T-Bone

It sounds like you’re confusing Jesus’ earthly existence as a human being with his much more expansive role as the exalted Christ. A small sample of verses gives just a hint of his wide-ranging personal presence: For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them. Matthew 18:20 Put yourselves to the test to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize regarding yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless, indeed, you fail the test! II Cor. 13:5 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:20 == == == == Waysider brought up a good point about the Gospels being written after the epistles…see Wikipedia - dating the Bible . There is something fascinating to me in terms of how one grows in the Christian faith...I talked about this on another thread - here - when the discussion brought up if there was difference in the terms and ideas presented in the Gospels and the epistles - quoting myself here: "With any book, culture, religion, system of thought, etc. that present a set of beliefs there is going to be a learning curve which simply means that acquiring a new or better or deeper understanding comes from experiencing or practicing those set of beliefs…So, I think the nuts and bolts of the Christian faith are the same in the Gospels as well as in the epistles – but more than likely there will be some variations how folks understood those “nuts and bolts” simply due to the individuality of people and where they are on the learning curve. So one answer to your questions – it’s the same message but there’s a broad spectrum in the make-up of the audience. I will address something about the authors of that message further down below." I’m tempted to think at first the disciples were beta testing their new found faith and writing about it in the epistles before they got around to writing the Gospels – but that’s whack I know. However, the Gospels do hit me as a finished product from seasoned believers - representing a lifetime of spiritual growth, experiences and observations as well as being very concise documents of what Christianity is all about.

This made me recall a passage that talks about the confusion and reversal on moral issues. Beware, those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter...Isaiah 5:20 NET I think there is something to what you said “I always got the impression from PFAL that while Jesus is "gone" it is our privileged and responsibility to BE him for others, until they can learn the same. “ It seems to me that may have been a huge misdirect for a lot of PFAL students - resulting in folks having an inflated sense of self. It does seem natural that the narcissistic tendencies of “the teacher” might rub off onto his students. Perhaps for wierwille and many followers the “fake Jesus spirit” was like the “here be dragons” - the medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps which warned of dangerous and unexplored territories. Looking back – it does make me wonder why wierwille pontificated about the importance of Paul’s epistles over the Gospels and he put a stronger emphasis on theory rather than practice. Perhaps a personally immersive and transforming experience through the presence of Jesus Christ was unexplored territory for a lot of folks in TWI. Don’t know for sure – just thinking out loud about my own experience. Remember the slogan what would Jesus Do? It was popular in some Christian groups but not in TWI of course. I've always thought that it was very compelling – a moral imperative – a reminder to act in a way that demonstrated the love, compassion and kindness of Jesus Christ...In PFAL wierwille shifted the importance when he said “The Word takes the place of the absent Christ"…thus a moral imperative to follow Jesus Christ’s example was eclipsed by an intellectual directive to study “The Word”…Maybe that’s what led me to have a cold…clinical…book-knowledge approach to Christianity rather than pursuing a deeper…personally immersive experience through Jesus Christ.

sounds like fun! And don’t forget the graphic novel – that might be another outlet for your creativity along with video games. My son gave me the graphic novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which was the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner) – story by Philip K. Dick and art by Tony Parker...I have two different versions of a Dracula graphic novel and some super-hero graphic novels on Kindle...but anyway – back to you - I am blown away by how realistic looking some video games are now...I wish you good luck and good story telling on your journey!

