another spot

It seems to me, this a semantic problem, and Rainbowschild’s confusion is coming from a nonBiblical term. “Unconditional” is an expression not found in the Bible. I propose to go back to the beginning and start with the questions. Did TWI teach that God's love was unconditional? If so, were they right? Yes, they taught this as a definition to agape/agapeo. However, I haven’t run across that definition in any books I have. Thayer’s online doesn’t have it either. Were they right? You could say so, but the expression I think is misleading, hence the confusion. 1Jo 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Part of the very essence of God is He IS love. If that is His essence, it logically follows all of His acts are loving, including His acts of justice (although I think that’s hard to understand…). How could God ever not love if that is what He is??? 1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. God is the source of love. Is God's love conditional upon salvation or does He really love everyone like John 3:16 says? 1Jo 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 1Jo 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins. This point is made in I John numerous times. The proof and greatness of God’s love is it was not earned. But if His love is unconditional then does that mean that He loves everyone the same, saint and sinner alike? According to the verses above, yes. What would be the benefit in terms of God's love to be born again if He already loves you unconditionally. Well, you get eternal life for one thing. Saved from the wrath…Why does there need to be more of a benefit? For God to love you more? Way-think was along that line. Somehow we were more special than everyone else on earth, and God liked us better. We were trying to earn through works greater love. I think we can trust God to do His part. Our job is to love God and our neighbor. Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Mat 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? Mat 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so? Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. If Jesus taught to love your enemies, and to love every one, wouldn’t it be logical that reflects God’s nature and will? Consider Jesus is telling us humans to love even our enemies. Can we reasonably expect less of God? How much greater is God than we are? God is love always. God is good always. God is constant, we’re not particularly. As an exwafer, any time I get confused, I first ask myself, am I looking at a non-Scriptural term? If so, I start over. The Scripture gets much more clear if you take man's non-Scriptural expressions out of it.

Rascal: A conscience that can recognize and abhor evil is a good one, I think. I wasn’t in the wc. I didn’t personally experience some of the things you describe. I still understand the level of pain of it though. In any case, good for you that you thought it was terrible. You’re right about the betrayal. It was betrayal to teach us things that resulted in hurt in our lives and require us to do it. I’m still thinking about your post…

I’m sure He grieved with us. Psa 139:2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Psa 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted [with] all my ways. Psa 139:4 For [there is] not a word in my tongue, [but], lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Psa 139:5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Psa 139:6 [such] knowledge [is] too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot [attain] unto it. Psa 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? Psa 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou [art] there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou [art there]. Psa 139:9 [if] I take the wings of the morning, [and] dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Psa 139:10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. God will deal with all injustice done to us. Anything we know we did wrong we repent of and ask forgiveness for. And forgive ourselves. We just give it to Him and keep going. That is trusting God. IMO. The pain of twi we can look at, understand how it happened, absorb and finally accept that it did (we don’t ever have to like it), own our own participation, so we can move on and not repeat the past. At our own pace, not someone else’s. IMO.

