[handmaiden]

Re: New "kid" on the block

Hi handmaiden, Thanks for you compliment about my screen name. Why do you like it?

Because I have fond memories of hearing children threatened with "the spoon" as a means of calming their behavior.

I got your message about my friend request, and I do understand, and respect that. I didn't know there was a rule or a anything regarding it, and I certainly meant no disrespect or ill will.

There is a difference between a "rule" and a "custom". For example, there is not established "rule" here at LBC that you cannot discuss a visitor message on the public forum. It is a nice "custom" to refrain from mentioning a lady's quiet remarks made to you in "close conversation" with everyone who happens to lay eyes upon this thread.

You said that I sounded like I had my "back up just a tad." That would be correct. When people judge others without knowing the person, and or make assumptions without any shred of evidence or fact I tend to get a little peeved. I always forgive those that do it, and I know it's ignorance and/or self-righteousness that drives them to do it, but it still gets old really fast.

So, you have graciously-nay-magnanimously decided to forgive us because you believe us to be either ignorant or self-righteous? You don't think that those words sound a tiny bit self-righteous coming from a stranger to our community?

Allow me the use of an analogy. You walk into our church, tell us that you are a fellow believer and announce that you want to be Choir Director. This causes a few raised eyebrows because we were in the middle of choir practice anyway. We continue on with the old classic, "Amazing Grace", sung to its traditional melody.

"No, no!" you declare, "You need to sing it to the tune about giving the world a coke and living in harmony. That's so much more Christian." We sigh, because we know that both melodies fit the lyrics but we are traditional and It. Is. Our. Church.

You don't get to come into these forums, name yourself "new kid on the block" and start throwing your weight around telling us how to be Christians. Again, not a rule, but a very fine custom.

Like it or not, we DO get to judge you here and establish whether you have truly committed to following the Bible with the same steadfastness that we require. Until the Senior Staff decides otherwise, you are "unsaved trash" and you need to learn to submit to their authority rather than proclaim your own.

After all, wasn't the whole world "unsaved trash" when The Lord washed them away in the Great Flood? And don't we register as unsaved and unfavored until we submit to the Authority of God?

You may think that the message of the Bible is about God loving people, but ultimately, it is about submitting to God and accepting His Absolute Power and Judgement over Everything.

The seal of authority is key here. At the moment, I am reproving you. However, if and when the authority of the Pastors has been shared with you, I wouldn't dare. I am a woman. And I know my place in the Godly Scheme of Things.


Praise Jesus!

[Joanna Lytton-Vasey]

Re: New "kid" on the block

Sister Handy, as ever you get right to the core of the matter!

For example, there is not an established "rule" here at LBC that you cannot discuss a visitor message on the public forum. It is a nice "custom" to refrain from mentioning a lady's quiet remarks made to you in "close conversation" with everyone who happens to lay eyes upon this thread.

The lack of awareness of such unwritten rules is typical of the sort of person who fails to understand that intimate domestic matters are best kept private.

And frankly the sheer nerve of such man-children in attempting to use these forums to corrupt innocent single women such as yourself defies belief. It is a source of great sadness to me to see that at least one of us has fallen for his wiles. And - naming no names - she should frankly know better! I wonder what Enrique would say?

[handmaiden]

Re: New "kid" on the block

Indeed Sister Joanna. Discretion is always a virtue, though it is not specifically commanded in the Bible.

For we weaker females, it is understood to be part of the overall admonishment that we keep silent and practice modesty of every sort.


For the gentlemen, the word "discretion" can be interpreted in a different nature. Jesus, Himself, sets the finest example. (As always.)


In the Gospel According to John, chapter eight, a woman is brought to Jesus having been caught in the very act of adultery. Jesus chose that situation to offer a critical lesson to the Pharisees attempting to challenge His Authority and expertise.


Jesus did NOT choose that moment to communicate to the listeners around him the name of the other partner involved in the adulterous union. He didn't even shout the name of the woman involved.


"Hey look, everybody! It's Steve the Cobbler's wife, Esther! She was caught doing the nasty with Simon, the fishmonger! No, not Simon the fish-catcher, that's my guy. It was the other Simon, the one with that funny mole on his upper thigh." (Jesus would know this, of course, because He knows everything.)


Now, if Jesus had reeled off all this information at the time, He certainly would not have broken any "rules". ('Cause He's Jesus and He doesn't break rules.) But Jesus displayed impeccable discretion. He did this by not blurting out information that people didn't need to know, and He also bent down and wrote stuff on the ground. This caused all the Pharisee fellows around Him to bend down to see what He was writing so that He could speak quietly if He needed to.


And to this day, we do not know what Jesus was scribbling on the ground. This is because God didn't have it put in the Bible, showing once again, that discretion is a very admirable quality indeed.


The End.

[MitzaLizalor]

Re: New "kid" on the block

Hi .. Welcome to the forum.

In this post-postmodern era all sorts of relationships have wasted many people's time such as with trees or imaginary substance (Leprechauns for example) or wraiths built up from a succession of failed attempts to reify impossible dreams, brainchildren of authors devoid of Christ as you mentioned in an earlier post.

started preaching from mainstream psychology books by authors

Adler could ensnare a clergyman perhaps—not a Christian one obviously—but it's a broad field when psychodynamic theory gets melded with theology. Christians don't need theology as The Bible explains:

I Peter 1:18-20; 2:1-3 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you … wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Vain conversation received by tradition? Headshrinkers promoted by "pastors" fit the description very well. Guile, hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking? Any "therapy session" can provide that. What infant could understand the psychobabble involved? And yet you heard it in a "church" (which you left immediately) but the damage could already have been done. Were your previous relationships with trees?