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Post by Rebelman on Jul 5, 2005 18:14:32 GMT -5
I didn't think Reb was a bad person two years ago when I first met him. I like him a lot. Still do, for the record. INRE: Being opposed for your beliefs- I believe the precedent Jesus set for that was summed up as 'Turn the other cheek' I do, actually, believe that when you die you're just dead. Your spark is gone. You've past on. I also believe that that's the intrinsic beauty of life. We're all so fragile. We're all so impermanant. EVerything passes away, and so MUST be cherished with your whole heart while you're here. While you can. With this philosophy, I don't have anything to look forward to after this life. That's true. And it doesn't bother me. Because I find joy in today. Every day. Even days where Joy's a little thin on the ground, and believe me, I've had a couple of those. But you know, even the broken things are worth celebrating. Even the sick things exist. Even the leftovers are something to cherish. You know what I mean? So, my question back to you, Reb- Does that make you think less of me? Not to worry the post I will make late tonight will describe the person I use to be and the evil present. I am not really sure what to think of certain things people say. All it does is sadden me to death mostly. All I can say is I found no joy in not not having an eternal life.
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Post by Rebelman on Jul 5, 2005 18:16:58 GMT -5
Everybody else I have talked to confirmed what I said about the regions. No we haven't.
Oh, you mean everyone else.
Tell you what. Go into a senior citizens center, a supermarket, and a GOP headquarters, and try to gauge from that how much support there is for tying Social Security to the stock market. Then go to the Congressional Budget Office and pose the same scenario.
Ask a wild-eyed millennialist to define the region of ancient Babylonia and then ask someone who at least looked at a map, and you'll get similarly different answers.
When people with points of view to promote share their views on things, they are often not as reliable as they might be.
Now, without looking at a map one way or t'other, I'm more inclined to believe Py. Why? Because Py isn't trying to make a prophecy come true, and in fact has no stake in the information at all. If he said it coincided exactly I could believe him. If he said ancient Babylonia was located someplace in the Himalayas, I'd be ... inclined to want to check that out myself.
"Everyone you've talked to," on the other hand, might have more of a stake in the information being one way or the other and so therefore your point of view may need to be qualified.
All that being said, I'd accept a hotlink to a map that showed exact border-to-border correlation between Iraq and ancient Babylonia, and even then, I'd want to know who compiled the information for the Web site.
Ultimately, every piece of information in the world is subject to the "Can I believe this?" test, and it's never an inappropriate question to ask.So you don't want to believe anything whatsoever that may have been prophesied in the bible. That literally makes no sense to me. I will go out and find info on Babylon since everybody seems so I'm not going to believe that because the snarky arrogant Cowboy says it so it must be false. So I will go out and get it.
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Post by Rebelman on Jul 5, 2005 18:18:42 GMT -5
Reb, we can't govern the speed or form of a person's spiritual growth any more than we can their physical development. We can make sure they have the resources they need. (food,air,water,shelter,etc.) We can help them avoid things that would stunt their progress. (disease,toxins,fatigue,other stresses) But after we've done that,we pretty much have to let go and wait to see how God's planned their maturation. Once a proper foundation has been laid,we can't fault their growth for proceeding in its own way rather than complying with our designs. It's the same with matters of the spirit. We make sure they have information and support but we nurture best by permitting the person to grow naturally without having any part of their lives be forced . Trying to push things too fast or manipulating their structure can retard everything we wish to encourage and cause the 'work-in-progress' to become weakened,warped or destroyed altogether. It also shows a certain amount of arrogance and lack of faith. It's a terribly hard lesson to learn but the 'fullness of time " is more often measured by God's calendar than his stopwatch. I am really try to warn of things to come and many won't listen to me so that is really what I am trying to do not try to force it on. Mainly warn which is my duty and mission.
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Post by Charisma69 on Jul 5, 2005 19:31:26 GMT -5
No we haven't.
Oh, you mean everyone else.
Tell you what. Go into a senior citizens center, a supermarket, and a GOP headquarters, and try to gauge from that how much support there is for tying Social Security to the stock market. Then go to the Congressional Budget Office and pose the same scenario.