I want to talk about feelings. In twi I learned my feelings had no value. I had retemory cards for anger, fear, and other emotions I can’t remember. These feelings weren’t regarded as proper (or in fact sin) and were supposed to go away by repeating these verses often enough. It was a form of denial, and as I exercised this denial I gave away a big part of myself and lost some of my individuality. I disconnected from my feelings because I didn’t see them as trustworthy. Reality is feelings are important. If I touch a hot object, my finger hurts and alerts me I am getting burnt. It helps me to avoid further harm. Feelings have a similar function. The emotion of guilt (conscience) alerts me I may be hurting others or myself. The emotion of anger or pain alerts me something is amiss I need to look at, often before it registers in my reason. It is an internal “ouch.” I can examine those feelings and learn from them. I can use reason and conscience to make decisions that don’t hurt my self esteem, such as lashing out. In doing this, I accept responsibility for my own feelings and take care of myself. I am not requiring someone else fix it or blaming others for my feelings. Since twi, I’ve learned my feelings are just as important as anyone else’s. I don’t have to cater to someone else’s anger. I expect others to deal with their own anger feelings toward me. In this light, I recognize a lot of error in twi. I don’t blame any feelings I have about it on twi. I look at them to rediscover my true self, my true value, and any other unfinished business I may have within. As I recognize my feelings, understand and absorb the twi experience on me personally, I empower myself to move on to a richer and better life. It doesn’t matter to me how long this journey taken, how many mistakes I made (or continue to make). It only matters to me that I do it. Just my thoughts and opinions on this subject. P. S. I wonder how much abuse occurred in twi purely on the basis of “There is therefore no condemnation.” We weren’t supposed to feel guilt or condemnation (emotional). Doing that ignores and disconnects conscience…Guess what? I just looked this up. The word for condemnation has nothing to do with emotion, but judicial sentence, or judgment in relationship to the law of sin and death. Is my memory right? Wasn’t this taught as if it were an emotion? As in, we shouldn’t condemn ourselves but recognize our freedom in Christ? If so, then freedom in Christ was equal to freedom from conscience, and skips recognition and repentance of sin (if sin is present) or any “ouch” signal to look at. As I recall, “Release From Your Prisons” was based on Jesus setting us free and a formula, how you mentally picture yourself. In essence, we were to mentally will ourselves out of our feelings, not address them or identify causes. From that, emotions that go for a period of time is defined as a prison. I disagree with that completely. Jhn 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; Jhn 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Jhn 8:33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jhn 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. These verses are not saying to observe a formula, it is really making the point that it isn’t just knowing the truth that sets a person free, but the performing of it. If memory serves, vp skipped that part and focused on mental gymnastics instead. From T-bone’s initial post on “Twi’s Sedative to the Conscience.” I've been reviewing a few threads lately and usually the same thought crosses my mind at some point while reading – how much my conscience was anesthetized while in TWI. Sometimes that thought leads me into analyzing the delivery system and the drug that quiets this inner voice. The delivery system is their modeling of "Christian living" by TWI leadership and the sedative to the still small voice is of course TWI's interpretation of the Bible…. The following is from The Vanishing Conscience by John MacArthur, page 36: "In 1984 an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery. The black box cockpit recorders revealed that several minutes before impact a shrill, computer-synthesized voice from the plane's automatic warning system told the crew repeatedly in English, "Pull up! Pull up!" The pilot, evidently thinking the system was malfunctioning snapped, "Shut up, Gringo!" and switched off the system. Minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain. Everyone on board died. When I saw the tragic story on the news shortly after it happened, it struck me as a perfect parable of the way modern people treat the warning messages of their consciences."—T-bone. I don’t remember us talking about specific doctrines that led to this. I remember talking more about defining conscience. (I don’t want to take the time right now to read the entire thread.) Either way, most assuredly, the doctrines encouraged sedating conscience. These are doctrines coming from someone who did not reflect much conscience his life, and who had a willingness to commit all manner of abuse without any apparent (to me) remorse. The question was asked earlier how vp could do what he did. Evidently, his belief system was worked around making it ok, even Scripturally. Then he presented it to us as knowledge not known since the first century. I’m pretty sure they knew what sin was in the first century. What he taught us was his own feel good rationalization. How to sin and not feel bad about it. How to avoid accepting responsibility for your thoughts, feelings and actions by playing with your own head. How to accept that kind of behavior from others…(obey your leadership and submit), and if you have a problem with it, play with your own head to cope with it. A big part of this system was called “dealing with the adversary.” So if you have guilt and condemnation, resist the adversary and he will flee. The emotions of conscience was identified as coming from the devil and not thinking according to “the Word.” As to why we put up with spiritual abuse so long, it was because our belief system taught us to ignore all warning signals until we could no longer hear them, and when we did, we thought they came from the adversary.

