I want to talk to God

[Age]

When you say "prayer" as in you can talk to God through prayer. What does that mean? Do you put your hands together and start talking? Do you have to start if off with "father God" or something? Do you have to assume some physical position like kneeling?

Is he necessarily going to rip me a new one if I don't seem reverent or something? I'm angry and I'm bitter. Is he going to respect that? Or am I going to have to find some way to prostrate myself before him?

No, I don't think that's at all necessary. What's important is the honesty part.

But to do that, you're probably going to want, for your own sake, to find some private place where people will not overhear you. It's hard to be honest when one feels other people are listening in, even potentially. So get yourself some space in a quiet location.

There are no incantations, no body positions, no gestures or recipes, no religous behaviours or anything else necessary. Just an honest conversation, and a willingness to receive the answers, whenever and however your conversation Partner decides to communicate.

So you just find a comfortable, quiet place to be, and you can start with, something as simple as, "Lord, if you're willing, I have things I need to say, and I'm ready to hear from You." Then let it be whatever it is. It's about honesty, not ceremony.

Well, I honestly don't know what to say to God. I just want the woman I love to reciprocate in love for me.

If this is REALLY what you WANT, then WHY did you come here asking for advice on where or how to summon God? Would it not have been better to ask advice on where or how to summon 'that girl' and get her to reciprocate in 'love', which you seem to so DESPERATELY WANT here?

I also want God to solve her own troubles in a way that will be favorable to her so that she isn't troubled.

So, out of the BILLIONS of adult woman there are alive WHY, EXACTLY, do you WANT 'this woman'?

I don't know how to say that to God without coming off as demanding.

Well let us START.

WHAT are 'her' supposed 'troubles' here?

COULD some of 'them' be that 'she' does NOT 'love' you like you 'love' 'her'?

I have nothing to offer God in return for those favors.

What about ABSOLUTE and TOTAL Honesty? Could you offer this?

And because I'm angry and bitter, I can't find it in my heart to ask God for those things in a nice way. So I'm stuck.

If this is what you SAY and BELIEVE is true, then this MUST BE THE TRUTH, right?

[Gary Childress]

No, I don't think that's at all necessary. What's important is the honesty part.

But to do that, you're probably going to want, for your own sake, to find some private place where people will not overhear you. It's hard to be honest when one feels other people are listening in, even potentially. So get yourself some space in a quiet location.

There are no incantations, no body positions, no gestures or recipes, no religous behaviours or anything else necessary. Just an honest conversation, and a willingness to receive the answers, whenever and however your conversation Partner decides to communicate.

So you just find a comfortable, quiet place to be, and you can start with, something as simple as, "Lord, if you're willing, I have things I need to say, and I'm ready to hear from You." Then let it be whatever it is. It's about honesty, not ceremony.

Well, I honestly don't know what to say to God. I just want the woman I love to reciprocate in love for me.

If this is REALLY what you WANT, then WHY did you come here asking for advice on where or how to summon God? Would it not have been better to ask advice on where or how to summon 'that girl' and get her to reciprocate in 'love', which you seem to so DESPERATELY WANT here?

I also want God to solve her own troubles in a way that will be favorable to her so that she isn't troubled.

So, out of the BILLIONS of adult woman there are alive WHY, EXACTLY, do you WANT 'this woman'?

I don't know how to say that to God without coming off as demanding.

Well let us START.

WHAT are 'her' supposed 'troubles' here?

COULD some of 'them' be that 'she' does NOT 'love' you like you 'love' 'her'?

I have nothing to offer God in return for those favors.

What about ABSOLUTE and TOTAL Honesty? Could you offer this?

And because I'm angry and bitter, I can't find it in my heart to ask God for those things in a nice way. So I'm stuck.

If this is what you SAY and BELIEVE is true, then this MUST BE THE TRUTH, right?

Are you God, Age? If not, then I suspect it will be of little use for me to answer your questions. If you are, then would you supply some sort of satisfactory demonstration that you are?

