I am sorry but I just cannot and will not let you skate over this issue of your bad behavior no matter how well you try and justify it. Your letter is nothing more than an attempt to try and smooth over your personal attacks against Leon and myself. Yes Ella your attacks were not just about our beliefs, they were in fact personal. That is when you crossed the line and "sinned". For a person who claims to be so much better at discerning spiritual things how is it that you cannot discern this?
What is glaringly obvious is that you do not seem to have the capacity to admit when you are wrong, repent and simply apologize without justifying your bad behavior. That is called sinful Pride, another sin.
Neither Leon, Lydia or myself were ever angry with you as you claim. We were simply holding you accountable for your less than Christian behavior. I can take any kind of attack as I am thick skinned and I believe Lydia and Leon are as well, but I will hold you accountable for it because if I or we don't then you will just keep on behaving badly and keep trying to justify it.
Mat 5:23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. NKJV
In other words Ella, until you do the right thing in God's eyes, your gift is worthless before the Lord.
Let me point the importance of this issue out to you so you will see the magnitude of your unrepentant sin.
First you attacked Leon and myself personally, several times, not just our beliefs. We could care less about our beliefs being attacked. Character assassination is a personal attack.
Second you failed to recognize and or admit that you in fact sinned. You failed to repent and you failed to give any sincere apology.
Third, because you did this on a public forum, you have sinned publicly before many brothers and sisters and potentially may have caused others to be offended and consequently they may leave the forums or already have. So you gave a very bad witness! Your behavior was nothing less than shameful! Period! If you cannot see this then you have a bigger problem.
Ella, I love you in Christ but as scriptures tell us.
Pro 27:5 Open rebuke is better Than love carefully concealed.
I feel that I have to address your post. I was not and am not angry with you, I am however very disappointed in you that you simply refuse to apologize for your behavior. I agree with the entirety of Walters post. You are justifying your bad behavior and making this about all of us being sensitive, when this is just not the case.
It was not even my post that you were disagreeing with, I was not reacting to the fact that you do not share the same beliefs as Walter and Leon but rather to the condescending and insulting tone of your posts.
I love you Ella and feel that sweeping this under the rug would be doing a disservice to you. We are not always able to see our behavior as others do and that's why we need our brothers and sisters to hold us accountable. I pray that God would soften your heart in this area and pull down that stronghold of pride, because I know that you are better than this.
While I understand your frustration over the tone and content of some of the posts, I have to say that this conversation is unfruitful as well.
I was trained by the same people whose views she was expressing, and this is a standard behavior with them: When caught in an indefensible position they will always respond with insults and haughtiness, claiming the Holy Spirit directly showed them this. You can't argue these things, there is no end.
In short, what I am saying is, you either forgive and accept them as they are, or you move on to other friends. Believe me, I have had much experience in this area. This will never end unless you are the one to stop it. That defensive spirit will never let them accept you having the last word, so please, let it go, so we can have peace again.
I was unaware of the original post that started this one, but I am concerned about my brothers and sisters in Christ.
So I went looking for the cause of this conflict. The subject of the qualification for Apostle is a facinating one, and one that Paul dealt with throughout his ministry.
I'm not going to get involved in that discussion because there are too many raw emotions right now.
I would like to point out that chat forums have some limitations to them. There is no immediate feedback to correct misinterpretation, no body language to modify words, and no voice inflections either.
Text messages have to be worded so much more carefully to avoid hurt feelings.
I value each one of your opinions, and I pray that the Holy Spirit quide you to a peaceful solution.
As far as I am concerned this is over. I don't have to agree with someone to love them. I still hold all involved in high regards. They are my friends and I love them all, I may be just a little partial to Lydia, however.
Bruce, and Tandy, I consider both of you as friends as well, but once again, sorry Bruce, but I am a little partial to beautiful women.
So I am afraid Tandy has a special place in my heart. Don't worry, Tandy, I am quite satisfied with my lady, and wouldn't trade her no matter how much I like you. Not even if I were 5....10....okay 25 years younger. LOL.
I love you all, and I thank you for your advice and concern,
I adore your loving heart! I wish the best for you and Lydia!
Now, we need to get some new posts going. It's getting sortof stagnant, don't you think? I've been trying to think of some interesting topics. Can yall help me out?