Welcome to Grease Spot, Just A Guy! Sorry I can’t help you concerning your time frame. I left in 1986. The only thing that might be remotely related to your request is to tell you that during my two years of in-residence Family Way Corps training in Rome City I was assigned to day care for a block – my group was called the Cheerful Givers. That was probably one of my favorite job assignments since we had a lot of leeway on designing our own activities and I got into hanging out with little kids anyway. My wife often complains she’s married to a three year old. I am sorry for your time of “confinement” and what you missed out on – and let me just add a parent’s perspective to yours. Our son was about 6 when we left TWI – and after years and continued peeling of the onion, we have not only apologized to him many times but embraced the responsibility – having come to terms with the realization that some of our decisions had consequences on his life as well. I must say our “confinement” as adults in TWI was due to our cult mindset – that is not an excuse to justify or shift the blame for putting our son through that – I merely mention it as an explanation for our faulty decisions and recognizing our responsibility...It’s been some 35 years since we’ve left TWI and our family dynamics are a lot healthier now – and off the top of my head the most important contributing factors have been honesty, respect, empathy and forgiveness. I am curious – and you don’t have to share anything if you don’t want to – I have a few questions. Have you had any talks about this with your parents? Are they still in TWI? Are you still in? What are some of the things you feel you missed out on? What are some of the things you’re into now and/or want to get into?

Hi WordWolf just wanted to thank you for mentioning other free word processors in your posts...I looked into LibreOffice but decided to go with Neat Office which was also free in the Microsoft App Store...It works great with opening/editing existing files from my old Microsoft Office 2010…After using the bare-bones WordPad for just a few days I realized I do a lot more writing offline than I thought and without a word processor it was like going back to a Ford Model T after being used to a 2010 Ford F-150 Pickup...thanks again – you got me thinking outside the box.

Like I said in my first post - this thread is for computer users like me who know just enough to get by...I guess I was spoiled when I worked for companies that usually had a very robust IT staff to support the technical needs of the company...being retired and on my own now - it's sort of like the dilemma I've faced on other topics - I find myself saying I wished I paid more attention to that when it was covered in school. As a technician I used to pride myself on being competent - given enough time I could fix just about anything. The operative phrase is "given enough time" - keep in mind the learning curve, as time goes on - it will take you less time and fewer mistakes to fix a similar problem that you've already solved 20 times before...But something I've enjoyed even more than using tools and working on stuff was interacting with the customer. My mission was always to demystify technology and to alleviate any fears they had about it...Nowadays it depends on who you talk to for your computer needs. If you find someone who gets into being almost like a liaison between you and your computer needs and is not just a pushy salesperson - stick with that person! I'm not a total idiot on computer stuff. Back in 1987 I bought a Zeos mailorder computer - and if memory serves it had a whopping 250 megabyte hard drive (wow wee wow ) and a dial-up model. I took classes on DOS, Windows 1.02, and got into learning C programming and simple game programming. But - having left the way corps/TWI in '86, I was anxious to pick back up on a career in security technology - something that was more familiar and seemed financially solid to me for the foreseeable future. To this day I am still more of a hardware guy than a software guy - for a couple of reasons. Electronics and hardware are usually a lot more reliable and stable than software. Electrical engineers have worked a lot of the bugs out of components and designs and have established industry standards. Stuff is easier to troubleshoot because you can do things like physically inspect the equipment and use specialized meters to measure functionality and integrity of stuff. Software can be a little more mysterious. Software programs are usually very complicated and may not be completely compatible with software from other companies. I don't know if there is an industry standard for creating software products like there is for testing the safety of physical technology with the Underwriter's Laboratories. Software needs updates to fix bugs and security issues and improve functionality. A typical end user can't physical inspect what was written in the source code of a program. One of the reasons I started this thread was to inspire do-it-yourselfers. The internet and You Tube can be your friend. Framing your question correctly is critical to finding some viable options to solve your problem. In my Google search box I literally typed in the title of this thread "my laptop running Windows 10 taking forever to boot up or launch an app". Computers do NOT run on magic - but follow programs (instructions) written by really smart - but imperfect- people. Troubleshooting a computer issue involves the 3 basics: investigate, isolate, eliminate. That's why another handy feature mentioned in the link I gave in my first post has to do with booting up in the safe mode. That method launches only the basic operating elements of your system so you can determine if some software you added later caused the problem....well, all I can say for now is good luck and remember simple pictures are best.

