I created a different way to deal with distractions that someone might find helpful (http://jimthornber.com/2009/02/07/kung-fu-praying/). I call it Kung-Fu Praying. I combined my martial arts training with my times of prayerful meditation. It’s a light-hearted but serious look at dealing with distractions in prayer.
But your suggestions have a wonderful practicality about them.

Thanks for the post.

Blessings,

Jim

Really it do affect which time and place we choose to sit for prayer.

I want to share with you a useful link http://www.soulcurrymagazine.com/sc, I hope you’ll find it interesting.

(I have posted my response on your blog. I am doing it here also for my readers to see it.)

Thank you for taking up my questions Thanks indeed.

To my first qn. you said,

“3/8 responders said they had done so, 2/8 said Jesus had helped them, but didn’t mention drugs OR sex. That’s three people for you, and out of only eight people answered, many of whom are Christian. Additionally, recovery is a gradual process and there is no such thing as an overnight recovery,”

Your answer is very clear. Though you made a google search you could not one person who had an over-night transformation from drugs and sex and gutter. The three who answered said the transformation was gradual. You yourself said that two of them did not mention drugs and sex. Please tell me, does this answer my question at all?

The you said,
“You know what they say – every day is a choice to NOT fall back into addiction.”

Yes, I do know what people transformed by Jesus tell. They tell they had an over-nigt hate towards their past and they abhor thinking about it. To them it is not gradual. It is an over-night transformation. I know it personally people who have experienced it in their lives.

Then you said, ” I suppose a placebo like Jesus helps, but it is still a daily struggle”.

Jesus is not a placebo. He is the only remedy for such people. He can give them an over-night recovery. He gives them a hate towards durgs and loose sex that they would never want to do it again. This is true experience. Not imagination.
The Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, He is a new creation”. This truly is the experience of many.

You said,
“Since they are without faith in Jesus, that’s a few hundred thousand or million people for you”.

Yes, indeed, I know many people who have recovered slowly by discipline and hard work and by rehabilitation centres and by medical supervision. I am yet to find one person who had an over-night transformation from drugs, sex and gutter without Christ. You could not find either. I will be happy to find one and I will be too glad to withdraw my question.

You said,
“I would also like to point out that this is a trick question since you are asking for a name, and if this supposed atheist guru didn’t personally know any drug or sex fiends, you could pretend you made an actual point”.

Since I did not want to pretend that I made the actual point, I posted it in my blog. And you made a google search. Please tell me whether I am trying to trick any one?

You said”You also ask for an “overnight recovery” which never happens, despite what recovering Christian addicts might try to attest. Rather dishonest”.

You are right. It never happens outside Christ and His transorming power. You can never say that it is dishonest as my atheist guru himself testified that He had an over-night transormation from drugs,sex and gutter, though now he says that it was his ‘faith’ which changed him and not Christ. That is why I asked him to produce another person who was transformed over-night by ‘faith’ in some thing, any thing other than in Christ.

You can not say that over-night transformation does not take place. My atheirst guru himself is the best example.

To my second qn You answered,”>Ghosts, devils, supernatural curses and the like, a way to live forever, etc”.

This is the point that I made. Man talked about nothing else other than god- meaning spirituality, spirit world, immortality etc. non-stp. Nothing else. To me that is one of the reasons why god is a reality. God has given in man an eagerness to know him.

See, even an atheist like you, you are talking about god. Why don’t you talk about something else which does not exist at all? Why talk about god which according to you does not exist?

I suggest that you begin to talk about Harry Potter from tomorrow. Not about god. After all, god does not exist! Why beat a dead horse?

You said,
“There are billions more questions people have asked forever, but they have since been answered, like a cure for polio or what causes weather”

Nothing non-stop as about the spirit world and about god! Polio and weather. Yes, indeed. Off and on. Do we talk about polio, for example, today as we talk about god and religion? No chance.

