What is happening in the Chapel

[Boaz]

[QUOTE=claude;4178074]I have a thought Boaz, you have cast this pall in several threads, voicing dissatisfaction with a few, how about coming right out and naming these detractors? Or is that beyond your sensibilities?

Quite frankly, with all due respect, innuendo sucks. In more than one thread the people have stated they cannot see the distraction you speak of, yet we see no reply, the taint remains.

By way of explanation, I am not disrespecting you, or anyone else here, I have disagreed with several, however the biggest division I have found at the chapel is the misunderstanding of the difference between being sectarian dogma, and Christianity. I, FWIW, do not identify as any sect, meaning , Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, Pentacostal, Baptist, etc, I identify as a Christian.

That being said, there are more than a few who are going to wonder why this was not posted as a PM, it is not posted as a PM because the accusations of thread sidetracking are out in the open and we all deserve to know who you are singling out as detractors, if for no other reason to be able to see for ourselves whether we agree that the accusations fit the commentary. You are grinding away on an axe, in open forum, and keeping the members in a state of confusion as to whom it is that has gotten under your skin to such an extent.

Feel free to answer this, or report it as a personal attack, what ever suits you. But rest assured, I am not singular in wondering who or what has put the bur under your blanket.

claude[/QUOTE

I don't need to report it , I take what comes on myself . Your post should provide example of distraction in itself . Perhaps self examination is in order . It matters not to me if you even go to church , I have never singled out anyone by denomination or lack of it . You were not singled out , I never called your name or alluded to any of your posts yet you feel the need to come down on me for no real reason . I owe you no explanation , you provided the answer to your own question .

[claude]

Thank you for your reply Boaz, I'm sorry you feel put upon by a simple query for clarification.

[No_1]

Daily prayers for everyone.

[toallmy]

What he said ^^^^^^^^

[Boaz]

castalot has the longest running thread in the Chapel . He keeps it going with prayer and praise , it's always an interesting read . He is faithful to add to it on a regular basis .

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...r-nation-daily

[buckwheatpaul]

Charlie, all the information that last few months are almost mind numbing. I thank you for the update on Ken and pray for comfort for him. The victims in Las Vegas need our prayers for comfort, healing and understanding. The victims in the path of Harvey and the victims in Florida....then we are off to the fires in California and the NW. Then we have the madman in N. Korea.....I know God is active and he hates it when we slip back and lose our confidence and in some cases our faith. There is just so much misery but the men and women in Our Chapel keeps me upbeat and encouraged. Thank each of you for what you have done for our Cast Boolit family, our neighbors, our communities, our states and our country......May God bless each and every one of us. Paul

[Boaz]

I agree Paul . We need to continue prayer , encourage where we can .

[GhostHawk]

Well I am going to share here. Today was my fathers memorial service. He was 93.

Obit here in the local paper for anyone interested.
http://www.inforum.com/obituaries/43...john-w-jamison

He did not preach his faith, he lived it. Always the first if someone needed a hand. First to stop harvesting his own crop and move to a neighbor's fields if he was in the Hospital. I actually asked him once, how can you take the chance? You lose a day working for a neighbor. You could wake up one morning to rain and not turn a wheel for 3 - 6 weeks. We had seen it happen many years.

He laughed, you think after I quit my own work and rally my neighbors to help someone who can't do the work through any fault of his own. You think the Lord is going to punish me for that?

He was tireless when it came to community, or school, or church.

The real hard part, was watching this last 5 years as he shrunk. Maculear Degeneration took his sight. He got frail, spent his time sitting in a chair yelling at mom. Mom mostly learned to disappear into her own head. She found a place where she could not hear him. Checked out mostly. I prayed for years for the Lord to take them, take them both. He and my mom hated being separated. They had a love, deep and strong and pure.

Eventually Dad started regressing, 10 years a week at the end. He became violent with the staff at the facility he and mom were in. He was moved to Staples Minnesota where they have a facility that can handle that. His meds were changed, adjusted.

The good news was he was no longer violent. The bad news is the new meds were liver and heart killers. He started shutting down. Still took 4 days, long enough to get him back to Ada for mom to say goodbye.

All in all today was a very good day. There is no grief or sadness in my heart.
As soon as I heard I took my concerns to the Lord. Who told me right off the bat not to worry. Dad did see the error of his ways in the end. I think he was suffereing from some dementia. So it was not all his fault. But the Lord told me he repented of his sins, and that he was with the Lord, praying hard, and worried about his wife.

I had tears at a few points today. Mostly during the hymn's. They were old favorites of course. They tug at my heart strings pretty hard.

