socks

Study groups like yours are great for discussion. Everyone contributes. I was in a group that studied the gospel of John, last year. Parables seem to inevitably generate lively discussion. That's what they're designed to do, they say something is like something else. The kingdom of heaven is like...How is it like that? Why? What's Jesus saying, what's He mean, what's that mean to me? These are all questions that will be personalized by the hearer. Parables don't say "this IS exactly like THAT". The comparisons are loose and don't seem to make sense sometimes when they're screwed down tight and in fact they may generate more questions than answers in discussion. Steadman's beat on the mustard tree isn't that off kilter, in context. Comparing the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed growing, with birds in it's branches, isn't exactly the clear cut image of a great and glorious tree that one might expect of the "kingdom of heaven". Jesus was being...hmmmmmmm...it reads like it was meant to generate thought in the listener. :)

What they hey makes an excellent point - $**T stinks, wherever it comes from. Having a politician blow the whistle on misappropriated funds and spending - isn't that a little like Howdy Doody calling George Bush a dumb puppet? But I also agree with shazthedancer - it's about accountability. Why should it be okay for any of these geezers? Religion is the best deal going though - just ask the Pope. Money, freebies, no-taxes. It's the best definition of "vow of poverty" you can get. You don't actually OWN anything, you just have the ACCESS to anything you need. Plus, you get to be a Big Cheese, make people happy, laugh, feel good! What's not to like?

I...see.

Personal opinion-wise, I like Joyce Meyers, to an extent. She's kinda like the little engine that said "I can, I can". I consider anyone who is financially successful in preaching suspect. I don't consider Joyce Meyers a "preacher" though, or a true "spiritual leader" in Christianity. She's a seemingly decent person who's running a successful business. I'm not discounting wealth an outcome of preaching, but I don't really see that those who taught, spoke for God or said they did, or "preached" in the bible, were ever wealthy to the tune that "preachers" often hum today. They clearly needed better financial advice. (the quoted record about Jesus, implying he drank and ate in ways that were inappropriate is a gross misrepresentation of what that verse means, but that doesn't stop people from using it to make excuses for all manner of bad behavior). David was wealthy but he wasn't a preacher, he was a King. Before that he was a shepherd of his father's flocks. I can see the religious people, like prophets, of the O.T. doing alright by themselves in different ways but hardly to the extent that the successful Televangelist of today lives. It's unseemly and uncharacteristic of someone who considers themselves a Christian leader to amass huge amounts of personal wealth when the world is full of the poor and dying. A simple case can be made that it's immoral for one person to always have more than they need when others have nothing. That might sound very "60's", very idealistic and vaguely evil. Can't a person work and have what they want? Of course. It works out if I compare a Christian Leader who becomes wealthy off their religious service to say, a CEO who's primary purpose in work is to turn a profit for their company, investors, shareholders, etc. That's the crux of it - the CEO, CFO or COO can honestly say, "I'm running a business here and the purpose is to make money, as much as I can for this company. I'll do it honestly and as humanely as possible but the goal here is to make lots of money." Their service is to the profit. A Christian Leader who takes the stage under the cover of the Name of God isn't giving their service for the money, they're doing it for God, and to further His purposes and profit. I guess some Christian Leaders will say, well, part of God's purpose is to make me wealthy, what's wrong with that? My impression is it speaks to the character of the person and the depth of their relationship with their work if they keep it. I'm all for people doing well, having what they need and enjoying life. But when religion and business mix, it's a bust. Making money for personal gain off the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is wrong, because it's not our money when it comes in, it's "Gods" money, earned by the service of Jesus Christ. Writing books and walking around on a stage talking about what someone else did - what's that really worth? But yes, I do appreciate some of what I've heard from Joyce Meyers, she says some good things and seems to want to help others have a good life.

It's heavy alright. I ended up usin' the fretted bass more second half, as it was a little easier for me to get in the "pocket" on, and keep on the right chord changes on songs I wasn't that familiar with. Plus, it doesn't weigh a ton. :) But that smooth vibe of the fretless is niiiice.

Dunno, Chatty. I let them know I was available, and could drop in again. That gig might turn into a regular one for them, and it was close by, so it might turn up again. (Now that I know the style and some of the tunes) WS-took a Fender Bassman bottom, and a Sunn Concert Lead top, for amplification. It has two inputs, which I used for a Fender Jazz Fretless (4 string) with flatwounds, and a "No name" 4 string fretted bass I've put a Fender bridge on, that has round wound strings on it. It's about 20 years old but plays well, and not as heavy as a Fender. Took a Boss Floor tuner. I like that tight "be the bass" feel and play with a 2 finger style, although I have to be careful or I get REAlly sore fingertips. Use some Xtra Heavy pick, teardrops, for some of it. Like I said, I adopted bass to get work 'back in the day' and have come to like it, but it's definitely a second-instrument thing. I just get really moved by that low down X-rated grit on the spit sound of a bass with a good rhythm section.

