Stayed Too Long

I had never heard of the book until this thread and have not read it. My observation is based on decades of believing God was all powerful and desired nothing but the best for me and others. Growing up my highest desire was serving God, going to Catholic Mass Twice a day for years. I wanted to see God work miracles in my life and that of my family and friends. I was so depressed and thought little of myself, but believed God would make me well like my friends. I prayed rosaries, lit candles, went to confession, and received communion, all to no avail…still depressed. Then a person from the Way witnessed to me and assured me that all I had to do was believe and God would deliver me from all my depression. Believing never brought peace into my life. All the hype of fellowship, classes, and going WOW left me dissolutioned. Finally I went to mental health counseling and got my life turned around. I now find it impossible to accept life’s tragedies on ‘faith’ anymore. Believing God needed a young child in heaven when he dies of cancer, is no longer plausible to me. Accepting that a person who is crippled for life is God’s will, is no longer in my thought process. If one throws out the idea of a God having control of the universe, and things are unfolding as He wants, life is much easier to understand and accept. Life can be good or life can be a bitch. This way, no one has to dance around the elephant in the room of why terrible things happen to ‘godly people’ while ‘sinners’ live abundantly? All advancements in medicine have not resulted from any intervention from God. Polio was beaten because of scientific research, not from a priest calling on God to defeat it. If God could defeat it, He could have prevented it from happening in the first place. Religion has convinced us, that God, for some reason, will not prevent evil from happening in the world today, even though He has the power to do so. But, if we ‘do His will while on earth,’ whatever that may be, all evil will be destroyed in the future, and we will live the most wonderful life.

When purchasing an appliance, for example, the accompanying owner’s manual is very explicit on how to run the devise. When the instructions are followed the appliance will function as advertised. It doesn’t require hundreds, or thousands, of books to make sense of the manual. If the instructions were so poorly written, that thousands of interpretations were needed to make it functional, rational thinking people would discard it. The bible should be discarded as a way to successfully live life. It has so many possible interpretations, that it is not based on any solid evidence. For example, Catholics claim you must confess your sins to be saved. Others claim confessing sins will not get you heaven, but just confessing Jesus will get you on the high road to salvation. Jews do not even acknowledge Jesus, but claim they are heaven bound. Throw in Muslims and Buddhists and the path to heaven widens drastically. It is impossible to comprehend what will happen when your last breath is taken from reading the bible. A more certain outcome is absolutely nothing occurs, other than your body decomposing. Then have yourself planted next to a tree and fertilize the fruit it produces. The cycle of life is in full affect when we die also.

NIH saif natural immunity was strong and lasted months. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/lasting-immunity-found-after-recovery-covid-19

$250.00 to help future Wafers who are as lost and screwed up as I was after leaving TWI. Not sure of the path I would be on if I hadn’t stumbled on GSC.

A good article showing different cults https://frankreport.com/2019/09/08/former-member-the-way-international-biblical-ministry-was-rife-with-sexual-excesses-just-like-other-cults/

Yes, good observation. Looking thru the review mirror, life begins to clear and the fog slowly lifts.

You seem to be the first offshoot originating from GSC?

I believe it would be a beneficial study to look at the homeless and discover why they are not fat. To date, the current and past studies done, have not decreased the occurances of overeating in society. But my skepticism says it is just to obvious, and the powers that be will ignore it.

To me it is amazing all the studies that have been done finding out what parts of the brain supposedly cause us to overeat, or abuse drugs or alcohol. We can pinpoint everything, but it has not curbed the abuse! Alcoholism has been around forever but we cannot arrest it. One would expect an improvement when studies seem to identify why booze is abused, for example. But, things are only getting worse. We allocate money to fix the problem, but thing get worse. Does that make sense? Apparently it does to those who make such decisions. If you were having trouble in your home with rat infestation, say, and you hired an expert to fix the problem, you would expect results. If the rats continued you would fire the expert, and look at different solutions. Makes sense, doesn’t it? https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/alcohol-related-deaths-increasing-united-states

Unless we can get under control all of our stresses, daily responsibilities, access to tasty foods, and our decision making limits I am afraid obesity will continue to expand. And like our Social Security program, more will be taking from it than depositing into it. Medical expenses are estimated to be about 12% of all medical costs. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180208180356.htm With us boomers leaving the work force and receiving SS benefits and medicare, the pot of takers is growing. Add to that, the US population is shrinking, things could get bleak. https://www.npr.org/2019/12/31/792737851/u-s-population-growth-in-2019-is-slowest-in-a-century

Currently, I am in the process of shedding 20 lbs that was gained over the past few years. When I try to analyze how the weight gains occurred, the holidays and snack foods surface to the top. All those deliciously prepared meals and left overs are too much for me to avoid. Worse yet, all the chips and candies throughout the year are a killer. Craft beet is also a major problem, but the soaring prices has gotten me to imbibe very little anymore. Also at 300-400 calories per glass, it will pack the pounds on like there is no tomorrow. But when I look back at the 70’s and 80’s, there was no problem pushing back from the table after eating a plate full of food. An additional plate of 2’000 calories was not craved like they are today, not to mention a couple servings of apple pie a la Mode. Back then a single serving of potato chips was adequate, but now I sit down with a bag of family sized chips, and who knows when it will be deemed enough. In the past I attended Overeaters Anonymous, but it was to no avail at all. I left because everyone was always going to start a diet sometime in the future. After going to meetings for a year, and not seeing anyone lose weight, I dropped out. Now, every couple of years, I go through this ritual of losing a few pounds, hoping, maybe, the extra weight will stay off this time.

