(October 22, 2014 at 3:05 pm)Drich Wrote: even if this does not work to convert all of you, could you imagine what would happen if you spent the last six months thinking about something like this and was 'healed?"

This has already happened to me once, and it changed my life. Imagine if it happened to you more than once what it would tell you of God personally?

Sorry to disappoint. But I can imagine it very well. And it told me nothing about god. It did tell me something about statistics.

May you be the statistical anomaly again.

(October 20, 2014 at 8:55 am)Drich Wrote:

(October 20, 2014 at 8:30 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Cancer is a brutal disease, and chemo- and radiation therapy are brutal treatments. Good luck.

I sat in a cancer ward waiting area for 4 hours Thursday... I kinda gathered that.

The waits aren't really the hard part. You've got a lot to learn, and hopefully, you'll have a lot of time.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery.

(October 26, 2014 at 11:45 pm)Jenny A Wrote:

(October 22, 2014 at 3:05 pm)Drich Wrote: even if this does not work to convert all of you, could you imagine what would happen if you spent the last six months thinking about something like this and was 'healed?"

This has already happened to me once, and it changed my life. Imagine if it happened to you more than once what it would tell you of God personally?

Sorry to disappoint. But I can imagine it very well. And it told me nothing about god. It did tell me something about statistics.

May you be the statistical anomaly again.

but again, day in day out for 20+ years as being a 'statistical anomaly ' is proof enough for me to maintain what I believe. I have been counting the good with the bad.. and I noticed often times the 'bad' works out better than I could ever plan. Get diagnosised with HIV, Find God.
Got to peek through the gates of Hell find wisdom and knoweledge, loose a GF find a wife.
Miss out on the first 5 years of a the 'honeymoon period' due to substance abuse, locked in a life long soul mate.
lost my Job, started a business with a partner, Partner got lazy started to steal.
The owner of a company I did work for who I had only met one other time before handed me 25K (exactly what I needed to the dollar) no intrest loan to go out on my own.
Lost my biggest customer, miracously bought into a franchise that normally would cost 250K dollars for the cost of a plane ticket and a week of living expenses in Boston.(All we had)
Worked the franchise, became a teacher, and consultant for a specific brand of refrigeration. was not paid what was promised. Went ahead and developed a completely new refrigeration system (all electric truck refrigeration/for deleveries.) Two patents were awarded for that.
Lost the lease for my shop, was given a huge airconditioned shop in a very nice part of town for alittle more than what I was paying before...

Those are just some of the big things that has happened.. There are hundreds if not thousands of little impossiable victories we win everyday.

That is why I am not scared going into this.

Each 'anomoly' is like a stick or twig. On it's own is very easily broken, but when you amass all of these occourances together you quick compile something as dense as a oak tree.

That is (impart) what God had to offer in the way of 'proof', that helps me sustain my faith. What I describe is exactly why one needs to keep knocking. Because all of the things I mentioned above are life changing negitive events. Or atleast they have that potential. Each instance was a time God sent a storm to test what I had built. And each time apart of what I had built washed away, but there were aspects that remained, because I had built them on Christ. So I began to rebuild on what was left. 20 years later when the rains come we just buckel down, read a book or watch a movie. Because I know what we have built may get shaken, but will hold fast. If I had stopped knocking at any point in my past not only would I not be here doing what I am doing I might be standing on your side of eternity making Frodo and woot's life more difficult.

Drich, don't you think... that none of the bad stuff should have happened in the first place?!

(October 27, 2014 at 1:12 am)Parkers Tan Wrote:

(October 20, 2014 at 8:55 am)Drich Wrote: I sat in a cancer ward waiting area for 4 hours Thursday... I kinda gathered that.

The waits aren't really the hard part. You've got a lot to learn, and hopefully, you'll have a lot of time.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery.

I did not mean to say waiting in a waiting room was difficult. I was point out that after 4 hours in a cancer ward one see how harsh cancer and it's treatment can be on someone.

---

(October 27, 2014 at 9:34 am)pocaracas Wrote: Drich, don't you think... that none of the bad stuff should have happened in the first place?!

I only use the term 'bad stuff' because I know that is how you all would identify it. I do not see it as bad. I see it as sometimes difficult, but nessary for me to be who it is I am supposed to be. I honestly do not even pray to avoid this stuff any more. I often times will turn into it and ask God to help me learn what it is I am supposed to learn quickly so a given trial may end, or give me what I need to honorably see it through to the end whatever that may mean.

