A drich blog

[Strider]

Without a doubt denial is apart of the process. We were 'denied' for several years before our prayers were answered. Often time were are broken down and taken well past our limits. That is one way we can be sure that what happened is not from anything we can do. For instance with the herion addiction we struggled through we struggled many many years, and the night I had all but completely given up, so before i went to sleep I learned what it means to give something over completely to God. That night we got a knock on the door that marked the begining of the end of her addiction.

Again while the events were completely normal, our stepping through them after that night and subsequent sucess isn't.

The couple I spoke of were certainly taken past their limits.

Faith has little to do with honoring a comitment to knock no matter what.

Again, the couple I spoke of were wholly committed to god and their religion.

Death is not a bad thing here. Christ likens it to a seed being destroyed in the germination process that ultimatly set forth a new life/plant. Meaning our death here is our birth into eternity.

But their manner of death was heinous. They both suffered greatly. Christ may have likened it to a seed, but we're talking about living, breathing people withering away to nothingness.

How do you know they weren't? Maybe it is not what they would want for themselves at the moment, but without a doubt now they would not give up what they have been given to come back if all is as you say it was.

How do you know they were?

Because God answered the prayer in the way that was better for the indivisual. Their death also had purpose in that it made people/you question what it is you know about prayer and God. (Made you realize what you understood to be true was not true.)

I definitely agree with your point there. Their deaths proved that there is no reward for living life on your knees in awe of some divine being.

we none of us have been promised a 'good' death. More often than not we meet our ends in ways we would not want for ourselves. However in death especially bad deaths those who are left are made to examine a faith they may not have thought about in sometime.

Of course we haven't been promised a good death. If we were, even the faithful would have recognized it as a whopping lie centuries ago. Your second point is one that sticks in my craw; when confronted with a terrible death, we'll become more pliable to religion because of our fear of meeting the same miserable fate.

God showing up again is something that happens on the inside, if these people where who you said you were they had their prayers answered in their life times. Again what God does is to secure the eternal life of the believer and does what is best for them. Not what is best for everyone else, especially when they have a corrupt view of Him or prayer.

They were definitely everything I described. Suffering and dying from a disease is not what is best for anybody. Matthew 17:20 describes prayer as able to move mountains. Even if this is viewed as a metaphor, it means prayer is able to achieve the impossible. Surely, prayer is sufficient to remove cancer if this is to be believed. If he heard their prayers and those praying for them and failed to intercede when it was within his power then he is a cruel, malevolent being unworthy of allegiance, let alone worship.