At last you said, “You don’t specify what your results were, but I am going to assume that you mean how “good” you are. There are tons of “good” atheists. Anyone who knows atheists knows that”.

I am sorry if you did not find my link in the blog there. Here it is. http://www.mathewpaul.org/exciting! They are answers to prayers. Kindly read other posts in the blog as well. I honestly wish to see if any one could produce such results in life except by prayer to the God of the Bible. I will be too glad to withdraw/modify my question if you could please help me find an answer. Your help is most welcome.

Thank you for sparing your time for me.

>>I posed this question at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtD9xHmfRl_.jUwM_4.Uiv_sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080331135104AA8dtlD

3/8 responders said they had done so, 2/8 said Jesus had helped them, but didn’t mention drugs OR sex. That’s three people for you, and out of only eight people answered, many of whom are Christian. Additionally, recovery is a gradual process and there is no such thing as an overnight recovery, but there have been people who changed religions overnight. But not recovered by any means, they just pushed ther problems to the back of their minds and slowly hacked away at them. You know what they say – every day is a choice to NOT fall back into addiction. I suppose a placebo like Jesus helps, but it is still a daily struggle.

Well, that’s three people for you, and you only asked for one. Additionally, one person who answered made a great point – most of the world is NOT Christian and it is a statistic certainty that some of those billions of people have made recoveries from living in drugs, sex, and the gutter. Since they are without faith in Jesus, that’s a few hundred thousand or million people for you.

I would also like to point out that this is a trick question since you are asking for a name, and if this supposed atheist guru didn’t personally know any drug or sex fiends, you could pretend you made an actual point. You also ask for an “overnight recovery” which never happens, despite what recovering Christian addicts might try to attest. Rather dishonest.

…

“Qn2. Tell me the name of SOME THING, ANY THING which does not exist other than God (as you say God does not), and yet men every where have been talking about it non-stop from time immemorial until today.”

>>Ghosts, devils, supernatural curses and the like, a way to live forever, etc.

There are billions more questions people have asked forever, but they have since been answered, like a cure for polio or what causes weather.

…

“3. Show me ONE individual who produced similar results as I have produced for a whole life time, but trusting in some thing, or any thing other than the God of the Bible, especially at the construction of the building that I talked about.”

>>You don’t specify what your results were, but I am going to assume that you mean how “good” you are. There are tons of “good” atheists. Anyone who knows atheists knows that.

Tell me, where is anger here in these statements? That God is real is a simple fact of life. Air that we breathe is all around us. But alas, a dead body knows nothing about it! God is here. A spiritually dead person can never sense it either.

You said,
“so please do not post unless/until you are willing to question your own preconceptions.”

The same holds true to you as well. Kindly read this link and repond. http://www.mathewpaul.org/march-11-2-2008/exciting

Bye.

Question #2
There are people who follow the “religion of jedi”, this does not mean that everybody who watches the Star Wars movies is there or a religious or spiritual experience. Just because SOME people are stupid enough to worship vampires, or dragons, or toasters, does not mean that the concept of these things are spiritual in nature.

Question #3
Your ORIGINAL QUESTION asked for somebody who accomplished as much as you without the god of the bible. You NEVER mentioned atheists, and if you meant atheist, then OBVIOUSLY no atheist would “pray” for anything, so you seem to think your NEW VERSION of this question is an impossible one to answer.
Ghandi is a PERFECT answer for your ORIGINAL QUESTION, just because you change the rules after the fact, does not mean anything.

There is obviously no intention on your part to have an intellectually honest debate. You have two preconceived notions in your head which you seemingly will not let go of.
First of all, you seem to think these question hold some relevance as to the existence, or truth of your own faith. They don’t, I could claim the flying spaghetti monster is true, and that only Pastafarians could accomplish a certain thing through the act of eating his noodley appendage. This does not mean that my claims have any weight or bearing in the reality of the world in which we live.
The second preconceived notion you have is that your question are unanswerable except through your own limited view of god. Because of this believe, you’d never be willing to accept any answer, no matter how many times somebody is willing to follow you along as you move the goal post to suit your own needs, you’ll just continue to move it further and further as they follow you each time.

