waysider

And this is a good thing?

There are other, more ambiguous ways to state it, such as, "It says in verse such and such..." or "according to what's written ...".

Is it though? Usually when we say something is a record, it implies it actually happened.

Yeah, see. That kinda leaves us between a rock and a hard place. We were either following the teachings of a man with devil spirits or he was wrong about what he taught. That means he could have been wrong about...well ... anything.

What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?

Sounds more like finding a hobby.

I'm quite serious. After the movie, we went back to our townhouse twigs and discussed what we had learned. A splendid way to spend a Saturday evening.

I'm not sure why you directed that at me, but it's OK. I don't mind. Last summer, through no fault of my own, I was injured in a catastrophic car accident. My life was changed forever. I'll never be the same person I was. Was there a still, small voice I missed? I'm not going to beat myself up wondering.

There's another version of this, as well. We listened to music and watched movies to try to spot where they were on or off. I remember, when Rocky hit the theaters, FellowLaborers had a special Saturday night outing where we went as a group to watch the movie, see if we could spot all the great spiritual truths it held. Yo, Adian! ;

My possessions are causing suspicions but there's no proof.

This event took place about 6 months after I took the foundational class. (He was an "unbeliever" I had grown up with.) I took the AC about a year later and left for FellowLaborers about 3 years after that. The "what if?" feeling haunted me for a long time.

Are you sure about that?

Thomas Jefferson (yeah, THAT one) did a cut and paste of the gospels that eliminated supernatural references, including the resurrection. This is not surprising, as he was a bit of what we might call a deist.

I've never in my life experienced a more intense feeling of depression and hopelessness than I did those 2 weeks at the AC. Hearing about suicide supposedly being caused by a devil spirit certainly didn't help the situation. I had one of those confrontations with death, also, though it happened before I took the AC. My roommate had talked of committing suicide. When I found him he was already dead. I felt guilt and shame for years for not trying to muster the believing to raise him from the dead. I can't erase the pain it caused me then, but I can live my life now without feeling guilt about it.

In the foundational class, you're told you have unlimited power to do whatever you can imagine. By the time you get to the advanced class, you're walking on eggshells, looking over your shoulder, making sure the adversary doesn't creep up on you and snuff you out for moving the word. Power for abundant living indeed. Don't leave, though, unless you want to end up a greasespot in the road by midnight.