It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Did You Dedicate Your Life to Serving Jehovah?
by Nosferatu 19 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Poztate
My question is, how many of you actually "approached Jehovah in prayer" before you got baptized?
Strangely enough this never came up as I was doing all the little prep studies before baptism.While I was sitting through the baptism talk with my happy,beaming dub smile it was brought up by the speaker about dedicating ourselves in prayer. Well,when I heard this I had a quickie right on the spot.The baptism has long since worn off but I still try to get a quickie in when ever I can.
-
jonnydangerous
HELL NO.
In fact when i got dipped i did it with everything the opposite way... just to see what would happen. Didnt "dedicate" didnt "pray", didnt do nothin, just walked up to the elders asked em what i needed to do, totally went through the motions. Didnt even read that ugly green book they gave me. I was HOPING for some lightning, praying for the Angel of Death to come and lop my head off (i was really suicidal then) anything to liberate me from that drudgery of religious existence. Didnt happen tho. At the assembly I remember standing up front with the other "sheep", listening to the same regurgitated talk about dedication and, "your life from now on". Singing the same damn song, and thinking about some of the things i "repented" from that i had just done the previous night ... then i said "YES".
--Nny
-
jonnydangerous
Damn, I'm a horrible person.......
Oh well.
-
Eyebrow2
sure did....you have to understand..I had to BEG to get the honor of going out in service. I was a true believer so I prayed....it was pretty emotional for me.
I have to tell you, I remember my baptism in slow motion....the way the water felt as I went down and how it rolled of my body as I came up. It was a wonderful feeling.That day meant a lot to me.
It still does...sure I am gone, but I do feel good about the fact that it was something I was sincere about, that I was not forced into getting baptized to please parents or others. I did have a free choice, not like a lot of former JWs did...that is a shame. So I never have to have to wonder about why I left...I know some that I have left because they felt like they were oppressed and some just out of rebelling against it just to rebell against their parents.
by the way...the towel I bought for baptism is now cut up and used to wash the floor and polish furniture....I into the whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing.
-
AJN
Yeah I did, and then fell away about a year later, I was in my early twenties.
I had no idea they would baptise children as young as 8 years old. That's rediculous, surely it's something that should be discouraged until early adulthood? Perhaps they are too desparate for converts and the boost in figures to consider the ability of a child to make a lifelong decision such as baptism is supposed to be. Just my opinion.
-
shamus
Yes, yes and yes. I did dedicate myself to Jehovah.
How did the questions go again? I dunno...
I just hate that I got duped into it. Let's say disgusted.
-
Narkissos
Oh yes I did. I was just 13 at that time. Guess a few months later I would have seen things somewhat differently. But then I was on the track and followed it head first, right through pioneering and Bethel.
I always remembered the two questions for baptism which were commented by the speaker before being asked the "candidates".
During the talk I didn't had a doubt about "dedication", but about "repentance". Did I "repent from my sins"? Which? I was kind of relieved when he spoke of "living for oneself" as the basic "sin". This I could easily repent from.
The second question, about dedication proper, was something like "Did you commit yourself to do Jehovah's will, as revealed in the Bible under the light of the holy spirit?" Years later "the holy spirit" was replaced by "the organization" in the baptism questions. A few months after that change I was out, without the least feeling of being untrue to my "dedication"...
-
greven
Well sort of... It was somewhat of a final test. I doubted since age 12...got pressured into babtism and decided that 'hey if He really exists and this is His religion then I am willing to make that sacrifice' But I needed some sort of conformation, something tangible. Not a big sign or anything but enough to erase the doubts at least.
I got dunked and nothing changed. No conformation at all, not even a warm fuzzy feeling. This did it. I concluded there was something to my doubts and decided to get to the bottom of it. And now I am here.
:o)
Greven
-
Oxnard Hamster
When I first encountered the JWs a couple of years ago, I honestly thought they were the truth. I did have a sincere desire to preach the kingdom news and to help those in need. When I started studying, I couldn't wait to go out in field service; I wanted nothing more.
To make a long story short, I figured out you don't need to be a JW to serve God and help people in need.