[Age]

I WANT TO TALK TO GOD

Again...if you are serious about wanting to know God and to remedy your mental anguish then follow atto instuction!

It ain't hard to commit 1hr/week for the cause.

If there is a real church around you, (built of stone) preferably Catholic or Anglican, then at least once a week spend an hour in that church - the older and more stained glass windows etc the better, aesthetics inspires faith.

WHY "catholic" or "anglican"?

Sit in a pew and contemplate the life of Christ, for NO other reason, than contemplating what HE went through to inspire faith and faith in love.

What did that child and adult human being go through that absolutely NO other adult or child human being has gone through?

Thank God for all the good things through your life.

But if on does NOT think NOR believe that God is real and true, then it would be A VERY FOOLISH thing to 'thank' A NON existing 'thing' for the good things in one's own life?

Also, who would that one 'thank' for ALL of the 'bad things' in that one's life?

If you feel the need to talk to God\Christ, then you say "In the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit" while signalling with you hand (forehead, abdomen, left and right shoulder) - as a child I would think of it like a walkie-talkie!

But don't be thinking so much about yourself and your desires. Think about things that DO inspire you about life.

Try and think about the wonder of nature and the universe while you talk to God. If you cannot cry for Christ, then you are not ready...and it should come naturally...to cry that HE did not even need to endure that, but HE did (there is a lot to that story than I am willing to share as per reasoning on a public forum)

Like 'what', for example?

CRYING should be natural eventually...that is when you KNOW you love God that you love Christ..(my sage instucted me a long time ago that crying is how we show our love)

But what about when one is crying out of 'pain', for example? Who or what are they showing 'their love' for or to, EXACTLY?

..Get off the ridiculous meds..have faith, and after about 6 weeks I am certain you will start to feel like a new man.

And what are you basing this 'CERTAINTY' ON EXACTLY?

One other thing. When sitting in the pew ask at least one closed question - make a statement and ask if that is RIGHT? If you are tapped on the right knee or shoulder then consider the question answered as correct.

What happens if 'you' are tapped on the left knee or shoulder, then does "garry childress" consider that as incorrect? Or, something else?

You need to show Christ some commitment dude...HE ain't gonna respond until you are commited and consider yourself a christian.

But I thought "garry childress" was asking for pointers on where or how to summon God and NOT "jesus christ".

btw re "impure thoughts" in the other thread, consider what an actual impure thought might be, rather than just batting one off.

Would it be SIMPLER and EASIER if you just TOLD 'us' what 'an actual impure thought' IS, EXACTLY, INSTEAD?

[Age]

Absolutely shameless.

Here's the thing though...

Sometimes I suspect your posts are just an exercise in irony...a con job. You merely adopt this IC persona here in order make arguments that actually mock those who might really believe them.

I feel certain that IC is not deliberately trying to con anyone. I get the impression that he just has faith in Christ and truly is using the Bible as his guide, following it wherever it may lead him, anchored in the faith that it is a good guide and will not lead him somewhere that he would not ultimately wish to end up.

But "immanuel can" allowing "itself" to follow the bible wherever it may lead "immanuel can" would be like "garry childress" allowing the koran, written in "chinese" or some other language that you have absolutely NO idea about, to lead 'you', wherever it may lead 'you'.

There is absolutely NO use following some 'thing', which one has absolutely NO REAL UNDERSTANDING OF. "immanuel can" has NO REAL UNDERSTANDING of the bible, as PROVED IRREFUTABLY True by "immanuel can's" OWN WORDS and CLAIMS here, in this forum.

Now, perhaps in his adoption of Christian theology, he is unknowingly participating in some sort of con orchestrated either consciously or subconsciously by the early formulators of Christian theology.

"immanuel can", and ALL of those OTHER 'followers' are just participating in a form of MISINTERPRETATION, ONLY.

Absolutely NO one is meaning to or purposely FOOLING ANOTHER one. They are ALL just MISINTERPRETING 'things', and thus, literally, FOOLING "their" OWN 'selves' here.