Ask a wild-eyed millennialist to define the region of ancient Babylonia and then ask someone who at least looked at a map, and you'll get similarly different answers.
When people with points of view to promote share their views on things, they are often not as reliable as they might be.
Now, without looking at a map one way or t'other, I'm more inclined to believe Py. Why? Because Py isn't trying to make a prophecy come true, and in fact has no stake in the information at all. If he said it coincided exactly I could believe him. If he said ancient Babylonia was located someplace in the Himalayas, I'd be ... inclined to want to check that out myself.
"Everyone you've talked to," on the other hand, might have more of a stake in the information being one way or the other and so therefore your point of view may need to be qualified.
All that being said, I'd accept a hotlink to a map that showed exact border-to-border correlation between Iraq and ancient Babylonia, and even then, I'd want to know who compiled the information for the Web site.
Ultimately, every piece of information in the world is subject to the "Can I believe this?" test, and it's never an inappropriate question to ask. So you don't want to believe anything whatsoever that may have been prophesied in the bible. That literally makes no sense to me. I will go out and find info on Babylon since everybody seems so I'm not going to believe that because the snarky arrogant Cowboy says it so it must be false. So I will go out and get it. Reb, the reason we don't believe what you're saying has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with - people have been using these things to prove the end is near ever since the words were written.
This stuff is so very vague and you could find all sorts of stuff that happened throughout history that can be made to fit within the prophesies.
Did you know that the world was going to end in 1900? They thought they had the prophesies happening then too. Everything fit - or so they thought.
And it's 105 years later and the world still hasn't ended. They've used this stuff over and over again throughout history to say the end is near.
And also, what makes you think that you - out of the millions of people that have read and studied the Bible - the you are the one that figured it all out?
There are Bible scholars that have studied the Bible their entire lives, it's what they do for a living, and they haven't come to the same conclusions as you.
So if they don't agree with you then why would we? No offense but they have lots more experience with the Bible.
As does tj.
And Py really knows stuff about alot of things. He's freakin' smart as hell and knows quite a bit about history and such.
If he doesn't think ancient Babylonia is where you said it was then I'm inclined to believe him because I'm sure he's done the research to back up his opinion and I'm sure it's from reliable sources that don't have an agenda to prove.
See, most of us are older than you are Reb and while that doesn't make us right all the time it does give us enough experience to know you can't always take things at face value.
And we've seen people say this stuff is coming true all our lives. My ex-Mother-In-Law goes on about this sort of thing all the time. If I would have listened to her opinion then the world would have ended five years ago.
So please don't be upset with us for not taking what you say at face value. We don't think you're making it up, we do believe that you really believe what you're saying, we just need more proof than that.
From reliable sources that have nothing to prove, or disprove, about the prophesy.
And seeing as how we won't know when the end comes as it will come without warning, we will probably not find the answer in our lifetimes.
Hell, 1000 years from now another kid like you will probably make the same pronouncement and be met with the same resistance. So ultimately it's not worth getting all worked up about.
And I so wish I knew more about history so I could make my point better with actual examples.
Maybe we'll get lucky and grail can make my point for me. ;D
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Post by Rebelman on Jul 5, 2005 21:04:26 GMT -5
So you don't want to believe anything whatsoever that may have been prophesied in the bible. That literally makes no sense to me. I will go out and find info on Babylon since everybody seems so I'm not going to believe that because the snarky arrogant Cowboy says it so it must be false. So I will go out and get it. Reb, the reason we don't believe what you're saying has absolutely nothing to do with you and everything to do with - people have been using these things to prove the end is near ever since the words were written.
This stuff is so very vague and you could find all sorts of stuff that happened throughout history that can be made to fit within the prophesies.
Did you know that the world was going to end in 1900? They thought they had the prophesies happening then too. Everything fit - or so they thought.
And it's 105 years later and the world still hasn't ended. They've used this stuff over and over again throughout history to say the end is near.
