[DoughtyOne]

You won’t get happiness until you tell the devil stifling the sweetness of the Lord to take a hike. Then your vision will suddenly clear and you’ll understand.

I take the laws of my town, county, state, and federal government to heart.  I may not agree with them, but as near as possible I try to be a decent upstanding person.

I don't buy into the global warming nonsense.  I still do try to be cognizant of our national energy needs when I buy a new vehicle.

I don't waste energy.  I try to do the right thing, but I don't go nuts about it.  I don't demand anyone else do what I do or else.

I try not to be dishonest.  I try to treat others with respect.  I try to treat others like I would like to be treated.

I use my turn signals as a courtesy to other drivers.

Saying all this, I am not perfect, far from it.  I believe that is the human condition.  God loves me, doesn't expect me to be perfect, and is willing to forgive me.

I try to forgive others who sincerely want to be forgiven.  I expect requests for forgiveness to be accompanied by attempts to rectify the harm caused by their actions.  I consider this to be my obligation, when I appologize.

When I work, I try to put in the best day I can.  I try to do good work, be cordial with other workers, be helpful and instructive to them, listen to their concerns about how I am doing things, and try to be the best contributor on sight.

So when you come here and tell me I will only gain happiness when I tell the devil to take a hike, it falls on deaf ears.  I am a Christian.  I get it.

The amount of unsolicited judgment on your part is startling.  I'm not telling you this to be mean, but my you are an offensive person when the mood strikes you.  If you think you are representing Christ in a positive manner on this thread, I would beg to differ.  You are insulting people in the name of Christ.  What's more, I don't believe Christ would do what you are doing.  I think he would be ashamed of what you are doing in His name.

I said before, I am not here to shake your faith.  I want you to have a direct connect to God.  I just want you to know you're on a party line, and every word you hear is not guaranteed to be God's voice.  Every thought that comes into your mind, is not guaranteed to be a thought direct from God.

You have got to used discernment.  I see no evidence of that whatsoever on this thread.

[HiTech RedNeck]

You still believe you can build your salvation.

I tried that.

It failed.

I obtained the richness of salvation by resting on Jesus’ love.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Jesus upset a lot of people’s applecarts. Don’t assume because I come at one of your applecarts I am doing it OUT of the spirit of Jesus. Jesus seemed rude to many before they saw He was being loving beyond their wildest dreams.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I mean OUT of => OUTSIDE of ... got to be careful with words here

[HiTech RedNeck]

I try to forgive others who sincerely want to be forgiven. I expect requests for forgiveness to be accompanied by attempts to rectify the harm caused by their actions. I consider this to be my obligation, when I appologize.

If this is the spectacles you wear when looking at God, you never will accept the work of the Cross. God actually does say you are free, with the huge caveat that He now has the right to put you through trials to build back the faith you had formerly dropped on the floor.

[HiTech RedNeck]

However, God really is the celestial exchequer, so to speak. What you owe to someone else, you owe truly to Him first and He has rights to forgive it. You are not under a cloud of unforgiveness if you’ve done something you can’t rectify, or can’t rectify very well. Rectifying the relationship where possible is a good witness, you shouldn’t shuck it off gratuitously, but each person has his or her own account with the Lord and the Lord can (and ultimately will) more than make up in blessing to someone else what they may have lost to you when you could not do anything or could only do something partial.

Now please try not to distort what I said too much. If you find yourself greatly tempted to distort... tell that devil to take a hike.