Category: philosophy/religion topics
I may have gotten this wrong, so anyone that wants to correct me is more than welcome to submit their own version.
A man is trapped in his house due to a severe hurricane. He is scared as the waters climb higher and higher. He finally climbs up onto his roof and waits there. As he is waiting, he prays for God's mercy on him. A log floats by, and the man refuses to grab onto it. Someone comes by in a boat with a life raft and everything. The man ignores the boat and the boat moves on. Then, a helecopter fliesright by his head and he still doesn't ask for help. The rains come harder and soon, the man can't fight anymore and ends up drowning. He then finds himself in Heaven. He is angry and bitterly says to God, "I asked you for help, and you didn't help me! What kind of God are you?" God says to the man, "I tried three times to help you. I sent you a log to grab onto and you refused it. I sent you a boat with a life-raft for you to get to dry ground, and you ignored it. Finally, I sent you a helecopter that could've picked you up and carried you to safety, and you turned your nose up at it. I gave you three different opportunities to get help, and you sat by bitterly complaining instead of taking what I offered you."
Moral: When things get tough, and you need God's help, shut your mouth and open your eyes and ears, seeking any sign of help from him. Stop complaining about your situation and look for any sign of help from him.
I've always wondered this, and now seems like a really good time to ask it. If god helps those who help themselves, and yet we must as for god's help in all things because through god all things are possible, then why do we even exist? If we can't ask him because by asking we negate the whole, helping ourselves, clause, and we can't not ask him because we need his help to do it, then what do we do? Where is the line between asking and not asking? Just a thaught, no one else has been able to answer many of my questions about christianity, maybe someone here can.
Well, I'm not a christian, but that's a very good question. I've never heard them say that you can't ever ask God for help. I'm assuming that they mean don't ask for help in every little thing. I'm sure He wouldn't mind it in a life or death situation like that. In any case, I fully agree with the story's moral. I donno if he was expecting his god to come down from the sky or what, but if that were me and my gods, I'd take the log or even the boat, get to safety and do a whole night of worship and make huge offerings. Some people just want it all or aren't happy with what they have I guess.
If it were me. I'd have watched the flippin' weather channel before hand, then I would have known that such a large rainstorm was coming. then, when I found out that it was going to happen. I would have left my house, and not needed to ask for god's help in the first place. I never understood why people always turned to some fictional old man in the clouds, when all you need to do is stop looking in centuries old books for answers. If you pay atention to the life your living, instead of focussing soully on some life you don't even know your going to get, and probably won't, you will usually be ok.
this overzealous view of god, turning to him in everything, thinking that his hand is in everything, giving your entire life over to him, in my personal opinion, its unbelievably ellogical. Why even exist and have a life if your not going to live it? Why waste every waking breath you take, the ones your garranteed to have, and waste them on a long shot bet like that of an afterlife; and all because some book you were spoonfed as a child, and probably never questioned anyway, told you you should. It is the embodiment of irrational thinking and lifestyle.
I ask God for help in everything. God loves to hear from us. The Bible tells us to pray incessantly and to throw our burdens upon him.
1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Never stop praying."
Psalm 55:22, "Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall."
1 Peter 5:7, "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you."
Philippians 4:6,7, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."
Proverbs 3:5,6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."
Isaiah 66:13, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”
Jonah 2:2, “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me…I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”
Psalm 145:17-19, “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.”
Psalm 34:17-19, “The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all.”
God is not an aloof God who cannot be bothered with us and our concerns. He loves us and cares about us, always wanting to hear what is on our minds, no matter how big or small the issues are. I thought I should share this.
I ask The Gods for the really important stuff, the spirits for the mondane and then consult my tarot readers for answers. Crazy but true. And now that i want to learn how to read the cards, I'll be able to do readings for myself in times of crisis.
Ok then, I guess we can add this to the list of oxymorons in the bible. You just listed all those verses that say to not help yourself, to pray to god in everything, and yet it still says god helps those who help themselves. I don't know the number where it says that, but I know it did, I remember asking this question in sunday school. So I guess its just another one of those, "it can go both ways so that no matter what happens, we can always have a way to blame ourselves, and not have to admit that we're depending on a fictional book character". that list seems to be getting longer by the day.