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Prayer


RIP

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For those who feel they are at some level acquainted with me through this website, and wonder why my response to prayer requests are usually very slight, I offer the following explanation of my personal feelings. I read a book, decades ago now, "This Way For the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen" written by a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. He was not a Jew, but he served in a workgang with two learned Polish Rabbis. For many months he heard their endless theological discussion and their many prayers regarding the Nazi's "Final Solution" of the "Jewish question". Then one day, both of them went up the chimney at the Crematorium. I do not recommend the book to anyone not prepared to have their beliefs changed. I assure you, it will change your thinking. I was required to read it as part of my University class regarding the problem of evil and suffering. So, what do I now believe about prayer? I believe it is at worst harmless. I believe it brings many a great deal of comfort. I believe God hears them all, Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, He hears them all. If he regards them differently one from another depending on the conception of the praying person, I'll have to ask that some later time, because I see no present reason to think so. Don't get me wrong, Osama praying for destruction and mayhem, is different than my praying that Osama learn tolerance and forgiveness, but that Osama calls out to Allah, while I call to Yahweh is not a matter of any real import. What is important here though, is that just as surely as I am free to hope, even work for Osama to come to some less violent outlook. Just as sure as that, is Osama's freedom to burn down thousands of people in a senseless act of mindless violence. God will not stop Osama from his evil intent. He did not stop Adolph Hitler. He did not stop Pol Pot. He did not stop Joseph Stalin. He will not intervene. We are God's instruments on this Earth. Not some mystical hand...US! We are charged to be Christ in every way, to every one, all the time. Impossible to fulfill. but look to the ends of your arms and you will see the Hand of God. If He is to have a hand, you will have to lend it. I have heard the testimony of an eyewitness who watched while two of God's most devoted servants, were cruelly worked nigh unto death, then reduced to ashes. Their prayers did not fall on deaf ears, but for God to stop the Holocaust would have meant to deny an unspeakable evil be permitted to the Nazis. It is you and I and what we DO. By all means pray for the betterment of your fellows and circumstances, but hope for nothing if you will not seek to work out the realization of your prayer.

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