MomBearTo4

In my case, I silently cut ties with the person when they had effectively 100% boxed me out of being able to do anything with them because of their demands on how I speak and act when I was going with them somewhere. But I feel compassion toward them, knowing what their life situation is and thanking the Lord that I in my circumstances didn't end up bitter and resentful like they are.

According to Scripture, forgiveness is leaving the person to be judged by God for their sin. Reconciliation is a different issue. An alcoholic who has cirrhosis of the liver due to their alcoholism who repents and is forgiven is not instantly healed of their cirrhosis; they still have to live with the consequences of their sin. Not leaving yourself vulnerable to being repeatedly victimized by someone who has an unrepentant pattern of victimizing you is not being unforgiving. It's being wise.

I have two: Psa 15:1 A Psalm of David. Jehovah, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle? Who shall dwell on Your holy hill? Psa 15:2 He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; Psa 15:3 he does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor; Psa 15:4 in whose eyes the reprobate is despised, but he honors those who fear Jehovah; he has sworn to his hurt, and does not change it; Psa 15:5 he has not put out his money at interest, nor has he taken a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall not be moved forever. And this one is long, so I'll just post the first 11 verses, which mean the most to me: Psa 37:1 A Psalm of David. Do not fret yourself with evil doers; and do not be envious against the workers of iniquity. Psa 37:2 For they shall soon wither like the grass; and fade as the green herb. Psa 37:3 Trust in Jehovah, and do good; you shall dwell in the land, and you shall be fed on truth. Psa 37:4 Delight yourself also in Jehovah, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psa 37:5 Roll your way on Jehovah; trust also in Him, and He will work. Psa 37:6 And He shall bring forth your righteousness like the light, and your judgment like the noonday. Psa 37:7 Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of him who practices wickedness. Psa 37:8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret yourself to do evil. Psa 37:9 For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on Jehovah, they shall inherit the earth. Psa 37:10 It is but a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, you shall search his place, and he shall not be. Psa 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the overflowing of peace.

I didn't say take them to court i just said don't let them use the car again. Taking them to court would have to be an individualized judgment call in the individual situation.

AI is not actually intelligence it's a large data bank deliberately created by the owner plus a very high speed computer. I'm pretty sure most AI platforms are produced and trained by people who are not sympathetic to Christianity. I would not take spiritual guidance from anything created by AI.

One important thing I had to learn as an adult is that leaving someone to deal with the consequences of their actions is not seeking revenge (such as letting someone who broke the law lives with the legal penalties for doing so), neither is taking steps to keep yourself protected from evil as long as it's not done in a manner seeking retribution (the example I was given for this is that if someone crashed your car *on purpose* just for fun or whatever every time they borrow it, it's okay to stop letting them borrow it, or if someone keeps borrowing money but never pays it back, it's okay to stop "lending" - really giving - them money). If you have been taught this from an early age and didn't have to learn it for the first time when you were middle aged, you are very blessed.

Thank you so much for sharing your situation - it's given me some perspective on why the others may feel the way they do.

I appreciate your comments, especially about large church versus tiny church. Thanks for that. I think I'm more hardwired to pay close attention to following the rules, but technically speaking the meetings we have been having could possibly be considered illegal in a sense, as we have to be registered as a corporation in my state. I work for a government agency and we could be penalized for not following all the protocols. I don't believe in cutting corners, and it feels likeit would be a bad testimony for a church to do it, if that information became public - and of course, Jesus would know even if the public didnt. My concern is also that if we rush into something, we could settle for the first option that came by and not wait for the one who is the Lord's choice. Thanks again I appreciate the time you took to create your thoughtful reply. I'm pondering everybody's responses.

Thanks I'm perfectly willing to do that, but it seems that everybody else is in a big hurry

Hi, all, My church is super tiny due to people having moved away, someone taking a staff position at a different church, etc., in the last year or two. Apart from the pastor and family we have about 12 members, mostly if not completely over age 40. Our pastor announced his intention to leave at the end of the year, believing that it was the Lord's will for his family to step down from his being a bivocational pastor and that he didn't have a gift of being able to build the church up numerically and that he should let the church find someone else who had those skills. Our church constitution states that we are supposed to have a 2-week notice before business meetings, and we just had the 3rd business meeting about this with only a week's notice ahead of time. At the business meeting yesterday, I expressed my deep concern about repeatedly not following our church constitution's rules for these meetings and how it seems like they are trying to rush through putting another pastor in place before the end of the year. Nobody shared my concern that we are not following the rules that the church as a whole said they would follow, although one person said it might be a good idea to put in an exception for emergency meetings later down the road, but for right now we have to have these emergency meetings - but this is not an emergency in my eyes - maybe urgent, but not an emergency. And from what our remaining elder says, he seems to not like my voicing my concerns about these things and feels they are irrelevant. At any rate, my impression is that he disagrees with me and doesn't feel it's important; however, to me it's a matter of integrity and in not trusting the Lord's timing to be perfect. I understand that voicing these issues can depend on the approach, and I tried to make it clear that I wasn't complaining but just saying that this really troubled me, that I just wanted to say it in an open meeting rather than talk about it personally with individuals because I felt that could turn into gossip, and that if I was especially sensitive to not following the rules we all agreed to because I have to follow a bunch of rules and regulations in my job every day, I would own that as my problem. But I still feel that if I did - or tried to do - something like this at my job, it would be wrong because I don't get to ignore rules that aren't convenient for me, and I don't think we should be doing this as a small body of believers, either. I know that in my life when I have tried to rush things by cutting corners, its usually not what the Lord wanted me to do and usually came back to bite. I am concerned that this will happened in this situation, too I cried all the way home from that meeting because of their lack of attention to doing things decently and in order - and because many, if not most, of the rest of the membership express more concern about making sure our building continues as a church than in seeking the Lord's will for our future as a church. And the elder keeps saying he wants to "wrap this up" quickly and get it done. I'm hurting, and I can't even go to my own church family for help working through this to figure out how much of this is my problem and how much isn't. I'm a widow, so I can't discuss it with my husband. I almost feel like I'm starting to walk on a different path than they are. Does anybody here have any thoughts that could help me evaluate whether I'm overreacting or what? I'd dearly appreciate it. Thank you!

These days I keep remembering this one preacher I heard on Trans World Radio on Guam in the late 70s talking about the end time, and he said that he had studied and prayed and was convinced that China was going to be a major player in the end times. Back then, China was an underdeveloped and backward county that kept itself away from the rest of the world. Who could have possibly guessed back then that things would change and that preacher might actually be correct?

No, because I try to practice this verse (emphasis mine), which too few people where I live think about these days: Jas 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Eventually??? I'm seeing it now in some places. To me, though, AI has a distinct tone -- I don't know whether to call it hollow, shallow, soulless, or what -- but it's generally pretty easy to recognize. I will admit, however, to using it when I can't remember a specific word and it's driving me crazy -- like "what's the word that's halfway between XXXX and YYYYY" And sometimes I enjoy trying to throw it curveballs for fun, like "Stump the AI" It's not really intelligent -- it's the product of the data it has been fed, and it processes it extremely rapidly to summarize the contents of its data bank on the subject you are asking about. I'm not afraid of it.

Reminds me of the old saying, "Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."

Evidence Not Seen, by Darlene Diebler Rose Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, by his son and the son's wife, Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor The Small Woman, by Alan Burgess (although I like the children's book, These Are My People, by Mildred T. Howard also) Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand God's Smuggler, by Brother Andrew You've probably already read it, but The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom