Hi everybody. Sorry to be missing, but I hurt my back and just couldn't get here. At LAST it is feeling better.
Mima - Going to the Dominican Republic would be awesome. That was funny about your daughter and the picture. When do you go back home?
Tammy - Hope you are feeling better. Sometimes you just have to take some time.
Joanne - I'm sorry I missed your birthday. Well, belated happy birthday to you. Hope you enjoy your holiday. The recipe is like cabbage rolls I make as well. They sound good.
Meme - Glad you had a good friend that provided you with heat when you had to sit and sell trailors.
Well ... I finally resolved my problems with my pastor tonight. Or at least between my hubby and my pastor they were resolved for me.
We quit our church.
I've never seen my husband quite like he was tonight ... like a tiger protecting his cub. The preacher said you can only use the word 'inspired' when saying that the Bible is the inspired word of God. According to him no person has ever been inspired to do anything since the men of old were inspired by God to write the bible. He said it really bothered him that people said God inspired them to write a song because God never inspired anyone to write anything since He inspired those men to write the bible. He was using the scripture 2 Timothy 3:16: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" ... (He also said you should NEVER buy a Commentary ... which bothered me a lot since I have quite a few!) After church I asked him if he had never been inspired by the word of God itself and if he couldn't see where the scripture could be inspired by God and then a person could be inspired by that same scripture and he said, "no". I told him I didn't think you could limit the word "inspire" to only one meaning and he really got ... I want to say mad but ... well anyway he at the very least got upset with me. He said, "Am I being jumped on?" I said, "No, if I was jumping on you, you would know it. If I remain at this church, I just may have to jump on you sometime but I'm not jumping on you now, I'm just not agreeing with you." There were probably about 6 or 8 people in the foyer ... not many. I left and went to the van. THEN ... he asked my husband to go back to the kitchen with him. Bad idea. He shut the door and told him I couldn't jump on him and question what he said in public like that. He said if I had a question about anything he said I had to ask my husband about it and let HIM come to the pastor and ask him about it. Hubby told him he didn't want to hear about me jumping on him in public after what he had done to me in front of over a hundred people. I guess from what he said he just about told him off!!! He told me so much he said to the man I can't even remember it all. The pastor never did admit that he had done anything wrong or said anything wrong and never did apologize for anything he had said, he said if we felt like we needed to leave that he'd never asked anyone to come to that church and he wasn't going to ask anyone to stay! So ... I guess we're gone. My stomach is in knots! You just would not believe some of the stuff he has been preaching lately. Every other sentence has been putting down another denomination. I just couldn't hardly stand to stay in my seat. I don't believe you have to put down someone else to lift up Christ. That's not the way to do it!
Sorry to go on but ... I'm a bit overwhelmed and feeling a little traumatized here. Thanks for 'listening'.
Wow ! Meme-sounds like what Brad and I went through only we didn't confront the Pastor =just left, Being of another denomination , I can't stand it when they put others down. My denom. doesn't do that-we stress unity even though we don't agree with everything.
But out of all that, we found a new church at home that is wonderful and Brad's son and family now go there. I always tell my daughter, when God closes a door, He opens a window.
I will pray for you.
Hi Anne-seems like there are a lot of bad backs. I have not been doing any exercising and my back is not good. Hope you have a nice time Joanne.
Brad has to go get a tetanus shot today and pay for it-at home it would be 5 dollars. The one with pertussis is 49.
I am painting lilacs for my friends in the new house. We are helping them move Mon and Tues. If we girls are in the way, we will go to Bealls.
Bye for now-Mima=Suzananne has to change her dates because of work!!
Mima ... you wouldn't last 5 minutes in one of his sermons. I don't see what gives him the right to say how another church should worship. Now, if it was a cult that might be another story ... maybe he should warn people to stay away from that ... but not a basic, bible believing church that is worshipping God. In my opinion they have the right to worship in any manner they want as long as it doesn't take liberties with the Principles set forth in the Word (like human sacrifice or running around naked or something ... ) In the last couple of months he has bashed other churches for having open altar of prayer (praying out loud at the altar) for raising their hands to heaven the 'wrong' way (I guess I'm dumb - I didn't know there was a right or wrong way), for having uneducated ministers without college degrees (I guess he never read Acts 4:13 because 2 of the men Jesus called to be Disciples, Peter and John, were ignorant and unlearned) and even one church because they will only let their people sing in groups, not having soloists sing. I say who cares ... let them worship the way they want and we will do the same. There is one group in particular that he talks about almost every single Sunday and we have one man that came out of that church ... and everytime he mentions the church he calls that man's name and says, Brother ___ knows what I'm talking about, he used to go to that church. I feel sorry for the man, he must be so embarrassed.
I stayed up until 3 AM last night and wrote him a 2 page letter and then I emailed it to him. I told him everything that was on my heart ... from beginning to end. I doubt that it will do any good but I told him he had no idea what he has done ... no idea at all. I didn't tell him but there are a whole lot of people in that church that are going to be very unhappy with him when they find out that we have left. My husband got up at 2 and came in to the computer where I was typing ... he read what I wrote and approved it ... he said he thinks the preacher has a problem with intelligent women. He said he thinks when I questioned him about the word "Inspired" and how he used it last night, etc. that it was just more than he could take from a woman. He may have a point!
Meme, I think you are going to be better off away from that preacher. Maybe I'll get Rev. Tim to come down and give him a talking to! I agree about that guy having a problem with women. Rev. Tim's wife, Therese, is now a preacher also! Maybe they both need to come and talk to that preacher.