The thing with 'bad stuff' is that the worse it is and the more lost you become the greater liklyhood that you will get in so deep you will honestly know with all of your being that any intervention from a certain point of disparity can only come from God... Again I know one instance can be broken like a twig as an anomoly... But a life time of knocking will yeild a mass of instances so great that I can not be broken. The thing is, one can not accumiulate such a mass of 'proof' without learning to live life though the difficult stuff.

That is why the story of Job is so important. Many of you ask why Job was made to endure such hardship. I personally think everything that happened to Job, was less about job and more about everyone else who seeks to serve God, and all they will have to endure to change their hearts to meet God on His terms. The thing Job taught us was if you 'let go and let God' sure you made find some hardship, you may find a whole lot of harship (It all depends on how hard your heart is.) but when you do let Go as Job Did God will carry you through your trial and place you in a position far better than anything you could ever want for yourself.

(October 27, 2014 at 9:37 am)Drich Wrote:

(October 27, 2014 at 9:34 am)pocaracas Wrote: Drich, don't you think... that none of the bad stuff should have happened in the first place?!

I only use the term 'bad stuff' because I know that is how you all would identify it. I do not see it as bad. I see it as sometimes difficult, but nessary for me to be who it is I am supposed to be.

Couldn't you have been "who you're supposed to be" without all the difficulty?
Isn't your god capable of doing it right from birth?

(October 27, 2014 at 9:25 am)Drich Wrote: but again, day in day out for 20+ years as being a 'statistical anomaly ' is proof enough for me to maintain what I believe. I have been counting the good with the bad.. and I noticed often times the 'bad' works out better than I could ever plan. Get diagnosised with HIV, Find God.
Got to peek through the gates of Hell find wisdom and knoweledge, loose a GF find a wife.
Miss out on the first 5 years of a the 'honeymoon period' due to substance abuse, locked in a life long soul mate.
lost my Job, started a business with a partner, Partner got lazy started to steal.
The owner of a company I did work for who I had only met one other time before handed me 25K (exactly what I needed to the dollar) no intrest loan to go out on my own.
Lost my biggest customer, miracously bought into a franchise that normally would cost 250K dollars for the cost of a plane ticket and a week of living expenses in Boston.(All we had)
Worked the franchise, became a teacher, and consultant for a specific brand of refrigeration. was not paid what was promised. Went ahead and developed a completely new refrigeration system (all electric truck refrigeration/for deleveries.) Two patents were awarded for that.
Lost the lease for my shop, was given a huge airconditioned shop in a very nice part of town for alittle more than what I was paying before...

Those are just some of the big things that has happened.. There are hundreds if not thousands of little impossiable victories we win everyday.

That is why I am not scared going into this.

Each 'anomoly' is like a stick or twig. On it's own is very easily broken, but when you amass all of these occourances together you quick compile something as dense as a oak tree.

That is (impart) what God had to offer in the way of 'proof', that helps me sustain my faith. What I describe is exactly why one needs to keep knocking. Because all of the things I mentioned above are life changing negitive events. Or atleast they have that potential. Each instance was a time God sent a storm to test what I had built. And each time apart of what I had built washed away, but there were aspects that remained, because I had built them on Christ. So I began to rebuild on what was left. 20 years later when the rains come we just buckel down, read a book or watch a movie. Because I know what we have built may get shaken, but will hold fast. If I had stopped knocking at any point in my past not only would I not be here doing what I am doing I might be standing on your side of eternity making Frodo and woot's life more difficult.

The positive HIV is just silly. I'm sorry, but the false positive rate on HIV tests is about 15 in a thousand (1.5%). So I'm seeing that you were one of the unlucky 1.5% who got to worry.

After that, I see a biography of ups and downs. What you call knocking during the downs, I call optimism and gumption. God helps those who help themselves, which is to say he doesn't help anyone.

I knocked in my teens. I got no response. But my biography before and since is full of ups, downs, and miraculous saves. I too have suffered a false positive or too, not to mention job loss and the wondrous trade of the bad husband for the good one. What did it was continuing to try, not god.

I spent this weekend nodding politely to comments about my "god-given" talent. The fact that it took years to learn and I'm still getting better is discounted by those who see god in everything. But many of them could do as well if only they painted as often and self critiqued as critically. And that's true of most professions.



Genetics; place, time and economic circumstances at birth; parents or guardians; work: that's what makes people succeed, fail, lose, or win. And those things can be seen and explained. Saying "god did it" doesn't add anything.

