Thanks. I really apreciate your elaborate contributions.
No problem. The admin at the boards is usually supposed to be a little more shushed than I am, but while we've still got less than 50 or 60 people active every week to ten days I feel obligated to toss in my
every once in a while. I probably dump about as many (or more) of my posts from the boards as I go ahead and leave on the boards 'cause I [sincerely] don't want to dominate threads in any way or to make others feel like they have nothing to say if I did a 5 to 8 paragraph post that briefly touched on something they were going to say. I've accidentally dominated a few threads before, that I sincerely hoped and prayed others would have posted as much
or more than I did. But, no enchillada. People moved on to posting onto other threads or were just very brief on a thread that I looked like I went completely postal on
A whole lot of the time, I genuinely don't know what I'm going to say on a thread until I've just about finished typing it. So, even if someone feels like I covered what they were basically going to say, or if they liked my answer more than theirs or whatever the case happens to occasionally be, they ought to start posting it anyway while listening to the Holy Spirit 'cause so much more might occur to them right in the middle of typing something. Just about everything that I post comes together in the typing process. It might start with an idea that gets fleshed out, or I'll have just enough of "a leading" to go ahead and hit the "reply" button and my first sentence into it turns into a race to the finish, when I honestly didn't have a clue what I was going to say. I might glance at a different translation from what something has been posted on, and when I'm looking at Scarlett's or the Concordant, or my NASB, or rarely at Rotherham's Emphasized Bible from
www.studylight.org and suddenly I'll have an "OH!!!" moment when something clicks right then. It helps to have read through the New Testament a couple of times for the Holy Spirit to fulfill the promise of Jesus about "bringing to your remembrance all that I've said to you."
A lot of our critics are going by what they've heard at Church or on some religious broadcast and [honestly] haven't ever read through the
entire New Testament for themselves. Otherwise, if they'd read through the whole thing they'd understand a little better where we're coming from, even if they take issue with our saying that the eternal hell passages are gross exaggerations of the Greek text and inherited presuppositions. I have to watch myself to not get an attitude with a lot of baby Christians that I know have never read through the whole New Testament. Otherwise, when I'm at a Christian bookstore or at a Christian event I can so easily get the same chip on my shoulder that's on Matt Damon's character in GoodWill Hunting, where this stuff is sooo easy for me that it's infuriating that other Christians can't see it and I'm unable to account for why they can't see it.
I have to keep telling myself: None of us knows jack squat until the Lord wants for us to know it. There's lots in the Scriptures to indicate that apart from the grace of God at work in our lives that we're total imbiciles -- such as being called the "sheep" of His pasture, which is a very degrading term with regards to the "sheep," though it speaks volumns to the patience, wisdom, and attentiveness of the "Good Shepherd." I have to remind myself every single day that things are easy for me right now while the Lord says that they're easy and that if I get a chip about them not being as easy for others, then they will suddenly become as difficult for me as they are for those who still believe in the ET lie. It's all a gift and I can only do all things through Jesus Christ. I don't want to ever ever ever ever be shown what I'm like without the grace of God abounding towards me without measure.
I see too many lives falling apart everyday and I don't want the least little taste of that. I had enough of that in my youth to last me for the rest of eternity. The grace of God's doing something now in chasing something out of my body that was just a taste of what I am on my own without Father's moment by moment attentiveness. It's amazing how things try to happen to people who've previously lost spouses through no fault of their own. I was talking to someone the other day that used to never get sick that's gone from one thing to another in their health this year after having lost their husband this last December. All kinds of sinus crap, nonstop fevers, etc. My right leg seemed like it tried to go leprous. (Probably not actual leprosy, but it got bad for a while!) My skin's starting to come back to the beauty of the skin that I should have for my age, but geez, that was weird for that to have happened to me all of last year. I'm sure that some people would try to point to some obscure reference to some thought or some cuss word that I said in my youth and try to make the connection with this passage of Scripture that I was "without excuse" and was experiencing "wrath" for God only knows what!
Absolutely no part of the New Testament makes God a part of our problems. The New Testament is a saving Testament and not a roll of the dice Testament that leaves us with a cliff hanger that's "to be continued..." on judgment day. We had that before Jesus ever went to the Cross. If His Blood didn't balance the books, then mine's definitely not going to -- and neither would my soul burning in Hell resolve anything for justice, for Creation, for God's glory, or for anything! Eternal torment and eternal destruction theories are just the carnal mind of man at it's worst. It's just the carnal mind having gone totally mad with insanity and it's own demonic darkness and toxicity. They need to start supplementing with vinca supplements so that they can raise their cerebral metabolism. Omega-3s would
n't hurt either with people who've honestly gone brain dead on mainstream Western Christianity, the Western processed diet, and all of these various drinks from sodas to other things that have more chemicals than their local pharmacy has access to.
Nearly made it without a significant typo. Ah-well.