Lol. Raze or shorten??? Or should they be allowed to grow stage by stage from the inside out without compulsion or cutting from the outside? All things cut should be evenly distributed. I think. Let’s see now, 1500 feet equals 1500 individual eyebrows. So many eyebrows, so little time… ---------------------- My step-dad is a wonderful man. He really is. Kind, gentle, patient, highly educated (PHD in history of science), but ultra conservative. Not long after he married my mom, he was carrying some boxes to the garage. For some odd reason, he got it into his head to jump over the steps. This was really out of character. Unfortunately, there was a wire going across the raised garage door. He jumps, and instead of landing, finds himself hung by his nose on this wire (which uhmm…is kinda large), feet off the ground, and the stack of boxes still in his hands. To this day, there is a little “V” in the wire of the garage door…

No, my first thought was: have no fellowship with over-sized insects. Catch, kill, and destroy. Cast it out. Today I will see you in paradise. For this purpose you were paired. As far as a cutting ministry, right cutting and attention to detail is important. That’s my main belief. Maybe I’ll just start a new cult. Pay me $.35 or get your tires slashed. I just need 1500 feet. Lol. The interesting thing about the shaved eyebrows: They were so symmetrical!!!

They grow them big in Spain, or reasons to stand on your desk at work I was the secretary for the flying club. The office was located in a large field next to the flight line. There was a sizeable gap under the front door. The two flight instructors and I were getting some airplane parts ready to mail when a giant millipede nonchalantly wandered in under the door. It was sixteen inches long, and four inches wide. We had old green shag carpet, so it looked like a sea creature as it walked, waving along. It’s back was a shiny, coffee brown, and its legs were a dull taupe resembling fur since there was so many of them. In no hurry, it sauntered on in, occasionally raising its head to peer around. By that time, I was on top of my desk. The trick was catching it as it proved to be extremely fast when pursued. For a while it was sheer chaos. Each instructor was trying to catch it, would get it cornered, and it would race away in a sort of ruffled motion on the carpet, easily outrunning the instructors. While all this is going on, we were trying to figure out what they were going to do with it even if they could catch it. Grab it with their hands? We had some discussion about whether or not they are poisonous. I said I didn’t care. I am picturing it climbing up my leg some day if they didn’t catch it. I told them the choices were to catch it or find another secretary. At one point, a flight instructor had it caught under his foot. The two ends on either side began waving around and feeling his pant leg, unconcerned and curious. The cushion of the shag carpet prevented him from being able to squash it, even though he was heavy. We were further impeded by a lack of weapons. The other instructor did locate a hammer. I grabbed a pair of scissors from my desk, which I handed over still unwilling to climb down. While the millipede was pinned down, the other instructor cut off the back side of it. The two halves started to run, both instructors in pursuit. Eventually they got it outside and finished it off with the hammer. Brutal, I know. An insect that large really should be classified as an animal, I think. For the remainder of my employment there, I did keep an eye on the floor area by the front door. Frequently.

The haircut incident. One of the ways I used to save money was giving the boys hair cuts myself with clippers. On this particular day, I employed a new method I had recently observed a barber use. Instead of using scissors to cut the front, I used the clippers. It really was much faster. Later on we were watching a movie while all the boys were upstairs. Jeremy came down. We had been talking awhile when I noticed his eyebrows looked funny. The outside parts were gone. It dawned on me I must have shaved them off with the clippers. We all started cracking up. Brian came downstairs to see what was so funny. As I was telling him, I noticed his eyebrows were completely gone. By now we were really laughing, so Michael comes downstairs to see what’s going on. I could barely tell him, but did notice the inside of his eyebrows were gone. He was fifteen at the time, and he saw no humor in this at all. He checked himself out in the mirror and his face turned red with anger. He didn’t say a word however. I assured him I could make him look normal with an eyebrow pencil, and they would grow back. Michael’s friend comes downstairs. We tell him all about it and everyone is laughing except Michael. I pull myself together, put on a straight face and say, “would you like a haircut?” “No, my mom cuts mine,” he said with a sober face and fear in his eyes.