(October 27, 2014 at 10:59 am)pocaracas Wrote:

(October 27, 2014 at 9:37 am)Drich Wrote: I only use the term 'bad stuff' because I know that is how you all would identify it. I do not see it as bad. I see it as sometimes difficult, but nessary for me to be who it is I am supposed to be.

Couldn't you have been "who you're supposed to be" without all the difficulty?
Isn't your god capable of doing it right from birth?

He is... I'm not. This is about me finding my own way and not God programming a automoton.

---

(October 27, 2014 at 12:57 pm)Jenny A Wrote: The positive HIV is just silly. I'm sorry, but the false positive rate on HIV tests is about 15 in a thousand (1.5%). So I'm seeing that you were one of the unlucky 1.5% who got to worry.

It wasn't just HIV it was a skin virus that people in the last stages of Aids get before they die. I had over 300 leasions on my arms shoulders and neck from this virus. Your immune system has to be shot if your body can fight off this virus. It the leasions were the reaons for the blood test in the first place.

Quote:After that, I see a biography of ups and downs. What you call knocking during the downs, I call optimism and gumption. God helps those who help themselves, which is to say he doesn't help anyone.

Again... A series of ups and downs to one is over comming the impossiable for twenty plus years for another.. I know that without the gifts I have received from God none of this would be possible.

Quote:I knocked in my teens. I got no response.

No response is apart of the process. It is spelled out in the parable of luke 11. It is the knocking that carries us though those silent times. God's silence serves a purpose.

Quote:But my biography before and since is full of ups, downs, and miraculous saves. I too have suffered a false positive or too, not to mention job loss and the wondrous trade of the bad husband for the good one. What did it was continuing to try, not god.

I'm not saying one cant survive with out God... I am saying God can manifest Himself through ordinary life, and take you beyond anything you could ever want for yourself, if you would let Him. I'm not discounting what you nor anyone else has lived through. I can only speak to what I am living. I operate a small company on a international scale. I am doing things that are well beyond anything I have trained for or can do on my own with money that somehow finds it's way to us as we need it in the amount we need... To you and others this maybe just how a businessman who is good at his job can make happen..

To me and mine, we know I should have never graduated high school, let alone accomplish what I have been able to accomplish on a shoe string budget..

If you all are right, and it is all me. Meanig all anyone has to do is what i have done to enjoy the level of sucess I have experienced starting at the bottom mopping floors, then shame on all of those who start out with a degree...

From the 'driver's seat' I can tell you it is not me driving. I am just along for the ride.

Quote:I spent this weekend nodding politely to comments about my "god-given" talent. The fact that it took years to learn and I'm still getting better is discounted by those who see god in everything. But many of them could do as well if only they painted as often and self critiqued as critically. And that's true of most professions


.

My wife said that is beautiful.. I see structure shapes technique that allows for contrast and shadow, then I look to match the picture to what it would look like in real life and start comparing the two.. is the shadowing right are the contrast techniques used correctly, could a different one be used and yield a strong likeness or result... and on it goes. If I have nothing to compare it to I can't comment because i do not see how it comes together.. to me it is just a painting or picture.

I saw where you sourced the picture/web address and looked at several others, the pictures like the bike chain was awesome/spot on.

I 'see' how things work and come together. That is my God given tallent, and your right to a degree I've always pushed myself harder, because nothing came easy. I could not learn the way most do so I had to figure things out and teach myself... But, there is a limit. We have limits because we are finite. My trials sharply define my limits. I know where they are because I have been taken well past them many many times. The 'God' in all of this in not only in the rebound, but the betterment of one's situation when comming out of a given trial. The law of averages says that one should have a bad situation fester into a worse situation once in a while... I have irons in the fire (meaning oppertunity for things to end very badly) but to this point every bad situation has only served to put me that much more ahead.

Quote:Genetics; place, time and economic circumstances at birth; parents or guardians; work: that's what makes people succeed, fail, lose, or win.

I certainly hope not. because i don't stand a chance.

Quote:And those things can be seen and explained. Saying "god did it" doesn't add anything.

For me saying God did it is simply giving credit where credit is due. whether it adds or not is not the point. It is acknoweledgment of my limits and acknoweledgement of the reason of my position beyond them.

Your story sounds like Job's.

(October 20, 2014 at 1:08 am)Drich Wrote: Many of you often point to hardship and suffering as evidence of an unloving God.

We do? I never have. Don't have a clue what would count as evidence of any kind god .. unloving or otherwise.

Didn't read the rest. tb;dr








tb;dr = too boring, didn't read