It's late at night, and I tend to like to write about things that seem really important when I'm tired and then the next morning when I'm more clearly thinking, then I sometimes regret being so open about what I wrote and I have a feeling I will feel this way tomorrow too. However, I had a couple thoughts I want to share. when I get sleepy, and then I regret it in the morning....and no, I have not been drinking and I have not taken anything where I am under the influence of any substance. I've been thinking about the discussion on this thread: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/does-praying-to-jesus-help-with-trading.363377/ I know that I've experienced God's direct intervention in my life many times. Each time was different, so I can't lump them together and say this is how God usually works in my life. God has also answered probably thousands of my prayers. For a while I was seeing a few answers to prayers a week, but that was at a time in my life when I was going through difficulties and needed either those answers for physical help or emotionally they were needed. I have sometimes seen several answers to prayers in one day. I used to keep a journal of all the answers of prayers and it got too time consuming, so I stopped. So, I see these things happen. But it's not like I can convince anyone else that God is doing them. In fact, sometimes I'm not really sure if the answer to prayer would have happened anyhow. There are many times when I've told God thank you for answering a prayer and then added, "If it was really You answering the prayer." Then I got to the place where I just think God orchestrates everything and I can tell Him thank you for whatever it was and not worry about the likelihood that it might have happened anyway and whether or not it was a divine intervention to make it happen or not. And then, there are also lots of prayers that I pray that do not happen. So, then, sometimes I think probability-wise, is it just probabilities playing out that some will happen and some won't? Like the trading experiment of randomly trading a 50 tick stop loss and 50 tick target and not counting the cost of commission, then if the entries are completely random, then you'd expect to get about a 50% win rate. So, is that just what I've been noticing with my prayers being answered sometimes and sometimes not? And this line of thinking has led me over the years to mentally categorize answers to prayers into those that were likely to happen anyway, not very likely to happen, highly unlikely, and then one last category of regardless of the likeliness of the prayer being answered, was the way in which the prayer was answered a likely event? Sorry if anyone is reading this and it's confusing. I'm just writing my thoughts out for the first time on this subject, so I might be rambling. Another time I might try to list some prayers that I remember for each category. Anyhow, this brings me to another line of thinking. Not only have I seen unlikely prayers to get answered, get answered, but sometimes those have also been in an unlikely manner to be answered. Those are the times that I have been sometimes astonished that God has worked in the way that He did so that I would know that He did it....at least that's how I interpret it. And along with this comes what often appears to be more than just usual coincidences in my life. The one that happens the most often is when I have a certain matter on my mind and then the message that Sunday is teaching on that subject, or perhaps the message isn't on that subject, but one sentence the pastor says provides clarity. This isn't exactly proof of God's direct intervention, except that it happens frequently enough and usual with a spiritual matter that seems like God is trying to get my attention on, or provide me with better understanding, or even just encouragement to me. I will tell about one time it seemed like I was blessed by a coincidence that seemed like it was given by God. I was driving to church and was singing a hymn and right when I was at the part where I was starting to sing the words, "But I know Whom I have believed" I turned on the radio, and the Christian radio was playing this very same song at this very same line, and what was really weird was that is was EXACTLY in sync with my singing. I was very surprised and even fiddled with the on and off button wondering if there was a way the radio could have been on quietly and I had subconsciously been singing with it, but there is no way that was possible because I hit the button to turn the radio on....if it had been on already then hitting the button would have turned it off. But this does not prove that God did it. I'm sure many people have the experience of thinking of a song and then turning the radio on and hearing the same song they were thinking about, especially if it's a top hit. It's just that this is just one example. There are others things, not other times with the radio, just other things that seem like they are more than coincidences. By the way, I don't think it's healthy to try to read things into coincidences, even when it seem like they are sent from God. It's too easy to try to read too much into them. The only source of truth is the Bible and not coincidences. I cannot make anybody else believe me about any of this. But there is one thing that is likely just a coincidence, yet it is still interesting. I'm not reading anything into it, meaning it doesn't mean anything. But when you consider that God holds everything together and knows the hairs on our head and the words we are going to speak before we speak them, then it's not hard to understand that God directs all the events in a believer's life. The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the LORD, And He delights in his way [and blesses his path]. Psalm 37:23 Amplified Bible Ok, so what is that one thing that I think is