Simple question?

Quote: FrGamble

What evidence are you speaking about?

People generally find what they are looking for.

Quote: petroglyph

People generally find what they are looking for.

And don't find what they don't want to look for.

Quote: FrGamble

And don't find what they don't want to look for.

How hard can god be to find. Is he
hiding behind a bush, playing peek
a boo? God is nothing but an
intellectual concept, so if your mind
isn't just right, you won't get it. You
didn't have to find god, your parents
made sure your pre-school brain was
all prepared by taking you to church
and getting you indoctrinated.

Some of us were lucky enough to escape
that, and we're capable of clear thinking.

Quote: Evenbob

That's what you say, because asking Jesus
for what you want obviously doesn't work.

You are right treating God like a genie in a lamp doesn't work. Good thing that idea is foreign to Christianity.

Quote:

It's a pretty big deal, look at how many
places it is in the NT.

Again I would ask you to re-read the Gospels as a whole and see if you think that Jesus wants us to think of Him as a divine vending machine.

Quote:

You're like a car salesman who's TV ads
promise a car that goes 140 and has a
leather interior and the price is only
$14K. But when you get the actual vehicle,
it's a piece of poorly made junk that
can barely get out of it's own way.

You are like one of those false Yelp reviewers who claims he has been to the restaurant and the food was lousy, service rude, and there was a fly in his drink. However, it is painfully clear you have never been and are just making up stuff you want to believe because of some type of grudge or hurt you have.

Quote:

That's Xtionity. It literally promises the
sun and the moon, get anything you
pray for, and life after death for a cherry
on the Sundae.

Christianity promises that your life has infinite value and meaning, even in your suffering, and that you will live forever. It also promises that your life will be difficult, the world will hate you, love requires suffering, and that we are called to live like Our Savior who sacrificed everything for others. Does that sound like someone saying, "ask for whatever you want and I will give it to you."?

Quote: Evenbob

How hard can god be to find.

Not hard at all. God is the reason that all exists and continues in existence. You really have to close your mind and heart to the possibility of God to not find Him, at least in an intellectual sense. On the level of the heart, which is probably more important, you also have to shut down and not desire to find God in order to miss Him. I have guaranteed you before that if you earnestly and honestly ask Jesus to come into your life you will find Him and He will also help eliminate the obstacles of sin as well.

I know it makes you feel better to think that all Christians and all people in the world who believe in God only do so because they were programmed to do so as a little child. You are wrong. Take a look at your own life and think about all the important positions and ideas you have had or were taught as a kid that have been changed or abandoned. You have yet to abandon the brainwashing you received as a child against the Catholic Church.

Quote: FrGamble

You are right treating God like a genie in a lamp doesn't work.

19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
2 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Let me interpret this for you: Ask and I'll
give you whatever you ask for. Of course
it doesn't work, it's not supposed to work,
it's a sales tool. It's what good salesmen do,
make ridiculous claims to make the sale.


Christianity promises

Okay since you are obviously unwilling to do this yourself, let's take at look at these passages you bring up to support the ludicrous notion that God promises Christians that everytime they pray they will win the lottery or be healed.

I will just be focusing on the very chapters you have quoted from to make it easier for both of us, but please know books can and have been written about your general error in understanding these picked out verses you have supplied.

In Matthew chapter 18 the very beginning of the chapter begins with a teaching about how being like a little child is to be the greatest in the kingdom. I think this seems to run contrary to your idea that Jesus is encouraging or promising His followers that they can ask for anything they want and it will be given to them. You also leave out the very next verse, v. 20, where Jesus shows that the ultimate answer to all prayer is that, "I shall be there with them." I can attest to the absolute truth of this statement.

In Matthew 21 and in Mark 11 you intentionally seem to cut out the parts of the verses that speak to the obvious hyperbole that Jesus presents about the fig tree being planted in the sea. This Rabbinic practice of exaggeration is well documented and is a tool often used by Jesus. In the Mark text you also fail to read a little further to again see the example that Jesus uses for what we should pray for, namely forgiveness. You should really read it.
Also in both of these above examples and in some of your verses from John's Gospel you fail to realize that they take place in the Passion narrative of Jesus' suffering and death. How do you square the Lord's own suffering with the idea that He is teaching that ask for anything and it will be given to you?

In John chapter 14 the verse you quoted is introduced by a request by one of the disciples in v. 8; "Let us see the Father and we shall be satisfied." Jesus explains that He is the answer to that request and that ultimately prayer's answer is to be in communion with God. This is further emphasized in v.16 where Jesus promises to send the "Advocate" or Holy Spirit to help us to pray and follow the commandments.

In John chapter 15 you make a grievous error in not reading the verses preceding the one you quote. The whole chapter is Jesus teaching His disciples that they must be pruned in order to bear fruit. This means that you will endure sufferings and discipline, but like a branch that is pruned it is done so that it may bear more fruit. Even if you refused to read the whole chapter to get its meaning the sad thing is if you would have even just read the whole of v. 16, part of which you quoted, you would have see this.

I hope you see that a little context is important for you to get a better understanding of what the Scriptures are really teaching.

Quote: FrGamble

Okay since you are obviously unwilling to do this yourself,.

I read what you wrote 3 times and
it's nonsense. To get a better
understanding, I read two other
sites that attempted to explain
what Jesus 'really' meant, and they
were substantially different than
yours.

Conclusion: It's obvious that Jesus
can do nothing for you, let alone
give you everything you ask for.
So different churches make up
different explanations of what it
'really' means. This is so obvious
to an outsider, and so muddied to
you.

This is what he supposedly said,
it's crystal clear:

19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
2 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Those are declarative statement's, no
interpretation needed. That's why
there are 2500 branches of Xtionity,
nobody can figure out the religion,
yet they all think they have.

Quote: Evenbob

That's why
there are 2500 branches of Xtionity,
nobody can figure out the religion,
yet they all think they have.

You certainly think you have it all figured out.

Quote: FrGamble

You certainly think you have it all figured out.

It's not very difficult. Nothing can be
proven, all it's promises are not backed
up with evidence, and the people
practicing the religion can't even agree
with other branches based on the same
material.

The entirety of your argument is, well,
lots of people believe it. Well, lots and
lots of people believe Islam, Buddhism,
and the Hindu religions as well. So that
makes your argument null and void.
They can't all be right, but they can
certainly all be wrong.

You have no position to argue from, you
have nothing of value to present.