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slavegirljoy -> RE: Honestly...does prayer REALLY work? (8/2/2007 8:30:08 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Alumbrado Of course prayer works... collection plates get filled all the time. IF ONLY........you were right. But, unfortunately, it's not true. Collection plates are not being filled and if churches had to rely on having their "collection plates get(ting) filled all the time" most would have had to close up long ago. Church attendance in the U.S., as well as most of the developed nations, has dropped over the past 40 years and the amount of money churches collect from church-goers has fallen. In most congregations, only 30 - 50% of church-goers contribute anything at all and only 20% of the members provide 50-80% of total contributions. The average amount contributed is 2.5 - 4% of personal income, well below the 10% that the Bible says is required for tithing. Overall, members donated a smaller portion of income to their churches in 2003 than in 1968. While per capita income increased 111%, in inflation-adjusted dollars, from $12,510 in 1968 to $26,449 in 2003, church collections declined from an average of 3.11% of personal income in 1968 to 2.59% in 2003. (Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey) Even with that, U.S.religious organizations provided $7.5 Billion, in 2003, to humanitarian causes, compared to corporations, which gave $2.7 Billion. (Source: U.S. private giving and remittance data, collected by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis for 2003). The US government expenditure on overseas aid, in 2003, was just 0.13% of the GDP, the lowest proportion by any of the 23 richest nations in the world. In 2006, the U.S. moved up to second to the last place, just above Greece and directly below Italy, by providing 0.17% GDP to foreign aid, although the actual dollar amount that the U.S. continues to be the highest among nations. (Source: OECD Development Statistics) Churches and religious organizations provide aid to millions of people around the world, along with many volunteers to help the poorest of the poor in areas of child health, welfare, and education, adult literacy training, food and water, health care, emergency aid, disaster relief, and economic development.
In 2006, Catholic Relief Services, for one, served the poor in 98 countries, helping 80 million disadvantaged people. Because of the generosity of American religious groups, prayer does work for millions of people all around the world! One example comes from a church in suburban Maryland. In the mid 1990s, the Damascus Wesleyan Church, just north of Washington D.C., was looking to expand and asked for contributions to their building fund, which resulted in donations and pledges of $287,000. However, instead of expanding their building, it was decided by the church members to use the money to purchase a 99-year lease on 10,000 acres of land in Zambia. The land came with a beautiful farm house, 2,700 fruit trees, cattle, four deep wells, and three dams. Damascus Wesleyan Church now runs an orphanage for 300 children on this land. It has an elementary school and two- and three-bedroom homes for teachers and students that cost between $7,000 and $8,000 each to build. Its agricultural program assists the local families in establishing farms. Each participating family receives 25 acres to till, complete with a water source, oxen, and a plow for three years. They are taught renewable farming practices, soil preparation, crop substitution, and planting techniques. The people in that community have been given the opportunity to become self-sustaining, with their own food source. According to the World Health Organization, 10.8 million children, below the age of 5 years, will die this year. That's 29,000 deaths a day among children under five, with almost 4 million a year occurring in the first 28 days of life. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of 53% of all deaths in children younger than age 5 years. If Christian church members in the U.S. had given at the 10% level in 2003 instead of the 2.59% level, there would have been an additional $156 Billion available to fight poverty and hunger around the world, $5 billion could help stop the majority of children's deaths and $7 billion could provide basic education for the world's children. (Source: empty tomb, inc., Champaign, Illinois, a Christian service and research organization) Whatever you feel about religion and churches, one thing can't be denied, they do a lot of good around the world for people most of us barely think about and in places where a lot of us would never want to go. If it means that a baby won't have to die tonight because of a lack of food, then i say let the church collection plates overflow and thank God for them! So, my prayer is that church attendance will increase and the collection plates will start filling up all the time. It's my prayer that people will give to either a church or a religious organization at least as much as they pay for pet food. According to a news article, "Studies: Child Deaths Avoidable" by David Brown, Friday, June 27, 2003; Page A12, posted on the Washington Post website, "North Americans and Europeans spend about $17 billion a year on pet food." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37367-2003Jun26?language=printer)
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ORIGINAL: domiguy Of course thye all went on to do miraculous things ....Which says much about the tenacity of the human spirit as it does about God.....Here are some more stories where "God?" intervened and these people went on to do nothing. Obviously God and trees, or maybe just trees hate people....Screw global warming!...It's us or them. How could i have forgotten about the Great Killer Tree Scheme that God has in place?.....His band of angels holding up old, weak, sickened tree limbs and trees, just waiting for the marked individual to be perfectly positioned under it so they can let it come crashing down on the poor sap....Okay, if that's what you want to believe, but i say that there are just a lot of trees around and some of them are old and uncared for and haven't been trimmed or inspected in a long time. They lose their strength over time and there are some trees that people have carved their initials into the bark, opening it up to insects and disease and, just like with people and animals and all living things, there comes a time when they simply give out. If someone happens to be under the old or sick tree when it gives out that is a terrible tragedy, but that's all. Unexpected and unfortunate events happen all the time, as do wonderful and delightful events. That's what life is, uncertain and sometimes wonderful and sometimes heartbreaking and all too often too short. That should be a lesson to all of us that each day that we have the gift of life should be cherished and used to create positive energy and try to improve ourselves and the world around us. At least, that's how i look at it. Since we only have the news accounts of the tragic events involving tree limbs and trees falling on people and have no follow-up, we don't know what might have resulted from these events that could have been positive. There could be people out giving testimony about the way any one of these events might have changed their life for the better. We just don't know, without more information. In fact, we don't know if perhaps the 63 year old woman who was killed when a tree crashed onto her car during a wind and rainstorm had just learned that she had inoperable cancer or some other terminal disease and she was praying to God that He would just take her rather than let her suffer and put her family through the stress of watching her suffer. We just don't know all that there is to know. There are countless incidents that happen every day that we just don't know all the implications about the cause and effect of their happening. And, it's no good spending our lives worrying about all the possible bad things that might happen to us at any given moment. We just need to live our lives the best we can with what we have. Yes, people can be very tenacious. A lot of people have told me that i am tenacious but, they don't see the amount of uncertainty that is inside of me at times and they don't hear my prayers to God to keep me strong and help me get through one more day. They just see the result of those prayers and the strength and determination that i get from God being in my life and answering my prayers. i honestly don't even want to know how hard this life would be for me if i didn't have Jesus walking beside me every step of the way. What a lonely and scary feeling that would be if i didn't feel His presence in my life.
"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows....he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:4-5
Oh, and for anyone who believes that prayer only helps those who have Christ in their heart, i have to say that is so very wrong. God hears everyones prayers, whether they are believers or not. To know that, you only need to hear about the many nonbelievers who received "foxhole conversions" as the bombs and bullets exploded around them in battle. Many a nonbeliever has found God on the battlefield, as well as in the jailhouse and on the operating table and on the sinking ship and the crashing plane and the burning building. For many, it takes being in a very perilous situation for them to find God and accept Jesus into their hearts. In fact, even if you don't believe in God or the power of prayer, someone else could be praying for you and God is hearing their prayers and you could be the beneficiary without even knowing it. You might just think you're a very lucky person. slave joyOwned property of Master David "Commitment transforms a promise into a reality."
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