Twinky

5 hours ago, Charity said:

 

Charity, I'll raise you this one - thought it was what you were posting, but yours is very different.  You probably know this one well:

Oh, and I want to add something else.  I attend one church StACC regularly; and another church, known as the abbey although it hasn't been an abbey in centuries, occasionally - both Anglican.

These churches use the money received to fund work that genuinely helps our communities - StACC is in an overlooked, impoverished area, so we provide free meals on a weekly basis to all-comers, and there's lots of other help etc available to anyone in need.  The income is used to pay for outreach workers of various types.

At the abbey, the Big Church for the city, there's also a lot going on, including some free meals and a vast amount of other support.  A lot of clergy, only some of whom are paid for by the diocese - the rest from church funds.

And BOTH churches (as churches) give away AT LEAST one tenth of all their income to support other churches and church building projects and missions, some within this country, and some to help overseas work. 
StACC (just a little church) is helping support a church in Albania, another in Romania, both on a regular basis; and there are occasional donations to several other African countries.  Our slightly larger parent or maybe sister church has a whole missions team and supports four or five overseas missions and projects.
The Abbey donates to four or five overseas missions, including the project Reaching The Unreached, which helps the most destitute children in south India with provision of housing, clothing, education (inc through Uni if the kids are bright enough).

(Additional to this, members of the congregation often choose to donate privately to these causes.)

Both churches have had serious financial problems in recent years and it's been a struggle to keep afloat.  But their donations to support these worthy causes have remained at at least 10% of their income and they see this as vital.

These churches are not doing anything extraordinary - in that this is expected, not just of Anglican churches but Methodists, Salvation Army, and no doubt many other denominations.

Compare and contrast with a cornfield cult, that thinks giving "bursaries" to African students to study in Ohio is generous.  
And certainly wouldn't think of donating either time or money to helping homeless people in the nearest large town.

Oh ho!

"A love of wealth or money can subtly overtake a love of God if allowed.  When this happens, it is evidenced by covetousness, a desire for more and more."

And there we have it, folks.  We see the evidence.  So they are admitting that the love of wealth or money and the incessant desire for more and more has indeed overtaken a (a??) love of God.

"A love of money, wealth or possessions can indeed produce covetousness, but it cannot produce sustained happiness."

It certainly cannot produce sustained happiness for those who feel forced to contribute to the coffers of those who have a love of wealth or money.  What it's generally produced for the contributors is sustained poverty, not abundance - material or spiritual.  What's generally produced for the recipients is - well, more and more greed.  Their greeds and wants are definitely parallel.

No, not the toenails (which are real and still uncut) but TWI.  And their promises.

All are UNwelcome at The Way  or  (you choose).

From the article:

"a strategic plan to reach out to individuals who once fellowshipped with The Way Ministry, but, for whatever reason, currently do not."

So would those individuals include those who -- for whatever reason - mostly baseless -- were M&A'd, slandered, vilified, abused - and if so, would those people firstly receive an apology from The Way Ministry; and secondly, be welcomed with open arms?

My guess is that (1) no apology would be forthcoming; and also (2) that any such individuals would be put on "spiritual probation" until such time as they proved themselves sufficiently sycophantic to re-embrace TWI restrictions.

Could take issue with practically every sentence in this promo.  But why waste the head space?  I have better things to do.  For example, my toenails need cutting.

 It's all fake!!!!!!  

13 hours ago, So_crates said:

we'll let you sit in on this one for the poultry sum of $100.

That's cos their class is "chicken sh1t."

(I assume you meant paltry not poultry, but I thought it was funny.

On 5/8/2023 at 7:24 PM, Ron said:

When Bruce and Carol got mark and avoid...

Oh?  What happened there?  (I do have a genuine interest in knowing.  Some history here.)

Huh, nobody's sent me one.  But why would they?  They don't have any address that's even remotely relevant.

But if they did... perhaps I would return it with the invitation, "Come on back - to the wider Christian community."  Come to church with me for a month or so.  See what my church teaches.  See what the congregation do to reach out to others, and to help the community generally.  See what the Christian community in my city, comprising many denominations, does, to help not just the Christian community, but the entire city - believers or not.  See how we engage with those around us.  See the help, healing, deliverance available to all.

And then tell me you can do it better.  Yeah, right.  

On 5/12/2023 at 7:47 PM, Beguiled said:

(I'm totally just having a conversation rant, in case this comes off as more than that.)

This.  A rant.  Not a conversation.

2 hours ago, WordWolf said:

So, don't like that guys are supposed to be macho, beer-swigging followers of sports who dote on their cars?  Don't conform to that.  Be a guy who doesn't do that.    Don't like the cultural expectations for women?  Don't conform to them.  Doesn't mean you changed your gender- you just changed your ROLE. 