My tastes vary genre-wise - depending on what mood I'm in - so I often wind up reading several books at a time - but I'm not a fast reader, so it might take me 3 months to finish several books. For fiction I like action/thriller/ techno-thriller/sci-fi stuff - - some of my fav authors are Stephen Hunter, Janet Evanovich, Lee Child, Philip K. Dick, C.J. Lyons, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, James Rollins...late last year I finished "The Eye of God" by James Rollins - and have not started reading another novel yet. For non-fiction I jump around on what interests me at the time: history, philosophy, science, technology, theology...I recently finished "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived" by Rob Bell. I started reading "The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the Self" by Jean Shinoch Bolen... I've also been reading a few other books - "Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained" translation and annotation by Derek Lin. (after starting Bolen's book I wanted to look into taoism - fascinating stuff!)... "Understanding The Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals" by John A. Buehrens..."Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together" by Van Jones..."The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything" by Michio Kaku...and "Music Theory for The Bass Player" by Ariane Cap. Like I said, I'm not a fast reader - and sometimes I have to back up and re-read a section if I have a tough time comprehending something - so in a given day I might read parts of several books - like someone would series-surf on Netflix or Hulu, catching a few episodes of different series...uhm - I do that too...one of the luxuries of being retired. Here's what else is in the lineup for reading this year - in no particular order: "Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief" by John M. Frame "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert "Sapians: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari "The U.S. Constitution for Dummies" by Dr. Michael Arnheim "The New Testament In Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians" by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird "How To Be An Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" by Robin Diangelo "Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy" by Judd Apatow "The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself" by Sean Carroll My reading interests are varied - but my retention is weak. So I have an ongoing read-and-review-list of books that I really enjoyed - and I maintain the list on paper - it's sort of like a self-imposed remedial program for someone like me who has challenges in comprehension and retention ... anyway - I started it way back in 1990, I think - it has some 250 books on it so far - and I already know I'm going to add "Love Wins" and "The Tao of Psychology" to the list. Being on the list doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to re-read the entire book; sometimes I just go to sections I've highlighted/bookmarked (on Kindle) or if it's a printed book I'll refer to my own index I've made at the front of the book - to again enjoy or think deeper on the author's salient points. I didn't put any fiction books on my to-read-list - that usually depends on if I need a break from non-fiction stuff - a telltale sign is when I see smoke coming out of my ears.

The movie is Event Horizon sorry I picked an obscure stinker of a movie

Kudos to you Annio for being courageous to share your experiences and views of those predatory pigs...it raises awareness and concern...voices like yours are a secret weapon that those creeps never anticipated...makes me think of a bunker-buster bomb - - speaking out penetrates the hypocrisy and blasts open their depraved subculture...I wish you good health, happiness and recovery.

Rocky, thanks for posting that ! Listening to Charlene is very comforting...As always in her book, blog, GSC posts and this interview, she comes across as being so relatable - which for me demystifies and destigmatizes how people can fall prey to a harmful cult.

I'll see your little dictator and raise you one big fascist

Yes !!!!!!!! that made me think of the woeful tale of the family trees in the opening scene of the movie Idiocracy ...this You Tube is cued up to when the course of things takes a really bad turn if you wanted to cut to the chase...but you might want to watch it from the very beginning for a good laugh session...This movie is in the top ten of my family's favorite movies...I think there's something metaphorical about the 1:51 mark - it's the part where Clevon Jr. is surrounded by cheerleaders says "yeah ! I'm gonna fvck all you all !" that's when the family tree really takes off...after all, that is what the original cult leader did to everyone isn't it.