And also, what makes you think that you - out of the millions of people that have read and studied the Bible - the you are the one that figured it all out?
There are Bible scholars that have studied the Bible their entire lives, it's what they do for a living, and they haven't come to the same conclusions as you.
So if they don't agree with you then why would we? No offense but they have lots more experience with the Bible.
As does tj.
And Py really knows stuff about alot of things. He's freakin' smart as hell and knows quite a bit about history and such.
If he doesn't think ancient Babylonia is where you said it was then I'm inclined to believe him because I'm sure he's done the research to back up his opinion and I'm sure it's from reliable sources that don't have an agenda to prove.
See, most of us are older than you are Reb and while that doesn't make us right all the time it does give us enough experience to know you can't always take things at face value.
And we've seen people say this stuff is coming true all our lives. My ex-Mother-In-Law goes on about this sort of thing all the time. If I would have listened to her opinion then the world would have ended five years ago.
So please don't be upset with us for not taking what you say at face value. We don't think you're making it up, we do believe that you really believe what you're saying, we just need more proof than that.
From reliable sources that have nothing to prove, or disprove, about the prophesy.
And seeing as how we won't know when the end comes as it will come without warning, we will probably not find the answer in our lifetimes.
Hell, 1000 years from now another kid like you will probably make the same pronouncement and be met with the same resistance. So ultimately it's not worth getting all worked up about.
And I so wish I knew more about history so I could make my point better with actual examples.
Maybe we'll get lucky and grail can make my point for me. ;D
Before I make my post I have to respond here first(and do my research paper at the same time) First off I am not the only one inclined that prophesy. John Hagee also agrees with me as well. He agrees with me on the area and everything. Also I may be younger than many of you but I can still hold my own against the various comments. When I complete the Old Testament I will give more on it. But I get the feeling I will get opposing regardless of how much sense it makes because from what I hear many don't want to believe it for some reason. Now for the post I was going to make.
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Post by Rebelman on Jul 5, 2005 21:28:44 GMT -5
Lets take a trip from bad to better through inspiration.
A while back and even up until February I was how should I put this a bad person. So bad I didn't give a care and really didn't have much conviction at all. Pain, suffering, marks, hits, slams all for no purpose at all. It all had no meaning what so ever. It was like suffering in front of peoples faces with no one to care in the world. A lost boy, lost wondering through the wilderness and through darkness.
Along with pain inflicted, I myself did much damage as well. What did I do? I sinned horribly without care. Yelled at people without care. Cussed without care. Vained without care. Darkness throughout. Left in the dark. Bound to perish.
Now a little while back around early this year I hit a peak of darkness in my life. With no one to guide me I was triggered through massive stress and massive depression. Evil thoughts I didn't even think imaginable formed because Satan was ready to take me to his home. And quite frankly with the gun I had ready on a cold February night in 2005 I was close to sending myself there at my own will.
Now ask yourself what in the world could have happened to this poor pathetic stupid person I just described above. I'll tell you what happened. I was given word in late February by my best friend that I was going to Hell if I didn't staighten my act up. Which he was right. This struck me automatically. There was spark in me but no one ever forced it out. The light was there but darkness always overtook it.
At that moment forth I made a promise. My first promise to Christ was to stop my lust and the man stuff I did with it. Now think to yourself can an 18 year at his peak stop what he does automatically. Yes he can. Feb 28 was the last of man time and I did it through Christ and his conviction for me. I haven't done it ever sense. A power inside me I never knew possible. The power of Christ. The blood of Christ compelled me to stop my non sense, stop my evil, stop the stupidity and refusal my mind and the darkness had laughed and triggered on me. It all stop on a dime. All because "Christ became part of me".
What I did afterward. The depression stopped, and the power inside came out and the true me was born again. Born to spread the message I found through Christ to others around me. To warn of behavior that I seen such as mine that their is a better place. There is something to look forward to. No one has to burn for there stupidity but through the blood of Christ you can be compelled through His strength to do whatever your heart desires through the teachings presented and through a life you can share through happiness.
Now in my next post I will share what happened around me when I followed Christ.
