NightSG

This; if anything, texting is more respectful of a busy person's time than a phone call. With a quick glance, the recipient knows if a text message is "pick up some milk" or "my mother is in the hospital" and can decide appropriately whether to get to it later, or interrupt whatever is happening and handle it right now. No need to fully interrupt whatever's going on to answer the phone, get past the pleasantries, get to the point, then excuse oneself if the message turns out to be less than critical, nor is there the problem of letting it go to voicemail so as not to interrupt, and finding out an hour later that someone had an urgent need. It also encourages folks to be brief; what might be a five minute conversation is often handled in two or three sentences.

Well, I have to think the quantity can't hurt. Before I converted, a friend's daughter went missing. About three weeks in, the family decided to step it up a notch. I figured it couldn't hurt to get the flyers to all the local churches, and ask for prayers and help looking for her. As I pointed out to her Saturday, come Sunday morning, at least 6,000 people were going to be praying for one thing, and Sunday afternoon, at least as many more sets of eyes were going to be looking for her. Sunday evening, the PI got an unexpected break regarding one of the places he'd been watching, and was able to give the sheriff enough evidence for a search warrant. She was found safe that night. On the other hand, when it comes to me praying for something over and over, I keep expecting an angel in a nice Italian suit to show up and tell me "Da big guy, He gets da idea, so you can shut up about it already." ...at which point, I plan to hogtie that angel and refuse to release it until it helps my other friend.

I advocate that we now switch to debating whether Jesus was divorced, since he avoids using her name.

Guess that's a good sign for me; my ex wife has been gaining since the day she filed. I almost didn't recognize her at the final decree hearing. I, OTOH, have lost a couple pounds since the decree.

That's why we need to publicize certain things more.

A 3D print takes hours, and that's just for one part, not the whole gun. An average machinist could turn out a single-shot handgun on typical hobbyist equipment in the time it would take to 3D print the trigger. Tolerances start getting more important if you want multiple shots and/or accuracy, but that just means more time for the machinist. There are freely available plans online for at keast 3 different full auto 9mm pistols that wouldn't require any tools more specialized than a bandsaw to produce in a day. (With hand tools only, I'd say around a week for a determined builder.) All three look completely functional, and safety is a matter of the materials used. Guns are simple. The Chinese had basic firearms as early as the eighth century. Joseph Belton developed what would be considered a fully automatic rifle prior to 1877. Richard Gatling started producing his crew-served machine gun in the 1860s, and Hiram Maxim produced a modern, single barrel recoil operated machine gun just 20 years after that. Anything that could be made with 150 year old technology can be made more easily and quickly now with readily available materials and tools.

Whatever you do, it probably shouldn't start with "Mom, I'm sorry I won't be with you in hell..." You could send her some nice missionaries to get her on the path too. Failing that, we could use her as the test subject for airstrike baptism before we go after PC.

Most serious machinists wouldn't have to leave their garage to make a gun anyway. Remember, guns are old tech. Khyber Pass Copy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sort of my plan; surely he'd accept baptism by the time the helicopter had refilled for a third run.

Wait; the former Methodist has a thought. Does pouring in sufficient quantity to completely encase the person in water, even if only briefly, count as immersion? I'm thinking we just need to coordinate a couple folks to ambush PC and say the words while a helicopter with a Bambi Bucket gets in position overhead...

One of the advantages of being a later convert is that I've got a wider selection of hymns when I need cheering up. You just can't stay too depressed when you sing along with this one: (Sheet music for those so inclined: Leaning on the everlasting arms - Hymnary.org )

My favorite when I was in customer service was "sir, there are two people on this planet who care about your problem, and you're alienating the other one right now."

Technically, even MREs expire. I think that might be based on the lifespan of the wrapper, though.

You'd think she'd learn after the first couple of times.

Trust me, they'd rather open the envelope to find $1-2 each for the fast offering than a couple scoops of mac & cheese. When fast Sunday meant skipping 2 packs of ramen and a $1.09 3 liter bottle of store brand root beer, my offering amount looked pretty pathetic too...and I was putting in about 4x what those two "meals" would have cost. (FWIW, I don't think He really appreciates it when your prayers include "and I thank thee for giving me an excuse not to eat that nasty stuff for a few more hours.")

How are your wife's kidneys, and do you know any dishonest doctors?

I wasn't even a member at the time and I thought most of it was just plain tacky and not up to the standards of the original.

What if they're very non-spiritual people?

Explain Philippians 4:6 then. The KJV has pretty much the worst translation IMO. (And that's saying a lot, since I personally love the KJV's style over almost all the others. It just feels more like real scripture in most cases, but the difference in connotation between "anxious" and "careful," at least in modern usage, is just too much to easily overlook in one of my favorite passages.) Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Now, I can't read Greek, but it looks like the Greek word "merimnate" is also used in four other places. (Matt 6, v25 & 28 and Luke 12, v 22 and 26) In all of those others, KJV parses it as "take no thought," which, in context, connotes worry or anxiousness, not carefulness as we would use the word today. ETA FWIW, Online Parallel Bible: Weaving God's Word into the Web is great for pulling up a single verse in several versions if you just can't make sense of it in the one you're reading. It also adds the handy functionality I used to find the Greek word and look for other references to it. Very handy for those times you feel like you need to understand a verse a bit more, or just need an obscure fact to sound a lot more knowledgeable in your sacrament meeting talk.

Do we pick some to ignore, or do we just fail at following certain ones? I'm certainly not claiming I don't fail, but it's not a matter of simply deciding that some aren't as important, which is the attitude I've gotten from a few people.

Like this one? Sorry, had to do that. But I do find it odd how many people follow the WoW faithfully, yet disregard other commandments at will.

Forgiving yourself is often the hardest part. Keep praying for the strength to do it, though and it will happen.

Also, while you're waiting for the bishop, make an appointment with your doctor. If you think having to tell your wife is scary, imagine having her find out by catching something.

As a psychologist friend once said when I asked her to set me up an appointment, "Psychologists, proctologists and gynecologists all dig deeply into parts of you that you keep everybody else away from for good reasons. That's not conducive to continued friendship."

Well, I suspect the best reason for praying before sex is that if there is an inappropriate time and/or condition for praying, after good sex is probably it.