interesting, not for reading meaning into it, but simply for taking it for what it is. It is something that everyone on here can see for themselves and then laugh to them selves that it is simply a coincidence. Yes, I would agree with them that it is a coincidence. It really has no spiritual meaning. It is not a prediction of future events. It is just a coincidence. But did God make it happen? I have no idea. But in my mind, it's just something kind of funny, a coincidence, that maybe God did orchestrate, and why He would, I have no idea. But God orchestrates small details in our lives, so I guess I'll just say that I'm thankful for that. And I'll leave it up to you guys to think about where this is simply a usual coincidence that happens often on Elite Trader, or if perhaps, there was little bit of Divine intervention....for what purpose, I do not know. Check this out.....the first person to respond to my first post in my first thread, Maintaining Self Discipline, was Expiated. I had never had any contact with him before, nor he with me. Yet we are both believers and it was only because in one of his posts in a trading journal he mentioned writing elsewhere, I discovered the religious section and that he was posting here. I had no intention of writing anything about God, I was only reading what Expiated wrote and was more than a little annoyed at the trolls that Expiated was blissfully unaware of because he had them on ignore. And that led to me posting in this section and that led to starting my own threads and that led to where I am rambling on and on while feeling very sleepy and I probably am not making any sense. Sorry. I am not proof reading this either, so this post might not flow together at all and it might have lots of errors. Well, back to the rest of the story...there is one more interesting coincidence....Expiated also wrote the last post in that journal. I had already decided I probably wouldn't write in it anymore, it wasn't like I was trying to make Expiated have the last post. Now someone needs to go write in the journal so that his post isn't the last, because it's too much of a coincidence. And with that, I am going to zone out for the night! ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
hmmm... thing is, supplanting the word God with The Dragon in my Garage or My Invisible Friend Colin without fear or favor, achieves exactly the same results. 'The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom'... no God sweet dreams
Something I think about sometimes is the bigger picture. In the beginning God.... And at some point God created angels. Satan was the chief of the angels, according to Scripture, and became proud and wanted to be worshipped as God. This how Scripture portrays the beginning of evil. Satan drew a large number of the angels away from God so that they too were in rebellion against God. At some point in time, Satan designed a plan to ruin God's newly created humans, Adam and Eve. His plan worked and humanity has suffered the consequences ever since. But what happened between Satan and God to begin with? Satan had been given the most of any of the angels, yet did he truly love God? I'm going to insert my own thoughts for a moment....this isn't necessarily found in scripture, so reader, beware: But when one thinks about what happened, it kind of makes sense of the rest of the story. Satan was GIVEN privileges by God, yet he was not truly God's friend, or if he had been at one time, it changed when he made the choice to rebel. Sometimes I think that this also might have been somewhat true of Adam and Eve. They were given many privileges by God, all that they wanted. But did they really love Him? When tempted, they chose their own desires rather than loving God and giving Him the respect due to Him as their Creator, besides the fact that He is God and worthy of our allegiance due to His innate worthiness. OK, now back to just what the Bible says: God has a plan to win over the hearts of those who will respond to His command to be reconciled to Him. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 And He does it by loving them, not by bribing, spoiling or pampering. There is a Bible verse that says that we love God because He loved us first. When I think of the verse below, I am reminded of the great love God has shown us by demonstrating His love toward us through sending His Son to die in our place....God didn't just provide us with things, He loves us and wants our love in return: If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned. Song of Solomon 8:7 Here is an excerpt from Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible: if a man would give, all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned; it is true of the love of Christ to his people, as also what is said before; but is rather to be understood of the love of the church to Christ; which is a grace so valuable, as not to be purchased with money: if this, or any other grace, is to be bought, it is to be bought without money and without price https://biblehub.com/commentaries/songs/8-7.htm What is wonderful, and the most amazing thing that has ever existed, is that there is an intense love between God and His own people. For both God and His own, the relationship can never be broken, because His people were purchased with His own blood. He gave His life for them, and has entered into an everlasting covenant with them. Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. 1 Peter 1:7c-8 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:18, 19 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— John 1:12 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you... 1 Peter 1:3,4 Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Hebrews 9:15
Then try beer instead, at least tomorrow you can be sober. Faith is the drug that fuels the insanity of religion. It destroys the thinking mind.