yeah - I think we're on the same page on a few things - and of course actual mileage may vary. This may sound odd - but a very real concern I've always had is developing and maintaining a robust skill set. I'm of the opinion if you don't use it you lose it. Math was never my long suit - but a long time ago I had a job as a map sales rep covering three states, providing maps to store chains, convenience stores, etc. I used to carry a small calculator to tally up sale items and figure out sales tax. My calculator broke and I had to rely on figuring that out on scratch paper and after a while I could quickly do a lot of that in my head as I worked up the customer's receipt. That really blew my mind since I've always had an aversion to math. I remember a 2nd or 3rd grade teacher sending a note home to my parents notifying them that I still counted with my fingers. Back to present day - with losing my word processor, I had a flashback of losing my calculator. Now spelling was always a long suit - but I grew accustomed to the convenience of spell-checker on my computer...this got to be mildly annoying whenever I would attempt to handwrite a quick note about something and couldn't remember how to spell a certain word. Kinda of frustrating too - cuz I would sometimes pause writing while my mind tried to figure out the correct spelling and even argue with myself over why that was so important. Picture Robby the robot from the Forbidden Planet movie when he was given an order that went counter to his programming - all the electronic mechanisms inside his paraboloidal plexiglass dome of a head were chattering and electrically arcing - Robby was immobilized....voila Yikes ! Robby has a meltdown (see it for yourselves at the 2:15mark ) I probably sound like an old fuddy duddy (maybe I am ) but I've always had this thing about being self-reliant...which goes back to a fear of letting my skill set get rusty. I'm not saying we should dump all technology - but I think we might get so use to the convenience and comfort that we lose a vital part of ourselves. My daughter and I recently re-watched the animated movie Wall-E - great movie that incorporates various topics like consumerism, waste management, our environmental impact and especially what big fat lazy slugs humans became from centuries of living on giant starliners in space (humans had to evacuate a toxic and dying earth) "passengers have degenerated into helpless corpulence due to laziness and microgravity, their every whim catered to by machinery". A more recent movie Save Yourselves - a silly sci-fi flick about a 30-something millennial couple who decide to disconnect from their internet-obsessed and superficial lives by turning off their phones for a weekend and stay at a friend's cabin in the woods. Wouldn't you know it - that's just when the earth is invaded by tribbles (or something like those fuzzy things in Star Trek season 2 episode 15). To me a very funny but poignant aspect of the film was that this couple did not know how to do anything - they had no practical skills! As entertainment goes - it's worth watching at least once - the only disappointment for me was the ending - it just didn't make sense the way they wrapped it up too quickly. My wife and I loved it though and we had a brainstorming session for about 20 minutes on how they could have made the ending better. A more recent incident in Texas brought self-reliance to the forefront of my thinking. You may have heard about the February big freeze and how most of Texas lost electrical power - some folks for days. Lots of folks experienced major damage from frozen pipes bursting. Plumbers were coming in from out of state with Texas waiving the need for a state license to handle all the problems... Did you know freezing water can exert an expanding force between 25,000 and 114,000 psi? Most copper or PVC plumbing pipes maximum pressure rating are only in the hundreds of pounds per square inch. Fortunately for us the plumbing in our home is well insulated. But our pool equipment outside did not survive. Pool equipment does have anti-freeze features - but they need power to keep the water circulating. There were cracks in the pool pumps and salt cell chlorine generator. Now the pool industry is not a necessity - since having a pool is considered a luxury. There's a lot of folks in Texas who have pools. Pool techs are swamped and backlogged - I can't even get a company to come out and give me an estimate to show my insurance company. Replacement pool equipment is scarce - companies I've called say parts are on backorder for months and months - I'd be lucky to have parts by August... As weeks went by I was getting upset watching my pool turn murky green. Years ago I have worked on pool equipment at my house and for a CEO I worked for. So, I decided to repair what I could, to at least get circulation and filtration going...and I did it - making a plumbing bypass around the cracked chlorinator and disassembling the main pump to apply marine epoxy on the biggest inside crack (on the outside it was a only a hairline crack but covering the outside crack alone did not stop the leak); a booster pump was a little easier to fix with epoxy on some hairline cracks on the outside of the pump...It's all working now - I have to hand chlorinate but the pool water is crystal clear! Knowing I still got it is a satisfying feeling. Like you said it all comes down to needs as well as preferences. While I am able to still use my skill set I prefer to handle some technical needs myself.

