Hi autoimmune,
I didn't find your comment on that thread. Hopefully, I just looked at the wrong thread and that we don't have a system bug again. Joyful1 said something the other day about having thought that she posted something only to find out later that her comment never went through. Usually when you've successfully posted something you'll get redirected to the same board. But a "page not found," "can't be displayed," or getting logged out can make whether or not you posted kinda suspect.
I know what you mean about trying not to get into the whole debate scene. So often that gets started over semantics. A misunderstanding of terms or a pet peeve term, that if they just hadn't said it quite that way, then everything would have been fine, etc., etc. I know quite a few people that way, that'll pick a fight or have a correcting attitude because someone used what they considered a religiously traditional "term" that's not a Biblical term for saying something. But there was [genuine] reason to believe that they were on the [exact] same page sans the semantical faux pas. Yet they made an issue out of it anyway. I just want to choke people sometimes when they do that, but the minute I get too high up on my horse I'll probably accidentally do the same thing with trying to take someone's head off over something even less just because I'd previously had an attitude about something else or whatever. So, I try not to give people too hard of a time whenever I see that 'cause unless they're the idiot that I'd never previously considered them to be, then in all probability they're just venting over something else. They don't feel like they can cuss about their paycheck or the price of gasoline without sounding like they've got a lack of faith in their own eyes, but they can sure deal with that emotion at everybody else's expense! A lot of times when someone gets all up in your threads on a discussion board and it feels like it's virtually just semantical, they're usually just dealing with pressures in other areas of their lives. Or they're bored, so why not? LOL!
If you feel a fuss coming on either from yourself or someone else that's really not getting you, you're always free to ignore that particular thread for a couple of days or for a week until you feel like you can hear whatever and not take it personally. If I'm personally going through too much, I'll leave a thread completely alone until I'm ready to deal with whatever I'm feeling isn't going to be the answer that I was wanting to hear. And usually I'm pleasantly surprised if I'll back away for a couple of days. And when I think that I am soooo on the same page with someone else, that's usually when I'm rudely awakened. You just never know what's behind a username online, or what's going on with people in general even if you've met someone both offline and online. You've just got to focus on doing what's right for you so that none of the online stuff is ever personal. Some of the people that get into online bullying get into it because it's easier for them than for some people to dissociate that they're talking to an actual person. Or because it feels good. Or because they're not consciously thinking of consequences for either themselves or who they're actually picking on more than they realize with their attitude and internet jostling and banter.
It all comes down to staying careful about your perspective about who is really in your life and who is just an internet worm and/or virus. Just focus on what matters and the people that really matter when it comes to who God's knit you to. God's not the author of confusion.
The discussion board scene's not really all of that natural or comfortable for me. I got asked about being administrator around here right when I was going to take a really long break from any time whatsoever on the internet. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit for me to help out here as an act of service to the Lord and to a ministry that I've not been able to be as much of a contributer to over the last 4 or 5 years as I've wanted to be and was feeling really sorry that I'd been taking more than I'd been giving back. But it's less of a paying a debt of conscience and more about sowing my time for stuff that the Lord and I have an understanding about. Our labors in the Lord, when they're guided by the Holy Spirit, are never in vain.
I think I had a dream this past Sunday morning. I think. Whether in my body or out of my body, I honestly couldn't tell you. But Jesus and I went for a walk around town and talked about a few things and He laid His hands on me concerning some things that were going on in my body that I'd been claiming His redemptive work in. And I'll never be the same again after that. I can't get very far into the details 'cause I've rambled a lot in this post already. I've genuinely been feeling all day today like one of the things that lead up to that Visitation, dream, vision, combination of all of the above or whatever is because with spending a little extra time here in addition to the rest of my personal schedule, it was just that much easier to keep my mind stayed on Him. And He keeps in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him. And that really extended, long-play dream really bumped up my peace to a whole new level. I'd really felt for nearly 19 years as though He had a really special calling on my life, but compared to what I've been through in that time period, there was a disproportionate absense of what I'd felt should have been even a minimum of validation from Him along those lines. And I really got what I'd been needing -- what nobody else could have come close to giving me -- this past Sunday morning.
I had to learn a long time ago and to relearn it from time to time that whenever someone has a different interpretation on a particular Scripture from my interpretation,
it doesn't mean that they're blaspheming the Holy Spirit. So, I can sorta relax a bit. And I guess that Jabcat was right in calling me a preacherman the other day 'cause it would take one to get a post like mine back on track with the title of this thread like I just did
