Twinky

Hey, Beautiful, have an absolutely tremendous birthday. You sure are fun to know!

Got taken to a Salvation Army presentation last night, a sort of nativity story with music and the nativity cast members played by the Junior Band and a choir, sorry, songsters, at the front. All very well until the MC for the evening turned round and indicating the songsters (all in the SA uniform) and said, let's thank the Corps for their hard work this evening... Brainfreeze and chills up the spine for quite some little time after that...

I like to keep a journal at specific times. I note “activities” in a diary (one liners, about, perhaps, places I visit). But my thinking is done with a journal. It helps to crystallize what’s going on and see direction. As has been said, we were required to maintain a journal in rez. Sometimes it was very hard – too much to do, too little time to do it. Sometimes it just records the myriad activities of that day (or some of them). But I always tried to look at what I had learned, or been challenged in, that day. Some of the entries (I looked at some of my journals recently) are about things that are laughable – oh, the things that they got us wound up about in rez! How hard we all tried to “be our best” and to “do God’s will” (ie, whatever activity, however bizarre, in rez) . I wonder why I didn’t just take it a bit more laid back (oops, not a good choice of expression, but I don’t mean in that way!) or just tell ‘em they were being daft . Some of the posts record the good times (and there were good times) and fun activities, that I had forgotten about. We were told, things will happen in rez and you won’t know or understand why at the time. It might be ten years down the road that you realise why something happened. Well, that ten years is up and passed. And yeah, I am coming to some interesting realisations. Those journals might be worth reviewing, if I can get past the annoyance at the pettiness of some things that happened. If nothing else – how things should not be done. In the last few months, I have gone through an immense period of head- and heart-healing and great blessing, and the current journal records that. I don’t want to forget this truly awesome time. Sometimes, my journal entry might just be a copy of an email to or from somebody, or a post I made on GSC (which has been very healing) or something I saw on GSC with my own comments in the margin. When time allows, it’s nice to sit down with a pen and a blank sheet of paper and say, okay, what did I learn today? Sometimes nothing is in my mind until the pen hits the paper and then I might write quite a lot, thoughts, emotions, motives, excitement, discouraging bits, good bits, bad bits, reflections, how someone helped me, or I helped someone - but really it’s (in my mind) quietly talking things over with God. And he often gives me a bigger picture on something. Very calming and settling. It’s quiet time with me and God. Perhaps that’s how Paul felt when he wrote his epistles (not that my scrawlings are on that level). It’s not the “you must” from in rez but the delight in seeing how my life has improved so very much lately. I want to capture that great joy. It is soooo different from the bottom of the deep dark cold well where I lived (call that living??) before I got healed. I demanded the restitution from Job 42 and – oh Lordy – have the windows of heaven opened! Also in my journal are specific things I want or need: like my new job (start on Monday, yippee ). I wrote out my “wish list” in the back of the journal a few months ago, and just happened across it a couple of weeks ago when I knew my employer was going to offer me the job. No prizes for guessing that every single thing on the “wish list” was encompassed in the new job. And some extras. Share what’s happened? You bet. Share the actual handwritten words on the page? Never!

oops!

I never believed JC=G before TWI and I don’t now. I have had many good friends over the years who think I am completely deluded and they pray for me to believe JC=G (!). This has been from several friends who do not know each other. They do, however, deeply love God and do their best to abide by what he says (as they understand it). It is fair to say that God has worked bigtime in their lives. You can see it in the blessings in their lives, and how things they pray for do happen (apart from my “conversion”!). They have meekness and tenderness for God in their hearts and are willing to change their minds as they grow in grace. As far as I know, these people pray to God (the Father) and not to God the Son, or God the HS – or they have never actually turned their minds to who or what they are praying to. Or maybe it’s the lot of them?? It is also fair to say that God has worked bigtime in my life and in the lives of others who I know do not believe JC=G. You can see it in the blessings in our lives, and how things we pray for do happen. These people also have meekness and tenderness for God in their hearts and are willing to change their minds as they grow in grace. From this, the conclusion seems inevitable that to honor God and do one’s best to observe what he says to the best of one’s ability is all that is required. And God is not particularly bothered if we don’t believe correctly about JC – maybe a little miffed, but not enough to refuse to bless his kids. It’s not that big a deal to God or to JC. Perhaps that’s where “grace” covers. I am pondering this and reading other materials outside of TWI publications. There are some good discussions in Doctrinal. Don’t have any answers – just know that God looks on the heart and seeks to bless his kids and, heck, we all believe something wrong, none of us has a completely complete knowledge of God. T-Bone - this kinda ties in with what you said. You were posting while I was writing it:

Ex10, you appal me. Thought you had better taste. How can ANYONE enjoy those dreadful mushy peas? (ducking for cover!) Tom, recipe is In the Kitchen/Leftovers