Thanks WordWolf, I appreciate your reply...and I'll respond to each specifically: A. that's interesting why they skipped # 9 - it makes sense... == == == B. I beg to differ on what you said: keep whatever operating system your computer came with, disregarding the updates and in lieu of that buying a new computer to stay current on latest operating systems...that doesn't seem practical to me for a few reasons: 1.) it seems wasteful like a throw-away mentality besides being more costly in the long run. why not fix or improve what you have. nothing is perfect to begin with - and absolute perfection is only a dream. 2.) some updates are very critical to security or functionality like bug fixes. Nothing is perfect; everything needs tending to from time to time - everything needs maintenance. Anytime my device alerts me of an update, I always review the notes about the update before I install it; there have been a few times I've passed on an update. For instance - I have an iPhone 7Plus and as of right now my iOS is 14.4.2 and the software display says it's up to date. Yet I have a message at the top of the settings screen that says "Finish Setting Up Your iPhone". I ignore that because it wants me to set up Apple Pay. At this point in time I don't want to do that (it involves enabling a feature to send and receive money from friends, make purchases, etc. by enrolling a debit, credit or prepaid card into "Apple Wallet".)No thanks. It's probably the overcautious nature of my security background. I tend to lean toward multiple steps to access something or purchase something - a lot of people lean more toward convenience. Do what you feel comfortable with. 3.) For computers I prefer a Windows operating system - it's what I'm use to. Windows 10 is by far the most stable version yet. (For smartphones I prefer Appple's iPhone - they have it together for securing your privacy.) == == == C. Back when I worked in security - I did find some programs and websites preferred one browser over another - in computing, native software are programs designed to run on a particular operating system - the computer code is written for a certain processor...however I think more and more web browsers are getting similar enough to each other that most of the time it doesn't matter which one you use...Furthermore I'm of the opinion most businesses want to have universal appeal for a broader market so their engineers use a cross-platform design so their stuff can be run on various operating systems. This open architecture assumes the data will be distributed and seek interoperability between different computer systems. In the security industry technological convergence is a big deal that enables different technologies to interoperate efficiently - over the years I've helped build and maintain several security central stations and numerous satellite security posts - integrating security systems, alarm monitoring stations, facility maintenance monitoring, CCTV, digital video recorders, weather stations and access control so it could all be run from a central console; by the way, I had noticed over time it got easier and easier to integrate different systems - probably because (as I suggested above) nobody wants to be a deal-breaker by saying you can only use our software with this or that system...but I'm retired so now I just go to a handful of websites and honestly for my needs any browser will do...my needs are very simple. == == == D. I can't argue with you on your choice of word processors. When I started getting alerts on my Microsoft Office 2010 that they were not going to support it after October 2020 - I freaked out and looked at not only the cost of Microsoft's latest version but also other processors like Open Office...I don't know if it's me getting cheaper in my old age or just more practical - but I tend to look at things differently now and ask myself do I really need that - and can I do it with what I've already got. Like I said in my previous post - the only cyberspace posting I do now is on Grease Spot and gmail (for my email) - and they both have spell-checkers...noting your preference for non-Windows version of anything, I take it you don't have a Windows operating system. That makes sense...I'm no IT guru and I'm no sales rep - whatever works for you, stick with it. Me on the other hand - I like the stability and reliability of Windows 10 - and now especially because of my major reset today - only Windows 10...and besides all that, I probably now use my iPhone more than my laptop. I have several photoshop apps, PDF maker, word processor, and other assorted apps on my iPhone that more than just duplicate what I could do on my laptop - many of the apps by far surpass the functionality, stability and reliability of my recently deceased apps and programs that were removed from my laptop today.

