Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: JMS111@psuvm.psu.edu (Jenni Sheehey) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Is there a God? Message-ID: Date: 14 Mar 91 09:14:28 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Penn State University Lines: 33 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , lindborg@cs.washington.edu (Jeff Lindborg) says: > >Of course for every answered prayer there is an unanswered prayer. I >know... I once used to pray to the same god you do. I'd be more willing >to bet that you work for what you pray for and mere chance stipulates >its fulfillment. I believe that someone else has already commented on the fact that there's a difference between an unanswered prayer and a prayer which has been answered "no" or "in My time, not yours". However, I would like to inject some personal experience... I started smoking when I was young, stupid and far from God (ca. 12 years old). When I got to college as a music education major, I realized that my life would be much easier if I quit. So I tried, unsuccessfully, for a while (a year and a bit), but eventually changed my major and gave up trying to quit. A year or two later I allowed God into my life and realized that I made a worse witness because I was still a smoker. (not that this is the case with all smokers, I just noticed that people took me, a 21-year-old female, less seriously as a Christian because I smoked) Anyway, within 2 months of my deciding to quit, I went cold turkey, and have not restarted since. (That was last May.) I can't say, in all honesty, that I haven't had any since, but I've had less than a pack, I think, and that's down from almost 3/4 pack/day. It'll do for me. =) >If I pray for rain (here in Seattle) and get it... is it the act of >God, or just the weather? Is there a difference? I never read where God was only allowed to work directly in the world in ways which are contrary to His own physical laws... --Jenni