Hang in, hoping he fares well - he certainly can although it might take a little time. There's only one of your Dad, period. Changes in his awareness, personality - he's still (1) Dad. Think of it as how he's probably changed over the years, from the way he was when he was 15, to the way he is now. Probably a lot different. Still the same (1) Dad. It's one of the incredibly wonderful things about life that's often missed and yet points to a very unique design of life - there's only one "you". No repeats. :) Or duplicates. Similar, yes, but never the same, again.

I and I got it in me mind tonight, mon.

Hey Gitsters, wanted to share about a gig I did today, a "casual", playing bass. Got the call to fill in for a band who's bass player quit and they needed someone to fill in. They sent the set list this week, 60 tunes, and I roughed it out, wasn't able to rehearse with them, so I walked in and got their book (lyrics and lead sheets/chord charts) of songs. Had a great time. They were up for 4 - 45 minute sets, ended up doing 3 long ones. Only did about 40 tunes. The fun part of this gig is that the music was a combination of Hawaiian and Reggae music, with some Jamaican island sounds mixed into the whole thing. The main instrumentation is ukelele - two guys, one's the lead, second doubles and plays rhythm. They both sing, and there's a female singer that plays piano. Plus a conga/percussionist and a guitarist, nylon string. These guys had ukelele's everywhere, there were about 8 of them, strung differently and in different tunings and they played some serious stuff. It was a funky blended style of some standard Hawaiian songs done up in a Reggae rhythm, plus a lot of pop tunes funked up in this blended style. I LOVE playing bass, and although I'm not a "real" player, I like putting that hat on and filling the bottom. Reggae bass is all about the bottom and making a patterned pulse fit the beat. Totally fun stuff, this was music to smile to. There's a real soulful sound in these musics.

Tom, it's too much for you. If you knew, your head would explode. A straightforward answer is impossible, it would take pages just to lay the groundwork for the explanation.

Are you praying and fasting, Tom?

"discerning" of pneuma". I would broaden the definition to include a 'spiritual" sense of the condition of life, where it's understood deeper than the immediate actions or behavior and goes to the underlying causes. Less a matter of pin pointing bad "pneumas" by name. The AC usually spent a lot of time on covering "types of spirits", and generally "bad" ones, the "daimonion" and daimons, those Big 'n' Little Bad Boys. SirG hits squarely on the essence - behavior and quality of life. To get granular for a sec - typically in Way World a type of behavior might be "discerned" to be caused by a specific kind of "spirit" influencing or controlling another's behavior. What's that really mean? It means, there's an independent "spirit", that's causing a person to act or think a certain way. Why a person acts or thinks a certain way goes much deeper than that though, the cause isn't reduced to a simple "the devil made me do it'. Records of Jesus and other people indicate that I think, in that His effect on other people and their needs was - well, there's that one record about "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting". I don't interpret that as instructions to pray and fast more "over" a person, but that they needed to grow more as individuals in their overall faith and trust towards God. "Spirit of lying". A spirit that "makes" a person lie? Why's a person lie to begin with? What's going on, really? My thought would be, the entire topic of d. of s. doesn't lie in knowing "types of devil spirits", if that's something to be known it doesn't really tell you a lot does it? That sense that there's "something else' going on is really literally, "discerning", an awareness of what's going on. Like W. G. said, the idea of knowing another person's state could be a burden more than anything else. Knowing it is just one thing, what to do to help, another. And there's nothing worse than someone wanting to do anything and everything to help but being a pain in the butt trying to do it.

tif's may not be recognized by the Uploader, Mike. Not sure - but if you can resave it as a .jpg or. gif, it wil upload. I'd suggest gif it it's a line drawing with color. If you can, maybe try both jpg and gif conversions, and see which is the smallest file size. Yeah, that's it. The Uploader wants a jpg or gif.

Ala, I'm sorry for your family's loss. I'm sure there's a heap of good to celebrate in his life. My best to you and yours.

Hey Git pickers, I've been reading and keeping up with the posts here but not contributing much of late. I may not in the near future, so please feel free to email me at soques@hotmail.com with all the cool guitar news that's coming down the pike. I'd like to keep up with everyone's progress and enjoyment of all-things-guitar and musical and share back. I'll likely be back here later this year but if I don't see ya no more in this world, I'll meet in the next one. Don't be late. (okay, it's Hendrix and weird but it's always had that cool sound to me) If I should release that big album before then, I'll be sure to let everyone know! (I can still dream right?) Peace homies! Spank that plank! :)

Ah yes! Jim was a guitarist, had studied at the Guitar Institute, in L.A., if I remember correctly. At the time I had a small photog business in Tampa and some video editing equipment. Jim mixed his original audio tape down to a video vhs stereo on one of our editing decks. Can't remember how the music sounded though. Jim was a nice guy.

