This came to me from a sister in New Jersey ~
We had a Bethel speaker this weekend - wonderful talk - heavy on my mind.
The speaker, Bro. Kitishima, told the experience of a Bethelite, Circuit
Overseer, super spiritual brother who got disfellowshipped. Our brother, of
course, was shocked to hear it.
Years later when the brother was reinstated Bro. Kitishima asked him, not
what he'd done, but if he had learned any lessons from being
disfellowshipped. The ex-CO said what he learned was that for years he had been studying for
his Bible students, for the ministry, studying for the meetings, studying so
he could give good answers at the meeting, studying so that he could
shepherd the friends, but not once in all the years that he'd been a Witness
had he studied for himself - to motivate his own heart.
Consequently, while he could give great answers at the meetings and give
great talks, conduct wonderful Bible studies and aid persons into the Truth,
shepherd the flock, his own heart was not affected. Bro. Kitishima said he
felt as if he'd been hit right between the eyes. He, too, realized, while
the ex-Co was giving his explanation, that he had not been studying for
himself. Needless to say, the entire audience gasped in unison. In another talk, Bro.
Kitishima used Matt. 24:37 to prove that there would be no mass conversion
in this time of the end. Since this is the case, then definitely we have to
strengthen ourselves.
Bro. Kitishima encouraged us to meditate and read very slowly, in an
undertone. He shared with us scriptures that we all know and have read them many, many times, but because of not doing deep meditation and studying to reach our own hearts, we missed points that could
have motivated us. For example, Gen. 3:22, the dash at the end indicates that the speaker didn't finish his thought. Why? Who is the speaker? Definitely we need to really, really focus on "all the words that Jehovah has spoken." They teach us and safeguard us so much, if we just