Heavenguard

Well, you see, when I said that I know his intentions aren't anything that should make me feel uncomfortable, I meant that I know he isn't trying to come onto me. He's treating me like his little sister, but in waaaaaaay too friendly (and overbearing) a manner. (Therefore the faux boyfriend thing wouldn't work, it would just invite all sorts of questions/pestering from him on the topic.) I have him blocked on IM for the time being. I don't intend on leaving him blocked for forever, just ... for the time being while I give myself a little breathing space. I have softball pratice on Wednesday, I'll see him then. (We play for our church team.) If he's still persistent, I'll tell him to back off a little then. I'm getting too tired of playing this game to try to do this in any other way. I have another concurrent issue about another guy acting very inappropriately towards me and making me feel uncomfortable, and I'm just about at my wit's end about it. I've never had this kind of problem before, I can't imagine why it's happening all at once now.

The first photo I'd say is not a photo, or at least not one that is authentic/undoctored. I know that no natural face is ever truly symmetrical, but that looks far too asymmetrical to be a photo, unless Joseph Smith, in fact (to his misfortune), had a slightly misshapen face.

Yeah, so he called me on my cellphone twice today. I ignored both calls, but my friend told me that if I don't eventually get back to him, he'll just keep calling me. So I called him and he said he was wondering if we (church friends and I) were doing anything. I said I was out with friends, and left it at that (though I actually was out with church friends). But, as my friend asked aloud after that, "Why didn't he call the rest of (them)?" Seriously ... I feel like he's really infringing on my personal space now. I don't think he has developmental issues, he's a very (book) smart man. But as it often goes, people who are book smart don't have a lot of common sense. (I know a good several people like that.) I can't really phase him out of my life, he's in my congregation and on the same (church) softball team as I am. While I was with my friends this afternoon, they were telling me that I could just give the generic "Uh huhs" and "Yeahs" as though not really interested, and then give the "I have another call"/"I have to go" until he finally gets that I'm not available for his every beck and call. Or if he doesn't get the picture then just to tell him to stop. My brother has now offered to talk to him for me if he continues to make me feel uncomfortable. I think I'll try the "not at your beck and call" approach, followed by the protection of my brother after that if needed. But seriously, in the last 2 weeks or so, this and another 2 guys have come seemingly out of nowhere to just come and make me feel all sorts of uncomfortable. (This particular guy started in the last two weeks or so, though I knew him prior to that.) I'm so exasperated by it all, but this one I feel like I have to handle especially carefully because he's from my church, on my team, and is a little sensitive about acceptance/fitting in.

There's an older brother from my church who's been ... let's say giving me more attention than I appreciate. I know he doesn't mean it in a way that should make me feel uncomfortable, he just doesn't really get social norms. I also know he has problems with acceptance, as he left his former fellowship because he said he didn't fit in with them. (They also had problems trying to deal with his personality; I'm friends with 2 guys from his former fellowship and so I know it's not something that he's particularly doing to me.) How do I tell someone that I don't welcome their attention without making feel like I'm rejecting him/his friendship? And despite the context stated below, I know with certainty that it's just his way of being friendly without other motive. He constantly IMs me througout the day asking me what I'm doing, and asks about things that, to put it bluntly, are absolutely none of his business. I've started to ignore him sometimes (not every time) and pretend I'm not there because it's just too much. When I do ignore him, however, he just continues messaging me with "Say something!" or "Answer me!", which ... I don't. He's taken to sending me text messages on my phone when I don't answer him. Even if I did welcome the messages, I don't have texting as part of my plan, so of course I'm not going to reply to those. So now he says he's just going to call me instead. Iunno how to tell him to back off without insulting him or hurting his feelings.

Open mouth. Insert foot.

To steal the thread for just a moment, I agree with everything after background check, but is that to say that background checks aren't done? I've had to have a background check done for myself when I went to work in my church's children ministry. Anyone that works with children in my church have to have this done for safety and liability reasons. I don't see why this procedure could not be carried out for the clergy? Edit: Ohhhhh yeeeeeaaah..... But case in point, those lawsuits are always so ridiculously stupid. I can't believe people actually go through with them/judges don't throw those cases out.

Hey Cappy. I like your zip :)

My favourite chapter from the Bible ever: That's right, God showed them who's boss.

