Prayer Request from Houston Temple Presidency

[jkwilliams]

14 minutes ago, Avatar4321 said:

are people really objecting to saying a prayer?

it's not the spirit that teaches men not to pray

At times like this, arguing about religion seems pretty trivial, doesn't it?

[jkwilliams]

My wife, daughter, and granddaughter will be come here next Wednesday. I probably won't stop worrying until they get off the plane.

[cdowis]

12 hours ago, cinepro said:

I guess I don't understand the logic in asking God to stay the storm that He has full control over.

Sometimes it takes many years of experience and spiritual maturity to understand things that are beyond our ken now.  It is something to look forward to.

[bluebell]

30 minutes ago, Avatar4321 said:

are people really objecting to saying a prayer?

it's not the spirit that teaches men not to pray

But the spirit does teach us how to pray correctly, and even what to pray for, so to say that God doesn't care what we are praying for as long as we are praying seems spiritually immature (I know that comes across like an insult but I'm not using that way, I just couldn't think of a better way to describe it).  

I don't think it makes sense to say that if someone has a question about the appropriateness of praying for a specific thing, that that question comes from satan.  Worrying about the appropriateness of our prayers is not a bad thing.  Getting to the point where our prayers are what God would have us praying for is an important part of our spiritual growth.

[mfbukowski]

5 hours ago, Hamba Tuhan said:

Oddly enough, this is the very first time I've realised that whenever I've said, 'Please pray for me', to someone, implicit in my pleading has been, 'and just for me, not for anyone else'. 

So what is a Priesthood blessing then?

Nothing wrong with requesting prayers just for themselves in my book!

[mfbukowski]

2 hours ago, CV75 said:

I think by the prayer of faith we recognize God's hand in all things, including our desire tor rescue -- not exactly a logical proposition in the first place. And I'm sure this isn't the sole petition on the minds of those putting their faith into making or entertaining this request.

It can be said, I suppose, to be logical to not oblige the request to pray, to pick your own interests as the subjects of prayer, and to deem any such exercise silly and selfish. But a Cecil B. DeMille / Frank Capra miracle, logical? Oh-kaaaayyyy....

God is our Father. Do we only ask Dad for what is logical, or for what we need? If we ask for bread will he give us a stone? 

Prayer us for our deepest needs, even finding keys

By it's very nature prayer has nothing to do with logic. It's hope for things unseen.

Is this really a Mormon board?

[mfbukowski]

42 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

My wife, daughter, and granddaughter will be come here next Wednesday. I probably won't stop worrying until they get off the plane.

All my best to your family. My son's there too, on the east side, and I call him night and day. I get it. 

[jkwilliams]

3 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

All my best to your family. My son's there too, on the east side, and I call him night and day. I get it. 

Thanks, Mark. Best to you and your son. I hope he stays safe and dry. 

[Darren10]

Wow! I knew cinepro and BlueBell had misgivings regarding the LDS Church, but not about the sacredness of the LDS Temple. If it's sacred to you, why in the heavens are you hesitant to pray for its safety? It's somehow "immature" to pray for or since others are affected, you cannot make room, even a nano milimeter of room, in your heart to pray for it. Here's my take:

God has always commanded His peopel to build temples. There his people have learned in unique ways how to progress towards God and to return to His kingdom in heaven. According to an outstanding article written by William Hamblin in the Interpreter, this kingdom in heaven cam very much be viewed as a temple in heaven. Jesus referred to "where [He] was going" after He dies and resurrects as the "hous of [His] father. The only other reference to House of the Father in scripture is the temple. The temple is truly a cosmic place. Temple in the past, as recentlybas the Nauvoo Temple, have been desimated by the Church's enemies.

Here's my insight for taking up the temple president's challenge, I have focused on my own unworthiness to attend the temple. This is prinarily due ot neglect. Taking so much time to do two jobs and the such. I have siginificantly neglected to attend the temple myself. I need to constantly put the temple and its doctirnes at thecforfront in my life. In fact, the Houston Temple is signinifcantly underattended in theHouston area at large. If the Father would allow His house to be flooded in order to refocus His people on it, so be it. For me and I guess for many others in the Houston area, we've taken the temple's presence for granted. If praying for its safety helps then so be it and frankly I think everyone would benefit if they made the LDS Temple center in their lives. That was even one of President Hunter's primary message during his very short stay on earth as Prophet. 