(*** this post is about my laptop running Windows 10 taking forever to boot up or launch an app ***) Hi Grease Spotters, the title of my story is Simple Pictures Are Best this is for computer users who are like me - knowing just enough about computers to get done what we need to do (for me now it's check email, shop online, check news, check Grease Spot, check out You Tube; that's it. that's all I use it for now)...well...today April 14th 2021 is a red letter day for me! I am not an IT person. I am a person who uses computers. I'm posting this for folks who have had a similar experience of loading lots of apps and programs and then having a persistent problem of a computer that is slow to boot up and takes forever to launch an app when you click on it. The solution that I will detail below, worked for me and I just wanted to say there is hope for computer simpletons like me. This may not be the right solution for you. You may have to do a little more troubleshooting and then ask the right questions in a Google search. But first here is my tale of woe... I've had this laptop since 2012 when it came with Windows 8. I eventually upgraded to Windows 10 (why did they skip # 9?). I added all kinds of apps and software for work, hobbies and games (software for programming security, access control and home theater systems, PDF maker, professional photoshop, music recording, e-publishing, about 9 one-player games ). Periodically my laptop would have fits of frustrating sloooowness. So I'd do a variety of things: a hard shutdown (just push the power button), uninstall and re-install a troublesome app, run disc cleaning software, run defragmenting program, reboot, reboot, reboot. Since I've been retired I don't need all that stuff, and lately I'm not that interested in playing games either and like I said above - it's mostly checking email, online shopping, check news, etc. A month ago when my Toshiba laptop was having a major hissy-fit I uninstalled the 9 games... - that worked for a while...the last few days it was at it again - super-duper-slow to boot up and then anything I clicked on took forever to open. I was flabbergasted and desperate! What I normally do in times like this - I use my iPhone - so I Googled "Windows 10 is slow to boot up" and one of the hits was familiar to me since I've come across it before (I'll give you the link further down). It's a shortcut on how to get Windows 10 into a repair mode and then use the reset feature. Windows 10 will automatically go into a repair mode if you consecutively turn it off 3 times as it boots up. (from Doctor Frankenstein - How I did It) press power button to turn computer on - as soon as you see the system coming onscreen you press the power button again to turn it off; do that 3 times in a row; then the fourth time you turn it back on it enters into an automatic repair mode...You'll see a message "Preparing Automatic Repair". Wait for the computer to make an automatic diagnosis of your PC...On the automatic repair screen click on the advanced options button...on the choose an option page click on "troubleshoot" - and that will get you to another option page - where you can choose the reset feature that removes all apps and programs that were not part of Windows 10, it does NOT remove any personal files or folders (like your pictures, word docs, etc.) and then it reinstalls Windows 10...it's a simple procedure - *** but I recommend you refer to a qualified tech person document instead of following my directions - I just wanted to show you how simple it is - this is the link I used 8 ways to boot Windows 10 into safe mode - and use # 2 "Interrupt the normal boot process of Windows 10 three times in a row". *** I'd advise before you reset your PC you first make a back up of your personal files/folders just in case (I stored them on a network drive and some I burned onto a CD or DVD). I did that and fortunately all my files/folders were still there after I performed the reset. So now my laptop is running great! I'm sticking with this no-frills version...Windows 10 has Microsoft Edge bundled in it - so I'm using that browser now...It doesn't have Microsoft Office - but it does have WordPad - so you might notice some mizpellhed wordz (btw I used Grease Spot's spell-checker for this post but deliberately skipped over the "mizpellhed wordz" just to see if you were paying attention...as my daughter used to say when I told her to pay attention - she'd say I'm not a tension" ) ...and keep in mind a lot of websites like gmail and Grease Spot have a spell-checker anyway (geez I just told you that! ...let me guess you're not a tension ) ...Maybe when this laptop finally croaks and I need to get a new one I might get Microsoft Office cuz I'm used to it - they no longer support the 2010 version I have...I keep in touch with some IT guys where I used to work...Anytime I need some computer help I talk to them - doing my SNL Phil Hartman caveman schtick - "I'm just a simple caveman confused by your modern ways." After talking with them over what's new and reliable - I figure my next laptop will probably be a Lenovo brand laptop with a 2TB solid state drive. ...and I now understand my son's preference for older pickups that don't have all the complicated computer stuff and sensors - they're easier to work on. One of his favorite books as a kid was "Simple Pictures Are Best". It's mine too.

