In Reply to: Thoughts on prayer and how to get close to God posted by Kathy on June 26, 2003 at 19:51:24:
hi kathy. not sure if we've ever met or not. i was f.k.a. "kenaz." i appreciate your posts here and your testimonies etc. i wish it were possible to survey folks here as to their faith life after the fam.. certainly are many "flavors" among exers.
i have had a few questions reading your posts.not sure if i understood correctly the thing about "blaming God" for our exp. if we believe him to be sovereign. then further down you seem to clarify your understanding of free will. then i also noticed that you assign noble motives to our decision to serve God w/ the fam., but called this testimony ""baloney" in your article posted in the articles section, basically saying you were motivated by lower motives (wanting to quit school, not face decisions etc.) i have been trying to grasp the interplay in our choices to join and the "God factor" (in my experience, i can only assign my crossing paths w/ the fam. and being led to the foot of the cross thru their witness to answered prayer. just to many weird coincidences to call it chance, and too many sincere prayers for the truth not to see his fingerprints on the deal.) would you mind trying to clarify your thoughts on these issues?
i agree that in the aftermath of exitting the fam there is an issue of trust that cools down many peoples prayer lives. things just didn't turn out anything like the picture of the future we'd been holding in our hearts.rebuilding that connection seems to be more of a problem for some than others... many variables at work i believe. i'd be so interested hearing peoples stories in this regard! are you in a fellowship of any type? was it easy to fit in for you?
one thing that i'm not so sure i can say amen to is the implications you seem to draw from the story of that boy brought back to life. pg 4 the miracle, but i don't think you can generalize that we have authority in all such situations. i've heard and seen too much to see it as a simple matter. the danger, it seems to me, is that it seems to say if your loved one does die, then it was your fault, lack of faith, giving in to the devil etc. i don't believe that is biblical , nor does it square w/ reality, imo. your thoughts?
thanx. peace. ray