Ham

"Choose your weapons" "projectile vomiting, at fifty paces" Heh heh- sorry..

As I sat and watched this thing, I thought- "yep, I've seen that before"..

George, I remember seeing some kind of program- may have been National Geographic or something- the witchdoctors would drink something like latex and later heave it up, proving that they could remove "curses" other witchdoctors put on them. And the people bought it.

Just wondering. If they live on "need basis"- do they even draw a salary from their "highly exalted" position? Or does he just make life miserable for folks just for the fun of it? From what I remember, if somebody honestly needed the money to do "the work of the ministry" they would take it. No need, they didn't. What's the case here?

Just another thought. I remember reading the Bullinger stuff about Gnome, or quotation. Sometimes the quotations agreed closely with the Septuagint, sometimes agreed more closely with the hebrew manuscripts, sometimes neither. Rarely could you describe the quotations word for word. This troubled me.. God Almighty reading "thoroughly" instead of "throughly". Maybe all of this word for word, verbatim philosophy is not all that it is cracked up to be- at least my opinion.

I think "they" would not recognize a real spurt if it came up and bit them in the rear end. So many years crying "wolf"- so much time looking for spirits in the most unlikely and unlogical places. Spirits everywhere- behind every tree, behind every idol, behind every misunderstood motivation. Underneath every rock. After a while, even if they had the slightest itch they were convinced that there MUST be at least one there. Perhaps they were there- I think we were just looking at the wrong end of the organization.

The concept of OLG's is interesting however.. almost like you're "marked by da mog" and forever his property from henceforth forever, whether he's dead or not. Don't think so. Too big of a yoke for me- won't fit. I tried wearing it. Does God really have no hands but our hands? I partially question this. If God is limited to my little hands, He's in trouble. I found "they" squeezed this concept for all it was worth- no longer just being an "ambassador"- no longer just doing the right thing- helping folks the best we could. I think we were trying to do God's job- just getting in HIS way. It may have started out right, but it turned into a nightmare. Don't do it and God's hands are tied. I feel I was a slave to every stinking detail. I think we took ourselves FAR too seriously, and God, not enough. After a while I started asking where God really was in all of this. Finally saw it- God was in very little of it. Just "me", just "them"- what WE could do. That's what I got out of the "mastering" concept. Read enough, work enough, and then without or despite the Almighty, we could get the kingdom of God rolling here on earth in our everyday lives.. bunch of Pharisees- me included. I think that's why the genuine HAS to be easy. I found working it over sixty plus times NOT the easy way that it promised to be. Cripe- if believing is that hard- then God doesn't get the glory. God doesn't get the credit. Its my great believing, my great mastering. I really am a miserable SOB. Just an honest assessment. Finally admit it. No amount of "mastering" is gonna fix it. Thank God I don't have to. So was Moses- the meekest guy on the planet at the time.. Paul. Miserable- chief of the sinners. Can't be the flesh that's gonna pull anything off.

But another thing.. I can't ignore all the good stuff either. It may be subjective- but I do have peace. Peace with God. I did learn that one in PFAL. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God..." I never read that verse before the class. Peace no matter what happens in life. Even in the absolute worse circumstances, the peace was still there. But I don't have to work this one over a few more hundred times to "get it". Not really even one more time. I did not end up burning very many cakes with that part of the recipe..

Makes sense. Got me thinking about the different quotations in the Bible- no time to look up the details at the moment, but more often than not, when God "quotes himself" the new context practically in no way resembles the old context the words used were set in. That always kind of bothered me- since I thought everything was so black and white- that there was only one logical interpretation possible. Apparently not..

Thanks.. I knew Exie was extra-special and everything..

Compared to some of this TWI math, 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 makes more sense..

Just want to know: what is the deal with the "global user" thing? Seems some folks here have some control of the area that shows your present karma. Is it something only available to G.S. "elite", or what? If not, how do I access it? Just wondering...

Seems cold turkey is about the best way, if you can do it. I think the hard part for me was having to deal with other folks smoke. Sometimes ex-smokers can be more nasty about it than folks who never smoked to begin with.

Yep. You can argue from a doctrinal point of view all the live long day apparently.. to no avail. Kind of funny- I thought I would never turn into one of the "characters" in a thread like this. Guess the stuff hit a little too close to home for me this time. But really- the promise in PFAL that the principles were like adding two parts of hydrogen and one part oxygen- "don't care if you pray, or if you don't pray- Christian/ non-Christian" that you WILL get the results- does not size up with the word in general, or even with life. Some things may work like this, but not the vast majority. Pray, believe, do all the stuff right- and a lot of times you STILL don't get what you want. I think the claims are unreasonable- or taken to unreasonable extremes. Somehow chanting the magic words, "rub a dub dub, three spurts in a tub" and somehow holding a "positive" mind picture will not make problems go away. Maybe life is not as simple as some would have us believe. If anybody has a "miracle method" to all this, I insist on seeing some documentation. Mike, I'm still waiting.

Makes sense.. But add to this the insistent adherence to the "written" materials- that does not make sense. Example: RHST. How many editions were there? Last I counted there were about seven. There are DRASTIC differences between late and original editions. Even called the "manifestations" "gifts". "Gifts of the spirit" course. Somehow I thought that "revelation" did not work quite like that. He surely would have gotten it right the first time- like Paul, John, Mark, etc. What they spoke and had written stand the test of time. I haven't seen seven revisions of Ephesians in the old manuscripts recently. I imagine somebody somewhere brought even this little point up more than once here.

Interesting.. some religions won't let you dance. Others won't let you drink. Others- can't work on Saturday. Good grief- they are pikers, compared to this "no debt" thing.

Or "Twig Coordinators" meetings.. A lot of times half of it was trying to figure out who could drudge up new folks for "da class". Glad I was never in one of those meetings trying to figure out why we couldn't get anybody in WAP. That must be VERY uncomfortable.

The decoder ring analogy may fit pretty well, but I kind of think of PFAL more as a recipe book. Some of ole Doc's recipes worked out OK- other ones got you burned rock hard cakes no matter how closely you followed the instructions. An honest discussion of PFAL does not really bother me at all. Just the "you too, can jump the moon" claims are not that honest, at least in my opinion. Still waiting.. don't wait until I fall asleep from boredom.

Yep.. I agree. Now if only I could say that as concisely, heh heh.

Steve! I was going to say "kibbles and bits" but that's probably too kind.

"you mock God with decoder ring references" More like he was mocking PEOPLE. People who think they are God. People who THINK they are the Almighty. Mocking is a good, "biblical" principle. Don't knock it too much.

Don't speak for all of us, heh heh.

Galen, hope I didn't pi** you off too much.. just some folk turning it into PFAL is God is a little too much- had to say something.

Very interesting.. short leash. How about just being a PFAL grad? Some here would stick you on a VERY short leash if was possible. The eternal working, reworking, etc, etc. Feels good not to be wearing that sucker anymore.

Heh heh.. One thing to consider.. When I quit, I did not change eating or exercise habits. The body seemed to process food MUCH more efficiently.. some areas seemed to grow at an exponential rate. Don't know your health or exercise habits but.. exercise may help matters. I hope this does not put me on the "hit" list, heh heh.