yeah me too...here it's like the New York Stock Exchange only it's the Grease Spot Thought Exchange - where an investment of your 2 cents can go a long way.

that's a swing and a miss my movie is from 1997 and I said it was in same neighborhood as The Black Hole - meaning it has similar themes - actor in this picture created a gravity drive that generates an artificial black hole and they have weird experiences from that...not a favorite movie of mine...I liked the first half with the concepts and special effects - but the rest gets too gory - it's in the sci-fi horror genre

I read some more of what that person said when I clicked on your link…and I can relate to what they said – the predicament sounds familiar…for me it brought to mind a question – what follows after personal experiences and/or maturing in your faith when you find your idea of God and how to interpret the Bible differ from your church? here’s some more excerpts from that Twitter post: "Those of us who tearfully promised that we would follow Jesus anywhere eventually followed him out the door... They told us to read the Bible and take it seriously and then mocked us for becoming “social justice warriors.”... Now they’re warning us not to deconstruct to the point of meaninglessness. But they took a chisel to God until he fit in a box. They “deconstructed” the concept of love until it allowed them to tolerate sexual abuse, celebrate white supremacy, and look away from kids in cages... We took the most foundational elements of our faith to their natural conclusions. Folks who deconstruct evangelicalism aren’t drop-outs; they’re graduates." == == == == Sounds like some ex-TWI folks could have written that stuff. Rocky, thanks for another thought-provoking post that inspired me to do some online searching…I found this in a 2019 article of Forbes about a study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion that mentioned 1400 respondents who participated in a survey in a Baylor Religion Survey – two researchers Kent and Pieper analyzed the data and had some interesting findings about gender and God and who is likely to take the Bible literally…Interesting stuff but mostly not related to what I think your post is about…but near the end of the article I was struck by the researchers’ hypothesis of the exception to the rule – a subset group – which I think many ex-TWI folks could fit in too…so that part I felt did have something to do with the sentiment expressed in the Twitter posts you referenced. The last paragraph marked in bold red touches on the question I asked above…The Forbes excerpts follow – and below that is the link: "...So regardless of both denomination and gender, both men and women who had a personal attachment to God tended to view the Bible literally. But why, then, did women more often report a personal attachment? “Women are more likely [to be attached to God] because women are socialized in an American context to be more vulnerable with one another, more emotionally available, and more sharing,” Kent says. “Men tend to be socialized to be more independent, to not need other people as much.” It's the capacity for intimacy, Kent says, that allows women to form an attachment with God. There is one exception to this rule, however, Kent says. A small subset of people – men and women – had a close relationship with God and did not tend to take the Bible literally. “We're hypothesizing that these people used to be literalists, and maybe had to get away form a literalist view that doesn't jive with their view of God,” says Kent. “There are groups that want to engage and connect but feel alienated. By taking an interpretive view of the Bible, they can actually maintain that relationship with God.” from: Forbes - New Research Tells Us Who Is Most Likely To Take The Bible Literally, Feb. 2019 article

ok...next movie...what say we save some gas money and stay in the same neighborhood... ...and no it's not another Salvador Dali crucifixion painting

according to Wikipedia: "...It was the first film from Walt Disney Productions to receive a PG rating." Wikipedia - The Black Hole

It’s been ages since I’ve seen it; but after you brought it up I kinda want to watch it again...Tonto talked me into getting a pedicure with her and our daughter...after we’re done here we’ve got a couple of errands to run...when I’m back home I’ll post a movie scene - I already know what I want to do.