Shepherd’s pie (added by request) This is the archetypal “left-overs” meal. The only essentials are the meat and the mashed potato topping. Traditionally the meat is left-over lamb (hence the “shepherd” part of the name, but it works equally well with other meats, eg, beef. The recipe is very flexible and quantities and cooking times can be to suit. If the meat is thoroughly heated, the potato can just be piled on top and you can finish it under the grill/broiler. Shepherd’s pie 8-12 oz cooked meat 1 oz dripping or fat 1 onion 2 tomatoes Good pinch mixed herbs Seasoning ¼ to ½ pint stock/brown sauce/gravy (dep on personal preference) 1 lb mashed potatoes 1 oz butter/margarine Method: Cut meat into neat pieces or mince up. Heat dripping or fat. Fry the finely-chopped onion in the fat for 3 mins Add the skinned tomatoes and the meat. Heat together for 3 mins Add stock/sauce – the amount depends on how firm or soft you like the mixture. Put into a pie dish and cover with the mashed potato. Fork the mashed potato over or pipe it – you don’t want a smooth layer, but it should be slightly rough-looking with little peaks. Dot with the butter or margarine, to help it to brown. Bake for 35-40 mins @ 375-400 F / Gas mark 5-6 until top is crisp and brown. Variations: • Sprinkle top with a little grated cheese (not too much) instead of butter. • Add a carrot to the meat mixture (NB this is not a “meat and veg” pie so don’t overdo the vegs • For lamb, add mint, tarragon and/or basil. • For beef, try a little mustard or a small pinch of curry powder instead of herbs. If you substitute pieces of fish for the meat, you get Fisherman’s pie

Hi Tom, welcome to Europe! Take three shepherds, marinate for two days in brown ale, mince up with onions, peas and overcooked carrots, and ... Just joking. No harm intended to any human being. It's a left-over lamb dish (hence the shepherds). Will post something tomorrow on the main thread In the Kitchen.

Okay you Brits. There's a topic in Open / In the Kitchen about regional dishes. When you're brought up with a particular kind of food, it's hard to think what's unique about what you're used to. And of course in the UK there are also regional differences. So let's have our own sub-topic on this one. Specialties: Roast beef and Yorkshire pud Fish and chips Processed peas Toad in the hole Welsh: Laver bread Bara Brith Scottish: Haggis Please, nobody mention black pudding (yeuk).

Chas: All good stuff, yum especially the Yorkshire (batter) puds! So did you also eat laver bread (seaweed bread, for Americans) and bara brith? Christmas dinner for us was also usually roast beef. With Yorkshire pud. And English mustard (very hot) or Dijon mustard (for those who like it more mellow). And horseradish sauce, if you want to blow the top of your head off and steam clean the sinuses (Linda Z: nothing too bland about that!!). My great grandfather was apparently a big fan of beetroot - cooked and eaten like any other root vegetable, with a meal and not just part of a salad. This did not pass into family food history. Actually it's quite nice like that, but beetroot takes so long to cook that it's scarcely viable.

Did you know that the most popular dish in Britain now (according to lots of "surveys") is said to be - curry!And Britain has spawned a number of curry-type dishes that are unique to Britain, not known in their original cultures. And anyway, it's what you do with the meat and spuds that matters. Brits aren't known by their French friends as "les rosbifs" (the roast beefs) for nothing! Now... freshly picked runner beans, steamed, straight off the plant... with or without butter and with or without black pepper... mmm-mmm. Cod (in crispy batter) and chips (french fries). Not the mushy peas, though (yeuk). Toad in the hole, anyone? With bubble'n'squeak?

We all missed the elephant in the room, folks. What about these words: "the way" ? Might be used perfectly casually - "Can you tell me the way to [K-Mart/the pool/the next town...]" or "What's the best way to [do this job/handle this problem/pay for this item...]" Still sometimes makes me do a double take and look carefully at whoever says it. And then it's, "Mind, come back here!!" (to quote somebody dear -not- to our hearts) so that I can actually pay attention to what's being asked and not freeze for a few seconds with eyes large and defensive, while Waybrain takes over temporarily - firstly, wondering if the person asking had used the "proper" terminology.

Happy birthday, and thanks for all you do in the GSC.

Invite him home with you for a cup of coffee. You will just carelessly have left your computer up and running with Grease Spot Cafe on screen with some relevant article (say, about some marriage ruined by TWI involvement). You will casually invite him to pick up something from near the screen... ... and he'll probably run screaming from your house pursued (in his opinion) by every devil spirit in the area. Well. Maybe something like that will be worth a try. :unsure: Hope they can sort things out between them and escape with their marriage intact.

Well, there's always Sue, Grabbit & Runn and a real firm I came across - Crook & Co (you'd think a lawyer would change his name by deed poll or something!)

