Al, you brought yourself into this one. I'd like to make a few suggestions for your to direct your latent anger towards.
Here are some posts from a very famous text that you might want to contact the Admin and have them removed and get the speakers of such angry words censured or banned.
Jesus:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”
Paul:
Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!
If you would like I could provide you with more incriminating evidence against others from and earlier text like Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Joshua, Eleazar, and many others. But somehow I got the impression that that earlier text is something you might consider of less importance.
Good luck in your quest in turning Christianity into something it isn't and never has been. (That was sarcasm by the way)
Thankfully Paul left us with this simple explanation of Christianity the seems to buck against your judgmental attitude towards others who don't follow your beliefs on "language" and believe that Christianity teaches them to lay down prone while evil rolls right over them and the rest of the world. We are the salt. Not the dirt, and our passion comes from within, not from what we profess without. Here's what Paul said:
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Thank you for your suggestions Al, but there isn't one single thing I would go back on or change my approach on in regards to this board. If I am wrong, I am wrong, but I've not made my stances without study of the issues we are discussing and prayer before confronting them. You may not like the words I use. Well, that's tough. I'm sure the Pharisees didn't like being called vipers either. I believe my heart is right and I have faith that God directs my paths. (even in my imperfection)
As I told you on the phone, Al, you have a lot of nerve preaching to others about how they talk on the boards when you won't even be honest enough to tell the truth about the thousands you spent on reclaim equipment that has sat dormant for years now. You have a golden opportunity to be a witness against the corrupt practices of selling contractors on fear instead of utility, yet you refuse. You made the excuse to me that you had "changed direction" of your business and now are doing residential. If the prophetic words of the likes of Hinderliter and Gamble were true, just the mere existence of that equipment in your garage should have practically made you an instant millionaire! But no. Alas, it did not work. And you refuse to admit it. You didn't have any problem prophesying about how more regulation was "coming" and how everyone was going to need reclaim like you have soon, but somehow you went mute when it failed. That is dishonest Al, no matter what king of paper you try to wrap it in.
And the sad thing is you still refuse to use this opportunity to do good and let others know that spending that money was not the best direction you could have gone with your family's funds. Maybe this verse can help encourage you to come forward:
James 4:17 To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Good luck with your residential work Al. Don't call me again until you have taken care of this long overdue business of publicly warning your brother contractors about the folly of the reclaim sales pitch. I'll get someone else to pull the splinter out of my eye. Al. Matt: 7:3.