Getting off of drugs and alcohol are not simple either, and there are programs available to help. There are the 12 step programs of AA and NA, private counseling, inpatient programs, and probably others also. For those wanting assistance losing weight the is the 12 step program OA. There is also private counseling available, and for severe case, medical intervention may be necessary. The thing that got me thinking about obesity was a picture I saw of a crowd of people in 1970. Most people were trim and fit with only one person visible who was over weight, and not obese. A picture in 2015 showed many over weight and obese people. What has occurred in the past 50 years that can explain this phenomenon? There were fast food restaurants and processed food in the 70’s, yet people were able to maintain a healthy weight. My guess is portion control. It seems that once a person begins eating excess food, the food becomes a drug just like a narcotic or alcohol. It is uncontrollable and the demand for it is overwhelming, with many unable to deal with it responsibly.

If you observe a man or woman smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, you can make the assumption, if they have lung cancer, the tobacco played a major roll. Likewise, if you see a person drinking to excess, and is involved in an accident, you can rationalize the booze was a major contributer. They will probably be issued a DUI by the police. Likewise, if you observe a person who is obese eating a triple cheese burger, superized fries, and large Coke, you can make the assumtion the calorie intake has contributed to them being over weight. At home, eating large portion at a meal, will also contribute to being over weight. Tune into the television show “My 600 Pound Body” to observe how much and what obese people eat. They have absolutely no control over how much they eat in a day. You could look at food pyramids to see if they can contribute to weight gain, but first let’s get the calorie intake under control.

Being over weight and obese is a serious health problem. https://infogram.com/us-adult-obesity-rates-since-1960-1gzxop49on65mwy The cost is becoming astronomical. https://onlinepublichealth.gwu.edu/resources/cost-of-obesity-in-us/ Obesity is preventable, so what are your thoughts on why we continue to put our health in jeopardy? To me, we know it is not healthy, but continue to eat more and more. We even come up with new terms to make being obese seem normal. BBW (Big Beautiful Woman,) is a created term used to describe a woman who is living unhealthy. It is not beautiful to see someone put their health at tisk. The same describes a man who is obese or over weight. Often times, if someone mentions it, they are accused of “fat shaming” someone. But we have no problem telling someone who smokes they are putting their health st risk. If a friend is addicted to drugs, we will point out to them that it is not healthy. It seems we have a double standard on approacing health. We don’t want to “hurt someone’s feelings” by telling them they are living an unhealthy life style. I believe the path we are on will continue to make our country unhealthy.

Mike, Is it just semantics that you cannot figure out who are currently in charge at TWI? You call them the Board of Trustees and the Way calls them the Board of Directors on their web page. Same difference, no?

Newly coming on the scene: This would be a person who had never heard anything at all about The Way. They were never exposed to all the negative or positive information about the group. They were starting a new in their quest to figure out which of the 41,000 Christian groups was the one for them. Many currently today dismiss the teachings of the Way because they were plagiarized, or the because founder used women sexually, or the Way demanded tithes many could not afford. But if the new seeker had no knowledge of any of this, and only read the 10 page booklet, where would their beliefs fall amoung the other 39,999? Would Jesus Christ is Not God seem an acceptable doctrine? Would speaking in tongues be high or low the acceptable beliefs? What have the other 39,999 religions taught on this. My point is if we judged the teachings of the Way strictly on their doctrines and not the character of its leaders, would it rate in the top 15,000? We judge the teaching of the Way from the perspective of the major Christian religions in the West. What about all the other Christian religions we are not aware of? There are people who profess that believing in God is nothing more than magical thinking. As we grew up we realized santa clause, tooth fairy, and Easter bunny do not exist. But we will just not let go of god. We can prove there is no tooth fairy by putting a tooth under our pillow, and observing it all night. In the morning the rotting tooth will still be under the pillow. How can you prove because Jesus Christ lived you have the opportunity to go to heaven? Other than it being taught through the ages how do you know for sure?

https://www.learnreligions.com/christianity-statistics-700533 According to this source there are 41,000 different Christian religions in the world today. How would someone, newly coming on the scene, begin to wade through all 41,000 to see which one they wanted to join? How would they set forth a plan of action to begin with the A’s and work through to the Z’s? Assume that all 41,000 have their doctrines laid out in a very readible fashion in a 10 page booklet. How much time would have to be alloted in a person’s lifetime, to get through all of them making comparisons? That would require reading and examining 410,000 pages of print, and being able to retain each one’s attributes to come to a logical decision and conclusion. In contrast, let’s say a person wants to learn how to repair an automobile engine. Would one have to expect to read through 100 manuals, all stating a piston performs differently than the others? How do you decide if book 14, 29, or book 89 is correct? You would have to throw up your hands and walk away knowing nothing of how to perform wanted you desired to do. Yet somehow, first off, we must decide which of the world’s religions is the one to follow. What process do you use to compare Islam to Christianity, to Judism, to Buddhism, to Hinduism, to??? and make a decision? How much more time do you need to study all of them? How did you determine the major religion to follow? Now fast forward a couple of centuries or a few millenniums and you find a Power for Abundant Living book, or a Receiving the Holy Spirit Today book. Nothing is known of it’s author’s dubious past. Unknown is the plagiarism that was done to complete the books. What would be in those books that would make you absolutely believe they were false and should not be followed at all? Let’s go a step further, and ask why do you believe in a God at all? There are 41,000 variations in Christianity alone.

From first seeing these tv preachers in the 60’s, all they know about is getting rich. Billy Graham probably was the best tv preacher to convince people he was legit. Money, money, money. All are multi millionaires and act like they are so concerned about their large audiences. It drives me nuts when Franklin Graham gets on tv begging for money from people who cannot afford it, to send to hurricane hit areas, while his bank account has $millions. Give your money to local churches.