This too.  There are plenty of men around who are kind, considerate, wonderfully well rounded men, who are so far from the "macho" male image that they must be from another planet - the macho nitwits, that is.  And there are plenty of women who are pioneering, bold, won't-be-told women who have broken the "ceilings" imposed on them (generally by patriarchal or paternalistic societal norms).  All power to those who want to smash those restrictive norms, whether they be male or female.

But calling a dog a cat, or a cat a dog, doesn't make it so.

My understanding is that SEX refers to whether one is male or female.

GENDER is a grammatical term, used in some languages (like French and Spanish) when nouns take certain word (Work-endings).  Why?  Lost in the mists of time - probably based (in Europe) on ancient Latin, but why did those who spoke ancient Latin choose to do this?

But in recent years, gender has been co-opted by the woke brigade to try to distinguish between - between what?  What one is, and what one wants to be?  With all the problems being a woman brings, it beats me why men, with so many advantages, should want to "be" women.  

The use of "they" to define a single person is just plain weird.  He/she/it.  They??  What, do such people have split or multiple personalities as well as "gender dysfunction"?  To use "they" to mean a singular person is confusing - I'm always looking for the other person or people involved.  "They" is plain lazy, and ignorant, or both.

I do wonder if there would be less of this "gender dysfunction" if the pressure to be a thuggy macho male were less prevalent.  If men were able to enjoy their more caring or sensitive side instead of being beer-swigging football fans with noisy cars.  

Sorry, Human, to learn about your cat's unpleasant end. So very young.  A hard, perhaps obvious, but nonetheless painful decision for you to have to make.

I lost my beloved Tuxedo 6 weeks ago, 14 March.  Died naturally in my arms, aged about 16-1/2.  Deeply missed.

On 4/3/2023 at 4:54 AM, Stayed Too Long said:

If you hired a contractor to build your home, and right from the beginning his best laid plans completely failed, would you allow him to continue erecting your house

If you hired a contractor to build your home, and right from the beginning you, or someone else, kept interfering with the plans, the contractor might reasonably get pretty ticked off. 

How many "design and build" contracts have you heard of - one thing was designed, and then multiple changes were introduced as, or after, the building was started.  Maybe the building needed to be built bigger - or smaller, because the money ran out?  Maybe there was a problem with the foundations - the subsoil wasn't as expected, there was an unknown hole or a load of archaeological artefacts.  Maybe a shortage of a type of building material?

A bespoke builder needs to accommodate changes.

On 4/3/2023 at 5:02 PM, Stayed Too Long said:

Man also lost his ability to communicate with the God who created him. God removed the ability of his creation to talk with him.  Sounds like a pretty cruel creator to me!

That's what a certain cult teaches.  Maybe more than one teaches it?

On 4/3/2023 at 5:02 PM, Stayed Too Long said:

If your son or daughter went against your wishes would you cut communications with them? I doubt it. 

Exactly.  God never removed the ability of his creation to talk with him; and God has continued to talk with his creationS since time began.  Question is: do the creations listen?  Or have they failed to pay any attention?

Good lord, is that Craig?  His vaunted golden hair has slipped down to his chin, and gone grey?  Still got the scowl, though.

I googled her name and found this music by Claudettee.  I listened to a few clips.  It's 43mins long.  Not my kind of thing, but others might be interested.  

Looks like a TWI production.  By clicking on it, you might be giving royalties of some minuscule amount to TWI.  Make your own decision about whether or not you want to do that, or have given enough to them already.

Of course, doesn't tell us what she knew about what was going on, and I don't know when this album was made.  

Maybe a bit off topic but : "Would you be blessed to ...?"

Which usually meant, "You will do this whether you want to or not.  Because I'm telling you to."

On 2/11/2023 at 2:58 PM, chockfull said:

Over time the phone hookups became more and more of an emphasized thing.  It was mandated certain numbers of common hookups to the Sunday service, and then weekly Corps hookups - all mandated attendance.  You were even required to dress up in a suit around your kitchen table to listen to some of these.

Aincha glad there wasn't Zoom or Skype in those days?  If there were, you can imagine somebody in Security examining the feed from every single household on line, and looking out for "off the word" things.  Not just the nametag slightly askew, or the shirt not being ironed to perfection, or having the wrong hairstyle - but they'd be examining everything in the background.  The state of your lounge, kitchen, or wherever you were sitting; whether the curtains hung correctly; what TWI paraphernalia was on display; how tidy the place was; and a zillion other irrelevant details that they have no business knowing.  They really would "have eyes on you."

