Twinky

What an interesting and refreshing topic! Amazing how many people here have said their prayer life has picked up and they feel free to express emotions. Too many ritual prayers... We were taught not to say "Our Father, which art in heaven..." and then taught a whole load of new prayers which did become just as repetitive. Yes, it is good to pray for so many of the things that are prayed for... but the heart really wasn't there sometimes, just another ritual. And so much inward-looking prayer, not prayers of thankfulness - as if God were our servant, not the other way around. You would never speak to a person standing in front of you in that terminology. As a newish PFAL grad I got reproved for saying the "wrong" thing in manifestations (right there and then) - but then this character loved being "spiritually sharp" and jumping on people (as far as I know, the person is still with TWI). And I have seen people "reproved" for not using the right "formula" in what is clearly a heart-felt prayer. (How egotistical is that? (shudder)) Life has been wonderful since I learned to pray again. Quiet time with God is so refreshing... pressing the "re-set" button on life. To some extent it seems to me that life is a prayer, as we set our hearts to do our best according to what we know, and desire and strive to walk correctly, lovingly and manifest those Galatians fruits.

All this standing up whenever a Rev entered the room got to me big-time in rez. Especially if you were in a room where some kind of set-up or meeting or presentation was going to take place shortly afterwards. Got so confused about when one should and shouldn't stand up that quite often if at all possible I left the room altogether. But that's a little "off topic" ... Isn't what we are talking about, whether women should rather lie down (not stand up), when a Rev (or certain of them) entered a room? (tongue in cheek). And it is obvious that David also had "hustlers" - after all, 1 Kgs 1:2-4 describes their actions in finding a "young virgin" to keep him warm (the dirty old lecher). He obviously thought his right to any woman in the kingdom continued for the rest of his life and perhaps only stayed off married woman after the prophet Nathan's warning... ... a lesson LCM failed to learn.

If it were April 1 I'd feel tempted to set up a false identity and log in as "L Craig Martindale" and post: but it's not April 1 ... another year, maybe.

There are some pages in my Companion Bible that are almost illegible with notes, tiny tiny pencil notes (pen bleeds through the pages). But many of those were things that I had studied for myself. Decided to ignore all of those. I've just started using a Companion that was given to me at Corps graduation but never really used hitherto. New beginning, and all that. I can always refer back to my old Companion - and other reference books, yes, I do look at those now - if there is a driving need to know.

Yeah, too right, perhaps it's also the basis for the later demands for submission of women to men (not just wives to their husbands, but fiancees to their fiances - setting the standard (ha) early), but the wider application of belittling women at every opportunity and always taking the man's side. Many here have seen (and experienced), or know of suffering friends. Much has been shared about how the abuse of women by their men - women whose very lives have been threatened - has been supported unquestioningly by leadership, but the women have been told to be more submissive to their men and it is their own fault for not being submissive enough. And no-one takes the offending men to task about their treatment of women. Chattels, belongings, possessions, things - the talk was about the wonderfulness of women (VPW even made a poem/song about the Wonderful Woman of God) but the practicality was completely different - simply no respect at all. VPW also said that a man should be "king in his own home." So following David's example, then, does that mean he legitimized adultery, David-style, for every man? Further question: did men believe this lie (all women belonged to the king) more than women? Or were we all equally browbeaten?

From another thread: Did anyone ACTUALLY believe this was the case? Did people just take VPW's say-so? Note that VPW never gave any actual support to this proposition - no cultural background, of this or any other cultural group of the time. Clearly Nathan the prophet did not believe this was the case, even right at the time. The lie was denounced before it was uttered. Another problem with PFAL: you couldn't ask questions, but were told to wait until the end of the 12th session. By which time this evil lie (and many others) had been allowed to lie unchallenged in the mind and was overlaid by so much other stuff of seemingly more significance that it never did get confronted. Subtle, insidious... his success is in the secrecy of his moves... ...just a statement lodged quietly in the brain like a virus, ready to be developed with present-day sexual manipulation later. Did anyone believe this astounding statement, truly? Did anyone confront it (and stick around)? Did anyone get an answer? (edited to add "12th")

Keep it simple - how about "Dozy Rosie" (ducking) Dooj - you are so funny (he he)

Thank y'all very much. I had a great day at work and a lovely weekend with lots of nice friends. Thanks also to those who PM'd me. Birthdays just get better and better. Thanks, all, again. Twinky

Job was a rich man and was thought well of by God. Parents are encouraged to "lay up" for their children. Wasn't "Uncle Harry" supposed to have made millions by giving good service to his clients? When the focus of life becomes money, that's when someone won't get into heaven (ie enter into the blessings now, perhaps). The castigation is of those who have the means (money) but refuse to use it to help those in need. If instead people who make lots of money are happy to give some/lots of it out again to support those in need, that's walking godly. This passage is challenging people to think where their focus really is at - whether their treasures are laid up in heaven or whether they are laid up earthly where rust and moth can corrode them. You can look forward to seeing your aunt at some stage in the future. And if you are so foolish as to give away ALL your wordly things, you will be the one with the need not the one with the blessing.