Lots of love today from all I met. Lots of good storys. Lots of fun looking at grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of a very honest, humble, hard working man.

In many respects I was his hardest job. And at times he despaired that he had ever managed to teach me anything. Yet we were given many decades more than many family's get. And he got to see me get married, buy a house, rewire it, replumb it thanks to things I learned from him.

For decades he was like an iron fist holding an umbrella. When life's storms became to much I was always welcome to come home. Shelter for a time while I recouped.

Eventually I was able to leave that shelter. And gladly, and none was more glad than him to see me make it on my own. To finally be able to fly.

So there is a very small sense of loss. John Wesley Jamison, you were a great dad. A solid father, a pillar of the community. You will leave a huge hole. You will be missed.
Go with God.

[Hogtamer]

Thanks for letting us get to know your Dad.

[smokeywolf]

Ya'll are lucky to be able to cry for your fathers. Although my father was insanely talented with regard to gunsmithing, he was not much of a father. I never could shed a tear for him after he died; that was 22 years ago. Wish I could have felt for him the way you feel for your fathers.

[Boaz]

I'm sorry you lost your dad GhostHawk , my condolences . It is a great loss , I'm be praying for your family brother .

[aspangler]

Prayers for all mentioned here as well as all unspoken prayers. I lost a dear freind and father in August 2002 and still miss him to this day. Ghost, I now how you feel. My father was of the same type person. He would help others without asking "what's in it for me." He waited for us to get to the ER when he passed. I watched as the monitor went flatline. He went to be with the LORD with a smile on his face that night. May God in His infinate Grace bless all the fathers and mothers in our lives.

Bro Albert

[Preacher Jim]

Some had great parents and some had bad parents.. but God delivered all by being a father to the Fatherless and he is a perfect father.
Wrap his loving arms around you and feel his love.

[Preacher Jim]

In answer to what's going on in chapel, prayer, healing, discipleship, miracles.
If you are not praying you are not apart of it.

[opos]

I'd like to throw something out and just open some discussion...it's been discussed many times in different places before but has bearing with me...here for a bit different reason...I'll leave names out to "protect the innocent".

I was raised in the Episcopal church...was baptized and confirmed and was an alter boy...was married in a "Nuptual Mass" in the church where I grew up and served...now we get to about 20 years old...my life changed dramatically and a belief in God and Jesus was not a part of my life....We had 3 kids over a period of time and the church was just down the alley so we always took the kids and my then Wife took them to church..but I did not attend.
My issue was with alcohol and my life was to become focused and developed with a major problem with alcohol...it continued for many years...won't bore anyone with the stories but devistation sums things up pretty well...

In January of 1981 after many unsuccesful tries I asked for help...who did I ask? God. Did I ask Jesus or even think of him in my surrender...no. I went on to join a 12 step program that centers on a belief in God but is "open" to a person's higher power, whatever that might be...Jumping ahead I'm about to celebrate 37 years of continuous sobriety..that 37 years has been filled with happiness, with my being able to be of service....a loving trusting family that "came back" after it appeared Dad was going to be sober and reliable.....A wonderful Wife (3rd one) to whom I've been married for 35 years...she is also a sober alcoholic with 43 years of continuous sobriety under her belt.

This is all background. I have several dear friends that are members (one a retired pastor) of Christian churches....I respect and admire their life styles and they have been trusted and true friends...but without question every one of them continues ...to this day...to try and "lead me" to a different belief system. We are far enough along (in our late 70's and 80's that it becomes a subject of good natured joking when we meet for coffee, etc....But there are some folks with a fixed focus that without some of the iron clad Christian beliefs that a sinner (and I think most fit that profile at a point) will not be welcome in Heaven...and they make a really irritating point of that.

I have helped or at least tried many times to help a struggling alcoholic find sobriety...one of the "steps" in our program deals with" turning our lives and our wills over to the care of God as we understand him"...this has worked as the "door opener" for millions of alcoholics as they find their way into sobriety...it's written to be "inclusive" and not "exclusive"...If the iron clad Christian teachings and beliefs were forced on many new sobriety seeking folks we'd probably stand to lose our Jewish members, many from other religions that do not have Christian teachings, etc.

There is a man on this board that I've corresponded numerous times that is a man I can talk with....obviously a devout Christian with the beliefs and with the living style to verify his feelings and his commitment...but, thank God...he does not preach scripture to me (I have read the bible many times but do not live it's teachings in many ways...at least in the specifics the Bible calls for)....I have a book written by alcoholics for alcoholics that gives me a road map for life that I could not get in many years with the church. He has been willing to engage in conversations that men can benefit from having without suddenly bursting into quotes from scripture...we simply talk about things...

