by dorayakii 10 Replies latest jw friends
This is a whole different level to Gillingham, big International Rugby stadium, searching of bags. I heard we're not even allowed IN without a lapel-badge, so i'd better write my name on mine this time... Don't think i'll be taking notes this time...
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/95009/1.ashx
Again i've got my apostachecks ready...
Please let me know if any of you are going to be there this weekend.
Dorayakii of the "3 Conventions this year!? i must be a masachist" class
Why no notes? I loved your post, especially the pic with the 'Samurai' brother in a suit with the ponytail. That just cracked me up.
Ok, i'll do it for you D&C :)
Another day at the District Convention...
Unusually, we started off with one of those crocodile-infested-river type experiences in the second talk (usually that comes at the end)... Five experiences of ones who have "Obeyed his voice" and been blessed.
This missionary brother was assigned to a country where for some reason the Witnesses weren't allowed to sing openly because of hiding from the authorities. They had a strong but stifled desire to bring praises to Jehovah so one day they rented a boat, went right out into a large river and sang kingdom songs until the early hours of the morning...
The same missionary was later called back to Italy to do circuit work, then his Gilead assignment was changed, he was sent to Israel. He felt that the bible came to life from living and preaching in the Bible-Lands. He was soon assigned to help out the Bethlehem Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, which brough a few chuckles from the audience.
Another experience was from a family whose daughter was brought up in a "theocratic home". (Scary)
The 3rd was a brother who was the preoduction executive of a popular weekly television series, he found that he had no time for spiritual things, and some of the content of the series (*which bore his name in the credits) was troubling his conscience... He wrote a letter of disaffiliation, and was offered volontary redundancy, which gave him enough money to join his wife in the Tamil Congregation as a Regular Pioneer.
The 4th experience was from a young JW girl whos Muslim friend at school chose to sit next to her "because she was different from all the other girls".
The 5th and last experience was from a young guy who was assigned a task to read a book that he and his family enjoyed, aloud in front of the whole class. What book did he choose? You guessed it, the Bible.... The interviewer asked him again with mock incredulity: "Let me get this straight, YOUR teacher asked YOU to read the Bible to your classmate?"... He read Psalms 83:18 and his friend was "convinced" that God's name really was "Jehovah".
During the "We are Wonderfully Made" talk the brother made a comment that "the number of possible combinations of neuron cells in the brain is more than the total number of atomic particles in the known universe"... "this proves that we can never overload our brain". i think this fact went over most peoples heads, but the "possible combinations of neuron cells" is merely equal to the number of different brain states that are possible, not a proof of brain capacity... Maybe i'm too analytical...
The "Ressurection" talk made an illustration of Jehovahs superior morality. When vandals wreck an area and grafitti up the place, the vandals may be punished, but often, the effects of the vandalism are still present. Jehovah promises that he will undo all the effects of Satan's "vandalism", including reversing death, by means of the resurrection. Jehovah has fournished a guarantee according to Acts 17:31. Jehovah is our garantor (sic.) and his track record is perfect.
The ressurection hope tempers the harsh reality of death, so Jehovah's people do not have a morbid fear of dying.
The "To Obey is better than sacrifice" talk brought out that some brothers, while giving talks that outline Jehovah's standards and that of the organisation, often add "if you can" to such statements *incredulous voice* as if such things were optional??
In the " Artfully Contrived False Stories" talk, i was surprised to hear a reference to two things which until now, i had only ever heard from the TV and Internet. The brother said "Many spread false stories abotu Jehovah's Witnesses. One newspaper reported the headline "Jehovah's Witnesses change stand on blood"... hah, surely that could never be the case could it brothers?... others maliciously say that Jehovah's Witness elders protect paedophiles. We would never want to believe such 'artfully contrived false stories' would we? (Sometimes i wonder who it is who is telling the false stories)...
I had fallen asleep for a while and woke up to the brother saying that we shouldn't engage in unclean conduct such as oral sex, anal sex and masturbating another person... this got a few giggles from the the group of 8 parent-less teenagers sitting behind me... So i turned around and told them "yeah, it's ok to do it to yourself, just not to other people"... (dorayakii you trouble maker you, tut tut)... couldn't work out in my newly awake state why that was relevant to the theme...
4 people were then interviewed as examples of those who have wisely discarded false stories...
The first was a young boy who was almost misled when what he thought was a normal (but worldly) barbecue, was really a birthday in disguise (gasps of shock and horror)...
The second experience was of a sister who was told you have to be "cut out" to be a pioneer. She proved them wrong by becoming a pioneer herself and shes been happily serving as one for 7 years.
The 3rd one was a brother who was told, "You need quick money, but don't need an education for that"... they tried to convince him that seling drugs and stealing were morally ok. The brother sat beside me whispered in my ear, "Corrr, they just went from soft to hard core didn't they?", LOOOOL...
The last sister lost her husband (can't remember if through death or divorce) and when she was studying, she was told that she shouldn't waste time going to the meetings when she should be looking for a father for her children... She used the scripture at Joshua 24:15 to put them in their place. "As for me and my household, we shall serve Jehovah"...
