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Messages - Mike

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1
Mike's / Re: Is Colin OK?
« on: June 01, 2015, 03:45:27 pm »
Quote from: Piper on June 01, 2015, 12:18:32 pm
Mike,

Seriously, what is going on with you?  You're symptomatic of depression, and you've become so negative.  You're starting to remind me of my dad.  He's your age.  Is it your age, health problems, deline in quality of life, loneliness, loss of faith?  You're worrying me.  Really. 

What are you doing with your time?  You referred to your uneventful day.  Is that the problem?   You have to have something that keeps your head above water. It seems you're acting out, but not really expressing what is troubling you.

Talk to me?  Or not.  Up to you, but . . . something's up. 

You invested so much time in forums, and it's very sad to see it end with you in this state.  Or is that the problem?  Maybe you invested too much of your time into them, and you're a bi lost?  Are you angry at all of us for being a disappointment to you?

Must go check on hubby.  Please find some sunshine in your day, okay?
Hi Pat,
Your not too far out in each of your assessments of what's wrong with me.
And Hi Nancy.....my life is little better than yours (but without your two central problems of Kev (about which you can do little) and that drat animal farm obsession which you should have cut back on ages ago.
All I can say is "even so come Lord Jesus" (in whatever way and at whatever time that might happen).
I have said that I've tried to deregister but the site's software won't allow me, so now I'm going to try to cancel all 'notifications of posts' and all site bookmarks, and then log out with the hope that I have the will power to thereon make myself disappear.

2
Mike's / Re: Is Colin OK?
« on: June 01, 2015, 08:04:09 am »
Before you know it I'll be hiding behind the same senseless folly of those who, like GSpirits, Oracle, and  the1Bill, claimed that they must be right because they were following Jesus' example who was also judgemental, misunderstood, and reviled.
Doubtless, in my "insular, judgemental crankiness" I also ought not to speak disparagingly about those guys.

3
Mike's / Is Colin OK?
« on: June 01, 2015, 03:19:16 am »
Has anyone heard from him?
I log out in order to read Colin's posts to his board (I'm banned from reading them other than by logging out) and I notice that this is the first time he has let four days pass without posting.
It is 'sick' enough to belong to a forum and only post in a board dedicated to one's own interpretations of scripture, but four days without doing so might be a different sort of sickness.
Maybe he has quietened himself after admitting for the first time ever (but since deleted) that a chapter of scripture at the end of Revelation was so plainly written that it didn't need his re-interpretation. ;)

4
Patrick's / Re: what is the problem?
« on: June 01, 2015, 02:53:54 am »
Quote from: Poppy on May 31, 2015, 06:28:20 pm
Perhaps you are trying to work it all out with logic rather than just accept that God is God and just be at peace resting in him and allowing the Holy Spirit to show you the way?
If I replace 'Holy Spirit' with 'him' I think that is in fact what I am doing.
But is it not 'logic' that brought me to that resolution?
Is it possible for me to make that determined resolution other than by the use of logic?
I've been 'all around the houses', down every blind alley, dismissed the 'Mediterranean God' in favour of a God of the entire universe, dismissed the idea of the Bible (which 'man' compiled) as being written and compiled without imaginative and limited human guesswork, dismissed every human attempt at 'religious denomination', but am still left with an instinctive 'God shaped space in my heart' which I cannot escape, and which I have distilled down to my basic described 'faith'.
Has that process leaned too heavily on 'logic'?
Is logic inescapable?
Is not logic contained within the 'mind' part of loving God with "heart, soul, and mind"?

5
Patrick's / Re: what is the problem?
« on: May 31, 2015, 06:22:47 pm »
Quote from: Piper on May 31, 2015, 03:02:04 pm
I worry about Mike, but can't quite figure out how to help him.  Though I wish I could.
I hereby conclude my ‘pulling of the plug’ and must grasp whatever ‘faith’ I can salvage as the last drop of dirty bathwater drains away.
I just have to hold onto something even if I cannot properly explain what it is that I cling to.
One the one hand ‘my’ God, created a universe that exists under the control of the laws of nature without our knowledge of if and when he might intervene to overrule nature's effects.
On the other hand I cry “Abba Father” as instinctively as if he were a constant presence, whether in need or in thanksgiving.
I cannot further explain or reconcile the two, but remain determined to hold onto both together with the ‘hope’ that a ‘bright tomorrow’ lies beyond the grave.