What a pleasure to find the ways to agree to disagree and still be looking for the same outcome and purpose...I have posted before and gotten some really nice replies...but the replies often trail off into quotings of scripture and "praying" discussions.....I'm ok with that but have gotten messages on several occasions from folks that have some feelings that I profess and they say they find it uncomfortable here on occasion....My goal is not to change anything here...it's to bolster the folks that want to be here but feel pushed....My attitude is that there is no wrong way to meet God and that God's wonders are available to anyone...not just a chosen few...

So there we are....God bless to the believers and God bless to the non believers who may really believe more than anyone realizes...that was sort of me...I had a lot of places to turn when the music stopped playing and all the chairs were gone but it began with asking God (as I have come to understand him) for help..
I hope folks that want to believe something will always have an open door here to include rather than exclude them.

[Boaz]

I have read your past comments , I thank you for your generosity in comments , though we think differently I respect your right of choice . I consider you a compassionate person . We all have choice . Thank you , may GOD bless you .
Charlie

[claude]

@opos
Nice post, says a mouthful indeed, My 2 cents is that there are as many levels of understanding of God as there are people, and considering that God does the final deciding, I find none of us are one bit closer to Him than the next person, some may have a greater understanding of who He is and what He wishes of us, but that does not make us holier, for we are all miserable failures, from the top clergy to the gutter rat breathing his last breath, dieing from an OD. He loves us all, He may not love what we are doing, but He loves us. The mother rapers, the father rapers, thieves and murderers, the abusers of themselves, are all loved. That being said, one does generally walk a smoother road if they abide by the few simple rules set forth in scripture.

Congratulations on your sobriety, I know something of the struggle you faced for I have been clean and sober for twelve years plus, what a welcome freedom.

claude

[Blackwater]

Just a quick thanks to all who've posted their stories, etc. Ghosthawk, I'm really sorry about your Dad's passing, but fathers and mothers never really leave us. We carry them and all they instilled within us all our lives. Glory in all that he taught you, and the values you shared.

And thanks to Boaz and others who said a little prayer for me while I was ailing. Most of the effects were from the meds I was on, and then, a recuperation from those effects. I really didn't feel like socializing, and figured it wise to just keep silent for a bit, but I'm feeling a lot better now and hope to be back to "normal" from now on. Thank you one and all. I believe in prayer, and have seen it work too often not to. I was mostly too ashamed in my non-life threatening misery to ask for prayers, and really didn't think it was needed. But I sure do always appreciate it when it's rendered on my behalf, so ... thank you, sincerely. You're all always in my prayers whether I'm posting here or not. You've all been a very uplifting and inspiring influence in my life, and I can't say "Thank you" enough. God bless you all, and especially those of us who are fighting problems, ailments, etc. God doesn't send suffering to those who can't or won't benefit from it. In suffering, there is truth and motivation for us, and an honesty that is harder to maintain than when we're down and out. So, thank God for suffering, for it spurs us to see our place in the overall scheme of things more clearly and rationally. Non-believers only care about getting what they WANT, and will never know the sweetness of suffering and challenges. I feel for them.

[GhostHawk]

Brother Blackwater it is good to let others care. Part of that means sharing what is happening.

I firmly believe that pain shared is divided, diminished, reduced.
But joy shared is multiplied, expanded, increased.

So feel free to share both the good and the bad.

Casey and I have had a wonderful week this week in our efforts to put smiles on faces and melt hearts. The staff are getting to know us, many make a point of letting us know how much they appreciate what we are doing.

I missed a day monday and heard about it from the Residents Tue and Wed.
"Where were you? Everything ok?"

Leaves a real glow in your heart.

Tuesday I had a nice talk with a lovely older lady. Guessing 70's. She was making a fuss over Casey while talking to me. Her husband had been visited twice while he was at the Mayo Clinic by an emotional support dog. And she pinned me with her blue eyes and asked "Is that what your doing?"

Sort of. My dog Casey needs people, and me, well I needed to put some good works behind my name for the big guy upstairs. Casey and me, we are just trying to make this place a little better for everyone. And the Lord told me I have one of the most wonderful dogs in the whole world. And I was being selfish, and keeping him to myself.

So now every day I share him for an hour with whoever passes by.

She laid a hand on my shoulder and told me that I was doing amazing things.

Bout made me cry. Bout crying now thinking about it.

Been a good week!

Love you brothers!

[Boaz]

You are doing good work . You are helping others . No work is small . Thank you .