18 hours ago, T-Bone said:

wierwille so drilled into my head the concept of “The Word” really being his interpretation of the Bible – his saying The Word takes the place of the absent Christ   takes on a whole other sinister cult-like meaning.

Like, "the word of God is the will of God."  

Means, "the Bible as I teach it is the will of God as I interpret God for you."

From the TWI PoV, it certainly does NOT mean: "Jesus Christ [and  what he preached] is the will of God."  Particularly since we were actively discouraged from reading the gospels, those naughty OT records!

"Generation."  Hmm.  Might mean something along the lines of "administration" if one still buys into that idea (I don't, well not in the way TWI teaches it).

In places in the Bible it puts "week" for a period of a year, or "day" for a period of a year or some other length of time, not just a period of 24 hours.  

So I wonder if "generation" (a vague word, not a specific length of time) is used in a vague sense, to indicate some future period, that those currently alive might or might not see.

I think all that Gen X and Gen Z and other stuff is a little ridiculous.  Though without doubt the "Swinging 60s" generation with its funky fashions and mini-skirts had considerably different aspirations from the 50s generation of post-war austerity leading into more peaceful and settled times, or the 70s, with heavy rock and psychedelic drugs.

Sexual and violent offenders should be, and in the UK are, required to register with police and/or other offenders.   And certainly paedophiles should not be allowed to live near schools and playgrounds.  Registering as a sex offender may be for a period (of years) or may be for life - depends on the severity of the offence.
https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/victims-witnesses-and-offenders/registering-as-a-sex-offender/

In the UK, we have provisions that (potential) partners can now approach some aspect of police to enquire whether a person with whom they are thinking of starting a relationship, or where they have concerns for a child, has a relevant record - whether they've been convicted of assaulting previous partners or children.  There is a strict procedure around this but I don't fully know the details, but there's some info in the link below.  It's to help women (usually) to avoid (usually) men who've abused previous partners or their children to avoid future risk.  Nobody wants to live with a violent rapist or kiddy-fiddler. 

These provisions are known colloquially as Sarah's law and Clare's law. 
 https://www.met.police.uk/rqo/request/ri/request-information/sarahs-law-beta/sarahs-law-child-sex-offender-disclosure-scheme/

But the information should not be widely (publicly) available.  Vigilante groups could otherwise access the information and carry out their own form of justice.  

7 hours ago, Charity said:

... leaders call for 300 radical young adults to join 21 days of prayer and fasting in Kansas City this May. They will be praying during the NightWatch (12–6am), having housing and basic food (i.e. Daniel fast meals) provided. "We’re calling 300 young adults to come and be a part of this historic reality that's happening globally," Mike says.

That sounds so TWI-ish.  The "standing in the gap" dange and "participate and be special."  Ugh.

Good if Christians can come together to pray for common cause.  Bad if Christians get elitist about it.

7 hours ago, Charity said:

intercessors who will remind the LORD of His promises for Jerusalem until Jesus returns.

"Remind" God ???  

On 4/13/2023 at 2:41 AM, Nathan_Jr said:

The word grad is so misused with respect to PFAL.

It's totally misused anyway.  A "graduate" is one who has completed a course and been graded.  In the US it would be like your GPA, I think.  Lot of difference between a GPA of 2.3, 3.3 and 4.0.

If you ain't graded, you can't be a graduate.  But you can be a course completer.  Doesn't sound so good, though.

Realistically, the Romans liked mass executions and there were probably dozens crucified at the same time.  Jesus could have been crucified in a bunch, fore, aft and either side, of other unfortunates, quite possibly some of whom were also innocent, or were innocent of any serious crime.  There's a report of about 2000 Jews being crucified in 4BC.

https://www.livescience.com/65283-crucifixion-history.html

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/crucifixion/roman-crucifixion-methods-reveal-the-history-of-crucifixion/

Wikipedia has this article, which is not for the fainthearted https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion. 
You read it?  I warned you!

I listened to the first few minutes.  I was surprised at how calm he sounded.  No rant!!  (yet)  However, full of praise for the achievements of the great doctor W.  I wondered who he was trying to impress.  Maybe he was appealing to the nostalgia of his "followers" for a bygone VPW era.

No thanks.  Not for me.

On 4/1/2023 at 2:35 PM, chockfull said:

I am currently less enamored with the “how maths work” aspect of scriptures fitting “with a mathematical exactness and scientific precision” I kind of feel that path leading to more traps.

Where did he get that rubbish phrase anyway?

I can appreciate that a trained physicist might feel that way.  But vpw?  If his maths skills were anything like as good as his English skills - well, hahahaha.  The man didn't understand English, neither words nor grammar.  (Let alone Greek or Aramaic, what a joke.)

That has to be another phrase that this thief stole from some more worthy person.