Boy, do I have a story to share with people on this thread. To answer OP's question, Yes, I am a Christian. Denomination: Evangelical. Basically, what Evangelical means is that my church's denomination's mission it to share the good news of Jesus. Y'all need Jesus! -sharing the good news in a respectful, and not overly aggressive way like Jehovah Witnesses door knockers. :lawl:

Anway, here's the story I'm gonna share about the power and compassion of God. Big G, God answers prayers. He answered a desperate prayer of healing that I prayed many times back in 2008. I have been a Christian since 2002. -baptized at church in 2005.

What happened in 2008? A gross hand injury from playing football with friends. A ball was thrown hard at me. -being a noob at football, resulted in me catching that football with fingers in a stiff position while making the catch.

The bad news is that my right hand, the middle finger, was swollen. The finger was curled up like a curly frie as a result of a torn tendon in that finger. -went to see my doctor immediately to ask to get X rays on that hand.
-looking back at that terrible injury now, I can laugh at the teasing my friends gave me when they saw my mangled middle finger.

"Were you flipping the bird too much at aggressive drivers?" "too much road rage?"
I had many sleepless nights as a result of that finger injury. -tried many kinds of treatment. Physiotherapy for example. -wore a splint on that middle finger for two months.

I even met with a plastic surgeon at UBC hospital to get a second opinion, besides seeing my family doctor, about getting hand surgery.

I prayed and prayed for God to heal this injured finger. Big G answered my prayer after three months.

How was my finger restored back to non-injured form? This random guy showed up at my church one night. A guy from another church who was visiting a member at my church. He saw my mangled finger. Then this guy, John, told me about this "Healing Room" in east Van.

What's a healing room? It's basically a group of Christians who volunteer their time to serve at this building to heal people's diseases, injuries. How does the healing occur? People are anointed with oil by these Christian volunteers. Then they put their hands on you, and pray.

There are countless stories of Jesus in the Bible, God in human form, healing people while he was on Earth. At that point in time in 2008, I was desperate for my finger injury to be healed. -decided to go to the healing room to check it out because I was praying for a miracle healing. Hand surgery from a plastic surgeon was the last resort.

When I visited the healing room, the Christian volunteers anointed my head with oil. They read a few verses from the Bible. Then they prayed for me in the room.

A miracle happened! My injured right hand felt very hot as these Christian volunteers lay their hands on my shoulders. Hot as in burning hot but without any pain. That experience from God is something that cannot be explained by modern day science.

It had to be a miracle healing from God because the very next day, all the swelling in that injured middle finger disappeared! That finger which looked like a curly frie turned into a finger that was straightened out. I was able to move that injured finger too.

-went to see a physiotherapist for 8 sessions of treatment after that healing room session in order to get a full range of motion in that finger. That injured middle finger is completely straight again with no swelling and full range of motion.

You hear people talk about "blind faith" in Christianity and perhaps other religions. Believing in things that you cannot see.

I tell you guys. I saw a miracle in my life through God's healing on my body. A big prayer answered by God.

Only a God with supernatural powers and with mercy and compassion for my injured finger can heal me. How do you explain my hand getting super hot during a prayer session with the Christian volunteers in that healing room? What was the energy source that warmed up that hand? Nobody rubbed the hand or even touched it during the time those volunteers were praying for me. Some of those volunteers were shocked when I told them that my hand got very hot when they prayed. A few volunteers briefly touched that hand that felt it was on fire. :lawl:

I can tell you that God is real! There is an all powerful deity out there. Jesus is real as the air that we breathe.

^ https://media.giphy.com/media/tZF2erGJ5uOHe/200.gif

heat = tiger balm

healing = time after injury?

:badpokerface:

on the flip side, my wifes parents both grew up and raised my wife and her sister full blown catholic, went to catholic private schools, attended church, somewhat regularly, both died of brutal, quick Cancers. prayers obviously went unanswered

the worst part about catholics (besides literally everything being depressing af) is the stiff concept of "original sin" and everything that comes with that

and no offense but Evangelists are like the worst form of the "snake oil sales" of religion and basically live off stories like yours of restoration lol

The big pop up tents where people cure arthitis by smacking you in the head or cure deafness by blowing into your ear. They literally pray on the dumbest, weakest people in society to prop up their shows and gain following in turn

-definitely no Tiger balm used during that healing session by those Christian volunteers lololol. Heck, I don't even know what denomination those volunteers belonged to. Tiger Balm cannot heal a finger with a torn tendon that's for sure.