Perhaps you have a personal experience but thanks for the heads up anyway There are of course much worse things...
Faith is the thought that manifests itself in the body of Christ and the mind of God, for all are good if they abide in the body of God, name Christ, Holy Spirit
https://www.christianity.com/church...-to-prayer-a-miraculous-history-11633052.html This article contains several accounts of answers to prayer. Below is one of those accounts: In 1989, half a world away, another prayer meeting had an even greater effect on a society. For several years already, four churches in Communist Leipzig, East Germany, had been holding weekly prayer meetings every Monday evening at five. Political change was in the air during 1989, and these meetings began to grow. After the prayer meetings, people would light candles and walk peacefully through the city streets, a gentle protest against the Communist regime. The peaceful protests only grew. As many as 50,000 eventually joined in. Then came October 9, what Germans began to call "the turning point." The East German government got involved, sending in police and soldiers with orders to shoot the protesters. Many feared a bloodbath. When one church opened its doors for the weekly prayer meeting, two thousand Communist Party members rushed in to take all the seats. No problem: the church opened the balconies for the usual protesters and, like it or not, the Communists had to sit through a prayer meeting. Did prayer silence the weapons? That's what many German Christians believe. Amazingly, shots weren't fired that night in Leipzig as 70,000 people marched peacefully through town. Or the next Monday, when 120,000 marched. Or the next, when there were 500,000--nearly the entire population of Leipzig. In early November nearly a million marched through the capital, East Berlin. Police defied orders to shoot. The president resigned in disgrace. And soon there was an opening in the famous Berlin Wall. The stunning developments spread throughout Eastern Europe as peaceful revolutions dismantled Communist regimes. What had these prayer meetings wrought? The New Republic reported, "Whether or not prayers really move mountains, they certainly mobilized the population of Leipzig." Certainly there were political and social undercurrents, but don't miss the spiritual dimension. It was obvious to the people most closely involved. A few weeks after that dramatic "turning point," someone put up a banner in Leipzig. "Wir danken Dir, Kirche," it read. "We thank you, church." Note: I haven't researched the accuracy of the article at the link posted above. This last week I have kind of been fascinated by the concept of whether or not there is documented evidence of answers to prayer outside of personal experiences that cannot be verified. I've read missionary stories, and stories of other believers, who have written of many miraculous answers to prayer. I've talked with many Christians, as well as missionaries, who have shared their experiences of not just answers to prayer but Divine intervention that was way beyond what could be thought of as mere coincidence. Most of these answers to prayer don't get talked about. If they are published, skeptics don't believe them to be proof of God working. Skeptics expect Christians to say God has done things for them and don't take the accounts seriously. There were some missionaries in a small plane that needed to make an emergency landing in a remote jungle and this happened just at the time the missionaries in that area would tune in on their radios, so that they had many Christians praying for them through the landing and they all survived. I knew one of those missionaries personally and heard the story first hand from him and his wife. That's a story that's not going to make the headlines as proof for God's existence, but it meant a lot to the missionaries themselves that the timing of the emergency landing happened to be when others would be able to pray for them through the landing and, if I remember correctly, it took a few days for them to be found and helped out. It's little things like that that give encouragement to believers that God is definitely with them through all circumstances. I suppose a skeptic could easily say that there are 24 hours in a day and so there was a 1 in 24 chance that the hour that the landing was made would coincide with the hour that the missionaries would be listening and a 1 in 24 chance is not "proof" of God's intervention. However, it's not like God only intervenes once in a believer's life. God has ways of reminding us that He is here with us. [Edit: I remember the missionaries mentioning how amazing the timing was with the landing and the other missionaries being on their radios at the time, but I don't actually know how often the missionaries would meet over the radio. I am assuming it was daily.]
Alcohol kills innocent people every day, a lot of which is by getting killed in car accidents. Not to mention all of the domestic violence, rapes, murders, ect that it fuels. It is not a good thing at all. And it is not a joke.