Great to see you and your words back here.  I didn't see them arrive.....but I'm glad that I've seen them now....and accordingly, see you in my mind's eye too.  Warm wishes to you.

I detect much insight that I can relate to above, in your words.

I relate to what yoiu've written about your comforter. I think many people could benefit from one. My comforter has made my life more bearable.

I wrote about experiences in my testimony on my blog which I linked to on this forum in my own thread on this topic, but I will post the direct link here,. It is just one page and it mentions about my comforter as well. I shared my thoughts having autism and other conditions and my faith.

https://racheltestimony.blogspot.com/

May the security last a life time for you JLyn

TBH I have no idea what you are on about. That said personally my faith is very immportant to me. It's my relationship with jesus here and now that matters most to me. The perly gates feel very far off and hard to grasp to me. I don't recomend smoaking anything by the way.

We would like to remind you of rule 5:

Be nice to one another and enjoy chatting with others. We encourage conversation and respectful debate; please be aware that individuals may give opinions which are not shared by other members. Insulting posts or comments making personal jibes will not be tolerated.   

I find their elusive and allusional style, and seeming inability to express any idea in concrete terms, quite irritating. It is undoubtedly a deliberate choice. This is from someone who has read 'Finnegans Wake' from cover to cover! "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs". While I found Joyce's wordplay entertaining, I also found that the allusions, in their various levels, ultimately banal, I suspect the same is true here. 

Put on the whole armour of God. (Ephesians 6:13)

Wonderful Counsellor.

Amen!

Mark (formerly Spikey) said:

I think he likes to play with us lesser mortals.

Absolutely!

I could be wrong here, but I think our vampiric friend was riffing off the post before which had a very similar title. I think he likes to play with us lesser mortals.

Pixiefox said:

I didn't really follow your post, and I couldn't guess the opinions of Jesus on anything.

Me neither, and I'm never sure if this particular OP is extracting the urine, or serious.

I didn't really follow your post, and I couldn't guess the opinions of Jesus on anything.

I wouldn't want to be actually born again as I didn't like being a child, but I would like to live my life over again from age 18 and do it differently.

I am born again Christian. I have Holy Spirit living with me He's my friend when there aren't any He's my protecter when I'm scared. He's my counsellor when I need help. He understands me when noone else does. I go to church but as I'm autistic I struggle with talking to people,  can't make friends, feel lonelier when I leave. But I have God with me so life is better. Not scared of death now. Obviously when life's tough would rather be with God. But because of my family thankfully have managed to stay here.

Being born again whether as a Christian or a rebirther (or for that matter as a satanist!) is just another "restart" and you can (and I've seen people do) STILL muck it up on the restart..

 The beauty (or otherwise, depending on where you sit) of a shared belief system and moral framework that has been refined over time (or is perfect at it's inception, as some systems are seen) is that it reduces the amount of concious decisions you have to make to a more manageable level.

In the context of a religion or a cult or other "unified" system of thought all members theoretically know a great deal more about how the other guy is thinking, creating a sense of tribal bonding which seems to be rewarding. 

The unwanted side effect being "-isms" of course.

For me, I have found that whether "Derivative" or not, Christian prinnciples as I read them in the gospels, make sense, mostly, and when adopted by myself (and others who I have observed making the attempt) seem to make my life more bearable, and seasoned with some real joy & contentment occasionally, which I didn't have during the period where I held those ideas & Ideals to be of little value. 

*** it is not an easy path or a cop-out, it doesn't make it's followers glow in the dark or survive cancer, it's just a choice to live a certain way to the best of one's ability. 

I don't know how it is for anyone else, but life is tough. Unless you make exactly the right decisions AND have good luck, life can seem impossible and unrewarding.

Autism particularly seems to make some people unable to "count their blessings". I know this because that happened to me for a great many years, and it's only loking back that I realise how very, lucky in some ways I have been.

My "outlook on life" is definitely, like many of us here, quite "unstable".This "instabilty" seems quite intractable, even if I use drugs to "modify my baseline" I still have days where my perspective shifts from a reasonably well sorted and pleasant view of my surroundings to a darker and frankly much less acceptable perspective where even anonymous posters on a forum can deeply annoy me. 

THE TRICK to staying out of the hands of the MH "professionals", is to leverage ones own PDA  and decide to avoid complying with the demands of your own emotions for as long as they take to wear off.

Like dealing with intoxication, as soon as you recognise it it in yourself, it's best to go lie down, do nothing, (or go and clean something)  and wait for the effects to wear off or change, rather than giving in to your feelings. A bit like keeping a straight face in poker when you've been dealt yet another rubbish hand... 

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There's many people that I've met throughout my life that I wish I could meet for the first time again.

What would you like to be reborn as?

Iains list dosen't include any of the other faiths around the world some new some older, I don't think antiquity automatically leads to authenticity, but there are lots of different way of being out there.

Just been binge watching 'Ancient Aliens' and you begin to see that all religions is based on mans attempts to understand the universe. Could there have been some sort helping hand in the beginning and visitations by ET's who were looked on as gods.

It's an interesting concept if you open your mind to all possibilities

No, I don't follow you at all. 

All religions are human constructs. If the answer to the question, 'Why do you follow this particular religion?', is, 'Because my parents did', then it is an admission that your religion is purely a cultural tradition. Religions can also act as psychological crutches, of course.

Lestat said:

And what's Jesus opinion on smoking trees, forget burning bushes. It's important.

Assistance Please

Jesus like those before and after him who were anointed as initiatic teachers of the perennial wisdom, did not deal so much in opinions but much more tried and tested practices that have proven to be fruit-full for life in the productive outcome sense.

In respect of your question, perhaps it is better to consider that the burning bush account only addressed an appearance or likeness of flames, given the presence of an Angel ~ as being in that case a non-corporeal illuminating messenger of God, with of course God being the absolute illuminator / animator of each and every created thing, hence the bush in question not being consumed by flames, and therefore remaining fruitful ~ and all that to do with the preservation or recognition of living a meaningful life etcetera, involving deliverance / rebirth.