That's certainly possible. Of course, it's also possible for any of the rest of us that the sources of our frameworks of understanding the world are based on some sort of bad will or mistake on the part of those who formulated those frameworks as their guide.

'you' are ALL just being, literally, MIS-TAKEN, or in other words, MIS-GUIDED, unintentionally.

One thing seems evident to me. Probing and questioning things leads to a better understanding of how ideas interrelate and work and why. I adhere to agnosticism as my baseline, at least until I better understand the world of ideas and the world of ideas is so vast that I will probably never fully understand them all. So maybe I'll be agnostic forever.

BUT WHY would you 'probe' or 'question' 'things' that you ALREADY BELIEVE are true or right, or, DISBELIEVE are true or right?

IC claims he has studied the religions of the world enough to have made an informed decision regarding which one is best to pursue.

'Best' in regards to 'what', EXACTLY?

If that's the case, then, me not being privy to a religious upbringing, I prefer to question him in ways that push the limits of understanding in order to get closer to how Christianity works and why.

Have you EVER thought to just ASK, 'How does "christianity" work, and why?

I can only hope that it doesn't harm anything to be that way. I know of people who go into Christianity more or less blindly, taking the Bible as the last word on everything without really knowing anything about the other religions of the world.

Is there REALLY MUCH DIFFERENCE taking the words of A book, when one has NO ACTUAL PROOF FOR, when they have read MORE of other books than if they had read NO other books AT ALL, for example?

Does it really matter how many religions of the world one CLAIMS to KNOW when they are just taking the words of ONE book as the last word on EVERYTHING anyway?

Maybe that makes them ignorant or maybe that's a shortcut straight to the right way of doing things. I don't know.

Are you under some sort of ILLUSION that the so-called 'right way of doing things' is IN just ONE book, and all 'you', human beings, now have to do is just WORK OUT and FIND WHICH BOOK that ONE IS, EXACTLY?

I don't fully trust theology, probably for no other reason than there have been so many different instantiations of it, each of which seems to claim that it has the better take on how it is best to live. I know one of Carl Sagan's claims was that the birth of modern science occurred when some early Greek philosophers told themselves, what if ALL the religions are wrong? I think that it's certainly possible that all religions are just failed proto-scientific theories.

Could it be True and/or POSSIBLE that WITHIN ALL 'religious texts' there are SOME Falsehoods and well as SOME Truths?

For whatever reason that has a certain appeal to it that seems more fair and universalist than the notion that of all the religions, one has things more right than all the others. I mean, I don't know.

If you do NOT YET KNOW, then WHY does 'one thing' have A CERTAIN APPEAL of 'other things'?

[Age]

Historically, only Moses ever had a conversation with YHWH

'Historically', ACTUALLY? Or,

'Historically', you HAVE HEARD?

[Age]

If not, them maybe I should amend the title of this thread to "I want to talk to Jesus." Maybe talking to Jesus would get a different result from talking to a burning bush or whatever?

Wots up Gary? Was my suggestion not enough for you?

I was this thinking that "garry childress's" considering amending 'its' topic title here was BECAUSE 'your' 'suggestion' WAS ENOUGH "attofishpi".

Do you actually think that if God exists, that everything I have been talking about since my 1997 interactions with this entity as BOLLOCKS.

Is this a trick, or loaded, question?

Could it be POSSIBLE that God, STILL, exists AND what you have been talking ABOUT, since your 1997 interactions with AN entity, could still be BOLLOCKS? Or, is this NOT a POSSIBILITY, AT ALL?

[Age]

Well, technically, wouldn't the same hold true of everyone who spoke to Jesus? Not sure how that works but I guess any encounter with even a part of the trinity would count as an encounter with God. Maybe?

That's an interesting remark. Those who spoke to Jesus actually spoke to God, oui? God heard/didn't is an open question.

Anyone can speak to God..it's when God responds that you should tighten your belt (and hope to fuck that you have been a good boy/girl).

WHY? Do you BELIEVE that God punishes, harms, or abuses so-called 'bad boys and girls'?

