johniam

They told me some members of my family were welcome and some were not so I told them that was not acceptable and then they said none of us were welcome. I had second thoughts a bit but after being out for 6 months and realizing that God still spit in my direction just like He always had, I figured everything must be OK. Haven't looked back since.

I get the most satisfaction by knowing I can say whatever I want. I couldn't do that in TWI. This even carries over to my participation in spinoffs: if I were to get kicked out of a spinoff for being too vocal....oh well. Being able to express your honest opinion is very satisfying.

If at first you dont try, succeed, succeed again. Beats the me out of hell. Failing to fail is planning to plan. Make no left turn unstoned. If it does good, feel it.

The first round NBA playoffs is a best of 5, and basesball used to be that before 1985 and then started it up again when they began to use wild card teams in 1995. All NHL playoff rounds are best of 7, but in football even during the regular season no team plays any sooner than 4 days after the previous game and that very rarely.

You can't prove God. Remember that Henry explained the Ford, but the Ford never explained Henry? It says in Hebrews somewhere that God couldn't swear by anything greater so He swore by Himself. I don't have a problem with people doing biblical research beyond what TWI approved of (right now I couldn't care less what TWI approves of or doesn't). But I refuse to speculate over whether this book in the bible is scripture and that one isn't. I'm never going to understand every word of the bible anyway. It strikes me as a waste of time to overhaul my entire belief system just because the teacher wasn't perfect.

That pesky decent and in order thing. During summer of '75 I had a job as a asst ranger in a state park in MI. The park was located near a small town. Other than work there was NOTHING to do....much. So I got to know some of the other people who worked at the park. I even let 2 of them talk me into attending their churches. Big difference between the 2. One church was weird. There were people making noises while the minister was supposed to be preaching. This guy down the pew from me would say, "PRAISE JESUS!!" every 2 minutes or so. Others were weeping and walking up to the front and kneeling and stuff. Then after the service was over they were like..."Hi, bless yiewww". Totally strange. The other church was much more orderly. Lot more people too. I even still remember some of what the guy preached 30 yrs later. He read from the bible and related what he read with the times back then and after the service he met with me and said he's read the bible 22 times and it became more real to him each time he read it. I felt the presence of God in that church, but not in the other one. I came to my first twig a little over a year after that summer. Never had a problem with the concept of decent and in order.

Yeah, but he's really not doing anything different than he's ever done. Back in the 60s he'd appear on these shows like Shindig, the Ed sullivan show, whatever and here's this butt ugly faced guy acting like he's the one who's too sexy for you the viewer. Great comedy. And now he's 62 and he's still too sexy for us. Today his face isn't as ugly for his age, but his body isn't as trim. Thin, but not trim. Did you know his dad was a gym teacher?

I kinda have the best of both worlds here. I live in a town in STL county with a population of 22,000. It has a small town feel to it; lots of regular yearly events that are well attended right in the heart of town, yet I live 12 miles from the arch. There's this huge metropolitan area within easy driving distance. I wouldn't say that everybody in town knows everybody else, but in the 6 yrs I've lived here I see a lot of the same faces at different locations. As far as kids go I dunno; parents always have the most impact on their kids wherever they live. At least, they have first right of refusal.

Do not adjust your TV screen; this is what my face actually looks like.

Dot, I remember you posting about that movie and what it made you feel like. At the time you seemed to think it was the way the movie was filmed, but this does sound like a medical problem.

I have to admit that I think it's extremely bad judgement to solicit kids before talking to parents.

There's a verse in Timothy about raising holy hands. I was taught once that this was an orientalism referring to physically expressing forgiveness, or something like that. It's no substitute for SIT though.

quote: For johniam, who as far as I know believes in the inerrancy of the bible, the driver's license analogy makes sense. For him, the bible is the standard against which everything else is measured. For others, who don't hold such a belief, the analogy is flawed. The bible as driver's license only works if one already accepts the premise that the bible is "right". Yeah, it's a credibility thing. I DO believe the bible is God's "ID" just as much as a driver's license is a person's ID, but the analogy is not a 100% match. A driver's license gives limited info to interested parties in limited situations, but it says nothing about character or virtue. The bible, on the other hand, gives much detailed info about the god it speaks of. IMO VPW did an excellent job in PFAL of making God approachable. But LCM sure fixed that, didn't he? quote: Do you wish to discuss or no? No. We have different belief systems and all we'll do is p*ss each other off as we already have. Feel free to hurl the last insult if you wish.

