TripleXBullies
Senior Member
We may have to wait until next month. I'd prefer to do it on a weekend that we don't have the kids. I'll be out of town the first week in November as well....
SFD asked for an update. Still in pretty much the same place. The trip to Africa was a great experience. I learned a lot about myself. I did some more public "preaching" on Gideon. Which I think kind of applies to what I mentioned in the thread the other day about the third A trying too hard in here. I never thought I'd do that. I was doing it for pastors too. I speak publicly at work every once in a while but not enough to have ever spent time to really learn how to prep. I took a lot of feedback from my pastor on prepping. Then I actually applied that to interview prep this year. Wow what a difference.
When I think about how I explained things here, I feel like I should go back over some things. A lot of the guys in here get hung up on things. I know I did... and a lot of those things still hang me up. I visualize this wall that God broke a hole for himself in. He didn't destroy the wall, he just made a hole. I discussed that here too. The wall catches all kinds of smelly stuff. It still does. Some of the details he left on the other side of the wall. I am ok with that for now. I think it's him that's given me some peace with that too. Those hang ups completely kept it all out before. The peace says don't worry about that stuff for now, we'll get there some day.
Later on today when I have a little more time I'll make a list of some of those things. I am decent friends with my pastor and I actually plan on asking him specifically about a couple of these things.
I visualize this a little better with a different analogy. If I'm fishing and get a line hung, especially in a tournament, sometimes I put that rod down and pick something else up if I'm in a juicy spot. I'll let some slack out of the hung rod and just lay it on the deck. If I catch something on the new rod I really don't care about the the hung rod. I'll come back and worry about when I get a second or after I feel like the spot is dry. Sometimes you have to deal with it to move on, but if the spot is good, get what's good out of it and then go back to the hung rod. Sometimes it's not even hung any more by then and comes right up. I didn't want to miss the possibilities in that spot though.
This is what I am going to ask my pastor about:
When Jesus died he left the holy spirit right? Who is here with us, guiding us and everything. I'd say he's frequently not easy to understand or understand if it's him or not since it's pretty much all internal. I have said it, probably ANYONE has said it - God, just boom to me from a cloud, talk from a donkey or a burning bush. The bible says we don't need that any more because we have the holy spirit.
Is this is a grass is always greener perspective that we wish that God would just do that for us? Man those goat herders 2000+ years ago had it so much easier. You can't deny a talking donkey! So my question for him would be, can you point me to where I can get a better feeling for how it used to be, and how we have it better because we have the holy spirit? If it was the other way around, what were they wanting and praying for that I know have at my finger tips?
I am kind of making that connection but maybe not like you're intending. If conversations with your wife can become run of the mill because you've always got it at your fingertips is like we've always had the HS at our fingertips then maybe. So I'd like to understand what NOT having the HS means so that maybe I can appreciate it more.
For me, there was a time I didn't have the HS and I remember what it was like daily, because it represents the era of my life where I made the worst mistakes and did the most harm to myself and others. I can relate very well with David whe he said 'My sin is always in front of my face.' Before there was no limit to what I would say or do. Literally none. I was accountable to no one but myself. For me, THAT was NOT a good thing. After, that all changed overnight. In no way was I nor will ever be perfect, but the perspective changed.....the focus. I was, and am now accountable to Christ for my actions and Brother do I hear about them every day from the HS and most of the time several times through the day. Some guys could probably come in and explain how the Law served at least in part as the HS, or explain that for much of the OT God actually lived among the people in the tabernacle and temple so they didn't need the HS, blah, blah, blah. The thread would probably go on for 20 pages of debate over that crap and then go off track for another 10. I ain't getting the feeling that's what your after and think it's probably a good idea to do just what you plan...ask your pastor. It seems he's a friend and someone you trust. He knows you personally and is gonna be able to relate to you in a way none of us can.
I've felt for the longest time that your last sentence is a gimmick to bring in people who have a bad taste in their mouth from past experience. An attempt to try to re-label things. It's all of those and the same thing it's always been...... It's absolutely a religion, belief system and faith that's about having a relationship... You can call it and label it whatever you want...
I don't think that through any of the almost 10 years of agnosticism and atheism I was ever without the HS.
What he wanted and what was needed 2 different things. Had I gotten what I wanted a year and a half ago instead of what I needed a year ago my life would not be what it is today spiritually, emotionally, nor physically.
Had I gotten what I wanted and asked for 13 years ago, I would not have been a widower 3 years ago. I would be a much different person today had I got what I wanted 13 years ago. I am sure you have heard God has a plan. As my late wife was rolled away for her first surgery the words I can remember her saying more so than anything she ever said to me was God has a plan, we may not like it but he does have a plan.
This is what I am going to ask my pastor about:
When Jesus died he left the holy spirit right? Who is here with us, guiding us and everything. I'd say he's frequently not easy to understand or understand if it's him or not since it's pretty much all internal. I have said it, probably ANYONE has said it - God, just boom to me from a cloud, talk from a donkey or a burning bush. The bible says we don't need that any more because we have the holy spirit.
Is this is a grass is always greener perspective that we wish that God would just do that for us? Man those goat herders 2000+ years ago had it so much easier. You can't deny a talking donkey! So my question for him would be, can you point me to where I can get a better feeling for how it used to be, and how we have it better because we have the holy spirit? If it was the other way around, what were they wanting and praying for that I know have at my finger tips?
"God has a plan" on what evidence? The world I see is exactly what I would expect of a world with no plan.