Safeguard Your Spirituality by Training Your Perceptive Powers
By: Brother Guy Pierce of Governing Body
What a letdown! For a minute there I thought this talk was delivered Guy Pearce the actor, you know, the hottie from Memento and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Would have given me enough reason to start going to meetings
1. Listen to Jehovah. Many think they know the answers, but they don't even know the questions.
...or more realistically: 1. Listen to us. We know the answers, so don't even bother asking the questions
2. Study regularly, study deeply. We can be desensitized by what we see and hear, thinking it isn't bad, i.e., x-mas songs. We hear them; next thing we know the tune is running around in our head. In a short time we are humming them just as Satan wants.
... Going into deep Bible study has nothing to do with having a stupid Christmas song stuck in your head. Besides, the real issue here is if JW's are being desensitized to the point of not speaking up when they see somebody getting hurt in the congregation, or being told not to act on their own insight. Just think millions of JW's don't realize that the Governing Body secretly mistrusts JW's to the point where these crusty old white guys in New York can't even trust the flock to use their own brains.
3. Do we spend pioneer time in front of the TV or computer, and token time in service? Psalms 119:37, "Make my eyes pass on from seeing what is worthless."
You can make the case that you can be doing something more important than either one. Personally, I am an officer for the largest GLBT group on campus at ASU. I don't put in 60 or even 70 hours a month but I can tell that more gets done with what I'm doing than by going to a bunch of people's houses and using cheesy marketing techniques to get them to open the Bible. What a lot of people don't realize is that preaching is more effective when it doesn’t appear deliberate (a car group enters a neighborhood, they all work up and down a street, mark who's home, who isn't, who's interested, who isn't, etc...). I've had much more satisfying and effective discussions about the Bible than at places other than people's doors. "But it's our trademark!" Just because it's the key identifier of your religion doesn't make it any better.
4. Jesus is countless billions of years old and one day we will be as old as Jesus is now, and he'll only be twice our age.
Why would u think that Jesus owes you that much?
5. The Bible is inspired of the Sovereign of the Universe. It's a masterpiece, give it careful attention.
OMG, he used the word masterpiece, who would think that such big words could be found in a public talk!
6. The reasons some give for not being at the meetings is the very reason why they need to be there.
Believe me, if the talks that they gave at the Kingdom Hall actually did anything other than rehash the same outlines over, and over, and over, than I probably would consider going again. In my 5+ years in the congregation I can count on my right hand how many talks truly touched my heart. Other than that, just send me the outline, it will be more interesting for me to read it than for some guy to give it monotone.
7. Too busy because of the high cost of living, or living high. You can' put enough money in the bank to get through Armageddon.
C'mon Guy....you already get your salary from all the hard-working JW's who although miss meetings and service spend part of their paychecks for your benefit while you give more time to writing schmaltz like this. Really, find a clue...
8. A couple of young brothers are going to a movie. When asked if it has bad language, they reply, "yes, but we hear it all the time in school." Do we want to pay to hear more? It should hurt our ears.
Just like I didn't have to pay the elder body for them to slander apostate to my face. I have never heard more bad things said to my face in my entire life than from what I received from my last elders meeting.
9. Every meeting is a holy, sacred occasion. Never be absent by choice.
If the meetings were really that sacred than they would result in the same degree of spiritual enlightenment that Jesus bestowed on those that were skinned, and thrown about like sheep without a shepherd. Instead, they mirror the same formality of the festivals of ancient Israel, merely pointing to the Christ... it's just another burden.
10. Some are slowly losing the sense of urgency. We are in the heart and heat of a universal emergency. All in heaven have their attention focused on earth and what we are doing.
Believe me, if going to a bunch of people's houses was that urgent, then God would provide a more effective and efficient method of getting it done than the Governing Body instituting a total numbers game, which it is...
11. If we had the cure for cancer we would tell everyone. We DO have the cure for cancer, AIDS, and even death. People desperately need to hear. Our ministry is an extension of God's love. When you talk with someone they are face to face with a representative of Jehovah God.
Cure for cancer? Jehovah's Witnesses can't even cure suicide in their ranks, sex abuse, misogyny, scripture taken out of context, class divisions, severe depression, child abuse, and lack of education. How do they expect to cure AIDS and cancer when they can't even get past all this other stuff...If you have a problem u seek a professional. Since most Jehovah's Witnesses have never stepped inside a University classroom how do they expect to help me? Ohhh, by giving me two magazines? no thanks...