The healing room has no affiliation with my church. Those volunteers were from any Christian church in the lower mainland. -didn't know any of them because they certainly didn't attend Sunday service at my church.
At the end of the day, God did the healing on my finger injury through those volunteers. The Christian denomination does not matter.

they literally make up holidays for people to get days off, such as family day. even if there weren't religious holidays they'd just make up some random ones to fill their spots.

I do wonder the ratio of charitable generosity between the religious and non-religious.

There was an American study done by the Chronicle of Philanthropy and they published a very detailed report. Have to sign up to view it though.

Did find this though:

The Ten Most Generous States in the U.S. | The Fiscal Times

The Ten Least Generous States in the U.S. | The Fiscal Times

Hell, I know plenty of people who constantly virtue signal and give fuck all to charity (whether religious or secular).


I believe Christmas & Easter were originally Pagan holidays celebrating Winter and Spring harvests. They were absorbed by the churches when their legions of soldiers went around killing / converting all of Europe.

Don't underestimate your body's ability to heal itself. If your finger was swollen, that's inflamation and inflamation gives off heat. Inflamation is your body fixing itself. Some injuries take years to heal.

Or the other explanation, with all the suffering, pain, disease and starvation in the world.... God decided to fix your finger instead. Maybe he fixed your finger so you can help out the starving folks in Africa... better get on that, chop chop

https://giphy.com/gifs/serious-swz8o38tPLXHi

Look I don't wanna sound like an asshole but if healing room can heal your finger why can't they just cure cancer and fix deadly viruses.

That's a good question for the Lord, not the good people at the healing room.
I'll make sure I ask big G this question in the after life. LUL

I know Muslims have zakat. Gotta be a pretty fair amount from that alone.

Don't underestimate the power of faith :)

RS Admins - Please delete my account.

Atheist. Sometimes I wish I could believe the stuff these religions are spewing though, it would make life a lot easier.

It would be nice to just sit back, let Jesus take the wheel and believe that everything that happens is for a purpose. If I live my life a certain way I'll go to some magical place when I die. That would honestly just be a huge weight off my shoulders to believe that God has a plan for me, but I just can't do it.

Instead I live my life knowing I have to handle my own shit, figure out my own problems, and that when I die I'll probably revert back to what is was like before I was born. Nothing.

A religious fanatic once told me that God only helps those who cannot help themselves. Looks like God decided not to help you. :)

I can't do it... lol... faith is believing something despite the evidence. The only thing I really have faith in is money. Without faith, its just bits, bytes and pieces of paper.

I thank you for your honesty

If it was me, I would be trying to figure out how to save myself LUL. But in the theoretical scenario where death is 100% inevitable, I would be meditating and thinking about my family non stop until it was all over for me.

I tend to think it's the opposite. Atheists accept that humans are pretty much irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, and go about their lives. It's religion's ego that can't accept that, and thinks the universe gives a shit about what they do and how they live their lives.

Nice my uncle is currently in the hospital dying of cancer. They can't even do chemo anymore. Can I send him to those guys to be healed?

I'm not sure if you're trolling us or not.

God never answered my prayer about getting me my dream car

I am disappoint

I am a Garretist

You take the good.
You take the the bad.
You take them both and there you have,
The Facts of Life.

#savetootie

I've worked for a while in a surgical & medical oncology unit during my training. I've met quite a few Christians - along with their huge prayer groups, praying for miracles. The outcomes are the same.

Funny thing, when I consent these people for the use of blood or blood products, I ask them verbatim, "would you be willing to accept blood transfusions should we need it incase of a major bleed?" -- I have to ask because of legal ramifications due to a big JW population that doesn't accept it - it's funny to hear a few Christians respond, "I'm not a JW" scoffingly - without me even mentioning JW.

I think in my head those few times, ok... Why are you berating one wacky religion yet, still praying to the same wacky God holding a 2000 year old book full of errors and inaccuracies like YOU actually know what the true god is... To each their own

Atheist.

There's absolutely no evidence to support any religion

You honestly must be close to retarded to believe in a thousand year old game of telephone played by illiterate goat herders

there's a saying amougst soldiers.

There are no atheists in foxholes.

i aint religious but i have ganesh and guanyu sitting on my desk. i like what they represent.

My god

https://i.imgur.com/ihwgsoI.jpg?2