Nathan Friedly

Alright, I've said most of what was on my heart, but I'll try and see if I can answer a few of your questions. When I speak of "the word", I mean The Bible, specifically the original meaning and intent, which has been mostly preserved through it's various translations. I've heard of the old fellowlaborers program but I don't know a lot of the details. My group lives together, guys and girls in separate homes. There are 7 of us total. We meet with the CFF staff on Thursdays and Sundays, we meet with each other almost every day. The commitment is for 11 months. We all work full time jobs during the day. One of our recent assignments was to study instances of the spoken word in proverbs. We each took a set of chapters and studied our parts then complied it into a single document. A current assignment is to put together a few 10 minute teachings based on the material covered in the Living in Gods Power Class, one teaching per week for the next few weeks. waysider, I don't know of any truck stops off hand, but that's not to say there aren't any. Rev. Wayne Clapp is now the president of CFF. I'm not certain 'president' is the correct title, but it gets the idea across. CFF is not affiliated with TWI, hence no link. Goey, thanks for the link! I'll consider the rest of what you said. I'd say I respect Dr. Werwille, but to say worship him would not be accurate. GrouchoMarxJr, thanks for the welcome. I would indeed be amazed if everyone agreed with me on everything. For the time being I'm going to pass on your class. Thanks for the offer though. If you want, but now I see, message me with you name and I'll tell my dad you said hi. That's all I've got time for at the moment; You guys will see me pop in every now and then, but it'll probably be pretty sporadic. Have a great New Year everybody, God bless you all!

hey folks, sorry I disappeared for a while.. I'm kind of like that, I'll have plenty of down time one week and be completely booked the next two or three. I've been sort-of keeping up with this thread in my email, but I haven't had the time to write a decent response. I'll make some time for yall soonish. Until then Merry Christmas and God Bless you!

Yea, I think I understand what you're saying. Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons doesn't usually work out too well because it's still the wrong thing to do.

No, it's got a 15-20 minute teaching usually. We have prayer and manifestations, we sing a few songs. A lot of the songs are the same ones you remember from TWI. We take turns on who teaches. Last Tuesday, for example, I taught on renewing your mind to see yourself the way God sees you. I'll going to probably get my notes from that reaching online soon, I'll post a link then. Yep, I do fellowship with CFF. I am in their fellowlaborers program. If you guys don't know about that, it's a "leadership training program." Kind of like a local WOW program, but not exactly the same. They're teaching us a lot of the word, giving us assignments on things to study, and giving us opportunities to teach different places. Our home fellowship is another opportunity to teach, but the CFF staff doesn't make it out that often, and when they do, they let us know that its just to enjoy the word and the fellowship, not to critique. We also do a lot of work, mostly helping run cff events, but also things like planting a tree and cleaning out a ladies barn/chicken coop last weekend; her husband had just recently passed away. And we love every bit of the work, both physical and studying the word. Sorry if I sound like a billboard, I'm trying to give you guys an honest impression of what it is. I have never thought of CFF as an offshoot of TWI, but according to your site we are. I guess we do have a lot of the old way folks in our group. And even though I fellowship with CFF and love them just as dearly as my brothers and sisters in TWI, my allegiance is not to CFF. My allegiance is to God first and foremost.

I mostly agree with WD's comments here. If I can help someone by knowing the answer to their need, then I absolutely want to. How I know the answer might be that I just know it from past studies, or it might be that I start researching and studying it when the need comes up. Or it might just be from revelation. The original post said something about 97% of the answers to peoples questions, I might know 3% off the top of my head, but that's probably a high estimate. But I do believe that when I need to know something, God will make sure that I have the opportuinity. On the other hand, there's a quote from (I think) Rev. John Nessle that sort of fits this context: "I'd rather love than know". I think that was where TWI dropped the ball: loving. I still believe that TWI knows a LOT of scripture and that they, at least some times, apply it correctly. Where I think the problem is, is that they don't do it in love. At least not as much as they should. You can speak the true and accurate word till you're blue in the face, if it's not rightly divided and it's not spoken in love then it probably won't do much good for anybody. The DEVIL quoted scripture at Jesus Christ. Was the quotation accurate? Sort of. Was it rightly divided and spoken in love? Absolutely not. It's worth noting how Jesus refuted that too: with accurate Word. I guess that's not that great of an example of speaking the word in love. That's more of an example of what not to do. A better one might be the John 8 record ("He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." - http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Jhn/Jhn008.html ) but I think you get the idea I was going for. Anyway, back to the original question, do I find that the answers are simple and easy? Usually not. Usually it takes work. But I enjoy the work. (There's plenty of verses about enjoying your work too.) And the answers are often clear after some studying. Like I said, if I need to know, I believe that God will make sure I have the opportunity.