Hey, man, I don't know who *%^#*ed in your slim fast today but it wasn't me. Interesting to note that you do not remove ALL personal attacks.

Nope. It's Scott Stevens of the NJ Devils. Career highlights...3 Stanley Cups (95,00,&03) plus cold cocking Eric Lindros, he was a defenseman too.

quote: oh man i was reading things and quoting things ..... but then scott stevens was getting honored Oh, THAT'S the #4 you were talking about on the sports forum.

quote: Such a statement requires proof. Got any? I don't have to prove anything to you any more than I have to "prove" to deaf people that music exists.

Someone put a tract by that guy on my car a week or 2 ago. It was the one called "This was your life". I remembered seeing that one before TWI. Didn't know he was into the extreme stuff, though.

His job was to shed light, not to master.

quote: It's an invalid metaphore. Sorry, but there are no "error messages" in god's word, nor can be.

I was wow in a college town and witnessed to a muslim from Iran. He said he believed Jesus was a prophet.

quote: Besides that, it's an illogical comparison and one more reason I will not engage you any further. Yeah, well Jesus must've had plenty of "illogical comparisons". Imagine comparing the growth potential of a seed to 4 levels of spiritual commitment. Imagine comparing the most respected religious leaders in his country to whited sepulchres. Imagine comparing flying birds to God's care for his people. Imagine comparing Himself to the door of the sheep. Imagine comparing Himself to that manna which came down from heaven. quote: Where's "the word's" driver's license? I'd like to see it. The word IS the driver's license. It's a metaphor; a comparison by representation. VP taught what Bullinger taught about this. A similie is a comparison by resemblance (The word is like a driver's license). A metaphor is a comparison by representation (The word is a driver's license). Hypocatastasis is a comparison by implication (Driver's license!). This isn't just in the bible. If Jim Morrison had named the song "LA is like a woman" it would have been a similie. "LA is a woman", a metaphor. But he dropped all the formalities and called it "LA Woman". Implication. He probably borrowed the logic from Burton Cummings of the Guess Who, who 1 year earlier had a hit with "American Woman". Same figure. Interestingly, Burton Cummings currently lives in LA and performs there regularly. He doesn't want the American woman's war machines or ghetto scenes, but the LA woman's money is OK. *** Personal attack removed ***

I hate to sound like a broken record, but in this administration, we ARE under grace and the gift of holy spirit does not operate us. There's nothing wrong with you for being disgusted or feeling unforgiving. Consider that David was anointed by Samuel and the spirit of the Lord came on him from that day forward (1 Sam 16:13). The only difference between the spirit David received and the gift of holy spirit we all received is that ours is permanent because Christ is in us and David's wasn't. There is no difference in the quality of the spirit. When David had caused Uriah the Hittite to be killed as the ultimate result of his adultery with Bathsheba, he begged God to not take his holy spirit from him (Psalm 51). In other words, David did all that stuff even though he had the same spirit of the Lord upon him. I attended a meeting with John Shroyer of CFF. After the meeting I conversed with him a bit and he said LCM actually was very loving with his own children. JS wished he was that way with GOD'S kids also. I'm sure VPW could be loving as well. I dunno, Rascal. People are just no damn good.

I never had issues with the trinity before TWI. I didn't even know what it WAS! In my first PFAL class I rode to and from each session with this guy and after the class was over I heard the guy tell someone that TWI didn't believe in the trinity so I asked him to explain and it was like...what? Church people believe this? They believe Jesus is WHAT??? While in TWI I followed the company line all the way...that trinitarians are wackos, but since leaving TWI my family attended a Presbyterian church for awhile and one Sunday the sermon was called 'Trust and Obey' and the first scripture he read was Luke 22:42 where Jesus said, "Father, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done." He was making the point that even Jesus struggled with the concept of trust and obey, but that verse was one of the major ones TWI used to shoot down the trinity. So I concluded that this Presbyterian minister (and probably LOTS of church Christians) would say without hesitation that he believed in the trinity, but in his mind and thinking he knew that Jesus was a man and subject to temptation and that He wasn't really God. I still do not believe in the trinity or that Jesus is God, but I no longer feel the need to "shun" trinitarians in general.

quote: I have serious questions and I do happen to think that one should not limit themselves to the Bible only. So if cops pull you over they should not limit themselves to your driver's license only; they should demand a birth certificate, social security card, cavity search, fingerprints, DNA sample, etc. because you might not be you after all. I'm kinda glad cops keep things simple.