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  #11  
Old 03-20-2007, 02:38 PM
Barb Barb is offline
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Excellent, Ferd...bless you!!
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  #12  
Old 05-09-2007, 09:12 PM
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Ferd Ferd is offline
I remain the Petulant Chevalier


 
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Bump
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  #13  
Old 05-09-2007, 09:19 PM
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rgcraig rgcraig is offline
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Wow, I missed this first time around.

Thanks for bumping Ferd!
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  #14  
Old 05-09-2007, 09:24 PM
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Scott Hutchinson Scott Hutchinson is offline
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This has blessed me.
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People who are always looking for fault,can find it easily all they have to do,is look into their mirror.
There they can find plenty of fault.
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  #15  
Old 05-09-2007, 09:29 PM
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revrandy revrandy is offline
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Thanks Ferd & RevDWW for bringing this up!!

I am going to spend some more time on this one!!
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  #16  
Old 05-09-2007, 10:09 PM
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Falla39 Falla39 is offline
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For a friend.

Quote:
Originally Posted by revrandy View Post
Thanks Ferd & RevDWW for bringing this up!!

I am going to spend some more time on this one!!
Bro. Ferd,

I remember when you posted this on the other forum. Those who

have been hurt can relate, and although they may not know the

"thing" that caused the hurt, can remember the feeling of being

hurt by a trusted person. And if they have gotten the victory over

it, they can also feel the feeling of knowing the enemy did not win!!

I doubt there are many who have not at sometime or another, found

themselves in a similar situation. I know I have, more than once, more

than twice, more than three times, but I'm not OUT!!!!

Thanks be to our God who gives us the victory!!

Blessings,

Falla39
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  #17  
Old 05-10-2007, 07:53 PM
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Ferd Ferd is offline
I remain the Petulant Chevalier


 
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I cant help but wonder about how similar our lives are. It seems that everyone has a story. Everyone has a hurt. I would even bet that we have hurts that we have caused ourselves and hurts that have been thrust upon us.

I guess there really isnt anything new under the sun.
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  #18  
Old 05-10-2007, 08:01 PM
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ILG ILG is offline
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Good stuff, Ferd! I think we all face this sort of thing at some point and have to choose to either overcome or be overcome.
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  #19  
Old 07-04-2007, 09:37 AM
Barb Barb is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferd View Post
Some of my friends and I exchange e-mails that can sometimes be barbed. We discuss just about everything including politics. Our group includes some very conservative people as well as very liberal and moderate/independent people also. Well last week the discussion escalated over the course of a couple of days and I sat there and watched two good friends really cutting each other up via e-mail. It got nasty on both sides. The escalation was eerily familiar.

I spent the entire weekend thinking about how people can get so caught up in what somebody else is saying. Crazy thing is, it brought back some really bad memories. Memories I had placed under the blood almost eight years ago. Almost ten years ago, around the time I got married, I got into a bit of a spot with a UPC preacher. Now I am sure to all you seasoned ministers out there, this isn't that unusual for a couple of preachers to end up on opposite ends of an issue. But this was the first time I had run into something like this.

Over the course of a few months, I was very wrongly done. It hurt. I mean it cut me to the core. I was sick, ashamed, devastated. In three months I lost 25 pounds and I only weighed 150 to begin with. I looked like death warmed over and on my best days that is exactly what I felt like. I even moved 300 miles away! I wont go into any details but let me say very clearly that I was done horribly wrong, lied on, and terribly mistreated. I couldn’t even face friends that I KNEW didn’t even know about the situation.

I fought bitterness for two years before I came to a place of forgiveness. I warred with this. It was a constant struggle every day. How do you get a thought out of your head? How do you struggle with life knowing the struggles you are going thru are because of someone hurting you?

It was…..I'm sorry. I cant even put it in words. It was bitterness bordering on hatred. And it was a preacher. Somebody that is supposed to take care of people. Somehow after warring for two years, I found myself looking at me instead of this thing that had been done to me.

I started asking myself why after all that time I was letting this dude win? Letting him have this control over me. He was gone from my life, but for two years what I was, was still being controlled by him. I made a decision to make that stop. I would no longer be controlled by others. That I would face everything in my life head on. No more allowing someone else's ideas or words or even actions determine my life. I gave the whole thing to God in one package and let go.

Occasionally the whole sordid affair pops into my head but not with bitterness nor with malice. This last week I've been thinking about how I survived it. How I overcame it. The very fact that I am still in church when so many others have fallen because of similar stuff. God has truly blessed me.

Now I said all that to say something to all of you.

You cannot stop people from being bone heads. You cannot stop people from being hateful or having attitudes or doing or saying things that cut you. You do have control over how you react to them.

Every day I wake up and make a conscious decision not to allow anyone to hurt me. That does not mean I don’t get close to people or that I insulate myself from connecting to people. No way. I have good friends. I love my wife with every fiber of my being. I believe we need to be close to people. But I control the switch that allows someone's words or deeds to affect my life. Things get said and then things escalate, then someone gets mad and the whole thing can spin out of control and it happens because someone makes a decision to take real offence to what has been said.

People struggle for years over hurts they have suffered. Some loose out with God over what they have seen other people do. It all happens because they didn’t control that switch. Life has taught me some tuff lessons, most of which I would have preferred not having to learn. None the less, learn them I did. This is one of them: I control how I feel about what others say and do. I control it. Nobody else. No matter how devastating it is. I control the switch.
First, thank you to admin for placing similar thread titles at the bottom of a page...had it not been for that, I would have missed this wonderful post by Ferd today.

Second, thank you, Ferd, for the words you posted in March helped me today and I am grateful.

The anger and struggle runs deep, but God is a healer...I am counting on that.
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  #20  
Old 07-04-2007, 09:55 AM
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Subdued Subdued is offline
Getting to know Jesus


 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferd View Post
The measure of Faith. God gave it to you. He put it there. It is enough. Once you get to that place where nothing else matters. Just healing. Just getting rid of the tree that is sucking the life out of you. Just moving on and being free of those roots that want to squeeze your heart until it bursts. Then its like that mustard seed you bit into. It spreads all over and then all the sudden you realize it's gone.
Excellent!!
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Psa 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

1Pe 5:6-7 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Tit 3:2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
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