I came across this the other day posted on http://news.ycombinator.com and thought it was a pretty interesting book. I've only read the forward and part of the first chapter, but the book seems to have some good principle. The full book is at http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/barnum/...neygetting.html The entire book is also attached here as a zip in case the website disappears. Here's the first few paragraphs of the forward, just to give you a taste of it: moneygetting.zip

I'n not sure if it's the Peony Capital or not, but it's definitely the right area. You probably did know him. And thanks for the welcome - I just might take you up on that offer! haha, we already have a fellowship in my area (though not a twi one). In fact, we're doing an open house tonight! If anybody is near Troy, Ohio you'd be welcome to drop in. it's 7:30 to 9:30 tonight. gimme a call if you think you can make it: [edit] it was recommended by a forum member that I hide my phone number. I decided to meet him half ways and only post my google grand central "home" number: 937-947-5112. The fellowship is Tuesdays at 7, everyone is welcome to that as well. You don't even have to be a Christian to come. :) And thank you to the other welcomes that I havn't responded to directly!

lol, alright. I still need to get around to getting myself a copy of PFAL. Oughta put it on my christmas list....

Absolutely! I like you guys even more now! I disagree with you there. Loving is a decision and it it your job. If you look at it one way, loving is your only job. (I lump loving and forgiving in together, I see them as very closely related.) I understand that you were hurt, badly. And I sympathize with you. Myself and my family went through much of the same thing. That was exactly what I was trying to address though. Give God a chance here. Like the old song, "He's the healer of broken hearts..." You receive the benefits of forgiving them. Take a look at Job. He was burned. Really taken for all he was worth. He didn't deserve any of it. And to make matters worse, his friends, even his wife became miserable comforters. "This is what you did wrong" and "Curse God and die." With friends like that.... But you know when he received his healing? The turning point where he went from having nothing to having everything restored twofold? When he prayed for his miserable comforters. If you read the context, God rebuked the "friends", all Job needed to do was pray for them.Take a look at this also: Once again, please don't take this as a personal attack. That would only serve to ruin the point. EDIT: This teaching by Jeff Wendling may be of interest to you: http://cffil.org/weekend11.07/Jeff.mp3 The rest of the teachings from that Weekend in the Word are right here: http://cffil.org/weekend11.07.htm And Bumpy, I'm not sure how to take that.. No, I don't know anybody named Larry, guy or otherwise...

haha, a coke sounds good. Thanks for the warm reception. I can't say much for how it feels from the womens side, but we studied a bit of that recently. It was just wonderful to see the true meaning of verses like in Timothy and Corinthians that are guaranteeing women the right to learn and teach Gods word, just like men. The truth of Gods word stands very clearly in contrast to what some people try to twist it into. I love how perfectly the word fits together when you study it :)

Hi folks, I just found this site while looking for the lyrics to the old kids song "Romans 10:9 and 10 I believed it once and then..." (thanks, VeganXTC); but reading around, the topic of forgiveness came to my mind, so I thought I'd share a bit with you. Before I get started I should point out that this is meant to be loving encouragement in Gods word. If you get feeling defensive at any point, then I apologize for not writing clearly enough. My intent is not to attack anyone, so if you feel attacked then I encourage you to take a step back and try to determine why. I grew up in The Way. There's no way I can imagine knowing as much of Gods word as I do without that upbringing. That's not to say I know everything, just that I am very appreciative of what I do know. I'm no longer a member of the way, but I love them dearly. They are my brothers and sisters. Anything, ANYTHING they did wrong to me, I forgive them for. Holding a grudge does nothing to them and nothing positive to you. These folks are your brothers and sisters too. So that's what was on my heart, God bless you guys, you seem like a wonderful bunch of believers! -nathan