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Post by Rebelman on Jul 5, 2005 22:31:09 GMT -5
I've wrote 3 1/4 pages/4 on my research paper so now lets move along to part 2 of my inspiration.
Who is my role model?
Christ is my role model. How many of anybodys role models laid down his life for every single one of us even the ones who wouldn't believe in Him or the ones who hated his guts. No one would ever do this but He did. That is a true inspiration to me and I refuse to succomb myself and let him down any more than I can possibly do. This motivates me to get up everyday. Gives me the opportunity to know I will serve Christ to my fullest in every single way the Gospel has laid down for me. Even if I have to endure fowl treatment then that is nothing to eternity in happiness.
What differences do I see from now compared to then?
Now I have something to look forward to instead of the meaningless material that earth presents to give people pride in themselves. I look forward to happy. And the pain and temptation I have to ride through is only temporary compared to eternity. Just a small bump in the road.
Without Christ I would have never came out of my low points that I stooped my pathetic soul to. A bunch of meaningless thoughts brought on by Satan himself to make me one of the many to refuse Him because of a hard to believe attitude. Once Christ penetrated my heart change ensued immediately. It hit me so fast I didn't even know what hit me. I cried at this very computer screen when I finally found my way because it was so beautiful compared to such pathetic non belief I had beforehand. I was finally forgiven of the evil I had inflicted on Christ and for once in my life I could say I was happy and truly found. I finally found a complete in me instead of the incomplete that Satan brought in me.
Satans thoughts were very hard to distinguish beforehand because they were such a part of my everyday life. But I know when he wants to play with me and I know how to combat it. All the sin ahead that I still have to endure does make me feel like a failure if I fall into it but I know I am saved and know I am one with what the cross truly symbolizes. I am not some hypocrite but someone who truly believes full face and not just some of the time. Christ died for me and every single one of you and so many still refuse it for some reason. I don't guess I'll ever understand that mindset. Dying will be good when it happens soon all because I have so much to look forward to compared to the sin infested life we have here. The world cannot be loved because there is so much terror, hatred and disbelief in it. Just look around. Can you love that?
I serve my Christ by what I do for him. I serve on strong faith and the inspired truth the bible presents. There is no other way but Christ gave me the way of his guidance and truth and it is set for me. I am ready to take the journey as long as it takes me until I meet my death soon. Until then I will be a child of Christ and give my heart, soul, and body over to him just as he did for me and every single one of you. That is what pains me with some people. Many just make some kind of joke or refuse.
Just imagine yourself standing there watching the one there to save your life and you just sit there watching many torture him. Would you continue disbelief. Put yourself in the scene instead of continuing a sight of what is going on now. Imagine watching the man to save you having his blood shed for you. Would that hurt you? Would that make you sad? It would break my heart to see it. I put myself in the scene and know the horror and I flat out refuse to bring myself to go back to what I was before. Born again through Christ and achieve his grace.
If I have to endure criticism, persecution, or even worse things in my life then so be it. It is already put into place and I am fully prepared for the worse that may happen. I am stronger than I ever had before. That man had nails and thorns driven through him and he still asked for our forgiveness. Would you say that to the people torturing you. That takes so much for a man to take that and still want us so bad that he would die for us. Just typing this makes me all watery.
A complete journey for eternity can be achieved through strong faith and conviction through Christ. Crucified, sanctified, and satisfied through Christ.
And just as my signature here says. I will praise Him with my song. My song is my conviction, my devotion, my determination to warn advice help and keep myself strong through Christ. This is me, the real me. For the first time I have been born to serve fully. People can either love me or hate me.
I even love the ones who hate me. I even forgive the ones who hate me. If my role model can even having everyone turn on him I can put my selfish pride aside and make myself a better person.
My conviction is stronger than ever. It gets me through my homework, my struggle in life, my help of all my friends and devotion to persevere even in the most horrible of circumstances. It can be done through Christ because I have done it.
Bought by the blood of Christ and serve his word of Truth for my everlasting life.
