, You mentioned you work in the law system. How does that work? Isn't one of the fundamentals of our courts a belief in God? You know, swear to tell the truth so help you God? I guess you wouldn't have any issues lying on the stand or giving false testimony? Nice.

The "selfish" comments are way out there. Do you think God is so gullible that little old me can take advantage of his kindness? LOL.. Wait, you don't believe in him, but somehow got an attitude because I asked and received. I'm selfish and taking advantage of Gods good nature? : Thats pretty good.
Seems like you are on the fence. Do you believe or Not? If you don't believe in him, then you can't believe he gave me anything? And if you don't believe he gave me anything, then how can I have a direct line? Your arguments indicate you believe. You're just not 100% sure and want others to prove it for you.

Selfish - devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others.

Lets pull them out and measure, shall we..

I have 719 pages of posts. I quickly reviewed 19 pages down to 700. In those 19 pages, I offered prayers for 15 members on here. Using the math, I believe that would be around 550 prayers over those 719 pages. Now lets be safe and just agree I have prayed for hundreds of others right on this forum. Hopefully my small contribution made some difference. Just curious, How many have you offered?

I spent 15 years as a union officer. That involved traveling to and from Pittsburgh at least 3 times/mo @ 50 miles 1 way. Meetings averaged 2 or 3 hrs. I think I missed 3 meetings in 15 years. 300 miles/mo for 15 years = Thats 360+ hours and 54,000 miles and how much for gas, tires, oil, time... My Pay - Free Dues or $80/QTR...Thats $3600 in 15years, OR $20/mo...Sound selfish? Wait,wait, it gets better... In those 15 yrs I worked very hard to raise the standard of living for our members. I worked full time as a Carpenter. All Meetings, Meals, Political Functions with Senators, Representatives, Judges, Construction Company owners were in addition to my work... I loved it and It paid off.. Their/Our paychecks went up around 45%.. Their/Our pensions contributions went up over 100% and their/Our annuity contributions went up 100%.. When I was elected, our jurisdiction was 63 of PA's 67 counties.. How many carpenters and their families are in 63 PA. counties? Do you think their living conditions improved or deteriorated?

I chair a non profit housing authority. Been at that about 10 years now, maybe more. We award grants to repair/remodel homes for low income families. Grants of up to $49,9K to bring a low income home up to code. Lots of lead based paint in these older homes.. How many Children/Families do you think are helped by those grants? LOTS, thats how many.. 10+ years of monthly meetings. Sometimes bimonthly in slower times - Pay - $0 as in Nothing as in Volunteer ... Still sound selfish?

Wait, wait. my partners and I employ 10, most full time. 2 more to be hired before months end. Thats 12 families we are helping to get a leg up. Some are taking classes outside of work. We pay them to go to school!.... I would bet my charitable donations last month were more than yours last year.

It may be in bad taste or as you say, "narcissistic" to post this crap, but your accusations totally piss me off. I believe I am far from selfish. Blessed Yes, Grateful Yes, Selfish, I think NOT.

Now since you won't pray for others, please tell us how you are helping your fellow brothers and sisters improve their lives. Otherwise, STFU

 

But I thought I was the one who irritated you!! Two timer!!

 

Careful what you say there....we don't cotton well to dam Yankees!!

Blue belly!!

 

YOU GUYS ARE MASHING MY BUTTONS!!

 

Yeppers.....another arse whopping!!

 

You sir need to run for public office! You can speak on any given number of my questions all the while not answering a single one... That is truly a gift from God, whether you have the "right" one or not is irrelevant, as you so aptly put it.

I do appreciate a Christian actually acknowledging the divisiveness of his own religion instead of attempting to deny it. It only took 13 Pages on this thread for someone to do so, and in my experience in conversing with the religious, that is an accomplishment that we can both take pride in. Thank you for your honesty on that part.