I didn't go to school yesterday and today because of the back pain. I'm going to try it tomorrow. I'm sure my kids have been complete angels while I've been gone. lol
Lost my post again!!! tammy-hope your back gets better,
Meme-yeah for the e-mail-wished Brad had confronted his Pastor. They have gone so far right that they had a young man confess in front of congregation because his girlfriend was pregnant, My SIL wants to know when everyone else is getting up. Your Pastor is way off the mark. The Pastor down here says there are good Bible believing churches here, I told Brad and I said other people would not be happy if you left. Hope you find a new place. Mima
I took a former pastor's wife out to lunch today and told her what all had been going on and asked her advise. Asked her if she thought I had done the right thing by leaving. She said she wouldn't have stayed as long as I did and couldn't believe I stayed that long. Her husband had been my pastor for quite a number of years at another church. We both left for similar reasons. He went on to pastor another church but we wound up at a different church but had remained close friends. I have a lot of respect for them both and value their opinion. She said it sounded to her like this pastor was jealous of me because all the people liked and favored me so much and was picking at me trying to get rid of me.
Meme, I've also talked to some friends about what happened with you. One woman said that a similar thing happened at her church years ago. It divided the church because some people went along with what the preacher said. THEN he did something that even ticked off his supporters and all or most of the people were able to get back together as the original church with a new preacher.
Bad back and all, I'm chaperoning the band to contest today. I had already been signed up. The chaperone chairperson told me that she was short a few chaperones, so I felt guilty backing out because of my back. I'm taking cushions and heat pads along. Also medicine!!!
Have fun=sometimes when we are doing something else, it takes our mind off of it,
Meme-it's like being in a really bad marriage-you don't know how bad it was til you leave. Then you wonder why you put up with it so long. I believe that kind of preaching has to be confronted-and you did!!! Put it in God's hands and see what happens.
I did lots of yard work yesterday-ouch. None today!!! Gotta have the kids for 3 hours today while Mike has a dinner party. Brad is in charge while I am at church. I forgot about it-glad I was reminded/
I better post while I can.Mima
We had dinner with some of the people from the church last night and they were 'begging' us to come back Sunday and let him know he couldn't run us off. He has run off 3 other families in the last year. They kept saying Don't leave us stuck with him, please ... we look up to you ... you all are our leaders! I felt so bad. But all of his animosity has been directed at us, not them. They will be ok as long as they don't fly in his face over this. They said if he got up in the pulpit Sun. morning and started talking about us they were all going to get up and walk out. And ... they said they weren't going to Sunday School, said they were going to let him 'stew' wondering if any of them were coming at all. I begged them not to do anything to hurt that church. I worked so hard to help get that church started I don't want to see anything happen that would harm it!!! My insides have been in knots and I've had a bad headache for several days. Hubby had to work on my shoulders last night before bed ... huge knots ... he couldn't budge them.
The band received a 1 rating and qualified for the state concert band contest the end of April!! Woo Hoo!!! I am so glad that I was there. Too cool! My back didn't do as bad as I thought it might. I didn't overdo it, so that helped.
Our choir received a 2 rating, and they were thrilled. That is the first time that the choir has gone to contest in years.
When we got back to town, a police car, fire truck, and ambulance were waiting to parade the buses through town. I knew they would be there because I had talked to the mom who called them. The kids didn't know, so that was so awesome seeing them get excited again!
Long day so I'm headed for bed.
Meme, everything will work out the way He has it planned. Relax.
Meme, last year when our administration moved our entire staff around, everyone kept telling me to relax. It wasn't easy to do after teaching 2nd grade for 19 years. With 28 years of experience, it is impossible to find a job in another district. Too expensive. Many times since May when they did that, I have prayed often for Him to help me relax and accept the things that I didn't have any choice over. It still has been difficult, but I have made the best of the change. The students are the ones who have suffered having a "rookie" teacher this year (me!). But, there is the light at the end of the tunnel. With my health problems, I will be able to retire at the end of Feb. next year which is 3 months earlier than I planned.
Meme - sorry to hear about your problem with your church. Perhaps it is time to move on and find a new church. Perhaps you do not need to become quite so involved in things there. It is hard for you, with all your health problems, even thought I do know you LOVE to do it. It's a shame things turned out so badly, but the minister sounds like he might be on a "male" power trip.
Mima - I suppose you are busy as usual. When do you go back home?
Tammy - good going on the standings for the band and choir! I'll bet they were proud of themselves, as they should be. Glad your back didn't give you a bunch of trouble. Mine has now settled down as well.
Joanne - I don't know if you are back yet, but I sure hope you enjoyed your trip. I wanted to wish you a belated happy birthday. Mine is coming up on Thursday. Can't believe I am going to be 60!!!! I sure don't know where the time went.
I am going to post a link for a really neat product. My chiropractor started selling this gizzmo recently. I had been looking and reading up on the TheraCane, which does the same thing. It is really good at releasing trigger points, both for OA and FM or any thing where muscles knot up.
Fibromyalgia #151
) In the last couple of months he has bashed other churches for having open altar of prayer (praying out loud at the altar) for raising their hands to heaven the 'wrong' way (I guess I'm dumb - I didn't know there was a right or wrong way), for having uneducated ministers without college degrees (I guess he never read Acts 4:13 because 2 of the men Jesus called to be Disciples, Peter and John, were ignorant and unlearned) and even one church because they will only let their people sing in groups, not having soloists sing. I say who cares ... let them worship the way they want and we will do the same. There is one group in particular that he talks about almost every single Sunday and we have one man that came out of that church ... and everytime he mentions the church he calls that man's name and says, Brother ___ knows what I'm talking about, he used to go to that church. I feel sorry for the man, he must be so embarrassed. 