Yep, take a couple gel caps everyday.

"TWI", n. def. a type of tic that attaches itself to the hind parts of anything passing by. Known to bite and cause irritation of the stinger is not removed immediately. syn. parasite. Word origin: Latin, Twitanus, used of small opportunistic animals, weasels, etc.

As being shared, lastly by Tom Stranglove, yeah - I would put it, learn from the past, plan for the future. Enjoy the moment. As much as you can. Life's far from perfect. I forget to remember. Remember things that aren't important. Do the best I can. I think GS probably sees good natured people who want things to go well for others and have their own "best" recommendations for moving forward. Posts can sometimes represent flat statements. It takes some time, sometimes, to flesh ideas out to real, living intentions. So where one person says "get over it" or some version of that, yes, there may be a critical tone to that. But what's the point? If it's just criticism it's going to get old quick. If it's communication to the end of offering the best advice a person can, so be it. The end result is really for a person to get to a point where they are able to proceed constructively. Adding- I have never felt a recovery process or anything like that describes where I'm at. There's reasons for that, different than others I'm sure.

Paw, I'm sure there's reasons. My point, it's not worth it. Screening - does that mean someone reads it and then hits it up? Pete and Repete - why bother? It just seems like an incredible waste of time. My vote, and geez, this feels like the Coliseum or something but since it's been brought to everyone's attention why not - Allow Larry to post, with an agreement that the problem is recognized and handled. If it comes up again, "delete". Larry's out, gone. If it were me, I'd expect the same thing. Get along or get out. Amscray Ootscay. How can we miss you if you won't go away? Awww, don't go. Yet. Okay - now. Go.

The French philosopher Henri Bergsen is someone who's caught my interest and imagination for years. His books "Memory and Matter", The Creative Mind", "The Two Sources of Morality and Religion", and "Time and Free Will" are killers. I've only really studied the first two, but I enjoy the way he thought.

Belle, THIS ARTICLE contains some interesting information on Hawkings. I don't think he sees God in a personal sense, as in God being a "someone", but , as you say, more allows for that unknowable instant before "the big bang" origins of the universe involving something we can't account for completely.

Screening is for kids. If something's out of whack, so out of whack that the person's posts have to be looked at by someone, it's not worth the trouble. Why bother? Missed the personal attacks part - Larry, be nice. Everyone else - be nice. Let's have a Nice Week, and give Larry back his writes.

Freedom from batteries! For the price, these gadgets do the trick. A Costco run may be in the weekend plan now.

waysider, remember - the VPster never "taught this from the Word". It wasn't an interpretation of a verse or verses or anything that's said or written in the bible, or anywhere else really. It was a conclusion he came to, based on a couple of points. And I was wrong in my declaration that VPW never meant it could be caused by "possession". So I need to correct that. One point made in the AC was that spirit possession can effect or possess both the mind and/or body, but not the "spirit", holy spirit. It's in the AC so I don't want to give the impression it wasn't taught. It was, and not in connection to "oppression" - a "spirit of oppression" was taught as one of many "spirits affecting the mind". Mike, you've got the syllabi, so you know where this is written I'm sure. Oppression as a result of hindrance, persecution, that's not hard to understand. A "spirit of oppression" is a specific form. It's not taught as directly related to anything like disease or cancer. Although cause and effect was, where a spirit could cause illness or disease and when the cause is removed the sickness is "cured". Cause removed, all better. That oppressive presence in the mind could certainly be a cause of illness in a person. But it's not taught so much as a general bad vibe kind of thing, as a type of spirit affecting the mind. All of this adds up to what was actually taught - that spiritual possession could be the cause of an illness in a person. Possession isn't limited to the mind alone, it can effect or possess the mind and/or the body. The and/or is from the material, not me. So there's at least two sides to this coin. But none of the definitions or descriptions come from a specific existing instance - they're all based on interpretations of verses. None of them say "this kind of illness in this kind of person is always going to be possession". In fact, the opposite - the bible indicates certain kinds of activity but there's no "5 senses" way to know if a specific illness in a person is caused by it. That's the point - you don't know. The bible just gives records of incidents and implications that can be looked at. VPW may have very well meant that cancer was directly caused by spirit possession of the mind and/or the body. It didn't sound like he made that point to me as I remember it but he certainly printed it and covered it in the AC. His overall material would lead a person to believe it was possible. What I did was incorporate other statements he made into the mix over the years, none of which really clarified it. So - correction made, and hopefully I haven't muddied the waters up to much.