Leaderboard

Oh, to be a fly on the wall, eh?

Any stories about serving on Bless Patrol at any of the Rock of Ages? I was on Bless Patrol at the back door of the House of Wierwille in 1981. It was surreal watching Dubofsky, Lynn and Martindale shooting hoops and performing for anyone nearby. The motorcoach was tucked into a portion of the driveway and seemed to be a social meeting spot for the upper muckety-mucks. I was a nervous wreck, so petrified of being singled out for an inquisition or something of that sort. Silly, I know. But it's my memory.

I clearly remember one ROA night time bless patrol shift keeping an eye on the protesters from Westboro Baptist Church. This was well before the Westboro folks had become well-known throughout the country. Same flavor they retained for the decades to come. Hateful signs in abundance. It was a very cold (maybe down into the 50s F.) August mid 1970s night in rural Ohio, before The Way began holding ROAs at HQ. I remember the yellow Bless Patrol hats and standing (shivering) with a guy (who later served in the 7th corpse) for a couple of hours. It may have been boring, but I recall a sense of camaraderie on an otherwise calm night.

She packed my bags last night pre-flight

Creeque Alley. Let's try another: "[TITLE], The Earth says, "Hello" You twinkle above us; we twinkle below." George

So, vpw did teach others. So, if the first part of the alleged 1942 Promise was correct, then it was completed, like a contract, with both parties delivering what they were supposed to. But, did vpw teach "God's Word like it hadn't been known since the 1st century"? No. First, nearly 100% of everything he taught has been traced to other Christian writers or teachers whom he plagiarized. So, each of his teachings was on something as someone knew in the 20th century already. Was that a made-up promise, or was it the promise of a being so uninformed it didn't know people were already teaching the Bible and writing about it? Or was it a lying spirit that promised this? The possibilities vpw was listening to a lying spirit or a stupid god are even worse than vpw just lying and plagiarizing. Second, what was "God's Word as it was known in the 1st century"? Nothing like twi! People knew God's Word by experience and in power. The written texts studied ad nauseum in twi were largely UNKNOWN in the 1st century. People read the Torah, taught, prayed, healed, and saw miracles. The selling points of Christianity were results, not clever men at pulpits teaching a new Greek word or making a bad joke. Christians were decentralized, Christians had no head honcho on the Earth, Christians had no codified "Statements of Belief." Christians weren't tithing. Christians weren't buying books or paying money for classes. In short, the 1st century Christians did NOT resemble vpw's claims or twi in any way other than vpw CLAIMING they were the same. Talk is cheap, and the reality was VERY different. If you want to see something of the 1st century in vpw's work, review the "ministry" of Simon the sorcerer.

Likewise-ish. Daily Bible, praying like never before, music as medicine, and gobs of math due constant streams of construction, engineering, agricultural tasks. Currently on much-needed reflective pause after a few years of the hardest digging of my life. Anticipating a period of deepening now that so much old clay has been broken. Feeling more prepared than ever for the next waves of pain and heartbreak emerging on the horizon. Seems all old words and habits are indeed potentially renewable and redeemable. Who, what, when, where, why and how "God" is has been quite an odyssey.