[Gary Childress]

Absolutely shameless.

Here's the thing though...

Sometimes I suspect your posts are just an exercise in irony...a con job. You merely adopt this IC persona here in order make arguments that actually mock those who might really believe them.

I feel certain that IC is not deliberately trying to con anyone. I get the impression that he just has faith in Christ and truly is using the Bible as his guide, following it wherever it may lead him, anchored in the faith that it is a good guide and will not lead him somewhere that he would not ultimately wish to end up.

But "immanuel can" allowing "itself" to follow the bible wherever it may lead "immanuel can" would be like "garry childress" allowing the koran, written in "chinese" or some other language that you have absolutely NO idea about, to lead 'you', wherever it may lead 'you'.

There is absolutely NO use following some 'thing', which one has absolutely NO REAL UNDERSTANDING OF. "immanuel can" has NO REAL UNDERSTANDING of the bible, as PROVED IRREFUTABLY True by "immanuel can's" OWN WORDS and CLAIMS here, in this forum.

Why do you say, "IC has no real understanding of the Bible?" I mean, he says he does. He pulls quotes from it when he needs to prove a point. As far as my layman's eye can tell he seems to know his stuff.

[Age]

Well, I honestly don't know what to say to God. I just want the woman I love to reciprocate in love for me.

Reminds me of an old joke.

Question: What did the woman say after the courtship, the wedding, and the honeymoon?
Answer: Thank God I don’t have to give those BJ’s anymore.

Women are physically weaker than men, therefore women use their minds to control men.

SO, out of ALL of the 'woman' that do weightlifting ALL of the 'men' that have lived and will EVER live will ALWAYS be STRONGER than ALL of those 'women', right?

Also, what are these 'mind' 'things', which 'woman' USE to CONTROL ALL 'men'?

Once you know the ways of women you will see that their primary objective in their relations with men is to keep the man off balance and questioning reality so that he doesn’t wallow in the complacency in Luv, and take her for granted.

Did a 'woman' tell 'you' this, "walker"? Or, did 'you' somehow KNOW HOW to NOT become CONTROLLED by 'women'?

It's called the War of the Sexes and men are not immune, although war is a bit strong of a word, at least until it becomes a war of divorce.

Is it IMPOSSIBLE for 'you', human beings, to divorce 'lovingly', or in a 'loving way'? Or, does EACH and EVERY divorce HAVE TO ALWAYS end up in some sort of 'war'?

[Immanuel Can]

Well, I honestly don't know what to say to God.

Just the truth. Exactly what you say.

It's not a quid pro quo, or "deal." It's simply your willingness to open up the conversation, and to include God in your situation. And no particular outcome is given in advance: it may be your time to find a woman, or simply your time to get some help doing work on yourself, so one day you can be the kind of person whom the kind of woman you want would want to be with. We can't say that in advance.

The important thing is not to let anxiety keep you from just opening up the dialogue. Let the result be what it is.

[Age]

I just want the woman I love to reciprocate in love for me. I also want God to solve her own troubles in a way that will be favorable to her so that she isn't troubled. I don't know how to say that to God without coming off as demanding.

Because God doesn't know what's in your heart or mind until you tell God, right? Why do you continue playing with absurdity and being pissed off about the results you get?

You want, you want, you want... but you're angry and bitter and have nothing to offer because you're tired of offering or trying. Gee... you're right... you deserve a bounty of success and satisfaction for all of that!

How about I deserve some success and satisfaction after all I've been through?

What have you been through "garry childress"? And, what do you think you 'deserve'?

Also, have you been through getting rejected by 'women' and what you 'deserve' is to be loved by 'woman' or a 'women'?

If not, then I may as well just off myself because I'm tired of living in misery. At this point, I just want a peaceful and relatively painless death. If God has nothing else to offer, then just put me out of my misery. And don't include me in any more of his world-creating plans.

[Harbal]

Well, I honestly don't know what to say to God.

Just the truth. Exactly what you say.

I agree, Gary, just tell God the truth. Tell him exactly what you think of him.