6
Patrick's / Re: what is the problem?
« on: May 31, 2015, 07:37:37 am »
Thinking about threads that get derailed, and/or simply die in their boots, I have just finished re-reading http://www.true2ourselves.com/forum/general-discussions/911-catholic-church-christ.html.
I read that as part of an exercise to clear my head about my forum pathway which has led me to so despise Christendom's mainstream 'Christianity' (after five years I'm still banned from re-registering to T2O....but what can you expect with me having started such heretical threads).

How's that for an irrelevant derailment?

7
Secular Discussions / Re: Member's Chat
« on: May 30, 2015, 09:59:13 am »
Quote from: Kerry on May 30, 2015, 07:34:57 am
Did  your mother neglect you as a child?   
On the contrary.
We were not allowed to touch Rhubarb and I wasn't allowed to have a PC until well after I married and left home in 1958.

8
Secular Discussions / Re: Member's Chat
« on: May 30, 2015, 01:32:26 am »
Quote from: bradley on May 29, 2015, 08:47:17 pm
You eat rhubarb stalks, the leaves are poisonous.   ;D   You been feeling okay Kerry?
Eating the leaves may have effects that some consider to be poisonous but in reality the effect may simply be to open up hidden wisdom (or hallucinations) about elementals and elemental forces.

Take no notice..... just my twisted sense of humour. ;)

9
Religious Discussions / Re: Concerning Miracles
« on: May 28, 2015, 02:47:48 am »
^^^^Weird.....utterly weird.

Deism, deriving from the Latin word deus meaning "God", combines the rejection of revelation and authority as a source of religious knowledge with the conclusion that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of a single creator of the universe.
Deism holds that God does not intervene with the functioning of the natural world but rather allows it to function according to the laws of nature.
Deism gained prominence among intellectuals during the Age of Enlightenment who, raised as Christians, believed in one God but became disenchanted with organized religion and notions such as the Trinity, a virgin birth, biblical inerrancy, healing by prayer, and the supernatural interpretation of events as being miracles.

10
Secular Discussions / Re: Member's Chat
« on: May 28, 2015, 02:44:51 am »
Quote from: Piper on May 27, 2015, 06:38:20 pm
^ Good thoughts, gentlemen.

PATRICK:  R U OK?  Missing U.

MIKE:  How was u'r "uneventful" day?
Gardening was my day's one and only event.

Brad says pray often.....but I don't 'do' on the knees, head bowed, hands together, eyes shut, type of prayer.
Prayer for me is when my mind 'wanders off' into that spiritual realm that I struggle unsuccessfully to understand and hesitate to attempt to define lest, by doing so, I pull God down to the level of mortal imagination.

11
Religious Discussions / Re: Concerning Miracles
« on: May 27, 2015, 02:54:23 am »
Quote from: Piper on May 27, 2015, 02:28:27 am
Mike, hon,

How's come you can paint the magic, but you have such trouble believin' it?  :-*

You believe I exist, though all I am is words on paper.  Sort of.   ;)



It's only a case of the 'magic' changing and becoming more universally applicable.
It's still magic (at least to the degree that it ever was).

12
Religious Discussions / Re: Concerning Miracles
« on: May 27, 2015, 01:47:45 am »
I'm not quite sure why I'm writing other than to fill in time whilst waiting for Christine to wake up and for another uneventful day to begin.

My thoughts are constantly absorbed by wondering about the spiritual realm and I am aware that doing so is gradually leading me further and further into uncertainty.