As for the people in danger, although my family and I have been greatly blessed with a dry home and, most surprisingly, electricity and internet, others have lost their homes. Thry are being attened to as best as possible. This tragic flooding has brought out the best in people. Jkwilliams has posteed about some dealr loved ones being rafted out. It's quite possible that this raft could have been provided by the Texas National Guard or by the "Cajun Army" which came into town. These are people from New Orleans who drove in with their boats to help. This is a group set up to provide relief for flooding victims. It organizes efforts where people with boats can be deployed in needed areas for relief. Spring high School, local high school, has been set up to take in people. A neighboring ward member is already volunteering to help there. A family we once knew in our ward but move to Tomball, about 15 miles west of Spring, atempted to drive down to help but since they were completely blocked off by water, they helped in a local Baptist church which took in people. If you think that people are being neglected, you're ignorant due ot a lack of effort on other people's part, you are quite igorant of the situation. If you think that the LDS Church or even the Houston Temple president wants anyone st any time to neglect his neightbor you're far more ignorant still. Of course helping others out is paramount, how or why cinepro and BlueBell do not see the temple's existence as part of helping the human condition is beyond me. 

Praying for others is good. Allowing prayer to guide yourself on acting out on helping others is superior. It is happening on a regular basis here in Houston. Even though the Temple has actually been flooded, there is no reason to stop praying for it and to let those prayers be a vehicle to better oneself, even through service to others. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by Darren10

[mfbukowski]

47 minutes ago, cdowis said:

Sometimes it takes many years of experience and spiritual maturity to understand things that are beyond our ken now.  It is something to look forward to.

God doesn't need our prayers, we need our prayers. He knows what we need. We need to vocalize our deepest wishes and concerns so we know what they are. 

Even if there were no God, they are good therapy

Edited August 29, 2017 by mfbukowski

[Darren10]

48 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

My wife, daughter, and granddaughter will be come here next Wednesday. I probably won't stop worrying until they get off the plane.

My Aunt keeps asking sbout our status. My mother has not been vocal on our safety but I know her and she must be fretting a lot over this. I think your family will be safe. God bless and take care of them. 

[mfbukowski]

2 minutes ago, jkwilliams said:

Thanks, Mark. Best to you and your son. I hope he stays safe and dry. 

So far so good, but the water got up his driveway once, so far, no further.

[Darren10]

1 hour ago, jkwilliams said:

At times like this, arguing about religion seems pretty trivial, doesn't it?

Not if it keeps people praying. 

[Darren10]

11 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I am praying for everyone and everything in Houston at this point including the temple. It looked like the city was going to get a reprieve in the next few days a few hours ago but now it is looking bad again. If the reservoirs fail catastrophically the death toll could easily reach five figures. I do not want to be alarmist and this is worst case(well actually six figures would be worst case but less likely) and it may not get that bad but it is a possibility.

Basically I am saying pray for relief for everyone and everything in the city including the temple.  

Correct. They are aleviating the reservoirs in order to prevent thay catastrophe. That does cause risk for some but helps prevent a disaster for many. 

[jkwilliams]

7 minutes ago, Darren10 said:

My Aunt keeps asking sbout our status. My mother has not been vocal on our safety but I know her and she must be fretting a lot over this. I think your family will be safe. God bless and take care of them. 

Thank you. Glad you're safe. Best to you and yours. 

[CV75]

17 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

God is our Father. Do we only ask Dad for what is logical, or for what we need? If we ask for bread will he give us a stone? 

Prayer us for our deepest needs, even finding keys

By it's very nature prayer has nothing to do with logic. It's hope for things unseen.

Is this really a Mormon board?

How Spock found his phaser:

[Darren10]

10 hours ago, Calm said:

Stay the water for the temple and the water gets stayed everywhere else, right?  I am assuming that is how it would work, though I may be wrong.

Perhaps he assumed everyone was already praying for the more endangered areas and just wanted to call attention to the needs of their area that people may have assumed were safe because they were last year...but it didn't come across all that well.  I am going to assume he is stressed and not being able to go inside and see may be making him obsess too much about that.  He may be using his temple duties to distract himself from other worries.  