Sticky Toffee Pudding (This is a totally weird looking recipe, especially the bit about making the sauce. But "stick" with it!) The recipe is pretty good natured and flexible in the amounts. For Americans, please note 1 oz is about 25g and 500ml is about 22 oz liquid, rather more than a US pint. For the sponge: 100g dark muscovado sugar 175g Self Raising flour 125ml full fat milk 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla extract (I never bother) 50g unsalted butter For the sauce: 200g dark muscavado sugar 25g unsalted butter in blobs 500ml boiling water Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5/190deg C and butter a 1 1/2 litre (3 pint?) capacity pudding dish. Combine 100g sugar with flour in large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring jug, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour over sugar and flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. Put into dish. Sprinkle over the 200g sugar and dot with butter. Pour over the boiling water and transfer carefully to the oven. Set timer for 45 minutes, though pudding may need 5 or 10 minutes more. Top of pudding should be springy and spongy when it's cooked, underneath is a rich sticky sauce. ================================================ Comment: You will need a fairly large dish as the water on top stands proud before it's cooked; and the mixture rises quite a lot after cooking. We made this with chopped up dates mixed into the sponge mixture, which added a really delicious flavour. No doubt other fruits (sultanas?) or perhaps nuts could be added to give extra interest to the flavour. The vanilla essence could be substituted for coffee or other essence to complement other fruits and the taste of the sticky toffee sauce.

Okay, in rez sometimes for breakfast we had "5 grain" or "7 grain", a sort of porridge. I loathe "ordinary" oatmeal porridge, but I LOVED the seven grain. Anybody got a recipe that I can play with?

Good advice, Mark. I was M&A’d ages ago over … nothing; a bit of vindictive aggression from someone who is still in. Spent a long time out. Now discovered this place, where I have PERMISSION TO THINK (singing and dancing again ). Nowadays if it says VPW on the label I’m simply not interested. On reflecting on PFAL, what appears to be good about it is that lots of it was not devised by VPW but almost all of it simply copied by him. As such, I now no longer have a difficulty in accepting what seems good to me about it. As for JCOP and JCNG (and JCOPS), if these are VPW products – no thanks. However as research team products done largely by people who did actually seem to understand Greek and Hebrew, that puts a different complexion on these works. Or if they also are plagiarised, what are the credentials of the author whose work is plagiarised? That’s why I started this thread. I can hardly bear to read KJV (especially that which went through TWI with me) and have now collected various other versions but what I most enjoy at the moment is The Message. I go through long periods where I don’t read much at all in any Bible but just mull over what I have studied over many previous years, fitting it together perhaps differently and perhaps not, and quite often pondering in the light of some thread currently under discussion in GSC (in any section). Meditating in the scriptures is a good thing to do; reading (any version) can be quite simply Works. Some contributors to GSC offer quite different perspectives – eg, Abigail offers the Jewish perspective and her posts often point to something quite interesting and which simply NEVER got an airing in TWI but nonetheless sheds important light on the culture from which such-and-such an incident springs. Other posters offer other input. I have revived pre-TWI friendships with other Christians and enjoy visiting their churches with them. I work with a Serb; she describes the services at different of her churches that she attends. I quite fancy going for a look. Some parts of other organisations’ services are to be appreciated; others are simply baffling – but if it helps them, why not? One thing I do know: my relationship now with God is better, purer and more loving than I can remember in years. Not that he has changed, but I have. And He isn’t squashed into a box now.

Hey, you learned the language well from LCM (perhaps somebody should post that on the MySpace bit - I'm not going to). Just so long as you haven't picked up his other habits...

Dan, I'm a serious habituee of such places. I have managed to get myself locked into one public library on at least two occasions, perhaps more (I get so engrossed in whatever I picked up that I simply don't hear the calls announcing that the library is closing) - the first time I panicked a little but then a late leaving staff member escaped just before me and I found the secret switch hidden behind the potted plant. My reading matter became seriously curtailed in the TWI years (read the bible and the prescribed works and little else). Now I am healing I can read and think about what I'm reading.

I find it interesting to look at news reports and remove emotive and provocative verbs (in particular) and substitute more bland ones: (eg) local health chief admits ... (probably something quite innocuous) - becomes local health chief says/comments/.... The perspective on some of the more outrageous articles out there changes dramatically.

((Tears running down my cheeks - LOL - LO V V L)) ((People looking at me strangely))

Somebody here missed the Prisons without Bars and the Spiritual Elitism threads!Military vets probably grumbled like heck about some of their orders, even as they fulfilled them. In TWI if you grumbled about orders, you would get at best a face melt and put in the spiritual brig, where some have spent a very long time. Some were dishonorably discharged or shot at dawn, ie M&A. It's always good to respect anybody who seriously stands for anything. You can respect their commitment without having to respect what they stood for.

Ex10: However did you know that the other dessert at our Sunday meal was - Sticky Toffee Pudding?? I will get the recipe from my girlfriend and post it. Perhaps in the Kitchen section. Look out for it in the next few days.

Just a thought... I'm a human being. I have a cat. My cat understands me when I call her (whether she obeys is another matter). She also makes an assortment of noises at me and I know what they mean. Lots of people have dogs. Dogs appear understand instructions, ie human words, better than cats. People understand their dogs' yips, yaps, growls, whines, etc also. I don't speak cat-ese or dog-ese. But we understand each other. Without going all "natural realm" or "spiritual realm" - ain't we talking about completely different things communicating perfectly adequately? Sure God can speak to natural man. He can do this directly, or indirectly by means of his book. Has to be true - else how could we mere humans *ever* know?