Hello HB and welcome aboard!
Sounds like you have been through the mill and some :(
Anyhow, things are looking up :)
and he pulled the biggie in real life...well WHO IS his people then?
God's people are clear and those that aren't, see here
1 Peter 2:4-10 (New International Version)
The Living Stone and a Chosen People
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
"See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame." 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone," 8 and,
"A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
God's people are those that believe in the name of His Son
1 John 3:23 (New International Version)
23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
PS. I haven't prayed in 2 years. I just can't, it feels canned, fake, and unheard. Anyone else have this feeling? That's good, JWs are wasting their time. You cannot pray "our Father" until you are a child of God
John 1:12-13 (New International Version)
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
You cannot come to the Father until you have received Jesus
John 14:6 (New International Version)
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
His is "the name"
Acts 4:10-12 (New International Version)
10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is
" 'the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.' 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
All the best,
Stephen
