Does praying to God work ... except for when the bank is after you? Maybe the banks have gotten so powerful that even God is afraid to meddle with them!
There has been a rash of stories lately about church foreclosures. Today it's the First Family Church in Overland Park, Kansas that's facing a $14 million overdue mortgage. DeKalb County Georgia may lose their oldest African-American church. Churches everywhere are being foreclosed at record rates.
Even Faux News, always ready to distort the news and make churches look saintly, published a major story, Dramatic Rise In Church Foreclosures Nationwide.
I joke about prayer, but this isn't about prayer or faith. It's just economics. Churches are run by people, and those people made the very same mistakes in financing their churches that they made with their own homes. They borrowed beyond their means, they counted on an ever-growing economy, and they counted on "keeping their jobs." Or in the case of churches, they counted on their members keeping their jobs and keeping up their Sunday contributions.
The economy caught churches just like it caught everyone else. In places like Arizona, Nevada and Riverside County, California, foreclosures are at record highs, and property values have dropped to well under half their peak values. Unemployment is rampant. It's no surprise that this has "trickled down" to the churches that are part of these same communities.
I may be flippant about the effectiveness of prayer when it comes to banks, but I sympathize with those whose churches have been lost during this recession. And as I always say, the best approach is to fix things yourself. God isn't going to pay the mortgage, even if it's His house that's being foreclosed!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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Dear readers -- I am no longer blogging and after leaving these blogs open for two years have finally stopped accepting comments due to spammers. Thanks for your interest. If you'd like to write to me, click on the "Contact" link at the top. Thanks! -- CJ.
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I love it. Imagine how many would go down the tubes if they had to pay taxes.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of prayer.
Jesus Lied About Prayer
Jesus is quoted many times in the Bible saying that a believer can ask for anything through prayer and receive it. He even goes so far as to say that mountains and trees can be thrown into the sea simply by praying for it. This is clearly a lie, and can be proven to be a lie by any believer. Simply pray for me to be converted to Christianity right away. Or better yet ask God to move the mountains behind my house. He could make a lot of converts that way. If I’m converted today, I’ll post a public apology on my web site and devote my life to kissing God’s ass. If I’m not converted it would only be fair for you to apologize and devote your life to kissing my butt.
Here are the quotes from Jesus that proves that he lied:
1) And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will happen. "And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." (Matthew 21:21-22 NAS)
2) Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8 NAB)
3) Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. (Matthew 18:19-20 NAS)
4) Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. (Mark 11:24-25 NAB)
5) And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-13 NAB)
6) And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14 NAB)
7) If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. (John 15:7 NAB)
8) It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. (John 15:16 NAB)
9) On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. (John 16:23-24 NAB)
A lot of Christians ignore what Jesus actually says in the Bible. They also tend to add things to the actual words to make them say something else. If you honestly and truthfully read these quotes, without adding to them, it is very easy to see that Jesus is not saying that God will think about your prayers. He says God will grant all your prayers. Clearly, God doesn’t grant all prayers and this proves that Jesus was a habitual liar.
I've never understood why so many people think they need to run their own church. I would think that churches would become some big churches and a few at-home fellowship groups. This thinning of the herd is necessary for churches to survive.
ReplyDeleteWhat saddens me the most is that people give their hard-earned money to enterprises like this that are historically bad with their money. Give it to a local charity that has to be open about how your money is spent, at least.
I can't think of why so many people believe in a religion that asks them to give 10% of their (gross) income, nor can I think of any religion that asks people to make do with less for their entire lives.
Wow. I will pray for all of you. Obviously none of you really know the bible and I love it when someone picks out individual passages out of a book and scrutinize it without knowing the context to which it is written. Jesus has NEVER and will NEVER lie. If you REALLY believed in Him the desires of your heart and the things you ask for will come from God whose spirit lives in you and you understand tha God will give you what you ask for as long as it is in His will. If you are a true believer that's what you would want first and foremost. You may not be able to handle whatever it is you ask for ie riches and you may fall like so many rich people do to depend so much on it and worrying about preserving it that it becomes your God and it takes you away from Him.
ReplyDeleteYou need to find a church that teaches the truth. The reason that so many churches are failing is because it's leaders are not teaching God's true word. The bible states that Gods people are destroyed due to a lack of knowledge and a lost of pastors are not teaching the word and are teaching people bs and God is not happy. They rely on the government for money to sustain itself which is not how it's supposed to work. So God is allowing this to happen.
So before you post some bogus crap do your research and talk to people who know what the real truth is. And stop pulling out individual verses out of a more than 1000 page book without knowing any context to which it refers to and make conclusions. That is ignorance.
I would really be offended by that statement you made if I was a Pastor who was preaching God's word every Sunday and possibly Wednesday nites too. Only God can be the judge if some Pastor's are not teaching the truth to their followers. Also, the churches are failing because the economy went to the crap pile in our nation and the members of the churches do not have money to tithe. Just accept the fact that we are in the great shaking that it speaks about in the bible. What can be shaken will be shaken.
ReplyDeleteAnon -- who says only God can judge? Are you saying that you don't know right from wrong?
ReplyDeleteAnd as to that "great shaking", do you realize that every single generation since the birth of Christ has believed that ... and been wrong? Why, after something like 100 generations, should we believe that you're right and the other 99 generations of Christians were wrong?