Uh oh, I opened a bad can of worms, didn't I? >_> I'll try to explain what I meant... From the Mormon POV, the Protestants have an incomplete and erronous picture of who God and Jesus are. (ie Godhead vs Trinity) From the Protestant POV, the Mormons have given attributes to God and Jesus that are outside of who they are. (ie God having lived a mortal life in times past) I don't think I'm wrong in saying that from the LDS POV, the rest of Protestantism has an incomplete picture of who Jesus is, and so we do not follow the "true" (or whole picture) Jesus. Following that, from my (a non-Mormon Protestant) POV, the LDS church's understanding of Jesus has additions to it, and so does not follow the "true" Jesus. I'll give that there are differing views in the different denominations, however none of them are so great that we cannot come together and still agree on who God is. We agree that God is our father, who sent Jesus, his son (in the Trinity) to die and resurrected from death in order to overcome it and redeem us from our sins so that we may return to the Father's presence. On the other hand, the LDS view of God and Jesus is far, far richer (and more epic ) than any of the Protestant teachings. The notion of God's former mortality and progression, Godhead (as opposed to Trinity), and humanity's exaltation to Godhood are things that paint a very different picture of who or what God is compared to he other churches. I rather understand the different denominations as emphasizing or focusing on a certain one thing more than another. (Baptists obviously baptism, Pentecostals on tongues.) Things we disagree on (ie determinism, predestination, communion as symbolic or transubstantiation) are not things that affect our view of God, but rather our view of ourselves. I give wholly that if the LDS church is the One True church of Christ, then the rest of us are wrong. I never meant to say "I'm right, you're wrong", however the post-modern way of thinking can only go so far.

I'm not sure if I (as a non-Mormon Christian) would call Mormonism a cult ... I'm not entirely sure I would call it Christian either, because of the different way that the LDS understand God and Jesus to be compared to other Christian denominations. Edit: I'd actually rather define it as a different, but related religion. But I agree with PrisonChaplain, I think the greatest problem people have with LDS are the additional texts besides the Bible and the doctrines that come from them.

I can respect that. For me, I love my church. But if for some reason I were ever to turn away from it, I figure it'd be something like breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. You've spent a lot of time and money on/with that person as an investment in the relationship, which ended contrary to your initial hopes/expectations. Could you imagine how absolutely crazy it would be if you could sue an ex for the time and money you spent on them?

I myself am Baptist, but I don't believe my denomination bears any particular weight to what I believe, which I take from: I don't believe spouses will still be married, as I do not believe that marriage itself exists in heaven. In that I don't believe in any spiritual progression after death, there is no function or use for marriage in heaven or God's kingdom.I do believe that people will be aware of each other and still remember who was who and the like (the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31) but as equal peers instead.

There are definitely still modern day possessions, I've heard various stories of exorcisms by Pastors, Reverends and Deacons I know (First hand accounts). I remember hearing the testimony of the youngest member to be baptised in my church: he heard his mother cry out in the basement, and when he went down to see what was the matter, he found his mother laying unconscious on the floor and a spirit hovering over her. He cried out "Jesus, save us!" and the spirit left the house. (Not a possession story exactly, but still compelling.) But yes, many things considered illness now would have been thought to be possession then, and so I think people in general are disarmed about possession, thinking it all to have been misunderstanding by people in past times. Definitely it takes down the number of "possessions" down quite a bit, as we can now discern that many of them are in fact mental illnesses. But we should never discount the real possessions.

People can sue the church for all the reasons a church has insurance, and then some. At my church's last conference, the registration team decided to track people's cheques by the numbers on the bottom left of the cheque, rather than on the check number on the top right corner. If you didn't know, the numbers on the bottom left denote Bank, Branch, and account number. Basically, the registration team wanted to keep a record of people's bank account numbers on file: a HUGE no-no. They didn't understand the huge liability in this and kept insisting on it (they said that there were too many repeats using the typically-recorded cheque number), but I just kept pushing it until they finally complied and used the regular cheque number. Not bad for a 22-year old (then 21) first-timer on a committee of older and more experienced people.

In the OT times, justice demanded the sacrifices of animals in place of people for their sins. That alone was merciful, as people did not have to suffer the direct consequences of their actions. (Poor animals, though.) God's mercy meant that he sent Jesus, his Son, to be that sacrifice once and for all for all humanity. Justice is still needed, God still demands righteousness from us. But we who cannot reach that are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, whose sacrifice is great enough for all. His mercy is his willingness to look upon Jesus and accept him in our place.That is why people who do not have Jesus are given the Justice side of things rather than Mercy, because they do not have Jesus to pay for their sins.

