It's like when Shelby is around she draws the scientists out of the woodwork for study and ridicule.
Well, I dunno know if I'd call them "scientists", dear Sab (the greatest of love and peace to you, dear one!)...
They see her as a living, breathing specimen of what has brought on this whole religious mess.
Yep. All my fault.
She simply both facinates and disgusts these people.
Actually, dear one, I think I fascinate more than disgust. I think the "disgust" is just a front to hide the fascination. I say that from experience: it's EXACTLY like the boys who used to harass me at school... and the elders who used to harass me at the KHs. The ones who tried the hardest to get my attention... but I paid the least attention... to were the most "disgusted.".
Some stay to laugh, some for a long while, others stay to further research. I would say that she should just get used to them. They have posed no threat in the past, so why would they in the future?
Oh, I am used to them, dear one. What these don't get, apparently, is that others like them have come... and gone... or become my good friends. They don't get that I can be as tenacious... and assertive... as they can; indeed, more so, if history is a witness. They think they're the first group of usual suspects; they don't understand that they're not even close to the first. And they're no different than the ones that have come before them. Some will go back and read my old threads... then comment "she's still saying the same thing she did more than 10 years ago!"... and STILL not get that. And for some reason, they think I "started" here. They disregard the years I spent elsewhere, long, long before even coming here.
I do wonder, Shelby, are you careful as to whom you inform of your, I don't know what to call it, gift?
I am, dear one. I don't tell anyone... unless the opportunity raises itself. Usually, that's by means of a discussion board like this... where people are ASKING questions as to things spiritual... or they PM, email, write, call, or ask me straight out (because of something they may have read or heard from me). Do I go around waving a flag saying, "Hey, I'm of the Body of Christ!", etc.? Of course not. Not even here. That, what, 5-10 sundry folks don't "like" me... or my truth... means... what? Many more than that either do like it... or have no problem with it.
I don't have a goal of being popular, dear one. To the contrary, I am SURE there are folks who wish I would interact with them MORE. Unfortunately, the accusations of starting a cult or trying to be others' "leader"... or being false, lying, a charlatan, etc., prevents me from doing that. For THEIR sake, not mine. Because you can well see what happens when someone agrees with what I share... let alone befriends me. And if they do BOTH?? Oh, Lordy!! Armageddon pales in comparison to the eventually I apparently have in store for such dear folks.
I understand how some feel... mmmmm... discomfort... at the interchange between me and some here. I have learned that that discomfort is sometimes the result of "baggage" from the WTBTS and/or other "authoritative" entities who never allowed, let alone taught, their adherents to stand up against THEM. But some, like the WTBTS, did teach some of us how to "reason" with our opposers. And I don't mean using rote, pre-prepared answers from a book they published. I mean when they taught me what Christ said... and then I subsequently learned from HIM... to NOT prepare ahead of time what to say... because what we are to say will be give to us. I know this... because, as I've said before, many times... what I share is NOT mine; it is what is given to me. These don't believe this... yet, they repeatedly state that they don't understand "how" I speak or the language I do when doing so. That's because they don't know how to listen... to anyone but themselves and those who agree with them.
So, really, Sab - these folks don't bother ME. Again, they come... and they go. And they come again... and they go, again. And they tire fully out long before I do. But that's because I am not relying on myself. My "strength" (as to these things) doesn't come from me - it is simply part of the gift that you speak of... the "forehead of flint" that MUST accompany the gift because it is necessary to complete the task (Isaiah 50:7; Ezekiel 3:1-11). Otherwise, none of us could stand, certainly not me. Folks like these would chew us up and spit us out on a regular... and very rapid... basis. Surely, you cannot believe that the Holy One of Israel would tell me to speak to Israel, to share with them what he gives me... and then leave me unable to withstand the opposition. HE received great opposition and he KNOWS I... and others like me... will receive it, as well. Because a slave is not greater than his/her master - if they persecuted the master, how much more so his slaves??
And that is the problem here, dear one: in spite of all the "gnashing," their "teeth"aren't making their usual headway. But then, flint is a very hard substance to chew through, so... yeah, I endure a nick or two from time to time, but nothing really skin-breaking.
I DO feel their pain, though, dear one. Well, at least I empathize with it. Because chewing through flintmust reallyhurt. I don't have to test my own on flint, though, to know that.
Thank YOU, though, for your understanding, acceptance, and always, always very kind words. They, and you, are much appreciated. Very much.
Again, peace to you and your household!
YOUR servant and a slave of Christ,
SA
