Why do SOME Christian parents, teach their children, that when praying to God, they should direct their prayers to heaven, or that God can only be found in physical places of worship? I believe this is why many grow up believing God is unreachable, and far from them in time of need. God is omnipotent and omnipresent, and not limited by physical structures or places.
In fact, the Bible teaches that God's spirit dwells "within us":
1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you .
1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
John 14:16-17 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
2006-11-24 01:17:04 · 25 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Could not agree with you more that this is a problem. Jesus even said that we should pray in our "prayer closets" at home to God. And the wonderful Acts 17:28 For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Which shows that we have a personal relationship- not one that is detached-but one that is out of love and available because He is with us always. I'm glad you posted this and I hope some parents will realize the effects of teaching these things have on their kids.
2006-11-24 01:24:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Prayer is a very powerfull thing, and we all should pray and talk to God.... If you did something as great as sacrifice your son for others would you not want them to talk to you? People tend to only pray when there in trouble, need help with something, want something, or when there asking him to forgive them of something... God is not only a judge he is a friend to us all and we should talk to him about things. Go does not like being a judge that is why he will only sit in the judges seat one time and that will be on judgement day..... As for the parents that teach there children to pray a certain way, it does not matter because God hears there prayers, he knows there heart...... God hears everything that we say to him.....
2006-11-24 01:43:53 · answer #2 · answered by Ash 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Um, because that's how Jesus told all of us to pray?
Matthew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Ephesians 3:14-15 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Besides which, the Bible teaches that God's Spirit dwells in "born again" believers, not in every person or in a child who has yet to be born from above.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
2006-11-24 01:32:45 · answer #3 · answered by Martin S 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I am thinking that Jesus told us that the kingdom of the father was in each and every one of us.
This means that He is not to be found on a far off cloud called heaven or in a building called a church.
He can only be found where Jesus predicted he would be.
For this reason we should avoid these places where people pretend God is and turn within to find Him exactly where Jesus predicted he could be found.
Unless of course you feel that brother Jesus was wrong about this.
Love and blessings
Don
2006-11-24 01:38:47 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jn 10:16 there shall be one fold (not individuals) one shepherd.
1 Cor 12:20-27, you are Christ's body, individually parts of it
Eph 5:30 WE are memberS of His body
Rom 12:4-5 though MANY, WE ARE one body of Christ
Eph 4:3-6, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
Rom 16:17, avoid those who create dissension
Simple as that...
2006-11-24 01:45:15 · answer #5 · answered by Lives7 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
that's no longer the issue - Why might you pray to a saint in heaven whilst Jesus is sweet next to them? the subject with the pope is the comparable. The bible of course says there is not any guy between God and guy yet Jesus Christ so why do you persevere in including to the chain of verbal replace? Edit: i'm no longer asserting you're asking a saint to furnish the request - i'm asserting you're asking a saint to wish for you once you ought to wish directly to God your self. in case you prefer to be scriptual approximately it we are all saints so why is one in heaven to any extent further significant than you? Adam Baum: this is a valid factor yet i've got self assurance those that do it are below the fake impact that the pastor is extra non secular or has extra pull with God. Asking Benny Hinn to wish for me seems ridiculous now yet I concede this is user-friendly in our church homes and that i did it till now each and every thing besides till I felt God flow me to dig my own nicely and supply up eating from different peoples. Edit: I admit it took me somewhat thinking to work out what you assert and additionally you're making a good factor. The miscommunication is that folk in my church think of you're asking the saint to respond to the prayer to no longer in basic terms pray for you which ones would not be such a controversy. I nonetheless think of direct is ultimate yet I come to a decision your factor.
2016-10-17 11:41:06 · answer #6 · answered by leong 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only after You Become Born Again Does He Dwell in You
2006-11-24 01:35:37 · answer #7 · answered by savvy s 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Parents try to fill child imagination of God in beautiful place in Heaven. There is nothing wrong with it but I`m sure, not intentional or they`re trying to make God unreachable.
Some parents just follows anscestral belief without investigating, so, they grew up believing themselves God is in Heaven.
As long as it is not destructive, and if it helps fill better imaginations with abstract, poetic, metaphorical subject matter...why not do it again.
Than... when something is not understood well, misconstrued, then it may offer dangerous & critical comparison and chaotic doctrinal belief hard to correct.
eg. when each one of us was just conceived, God gave us a "holy" spirit...but the residence of holy spirit in our body depends on how we take good care of it.
Some people can take good care of their life well according to God`s desire for His faithful, so that God and His Holy Spirit have a very good relationship, connections and communications with these people that God lives with them (having cleanest temple/body worthy for God to dwell), so talking/conversation/ praying is very easy. You can see gifts of Holy spirits can be witnessed from these people who exudes only Love, Peace, Harmony, Helping, Joy, much Humility, self sacrifice with God is more desirable than being demanding of worldly things. etc.etc.
Some people were earlier been poisoned and influenced well with evil (and its soul is very cooperative of evil, listening every word they say) that it seems very hard for God`s spirit to influence back his original goodness of that person...thus bad personality are really spilling for us to see great destructive tendencies of that person: lying, cheating, killing, violent tendencies, too much pride, denying God existence & goodness, etc.etc.etc
Since you are more knowledgeable than ancient people, you can teach your offspring with more realistics truth of the matter. Explaining well the difference between goodness and evil, because if they are unaware of this things, they won`t know who to follow and who to be careful. If you just say God dwells in everyone...then bad spirits boasted more than good ones that... they have God, and they are God... because they are more successful in bad ways with influence of dark forces.
I know you understand these things. So be careful in telling the innocent one, the undefiled yet, the little children...because you might be the cause of more spiritual destructions of these kinds.
2006-11-24 02:13:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We tell them to pray to God doesn't matter where he is But he is in Heaven his presence is everywhere and the holy spirit lives within us yet his place is in the heavens or Heaven.
2006-11-24 01:24:53 · answer #9 · answered by calieyecandy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That's a good point. Not sure that teaching your kids that God is in Heaven is making him seem "unreachable". Obviously he is only a prayer away but I agree that the church building itself is just a meeting place for worship- not a place where God resides!
2006-11-24 01:22:07 · answer #10 · answered by Jenn 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