Here's the portion of the call for prayer I did not cite:

Quote

Please know that our prayers are also with each of you and your families as we face these unprecedented weather conditions.

Yes, prayers for others are already being done. Like attendance of the Houston Temple, perhaps prayers for it have been neglected. 

[pogi]

20 minutes ago, Darren10 said:

Wow! I knew cinepro and BlueBell had misgivings regarding the LDS Church, but not about the sacredness of the LDS Temple. If it's sacred to you, why in the heavens are you hesitant to pray for its safety? It's somehow "immature" to pray for or since others are affected, you cannot make room, even a nano milimeter of room, in your heart to pray for it. Here's my take:

I don't think that cinepro or bluebell question the sacredness of the temple (correct me if I'm wrong), I think what they question is whether some flood waters will destroy the sacredness of the temple.  Prayers were certainly offered on behalf of the temple, and were apparently not answered.  Does that mean that God does not respect the sacredness of the temple?  Or is it a sign that maybe we should be more concerned about our brothers and sisters in harms way. 

I don't feel that the sacredness of the temple has been defiled.  Even if it fell to the ground in an earth quake, or burned to the ground in a fire (yep, its happened), it would be rebuilt.  It is not the structure as much as it is the covenants made within the temple that are the most sacred.  The temples are like our physical bodies, they are to be respected, but they are not intended to last forever.   It would be great if it was miraculously preserved (and thus save the church some money), and I don't see any real problem with praying for that, but I think their point is that our brothers and sisters should probably take priority in our prayers.  Temples are built for people after all, and not the other way around.   

Edited August 29, 2017 by pogi

[bluebell]

16 minutes ago, Darren10 said:

Wow! I knew cinepro and BlueBell had misgivings regarding the LDS Church,

With all due respect, if you think that I have misgivings regarding the LDS church you are very wrong.  I'm all in, to use the popular phrase, and my beliefs regarding it are very mainstream.  Don't judge my beliefs or testimony in the LDS church using yourself as the standard.

[bluebell]

6 minutes ago, pogi said:

I don't think that cinepro or bluebell question the sacredness of the temple (correct me if I'm wrong), I think what they question is whether some flood waters will destroy the sacredness of the temple.

Ding! Ding! Ding!  

[stemelbow]

1 minute ago, bluebell said:

With all due respect, if you think that I have misgivings regarding the LDS church you are very wrong.  I'm all in, to use the popular phrase, and my beliefs regarding it are very mainstream.  Don't judge my beliefs or testimony in the LDS church using yourself as the standard.

My impression is definitely not what Darren said.  Bluebell in my view does not express misgivings regarding the LDS Church.  She does present some good ideas for discussion around here though.  It's either he's misinterpreted you or has you mixed up with someone else, i'd guess. 

[jkwilliams]

9 minutes ago, bluebell said:

With all due respect, if you think that I have misgivings regarding the LDS church you are very wrong.  I'm all in, to use the popular phrase, and my beliefs regarding it are very mainstream.  Don't judge my beliefs or testimony in the LDS church using yourself as the standard.

I was going to say, if you're having misgivings, something is wrong in the world. 

[bluebell]

1 minute ago, jkwilliams said:

I was going to say, if you're having misgivings, something is wrong in the world. 

I'm glad your family is safe jk.  I can't imagine what all of those people must be going through.  And what they must be face in the next year trying to get past it.

[Darren10]

8 minutes ago, bluebell said:

With all due respect, if you think that I have misgivings regarding the LDS church you are very wrong.  I'm all in, to use the popular phrase, and my beliefs regarding it are very mainstream.  Don't judge my beliefs or testimony in the LDS church using yourself as the standard.

I know you're all in but you do have quirks about the Church. We all do. I was very surprise about your expression of hesitancy ot pray for the temple. You seemed hesitant to do so in the face of widespread people tragedy. Isn't that correct? 

[bluebell]

Just now, Darren10 said:

I know you're all in but you do have quirks about the Church. We all do. I was very surprise about your expression of hesitancy ot pray for the temple. You seemed hesitant to do so in the face of widespread people tragedy. Isn't that correct? 

I was hesitant about the appropriateness of publicly putting out a call to pray for the temple, considering the other things (lives, livelihoods, and homes) that are at stake and already being lost.