irisheyes

Just sittin' here trying to catch up and my stomach hurts just reading this stuff. We can't put God in a box or the holy spirit for that matter. We can't tell the holy spirit when to operate! How obnoxious of us. How ridiculous to even think we had such ability. There are no rules and regulations about whatever you want to call them; gifts, manifestations, etc. Like we could tell God "it's time for a prophecy here." Pulease.... I don't know if we are all supposed to speak in tongues. Do I think some people should? Sure. Do I think my eternal life depends on it? NO. Therefore, you want to do it? Rock on. Just don't try and tell me what I am supposed to do and don't try and tell God what and when He is supposed to do it either.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Of course, some of us where married and well, you know....

Ex: Hey girl, are you ok? I'm 50+, too, and still kicking butt. I got out when I was maybe 35 and I'm so glad I wasn't around for the stuff that followed. I learned to listen to myself one day and I think I have holy spirit in there somewhere. Most days I realize that I don't know crap and that's okay, at least I can own up to it. And crazy? Sure we know crazy. Just think, no one can bulls**t us and get away with it. We've learned from the masters....

Really, like get a life already, ya know? The Catholic Church is where I grew up myself. Big yawn. I think now that the pope is himself in trouble for letting the priests get away with it all, perhaps there will be an awakening within their people. Surely there are plenty of sincere, wonderful people who just want to do what is right and who just don't know what exactly that is.

Why? Because it was years of our lives, that's why. We were turned inside out and upside down and not even able to enjoy it!

And, boy, do people need to see it. It just makes me sick at my stomach reading this stuff and thinking I just never knew. I was too trusting. Perhaps had something of this sort had happened to me I would have been gone long before POP. We were so many of us trusting, moral people who only wanted to please God. The best thing to come out of all of this is that we were scattered abroad and even if it took years to heal, a great many of us have healed and moved on and continued our quest for truth and to hopefully be in God's will. The Lord knows if there was ever a time America needed to be blessed, it is today. Ex, there is no condemnation. Period.

I don't know if I exactly wondered if Geer confronted the three "stooges" or not. What I do remember more than anything was thinking "where is the love of God in this?" I was so totally disgusted that a father could actually leave a legacy like that to his son that I looked at my husband and said this just ain't right. I don't think it took us 24 hours to clear out. What we did was go home and actually read the bible for our own selves and low and behold the first thing I looked into was agape because that was what bothered me the most about the whole paper bs. Boy, was I surprised to see how wrong we had been taught about that one "little" word. It was a field day after that and ever since. If anyone should have confronted anyone it should have been VP confronting his own son. Are we called to hurt each other? How could I believe anything I was taught by a man who hurts the people he is supposed to love above all others. Blatant hypocracy. Oops, I mean hypocrisy (maybe).

Heck, I needed a good laugh to end a great day!

How 'bout Zombies?? Is that a better fit? Between "Bless Patrol", laundry, and just plain old lookin-for-fun, we were too tired to use our brains. IMHO. Anyway, like-mindedness should have centered on what the Lord did while he was here on earth; i.e., healing, feeding, teaching, loving. After all, he is the head.

I've been in the Gulf of Mexico for a week and was surprised to find this thread still alive. Perhaps this will add to somebody's understanding? It sure helped me as far as "free will." How many times have you heard "it was God's will" that such and such happened? Well, there's this little book called The Will of God by Leslie Weatherhead (there's a good German name for ya) which claims that there are actually three (3) wills of God: "1) The intentional will of God: Was it God's intention from the beginning that Jesus should go to the Cross? I think the answer to that question must be No. I don't think Jesus thought that at the beginning of his ministry. He came with the intention that men should follow him, not kill him. The discipleship of men, not the death of Christ, was the intentional will of God, or, if you like, God's ideal purpose. 2) The circumstantial will of God: When circumstances wrought by men's evil set up such a dilemma that Christ was compelled either to die or to run away, then in those circumstances the Cross was the will of God, but only in those circumstances which were themselves the fruit of evil. 3) The ultimate will of God: God's ultimate goal--the purposefulness of God which, in spite of evil and, even through evil, arrives, with nothing of value lost.. The same goal as would have been reached if the intentional will of God could have been carried through without frustration. In other words, God cannot be finally defeated. That's the definition of His omnipotence--not that everything that happens is His will, but that nothing can happen which FINALLY defeats His will. So, in regard to the cross, God achieved His final goal not simply in spite of the Cross but through it." I think our free will causes one of these wills of God to operate. Surely Jesus didn't want to die, but "not my will, but yours be done." Just one other thought. Paul claims that he was blameless in the law. (!) I didn't know someone could be such. However, he says it in the same way he uses his sufferings. He makes quite a list of both: accomplishments and sufferings. Anyway, I think his point with both is that it's not by works, not by good works or by bad works--it's by grace. Is that not the lesson? If God can have three wills, can't we too? I have often felt pressured or cornered to do something I really don't want to. Or life just changes on me. I gotta change with it or I'm eating dust. I guess I'm just thinking that our free will changes as we do (or not).

Soul searcher: Great logic. Of course, we can't blame the adversary (or karma, whatever)for our choices, our decisions, etc. There are consequences to most everything we do, good and bad. Should we nevertheless know our enemies? Any good coach will say Hell, yes. (AS I live in Louisiana, that superbowl victory is still fresh in our minds. Ha.) I guess in all honesty, though, I look at the wrong stuff as more random than personal. Like I've said, I think the world, and America for sure, is so far gone that no one has to push any buttons anymore, we're free falling.... I'm outta here for a week, cruising the Caribbean. Hope the food's not tainted.

In case you haven't noticed, you are talking to YOURSELF. Will be cruising the Caribbean for a week, probably not doing much on the net. See ya'll after, if we don't hit a sunami or if it doesn't hit us????

Probably most of us have had abusers in our lives or even been one (Maybe still are?). For me drug abuse surrounded me. Lost two brothers and nearly a son. My take? Yes, I believe there's an adversary, but I think he has this society so tied up that he really has nothing much left to do but sit back and laugh at us. I think there's a couple of accounts where the person needing healing was told to "look at me." Jesus said it and Peter, I think, also. I think the reason for that was so the person could concentrate and not let outside influences well, influence them. I find the word "balance" disturbing. I wish there was a definition I could live with for it. But, as for all you said, all we can worry about is our own selves and not try and figure out why stuff happens the way it does and just try to not be the cause of it happening.

THANKS! Yeah, I think that took hearing about what Jesus did for me too.

Clever, girl! Check on my house once in awhile, okay?