Congrautlations to all you lovely longstanding marrieds. Glad you made it through everything that's come at you during your many years together.

"In the bullet"???

Apart from chocolate eggs and creme rabbits, no wait, that's chocolate rabbits and creme eggs, what's traditional at this time of year in your region? Main dishes (lamb? see other thread) Cakes (simnel cake?) Hot cross buns?

I can't understand people's reluctance to eat lamb - but all the more for those who love it (yum). Specially the NZ variety.

As Excathedra said on another thread "Thank you for the outpouring of replies."

No WC?? Does anybody know, was anybody told outside of the BoT?

If "fear" is F alse E vidence A ppearing R eal is "afraid" A llowing F alse R eligious A utocrats I nterference D aily ? I hear ya, Dot, oh I hear ya (hugs).

I had wondered if the US Way didn't know of these murders because, well, not being Americans, it didn't really matter (not starting a fight here, but sometimes some Americans have limited knowledge of what's going on outside the USA (ducking for cover)). But in fact it probably was more to do with the very limited permission to know anything outside TWI unless it boosted the image in the distorting mirror that made TWI seem bigger than it was. Were at least the WC told at the time? Looks like a tailor made teaching opportunity just got overlooked... I remember in rez when a staff member died suddenly. The news was quite kindly broken to the in-rez WC by the BCs. I guess there was an announcement at lunch, but don't recall. There was a little weeping among some of the in-rez. LCM was proud that the staff member (a WC grad of several years, from memory) had "died with his boots on," ie, "in fellowship" and busy working at HQ (out on night patrol or something, body wasn't found for a while). I don't remember any public grieving of the sort that Full Circle mentioned in another thread. I wonder how widely that death got reported? The obvious place was an obit in The Way Mag, but then it might have been construed as a "negative". In a smallish community like TWI, many would have known but who knows how widely the news would have been reported. Come to think of it - did Caroline Rawlins' death make it into the Obits in the Way Mag (hint, hint, to anybody there reading this)?

Full Circle: nice post. Says it as it should be. Moving to the Norway murders thread now...

Roy, as you believe that a holy spirit whom we call God exists, what is so hard about also believing that an unholy spirit whom we call the devil also exists? And that lesser unholy spirits also exist (rather than are just "evil images" or perhaps bad thoughts? (Just musing)

Well, it always seemed a strange thing, to raise the dead, sort of "Neh, neh, neh" gloat over them, and then consign them to ...? Raising/resurrecting/whatever those who have done well, to get their rewards, now that's a different thing. I do believe that those who have done well according to God's heart and within their cultural constraints will be rewarded even if they have never heard or had the opportunity of hearing about Him and His son JC (eg, South Americans in 167 AD, to choose something meaningless). And people today who genuinely have not heard. But something different for those in more recent times (post printing-press, perhaps) who have had the opportunity to hear but refuse to listen. But still: that's a "why?" rather than a "what?" so a different question. Though we could debate it here or on a different thread. Mark: Still pondering this. Thanks for the link.

Well actually there are lots of verbs with similar nouns, where the emphasis is different: I went to record a new record And there are those where there is no variation in emphasis: You need to exact the exact details Did digging the well go well? I taught English as a second language. My students (bless their hearts) really did their best but it wasn't easy for them. We had many laughs when their errors were explained. I learned a lot too. Unfortunately I can't recall at the moment too many of the gaffes. Add to the written indistinguishable the hearingly indistinguishable... Where can you find something to wear? There are their things, but they're not there with them Why's that happening, it's not wise There are fishers in the fissures

Deuteronomy 29:1-5 1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. 2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land; 3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: 4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. 5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot. Guess those old Israelites escaping from Egypt wouldn't have been good enough, either.

Fix it? Count on spending as many years, maybe more, after they kick you out, "fixing" yourself.

So who taught VP? Didn't he claim to go beyond what he was taught (threw all his books away)? Didn't even acknowledge his own teachers, the ones whose work he plagiarized. Then God showed him an invisible snowstorm and promised to teach him (etc etc). And God can't teach us directly? If I can't go further than him - I'm a disgrace (you have to say that in the right VPW accent). What a bunch of mugs we all were. So glad to be free from that waterless cistern.

Lava lamps are those lamps with a blob of something in the bottom that rises up through some sort of liquid uup a glass tube or container and then the blob falls down back onto the bulb. Very popular in the 70s and making somewhat of a come-back. Have had various names but you've almost certainly seen one.