Ok, a few more Spain tales. Surprisingly, a lot of Americans had this idea that even though in a foreign country, the Spanish were somehow obligated to speak English. They would try speaking English slowly and louder as if that would somehow make them understand English. Really their attitude was a bit arrogant. I ended up going to a Spanish bank with a cocky captain. He thought he had a great command of Spanish. He didn’t. He walks up to the clerk and says, “Damelo dolor.” That means give me pain. It is in the command form which makes it rude in Spanish culture. He thought he was asking for American dollars. She looked at him like he was from Mars. _________ My husband was a computer engineer. He worked on A-waks software. The pilots had no conception of software and an arrogant attitude. They were complaining. My husband said, “Your problem is you are not rotating the reels of tape. You need to rotate them every 24 hours or you will have bit sag. The bits drop down to the bottom.” An order went out from the top to rotate the reels every 24 hours. Eventually this came to the attention of the head of the software department who knew of course this was bogus. He got reprimanded a bit with numerous chuckles. ______________ We got a call in the middle of the night. Another full of himself officer. The printer wasn’t working. My husband said, “the problem is you are in O-F-F mode. “What does that mean?” The officer said. “Turn the printer on…”

Yeah, but you have to have exactly 35 cents to get off those roads!!!! Fifty cents won't do. A dollar won't do. That's the price you have to pay.

On the way to the Rock one year. We passed a sign with a picture of a car and little squiggle marks underneath. My husband says, “Do you know what that means?” “I dunno, you tell me.” “Beware of tire eating snakes.” Further down the road: “There are 750 people there.” “I’ll bite. How do you know?” “The sign says 1500 feet.” We get to Chicago. We weren’t aware or prepared for the toll exits. We exit and find we need $.35 to get off. It had to be exact. WE DIDN’T HAVE IT. There are these terrible looking, tire slashing things ahead and no way out. It was rush hour traffic and a bunch of cars behind us. They are honking. They are mad. We are scrabbling for this money. My middle son thinks he might have it in his suitcase. He gets in the back and sure enough finds it. Sigh…

Lol. What was he thinking???

And another Spain tale: We had an orange tabby cat. He really, really liked attacking the legs of my two year old. My son didn’t like it. One day, he grabbed a couch pillow, hid it behind his back, and advanced toward the cat. “Here kitty, kitty,” he called…

Another Spain tale: We were living in Air Force housing. My husband was at work and my oldest (16) and I were watching “Psycho” late at night. We were at the point where the guy was going after the girl in the shower with a very large knife when a sound a lot like an explosion went off in the kitchen. We jumped several inches in the air from the couch. Investigation revealed the hot water pipe broke under the kitchen sink. Massive amounts of water was pouring out. I couldn’t figure out where to turn off the water. I called “housing.” By the time they got there, I had about 6 inches of water in the kitchen flooding into the rest of the house. So here I am in a nightgown, the house is flooding, and military knocking on my door, when my two year old enters the room. He was wearing underwear, my pink high heeled shoes, and a red-orange rain hat. Why exactly he choose these items to wear on this occasion I couldn’t say.

While I lived in Spain (three blocks from the beach), I had the opportunity to taste fresh shark. There is one bone in the middle and that’s all. It has very little fish taste. The Spanish cook it sautéed in butter, with onions, garlic, and tomatoes. The shark itself is cut into 1 inch thick steaks. We would buy it and other fish from the markets fresh caught. These are open markets with tents. You can find skinned rabbits, sheep’s heads, all kinds of things (I didn’t try either of those. Yuck). The stench on hot days is hideous. I made the mistake my first trip of trying “café con leche” (milk with espresso so powerful you could use it for rocket fuel) at a restaurant. We also got churruso, which is doughnut dough squeezed out in tubes, fried, and dipped in sugar. Between the extreme caffeine and the smell of the market, I got sick as a dog. I got about 15 feet into the place, took one look at a skinned sheep’s head (eyes still in), and left. If you’re interested: a main dish there that is culturally the proof of a good cook is tortilla, which is not the bread type of Mexico. What it is: dice raw potatoes, combine with beat up eggs, garlic, onions, and butter. Put in an iron skillet and bake. Cut like a pie and serve. Yummy!! It is served in almost all restaurants. One of our favorite pastimes was to walk to the beach, order a pitcher of Sangria, and drink it while the kids swam at the beach. This Sangria is in the category of nectar of the gods as far as I am concerned and nothing like it can be found in the States. Normally a pitcher split between two gives a slight buzz. Mmmm….on one occasion, we stood up after our usual pitcher and almost fell down. Drunk as skunks. We were glad we walked and didn’t have to drive home. The walk was challenging. Really, really difficult.