Hm, I've grown up as middle class as you could get, but I am still baffled by many of my peers and their ineptitude at everyday things. And not just their ineptitude, but also their "princess" attitude towards household chores, work, and general "pitch-in"ness. I'm glad my parents raised me to be someone that can take care of herself. I can cook, clean, sew, use power tools, put together a computer and the like. Meanwhile, while camping over the last weekend, my friend wouldn't eat the granola bars I'd brought because they weren't the "right brand". *rolls eyes* I don't think it's so much growing up poor or with money, it's about how much your parents spoil you. Of course, when you have less means to do so, the not spoiling gets a lot easier. But gosh darnit, with families having more money in this generation, I genuinely fear having to work with the next crop of "entitled" young people in the next 5 - 10 years, and the state of society and the economy following then.

Numbers were highly significant and representational in their times, and numbers and letters were often used in place of, sometimes symbolically, each other. 666 could be the literal number "six hundred sixty six", or it can be just 6 itself (things repeated three times meant emphasis, thus "Holy, holy, holy"), or perhaps the numbers can be added or multiplied, or any evaluation of these could be translated to their letter counterparts

I wanted to watch fencing, as I used to fence foil, but I couldn't find it on tv =\

Just based on occupancy law, I'd suggest seriously looking for a place. You would not want to be caught unawares with such a short time to find a new place and move. How far along are you? I have friends who just moved into a new house; the wife is about 7 months pregnant now. Moving was very difficult for her, I and another friend helped them unpack one afternoon and she and her husband were so grateful, even though we'd done so little. If possible, perhaps you could work something out with your manager about your numbers and the fact that you're pregnant and maybe have him give you more time to look, pack up, and move out. Edit: The "caught unawares" thing is what happened to my friends, actually. They were renting a condo, and although they were already looking for a bigger place (for their baby), they hadn't found one yet when their landlord said he wanted the place back. It was very, very stressful for them, and ended up buying a house in a neighbourhood they didn't want to be in due to the pressure of time constraints.

This is something that I have to constantly point out to the brothers and sisters of my own congregation: You cannot read a single verse or passage by itself; you must read it in its entire context. Jesus is warning the people about false prophets who will claim to be followers of Christ, or those who believe they are following Christ, but have actually been misled or misunderstand. You can do anything "in the name of Jesus", or "in the name of God" without doing anything that is actually according to the Lord's will if you are mistaken on what his will really is. (Crusades, anyone?) That is why it is important to know and understand who God really is, what he expects from us, and what he wants for us. Edit: I've ignored the Grace vs. Works debate entirely because that verse does not actually concern itself with that matter.

Ignoring the $1400 price tag on it ... you do have the awesomeness of being able to say you've dropped a refrigerator on a car

Ah, yes, something like that's happened to me more than once. I once had a perfect score on a math test in high school, but I found a mistake that my teacher had marked as correct. Well, I couldn't very well go around with a false perfect ... my teacher let me keep my marks for my honesty. I think she also wanted to reward my hard work, as I'd failed the previous quiz with a 46% and I put in so much effort to do well on this test. It was the only perfect score I've ever received in my life till now :)

Yoiks, the Flintstones ones are particularly disturbing to me, having watched them growing up. It's so strange to me that a cartoon from the days when a husband and wife couldn't be portrayed in the same bed could advertise cigarettes so directly and indiscreetly.

Same kind of thing. I used to read a lot and had gone to purchase some books from the bookstore. I got more change than I thought I should and said so. The fellow who'd rung me up thought that the books came from one section that was on sale, but they weren't, so we re-did it. The amount was small potatoes, though. Edit: I used to work at a fast food burger place. I once had a customer tell me I gave him an extra 20 cents in his change! If it were me, I probably wouldn't have noticed such an insignificant amount. Cheating through university would have been so effortlessly easy. You've probably heard stories where people go to great lengths to jot notes down in the strangest places in the tiniest font size possible. Well, my professors actually left the classrooms with no TAs around for 5, 10, 15 minutes. People pulled books and notes out of bags and asked each other for the answers. I took no part in that, and had no need to either, since I'd actually studied and done my work, and was prepared to accept the grade I'd earned for myself. I recently had a job interview. Everyone always told me that I should just say that I know how to do everything and then just learn it all later if they actually hire me. It would have been really easy to do, since I actually do know enough of things to B.S. it, but instead I was honest and told them that although I'd previously learned some things, my experience was very limited. I thought it better to be honest now and not get the job than to lie, get the job, and then have to own up to it when I didn't know what was what. I got the job, and I'd like to think that my honesty was something that they appreciated.

I like to think back to the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit first came upon the Apostles and they began preaching in tongues and when the people could not understand this, accused them of being drunk at 9.00 in the morning There were people who heard them speak in their own native tongues. I think it's both for the people who do not understand the preacher's native tongue, but also a miracle that has consistently been performed by God's common people to demonstrate his power. How else could you possibly explain people suddenly speaking in a language they could never understand before? By God's power alone!