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Post by tjaman on Jul 6, 2005 1:16:31 GMT -5
I'd grown up in a Sunday School-attending Christian household. My parents hadn't wanted me to be baptized at the little Congregational church we attended out by where we lived because they didn't consider it a "permanent" church home, but my dad worried about it, worried about what might happen, because "you never know."
I remember loving G-d and praying but I also remember being consumed with pride in academics, and even after I was baptized at the age of 10, when we joined the Lutheran church, I wasn't born again. I was still this arrogant little neurotic person (and of course the only thing that's changed is I'm no longer "little," but it stands). But I was filled with self-loathing, convinced that G-d couldn't love me, convinced my sins were more than anyone had ever ...
I was 13 years old. How much sin can a 13 year old actually get into? To this day I couldn't honestly tell you what I was beating myself up over.
But it was pretty intense. I felt like a self-aware version of that kid in "I've Got You Under My Skin" -- where he was just empty inside? That's what I felt like. And I felt that I couldn't love myself so how could G-d love me?
I called the Billy Graham people in a moment of spiritual crisis and prayed the Sinner's Prayer with them, and accepted Christ into my heart and committed to a course of Bible study and prayer and reading the Bible. I was born again that night.
In 1983.
Lots and lots of things have happened since then. I've sinned far worse than I ever had -- mostly emotional cruelty to people who didn't deserve it and couldn't withstand it -- and I've suffered more than I had up until that point. Relationships fall apart, friendships fall apart. Others grow deeper and closer. You don't imagine for a second you're the only person on this board who's contemplated suicide, do you? And yet who knows what the impact of one missing voice in this chorus would be -- and who can say how much more our lives would've been touched by someone who was overwhelmed by life? Who didn't have the friend you had and didn't stop themselves.
My greatest heresy, probably, is my belief that G-d doesn't condemn suicide, in and of itself. I believe G-d, who experienced life as a human teenager, understands all our overwhelming emotions concerning love and death and acceptance, and all of our fears of rejection, and when life is too much, throws his arms open wide to finally provide that acceptance that perhaps that soul never felt. Because I do believe in a G-d of second chances.
Oh, and my relationship with G-d?
You've been born again for four months and a week, Reb. Your life isn't likely to be over "soon," as you put it -- unless you continue to neglect your health as you have. You've probably got a good 60 to 70 years left, and even if you mean that time as "soon," yes, life is short, but you can play an awful lot of checkers in that time.
You've been born again, blessed with a renewed spirit, new baptized and communed. Excellent.
So have I. For 22 years, now.
My relationship with G-d has moved beyond Scripture to pure experience. That may sound arrogant, but after you read the Bible enough times -- in enough versions -- you gain a perspective on what a human document it ultimately is, and why not? It's G-d's message to humanity, presented within the context of a single, yet infinitely varied -- world faith; i.e., Christianity. My perspective is somewhat more universal than that, because it's inspired by a G-d that is so much larger than a single human tradition.
My faith has moved from periods of spiritual crisis that led me to find a new faith community altogether (which does, even when moving between Christian denominations, take some guts).
Is this sufficient?
Well ...
I've never brought this up, but a few years ago a group of kids destroyed my car. They were tracked back to the rez, they were completely uninsured, they were rushing home from a party strung out on something because it was 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning (I was headed to the gym, of all motivations) and they went through the stoplight like it didn't exist. If I'd been coming through the intersection from the other direction I would not be here to write this.
My credit rating took a serious hit. The car they destroyed was my first new (well, new to me) car I'd ever purchased, and I'd just finished paying for it. I had to change insurance companies after the one I'd been working with screwed me on the deal (and I discovered how extraordinarily businesslike a really good financial screwing can be).
And there's no good reason it happened. The event itself is morally neutral. I've never received an apology from any of the five kids I saw in that car before they sped away, abandoned that vehicle and hopped another one to get back home (so there's another nameless, faceless person whose life became all the more interesting that day).
And I've forgotten the names of the kids involved, and -- I'm not saying this happened immediately -- but I've forgiven them. And that was not easy. And I was angry, because I was also confronted by how much of a materialist I was. And ...