[Age]

I think it's good he's getting wide range of wordings, attitudes, approaches. Perhaps something will seem attractive or at least worth trying.

Yes, that would be wonderful! Finding each of our own solutions is preferable to being right over all. Lots of things work.

This is sort of a side note, but I am often amazed that finding out if something is true/useful/possible/for me (in online forums) tends to mean, being convinced by words on a screen. Getting arguments the prove/demonstrate/convince, etc. Whereas in real life we often have to try things out.

This online platform really challenges me to continually try to do a better job of communicating whatever message I feel compelled to convey. I think it's a good practice. It helps me order and refine my thoughts -- and my aim is to offer more for consideration, just in case it might be valuable to someone in some way.

I tend to learn more here from the failures of arguments, since there don't seem to be many successful arguments. Failed arguments reveal things about human behavior, limitation, and need.

ALL 'arguments' that are NOT sound AND valid, it could be 'argued', are 'failed arguments', and, ALSO, EVERY argument that IS sound AND valid could NOT be 'refuted' NOR, in other words, 'argued against'.

Furthermore, and something to think about, How MANY ACTUAL sound AND valid arguments have 'you', human beings, ACTUALLY formulated over the past few millennia, hitherto when this is being written?

And the whole process demonstrates that there are just so many different perspectives -- and different methods and views work for different people.

HOW MANY TIMES do we have to go OVER 'this' EXACT SAME 'thing'.

There ARE, at least, just AS MANY DIFFERENT perspectives and views as there are human beings WITH perspectives and views. In other words there are a COUNTLESS NUMBER of them.

HOWEVER, this in NO WAY REFUTES the Fact that there IS One Truth.

In real life, as you noted, we try out things for ourselves and find our proof in the results or payoff we get from that. It's hard to convey that to people in written words. I guess the best we can hope for is that people feel inspired or compelled to experience something new/more for themselves.

WHEN, and IF, one EVER becomes Truly OPEN, then this is WHEN they Truly START to SEE, and UNDERSTAND MORE, and ANEW, as I have been continually RE-REPEATING throughout this forum here.

[Age]

I tend to learn more here from the failures of arguments, since there don't seem to be many successful arguments. Failed arguments reveal things about human behavior, limitation, and need. And the whole process demonstrates that there are just so many different perspectives -- and different methods and views work for different people.

Yes, the oh, my god, you've convinced me, I have changed my mind about something fundamental is rare.

In addition to the failed arguments and what we learn from them, I learn to take on other people's thinking. I may be arguing with them, but I more or less have to do that in order to counter what they are saying effectively (even if it rarely ends up effective in changing their minds).

I think there is a downside. I spend too much time in other people's minds and that happens in real life, there including emotions, their suffering and more. Hm.

LOL There is NO such 'thing' as 'their minds'. So, it is an IMPOSSIBILITY to so-call 'spend too much time in other people's minds'.

And, LOL about how it is THEM who is WRONG and who rarely 'change their minds'.

In real life, as you noted, we try out things for ourselves and find our proof in the results or payoff we get from that. It's hard to convey that to people in written words. I guess the best we can hope for is that people feel inspired or compelled to experience something new/more for themselves.

Yes, though that seems rare - as reported here. No idea what happens in their personal lives, but again, extremely rare I see someone say to someone else, well, I tried X, did it/went to it for 3 months and I find that....

anything positive, negative.

Have 'you' done this "iwannaplato"?

In fact are you SO CLOSED that 'you' do NOT even just discuss some 'things' with SOME "others"?

[Immanuel Can]

Well, I honestly don't know what to say to God.

Just the truth. Exactly what you say.

I agree, Gary, just tell God the truth. Tell him exactly what you think of him.

That's actually kind of right. If you have a problem with God, it's better to tell him exactly what it is.

But remember Who you're talking to. Be honest, but don't be insulting. Leave open the possibility that you aren't the one who knows everything. And be prepared to be shown wrong, as well, when your answer comes back. You'll find that's a very important attitude to take to any conversation with God.