And a nice sounding label for two year old, school yard bully behavior. Also known as rationalization. Wordwolf, good one.

As June Cleaver said, " Ward, you really were hard on the Beaver last night."---Sweetpea lol.

Ok. Thanks, Suda. The sentence confused me. Eyesopen and I are working on the false prophet thing. She's done more work on it than I have. She has a fantastic post on Romans 1 on the Spiritual Abuse thread, explaining it relates to people who hold or suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Turns out the chapter has to do with people who knew the truth at one time and turned away from it, and what happens in their lives when they do this. I do appreciate your posts, although I am a real late comer to the thread. I for one have a very difficult time seeing anything positive from twi. It really takes effort to do so. I did like your description of water on a spider web. I was thinking along similar lines last nite. I also thought about now that I am away from twi, I actually use some of the resources I learned to separate the chaff from the wheat of twi. I am inclined to think part of the healing is arriving at a truthful, realistic, and balanced view of it. With an open mind.....in order see where God was at work and where He was not. That seems to be the real confusion. Identifying the roles. I did this, God did this, the devil did this. The thing is, vp did abuse women. He really was into power and control which is emotional abuse. It takes a certain type of person to do so. Meaning their conscience doesn't bother them to use others for their own satisfaction. It isn't something a person turns on or off like a light switch. Conscience isn't a matter of sinning one minute and being right on the next. It is a major character flaw for which is spiritual reasons. Now, whether that is a matter of being a false prophet or someone who has turned away from God after knowing the truth is another question. Also, can a false prophet have ever known the truth. These are questions Eyes and I are working on. I can see a case for either leading to idolatry based on Eye's Romans 1 post.

Suda my dear (and I use that expression in all sincerity and from my heart), My questions were really rhetorical…What was the ultimate result, as opposed to the immediate? The big picture, so to speak. Dealing with twi is really confusing, difficult, and takes time. Sometimes a lot of time. I also think different ones of us got sucked into it in various parts of it in varying degrees. One reason I think it is hard to come to a consensus one the subject. I guess the real question is not so much did I or you practice idolatry, but did twi promote it? I think they did. I agree love God love my neighbor were high priorities with me too all along. But with a lot of introspection I see twi doctrine and belief systems really set me back on those lines to a degree. I didn’t see that over night either.

“P. S. I realize this post will anger and hurt some posters and many lurkers. Please know that I would not have posted it if I did not feel compelled to do so.—Suda” What do you mean by that statement? Even the devil can transform himself into an angel of light, and just because someone speaks truth at times doesn’t mean it is inspired of the true God or that it is true light. Even devils know the Bible. And even vp taught the value of a counterfeit is the nearness to the genuine. Without some truth deception isn’t possible. True statements or teaching can certainly lead a person to believe the teacher has God’s endorsement at that moment in time. That is not necessarily an accurate conclusion. How would it be possible to deceive even the very elect without some truth and perhaps even a lot of it? Overall, did twi teach a true respect for God? Or was it based on taking the Lord’s name in vain (assigning God’s name and endorsement for what He did not endorse, such teaching the Word like it hadn’t been known that he stole from others, snow storms that didn’t exist et al) ego, and idolatry? Did it lead us toward Jesus or away? (Absent Christ). Did it help us love others or did we manifest more hardheartedness than we did to start with? Did it lead us to freedom or bondage? Did we end up without even a basic understanding of what it means to not rely on our own human effort? (See Gal 3 and bewitching). Did we get better or worse at basics? Or did we have to leave and start all over to understand even these things? Was one of the first things you returned to love God and love your neighbor? If so, why do you think that happened? Could it be you were led away from it? If so, what does that tell you? The acid test of a false prophet is whether or not the end result is idolatry. All the analysis in the world doesn’t alter that one simple fact. It is NOT whether or not they taught some truth. Even in this situation, of course we can benefit from what was truth. If you want to understand vp and twi, you have only one question to answer. Did you practice idolatry to any degree while in twi as a direct or indirect result of what you were told and taught?