It took a good long while. But I learned more about letting go, and to reduce my definition of self with things, and if nothing about that morning is ever resolved, I know I'm loved. I know no one was hurt, and I've tried to be more realistic and philosophical about the true values of relationships over things.
As an example, this ^^^^^ is one place you can get to if you give yourself 20 years.
And in 20 years more? Heavens, Reb, I didn't think I'd ever be able to pray my way past a chunk loss of $5,000. And some people lose their entire life savings, and their reputations and their jobs, and their families. How do people find the strength to do that?
Hell, how do we find the strength to get up out of bed every day and face this imperfect, flawed, frazzled, materialistic, consumer-driven television world with its people blown here and there by every fad and whim and all of the Ecclesiastian meaninglessness that surrounds us?
There's only one source I've found that's greater than the world, and all of the world's silliness, and all of the world's meaninglessness, and all of the world's brokenness, and that's from the inner strength renewed within me daily -- hourly -- by the Holy Spirit.
Whatever meaning I find in the world is so much less likely to come from a centuries old prophetic writing than from a frantic phone call like the one I took this morning to place an announcement about a support group forming to help people suffering from an eating disorder -- the meeting time was changing at the last minute and they needed to let people know.
The monk who sits on a pole for months at a time and hangs himself up by his nostrils has not shown the grace of one tending to the sick for an evening.
It's a powerful message, Reb. Progress is slow, but it's progress. Keep it up.
Oh yeah -- I couldn't shut up about this stuff when it was as new to me as it is to you -- like I was the first person who ever read the Bible. It's exciting, and I admire your enthusiasm. Just ...
We love you, Reb. And speaking for myself -- which, incidentally, is all I've been doing thoughout, but that's mostly obvious -- I look forward to seeing where your path takes you.
Just ... sorry. I'm not planning to get all up in a bunch about what Jeremiah wrote 2,600 years ago. Still love you! ;D
* lighter * for Cordy, as well, btw. Well said.
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Post by quantumcat on Jul 6, 2005 6:29:06 GMT -5
Reb, nobody's faulting you for your faith, your confidence in the Word or any of the important stuff. We're just saying you're like the child at Christmas who's so blown away by the first present he's unwrapped that he's blind to what's left under the tree. you think *this* is good? ?? This is the 'puppy love' stage where you're first holding your sweetheart's hand. It's all music and skyrockets and joy so powerful it hurts. But you've got a lot of different kinds of ecstacy waiting for you. a lot of it might seem dull and lukewarm now but (believe it or not) you get to a *comfortable* stage with God,too. To continue with the romantic analogy,there comes a time when sweeping dead bugs from inside storm windows with the one you love brings more pleasure than dancing in the moonlight used to-especially if that dancing was with somebody else. So if we seem less worked up about the end times, it's because we've had more 'here-and-nows' than you. If it ends tomorrow,we're ready. we've had full lives. Some regrets but a lot of happiness. We know that just as we think we couldn't have anything more added to our lives,more arrives. So we take it one day at a time It might be different if we weren't prepared. If we were less secure. But you don't sweat the pop tests much if you know the material. you don't fear the winter if your house is snug and your larder is full. you learn to go about your business without dwelling on tomorrow or yesterday. Today will suffice. There is nothing wrong or humorous about the stage you're in but it's a part of your journey. We're in different places. Not better or worse-just different. Wring every bit of the wisdom and strength and gladness out of this 'honeymoon' stage but be warned that even the times of pain and loss and uncertainty will be richer the riper your faith becomes. it DOES get better than this. Don't rush toward tomorrow till you've used up today.
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Post by PyleansDontLeaveMe on Jul 6, 2005 11:58:43 GMT -5
For the Geographically detail oriented -
Babylon, also called Mesopotamia, roughly laid out as the region between the length of the Tigris and Euphrates.
True enough that a lot of that region lays within the boundries of Iraq.
However, portions of what was most likely Babylon (ancient cartographers being a bit thin on the ground at this point) are also to be found in Syria and Turkey to the North, Kuwait to the Southeast, and Iran to the East along the Persian Gulf line.