Either through ignorance, self delusion, or intentional deception you are unwilling to participate in an intellectually honest debate, and I see no reason to continue wasting my time talking to a person such as yourself. You obviously have anger issues you need to resolve:
“Because I want infidels like you to know that God of the Bible is REAL and He indeed answers prayers IF any one is willing to accept HIS terms and conditions in life.
Because I want believers around the world to gird up their loins and pray as never before.
Because I want the Name of God to be glorified here on earth TO WHOM ALONE BELONGS ALL GLORY HONOR AND MIGHT.
GOD IS REAL. WHO COULD CHALLENGE?”

You should seek professional help before your violent and aggressive tendencies lead you down a path of harming yourself or others.

If you decide at some point to join the ranks of those willing to have an open and honest debate I welcome you to join the discussion at my blog:
http://potomac9499.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/an-open-question-to-all-believers/

But there are some ground rules, you’ll be expected to abide by, so please do not post unless/until you are willing to question your own preconceptions.

You said, “I’d like to continue this discussion, but you are being ridiculously intellectually dishonest…”

Not me. Bu you are!

Yoy said, “Please explain how those three answers above do not fulfill your three original questions (not your NEW INTERPRETATION OF THESE QUESTIONS).”

question #1:
Produce ONE person other person than [the original person who you had the conversation with], who had an over-night transformation from drugs, sex, and gutter like you had, by trusting in self, or in some thing, or in anything other than in Jesus.
I answered you as simply as I possibly could. All you have done since is to ask for specifics of my “story” which I gave you the quick overview of. Is this in some way not “good enough” for you?

My answer: If you say you had an over-night transformation from drugs and sex and gutter, you could never say in the same breath that your life is boring. But you said that your life is boring twice in this blog! Which shall I believe?

question #2:
Tell me the name of SOME THING, ANY THING which does not exist other than God (as you say God does not), and yet men every where have been talking about it non-stop from time immemorial until today.
Of the ones I mentioned in my original post, Vampires, physic powers, astrology, and dragons are NOT about “god” by any way you may want to “god” or spiritualism.

My answer: Vampires, physic powers,astrology, and dragons are all considered ‘divine’ by some one or the other.And they are worshipped in some place or other. Please pay a visit to India. i will show you temples built for Vampires, other evil spirits by the same name, temples for any thing and every thing. Even for cenema stars! My point is man from time immemorial even until today is ‘god-conscious’ and that is a proof for the existence of God TO ME.

question #3:
Show me ONE individual who produced similar results as I have produced for a whole life time, but trusting in some thing, or any thing other than the God of the Bible, especially at the construction of the building that I talked about.
Your original question says nothing about prayer
But for the sake of argument, are you attempting to claim that Ghandi was not religious towards his hindu “gods”?
Or are you claiming that Ghandi did not accomplish as much in his lifetime as you accomplished?

My answer: I wanted any one to produce another person who produced results, I said, “As I Produced” meaning the method I used, then I concluded “especially at the construction of the building that I talked about”; and in the blog I clearly gave the link about what actually happened then. If someone wanted to comment without reading it what could I do?

I say, no athiest could ever even dream of what I am talking about from my life history. It is not fantacy. It is real life story. Now as a retired man I am talking about it so that no one could ever doubt that God is ever present and active in the world tody.

Who could say that my original post said nothing about prayer? What is the point in my original post about the concrete building, if it is not answer to prayer?

You may have the gift of the gab. But you could never ever challenge my experiences in prayer. If you would stop all your silly arguments and bring yourself under the terms and conditions of the BIble, I promise that you would have greater results as my personality is no match for yours.

God Bless.