I got involved with twi because I wasn’t satisfied with mediocrity and vagueness. I wasn’t satisfied to think going to church on Sunday is enough and measure my “righteousness” accordingly. Pro 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; Pro 2:2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] apply thine heart to understanding; Pro 2:3Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, [and] liftest up thy voice for understanding; Pro 2:4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as [for] hid treasures; Pro 2:5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. Pro 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding. Jesus often confronted the false religion of his day and time, teaching the difference between what was genuine and what was counterfeit. Ok, so I spent some time in a false, abusive religion. I have processed in my own mind what was counterfeit about it. That puts me in a good position to perceive the genuine with greater clarity. Twi was just one step among many. It wasn’t the end, and the song isn’t done playing yet.

Nice, well thought out posts….!!! “Our ignorance or denial of God's Solution to this misperception (which of course is Jesus Christ, who suffered so we wouldn't have to) ... our rejection of this Solution is/was based in the distancing that TWI did, when they practically ignored the Gospels and barely touched on any information about Jesus. The focus was elsewhere, such as "Jesus Christ is not God", Mary was not a virgin, the Gospels are part of the Old Testament, etc. These are/were diversions away from any emphasis on the liberation offered by Christ. Had they taught us about Jesus to the degree that they taught us about the manifestations or the devil spirit realm ... we would have recognized our own God-given FREEDOM, and we would have been outathere. But no, we were fed the so-called "Word", which was really the word of the leadership disguised as the Word of God. And they said, "the Word of God is the Will of God".—Shifra That should be framed and hung on a wall…(borrowing a phrase from Rascal…) It’s almost if not more interesting to consider what they didn’t teach as well as what they did. How about not taking the Lord’s name in vain? Oh yeah, the O. T. is for our learning. Well I for one feel much better now. Here’s what’s weird. I thought I felt just fine when I started the thread. I thought I had a little unfinished business was all, and I really couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I understand now, and the result is I have direction to start looking at the things that really are important that I missed in twi. Light is much better than darkness… Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isa 5:21 Woe unto [them that are] wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Isa 5:22 Woe unto [them that are] mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Isa 5:23Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Isa 5:24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, [so] their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. I think that pretty well sums up the ministry of a false prophet. The genuine good is sweet, not bitter.

External vagina? I don’t think I want to know what that is, and I darn sure don’t want to see it. There is good reason for covering some things up…imo. Does anyone remember the movie, “Everything you Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask?” (Drat, I can’t remember if you put a movie title in parentheses or underline. I think it’s underline.) Anyway, there was one scene where a giant boob was traveling across the landscape. It was larger than a sixteen wheeler. Everyone was running from it in panic. Maybe lcm should hook up with Woody Allen and make a movie with a giant vagina swallowing up trees and rocks. He could prance around in tights and deliver us from it (with prayer and fasting...gotta fit into those tights somehow...). Just a thought.

Glad you got something from it, Dot. I’m in full agreement with you that taking the Lord’s name in vain is quite a thing. Yes it does add another dimension. Absolutely. Love you , Sis.

“In TWI, I got it mixed up so many times: ignoring things in my past that were within my control, that would have made a difference if I responded this way or that - while believing I had power over things beyond my control…just spinning my wheels…”—T-bone. "Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." There was one particular event in my life hurt me in a profound way. I was in a deep depression. I came across this prayer by accident, and changed my thinking. I realized it was time to quit fighting with it in my mind, quit being mad about it, and accept the fact it was something I couldn’t change. I quit being depressed after that and was truly able to move on. I couldn’t alter the past event, but I could change my attitude and my perception of it.