"Otherwise STFU"...? No I don't think I will, and why would you want me to? You seem so secure in your beliefs, you shouldn't be irritated by me challenging them. Why do you feel so attacked? Why do you feel your best defense is posting your "prayer résumé"? You are truly comical... Just because you feel like you are helping someone by praying for them doesn't mean you actually are. Prove that it is beneficial to the person whom you are praying for and then maybe we can talk. The best way for you to do this is to pray for something we can't fix as of yet, like I said before, pray an amputee grows back their lost limb... Or is that too much to ask of God? All you can give as far as evidence for prayer is anecdotal testimony. And before you demonstrate it to be effective you tell me how you are helping others by using it. This seems a bit backward to me.

"You have the same direct line I do. I chose to use it, you chose to refuse it. Your Loss."
If I have the same "direct line" you do, why doesn't he answer me? I have been praying for the Catholic church to change their doctrine on contraception for years and nothing yet... Maybe if you do it for me he will deem it a worthy cause. Here is my prayer, "Lord, please change your mind in regards to contraception being a sin. Please stop the idea that AIDS is bad as a disease, but not quite as bad as condoms are, or at least not as immoral in the same way. Please stop the clergy from spreading this poison to the ignorant which is causing the deaths of millions of children each year in the most gruesome ways imaginable." Please get back to me when he replies... And all the while you were praying for the fish to bite and telling me your not being selfish. I think your fish story is a bit selfish in comparison to my prayer.

"Speaking of courts, You mentioned you work in the law system. How does that work? Isn't one of the fundamentals of our courts a belief in God? You know, swear to tell the truth so help you God? I guess you wouldn't have any issues lying on the stand or giving false testimony? Nice."
I would, and do, have issue with lying on the stand for the simple reason that I, and I alone, am responsible for my actions. Now lets contrast that with what Christianity tells us... The believer has the loophole named Jesus. No matter what you do in this life, as long as you ask for forgiveness and put your trust in the Lord, you will be accepted into heaven. So as we speak there are child molesters, murderers, rapists.... and so on in heaven. How is this moral, just, or in any way comparable to our court system? The system that, at least, attempts to hold people accountable for their actions.

As far as your good deeds go, I have no problem accepting them as you laid them out. The prayers might make you feel like they are equivalent to the increase in wages you helped to secure while in the Union, but they are not. They are the excuse you give yourself to not actually put forth the effort to effect change. Because if you truly believed prayer was effective you would have just prayed for the wages to increase instead of actually putting in the 15 years of work to achieve it. The fact is that you hope your prayers make a difference, in this light you can disregard the times it doesn't work and count the times it seems to. In other words you count the hits and ignore the misses.

"I would bet my charitable donations last month were more than yours last year."
I would agree if you consider paying your employees and saying a prayer a "charity". I would consider paying my employees an obligation not a charity. I would also consider saying a prayer for someone a way of justifying doing nothing, all the while feeling like you did.

"It may be in bad taste or as you say, "narcissistic" to post this crap, but your accusations totally piss me off. I believe I am far from selfish. Blessed Yes, Grateful Yes, Selfish, I think NOT."
Yes you are right it is narcissistic for you to think that something that could create the universe would give a damn about you or how many fish you catch or what meaning you decide to draw from catching those fish.

You say you are blessed and grateful to God, well isn't that nice that he gets all the credit for your reward. This goes back to your second story about your cousins son. Why did they even go to the hospital if all they needed was to pray? I have to ask though, what type of God would allow a child to become sick in order to "prove" to his parents cousin (You) that he answers their prayers? And why does he allow a lot of them to die even after the prayers flow in? Did they not pray correctly? Why don't you give the credit to the advances in modern medicine and the health care workers that assisted him in his recovery instead of the abominable slave master of a God that requires you to beg him, in the form of prayer, before he will "help" you with the problem that he allowed to happen in the first place?

You are right in being the one at the announcers desk calling the fight for the radio viewers because if you were actually in the ring, like you attempted to be in the beginning, you would have been "knocked out" a long time ago. I'm glad you found your spot in this discourse.

 

Perhaps I misread your questions then. If you could please restate them plainly and I will try and answer them! I am not being critical here, but you add so much to a post and include so many different responses in one, that it is unpleasant to try and follow. By the time I believe I have addressed one thing when I try to read back through your stuff I am lost! The "keep it simple stupid" concept was developed for people like me!

 

Would it be Christian to use my middle finger icon here?