The Black Hole movie is a little bit cheesy - kinda talkey and maybe they didn’t know if they wanted to do a sci-fI or a ghost story or something - but I still liked the movie - Maximillian the red robot is a bada$$ and most special effects are good.

Grace – I know what you mean – I have thought the same thing myself many times…but the thing is, we are not all-knowing beings – so we are bound to make lots of mistakes. Actress Helen Mirren said something I thought was profound after winning an award (she’s won a lot of awards : Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy, Tony – so I don’t recall the occasion - but anyway she said) “If it were all truly known and planned and determined, life wouldn’t be worth living, just a giant to-do list waiting to be crossed off…” Something I wrote on another thread( see here ) got into “counterfactual thinking” which is basically how we learn from our mistakes (there’s also some links in that post of mine you might enjoy reading)…This goes hand in hand with what Helen Mirren said… so imagine if you were like an omniscient God. Nothing would take you by surprise. You are fully aware of the past, present and future. But also imagine that is you’re only superpower. You are not all powerful – you cannot perform miracles. You are not sovereign – you have no legions of angels at your command – you do not rule over anything – you cannot even control the weather - but you would be the perfect weather forecaster …and honestly you have no need for God because you are like your own God…Sound like fun? How exciting or how adventurous of a life would that be? If I were in omniscient shoes I’d probably want to help others – mostly telling them stuff like “I wouldn’t do that if I were you”…And if word got out about me being mister-know-it-all just imagine the long lines of people waiting to have an audience with me so I can advise them on what job to take, where to live, who to marry, what diseases, accidents, tragedies, and deaths to prepare for, etc…I could make lots of money in the stock market and always win big in Vegas. Since I'm not invulnerable I’d have to check my future calendar to make sure I’m never anywhere in the wrong place at the wrong time…oh and once again check my future calendar for who I’m supposed to help advise today - so big deal I'm omniscient - doesn't mean I'm not easily distracted. …hmmmm my future calendar is sort of like a giant to-do list to be crossed off as I accomplish each item…yikes – Helen Mirren was right!!!! Now how did she know all that?

This post is golden, Waysider !!!!!!! “I'm not the same person now that I was then.” Wow! There’s something to that – and I don’t think about that as often as I should…A while back I reconnected with an old friend (by phone and email – since we live several states apart now) someone who was a good friend of mine from high school. We went on to separate colleges but still hung out together. It was about two and a half years into college that I got involved with TWI – and when I started witnessing to…and inadvertently scaring off…and sometimes even writing off my non-way friends. Long story short – we did a lot of reminiscing and he got me caught up on our old circle of friends that he still stays in touch with – and of course we filled each other in on our career paths and what our kids are doing now. In one sense it was like he and I were talking about two other funny, crazy, adventurous teenagers we both knew a long time ago. One of the things I realized was that we are not static beings. We constantly go through experiences in life…we fail…succeed…adapt…explore…go through changes…we grow. Your statement intrigued me so much I did an internet search by asking “does your authentic self ever change?” and found a 2019 Psychology Today article that touched on that (actually the whole article is interesting – you’ll find the link after this excerpt): “Recognize that developing authenticity takes time. Examining our true self is a process—perhaps a life-long process—because we are ever-evolving human beings. It takes quite a while to winnow out beliefs and behaviors that no longer serve you and replace them with more authentic actions. But with some effort, you'll soon find more genuine alignment with your true self.” from Psychology Today – 20 ways to be a more authentic person == == == Your other bit of advice is also pure gold: “Don't beat yourself up over decisions you made so long ago.” A professional counselor once said basically the same thing to me…so my only question is how much do you charge?

Great post, Rocky - I'm with you on "the artifacts be preserved in museums dedicated to putting them in historical context so people now and in the future would better understand the changing times in our country...Putting twi (and other cult) symbols and artifacts in perspective for young people now and for future generations "