ALso, Iraq extends a great further both to the Southwest and the Northeast than any description of Mesopotamia makes claim to.
Interestingly enough, Bagdad- If it was withing the outline of Babylon, would have been right at the edge. And the vast majority of trouble spots in Iraq right now are in fact well outside the generally accepted area of Babylon/Mesopotamia.
To say nothing of the fact that pretty much all of the oil reserves are outside of any definition of Babylon's boundaries, putting the lie to the 'Fuel is burning' portion of the prophecy. (a passage that, by the by, seems pretty clearly intended as a metaphor for the violence of the region (as seen by Jeremia in that time) turning in on itself and devouring it's own tail, as it were.)
Them's, geographically speaking, the facts.
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Post by tjaman on Jul 6, 2005 12:21:09 GMT -5
* lighter * Thank you, Py.
* needs a Sir Bedevere smily * Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?
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Post by PyleansDontLeaveMe on Jul 6, 2005 12:23:44 GMT -5
I hold the mystical key of .... The Geography Websearch!
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Post by tjaman on Jul 6, 2005 12:33:59 GMT -5
ALL HAIL THE GIBBON!
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Post by Insane Troll Logic on Jul 6, 2005 12:51:31 GMT -5
* lighter * Thank you, Py.
* needs a Sir Bedevere smily * Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?
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Post by Dr. Purple Goddess on Jul 6, 2005 13:33:31 GMT -5
I appologize ahead of time if what I say is repetitive as, I pooped out a bit on the reading of this thread since last I posted.... But, here goes...
I would like to take this opportunity to say, while Reb is busy feeling pitty for all us heathons, it is I who feel pitty for him. He seems so adament about helping people "see the light." You know...it's not just religious faith that have people such as yourself.
In the world of mental health therapy/ counseling. There are MANY people who are on a mission to get people to see the error of their ways. In the counseling biz however, if you come in so idealistic that you think everyone will listen to you cause they should, or are going to help everyone you counsel. Than you will burn out so fast, you're head spins. Those people don't make it. They end up quitting and blaming themselves for not being helpful to people.
I see you headed down that same path of disenchantment and it saddens me. Because a spiritual crisis is a horrible thing to go through. Keep the faith. And don't worry bout us. I think it may be best if you worry only about what you can control in this life and not dwell on the things that are beyond it. Have you not heard the phrase, "give it to G-d" ? Perhaps you may want to think on that for a bit. Don't feel sorry for us. We don't need your pitty. We would love to have your non-judgemental support.
Oh and I did catch a bit about your life story back there and I must say...
While I know that having people with you is important...There were plenty of people from these forums who did their best under the circumstances to help you through your crisis. Fancy that, a bunch of unsaved sods like us being supportive. So, unless I missed it in your post...which I may have...thanks for not appreciating us.
Now, since people are giving their life-story. I'd like to say that I appreciate what you said tj about the suicide thingy.
My mother had 6 children, and now she's down to 3. I lost my older brother in 1997. And my twin Brother in January of this year. My older brother shot himself in the head. So, I guess you could say that sends him straight to hell.
That's not including a s**tty childhood exacerbated by s**tty parentage. I've had my share of trials and tribulations...as well as guilt and sin. So, yeah, I also know what it's like to contemplate suicide. I felt close to it, when the closest thing to me in this world, died from a brain aneurism (SP) this January.
But I don't feel the need to tell people that because I've found a way to cope with life AND death in a certain way, they should use my way to do it too. You know, and this is just me...but I managed to deal with my brother's death and am still dealing with it...without the use of the bible and prophecy. I dealt with it by talking to people who knew him; mourning with my family; and more importantly...I delt with it by the support of others who think similarly about my brother as I did.
Perhaps you might find your spiritual journey easier, if you found more like minded people instead of towing your road alone. Always searching for people to join you. How can you gain nurishment in faith if all you have to feed on is your own spirituality with which to draw from? You seem to be looking very hard for some spiritual connection with other people. I hope you find it.
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