On Sunday the newish local Methodist minister organised an interdenominational 'Pentecost Party' in the form of a 'songs of Praise' service with free 'nosh', and held in their town centre memorial gardens.
It was the first time that I had experienced her leadership and I was drawn to her 'social' enthusiasm but smiled wryly at her 'hyping up' of the spiritual side of things with constant 'amen, praise the Lord, and alleluia' interspersions.
She's not a 'tongues' supporter but I was struck by the similarity to 'tongues' leaders who likewise 'hype' repetitively until they get their congregation to break into tongues.
And then by contrast the local Vicar contributed the standardised CoE rhetoric and I thought "where on earth do I stand in all this?"

And then I read Nancy’s words:-
Quote from: Piper on May 26, 2015, 05:05:06 am
Mike, narrow it down to love God, love your neighbor, God's law written on your heart, and Jesus as the promised Messiah and Savior.  The rest is all ideas and details.


That sounded good until I thought further on Nancy’s earlier words:-
“Quote Piper:  What mere man, instead of an earthly father, has God as His Father; what mere man is borne of a Virgin?!”
And that set me thinking about the fact that many other ancient religions also proclaim the ‘virgin’ birth of their central ‘divinity’.

So now here I am stepping yet further back from my once held faith, and wondering if there might not be an infinite variety of temporary ‘faiths’ that enable man to get as close as he can to God until God finally ushers in a new age of reunion between himself and his creation.

Go back to sleep, Mike……or better still go and make Christine her ‘wake up’ mug of coffee so that the day’s uneventfulness can begin and I can stop “wondering about the spiritual realm”.

13
Religious Discussions / Re: Concerning Miracles
« on: May 26, 2015, 02:31:39 pm »
Quote from: Kerry on May 26, 2015, 08:29:42 am
Mike is just being dramatic and using this thread to repeat some of his pet ideas.   
That's about the top and bottom of things.....remember 'Mirage' from faithforum.org., (who I considered rather obnoxious)?
He used to slam me for being what he called a 'drama queen'.
And yes I do indeed remember about you putting a curse on your father's trees (or something like that).
In those days 'WellWisher' and I feared that you had put curses on us. ::)
But then we also reckoned you to be a High Priest from TOS.
No wonder we're all bonkers.

14
Religious Discussions / Re: Concerning Miracles
« on: May 26, 2015, 01:39:33 am »
1) Every aspect of mortal 'reason' that mankind can summon up regarding the mind and intent of God falls if the foundation upon which it is based ('Christian scripture') was itself written by mortal mankind.

2) If however 'scripture' was written by God then one must assume, from that the undeniable fact that its meanings cannot be agreed upon by mankind, that God intended that such understanding should result in nothing better than confusion and misunderstand across the range of mankind (as evidenced by the thread to date).

3) I suppose a compromise between '1 and 2' could be to believe that scripture was written by mortal man inspired by God, but not inspired to the degree of the writer becoming a 'robotic pen', writing things way beyond the limits of his academic and cosmic knowledge, and contrary to his cultural upbringing (that indeed would be a 'miracle').

IMO '3' is the only plausible conclusion consistent with the 'Christian Faith'.

However 'Christianity' is but one of many universal 'Faiths' and the 'Christian' believes that his is the only God.
In which case 'Christian scripture' (as per either '1 or 2') has to be believed as being intended only for such of mankind as get to see it in a form readable to themselves.

But what then of and those who do get to read it but reject it in favour of other 'Faiths'?

4) If God intended us to 'know' the answers (either by recourse to a 'complete and final, inerrant text book' or by recourse to the inspired, but nevertheless fallible, writings of mortal man) would he not have managed to convey them in an immediate universal and more concise format, using far less that 8000 conflicting and ambiguous words?

The thread to date, using 'scripture' as the basis for continuing centuries of unresolvable reasoning, fills me with despair.

Beam me up out of the thread, Scottie.

15
Religious Discussions / Re: Moses and Jesus ?
« on: May 24, 2015, 02:36:58 am »
Quote from: Kerry on May 23, 2015, 09:56:43 pm
When the Bible says "the LORD," it can mean almost anything.
That is because those who took what has now been gathered together and presented as a 'Bible', took their imaginings of God having 'spoken to them' as being for universal dictate  (just like many continue so to do).
I think it generally to be presumptuous folly when anybody presents their convictions of what 'God has said to them' as being anything more than a 'personal' matter.

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