The talks on the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, highlighted that Jehovah's blessing on us today depends on our magnifying his name, and carrying on work at his spiritual temple.
The brother giving this talk said that in the New System, "likely the correct pronunciation of that name [Jehovah] will be brought back for all to use... as humankind are brought back to speaking just one language." That kind of ruffled my feathers a bit, as a linguist.
He also mentionned that at that time we will celebrate the "anti-typical festival of booths" mentionned at Zech 14:16... (Again this focus on pre-christian worship)...
Hey thanks for making the protest cheques international!
If anyone else wants to join in, the checks are now available on this site: http://www.dannyhaszard.com/checksforWT.htm
Loved your experience, the whole thing seems as rediculous and out-of-touch as the DC I went to.
The last talk, releasing the new tract, was given by brother Gerrit Lösch a Governing Body member since 1994. Hs accent was really nice and at the beginning of the talk he said "Brothers and Sisters, i ask forgiveness... i forgiveness for my American-Austrian accent"... his voice captured me though...
Lösch had a soft spoken manner about him and he seemed very genuine in his demeanor... He mentioned that Jehovah is never the source of suffering and pain, although he does punish those who harm and encroah on the the rights of his brother as 1 Thessalonians 4:6 says.
He also mentionned that it was Satan who brought suffering upon Job, NOT Jehovah.... I couldn't help but think about 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 and reflect on the dichotomy of Christian and Jewish beliefs about the relationship of Yahweh and Satan. Jehovah is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness... (ummm, "bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons and upon grandsons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation")
He further stated that Satan is not the cause of all suffering. He is not to blame for tsunamis, earthquakes and famines... but he is to blame for crimes and terrorism because he uses materialism and religion to incite hatred.
Jehovahs justice may seen foolish to men, but think of it this way: If a teacher provided a solution to a problem, and one of the students disagreed with him, would the teacher just throw the student and those who agreed with him out of the classroom? What would the others think of the teacher?... No, instead the teacher would allow the student to prove he was ight, and when he had had sufficient time to prove that the teacher really was right in the first place, only then would he throw him out.
Expectation postponed is making the heart sick, many have expected the end to come in their lifetime, but have been disappointed, but Habakkuk 3:4 says that the vision is yet for the appointed time, and its keeps panting *makes panting noises* (crowd laughs) onto the end...I doesnt matter when the end comes, we have not dedicated our lives to serve Jehovah until the end of this system, but forever and ever and ever and ever... for eternity. Eternity does not mean until the end of the Millenial reign, nor is it 10 thousand years, or 100 thousand years, or a million years, or 10 million years, or 100 million years, or a billion years, or 10 billion years, or 100 billion years, or a trillian years, or 10 trillian years, or 100 trillian years, or a quadrilllion years... (crowd laughs)
False expectations do not mean that the expected event is not coming. There have been cases where a pregnant woman is rushed to hospital because of a belief that the baby is imminent... but the baby had different thoughts (audience laughs), its just didn't wanna come out... Does the woman then say "Oh i don't believe the baby will ever come, im going to sell all the babys clothes and toys because it isn't coming"?... Of course not... In Habakkuk's distress, he asked Jehovah "How long oh Jehovah??"...
We have 7 proves that the "baby" is ready:
1. Isaish 2:24... People are already streaming to Jehovah's temple. There they "learn war no more" in the spiritual paradise...
2. 1 Timothy 5:13... We see how people have gone from bad to worse in godless behavior
3. Revelation 11:18; 12:9, 12, 17... Satan was thrown down to earth and the nations grew wrathful in 1914.
4. Matthew 24:14... Only a handful of countries where we don't preach... where the are no jehovah's witnesses.. the end is almost ready to come.
5. The number of anointed ones is dwindling. (No scripture used to support this)
6. Dan 2:31-43... We live in the time of the feet of the image of Nebuchadnezzars dream... Some authoritarian governments are iron like, Others are like the clay offspring of mankind, the common people want more say in how they are run. The rejection of the European Constitution shows that democracy allowed the people to make the decision instead of the government imposing it. The scriptures say that there will be a mingling of the two forms of government in the time of the end.
7. The symbolic 8th king, the scarlet coloured wild beast that symbolises the UN. The League of Nations went into the figurative abyss in 1939, twety years after it was concieved (1919)... it then came up out of the abyss as the United Nations and has been active now for some 60 years... How much longer will Jehovah continue to allow it to exist? It is good to meditate on this because it may... be an indication that the end is near...
Morning attendance 16,810...... Afternoon attendance 18,534
Hey dorayakii,
Sounds insane as ever! Nice documentation work.
the brother made a comment that "the number of possible combinations of neuron cells in the brain is more than the total number of atomic particles in the known universe"... "this proves that we can never overload our brain". i think this fact went over most peoples heads, but the "possible combinations of neuron cells" is merely equal to the number of different brain states that are possible, not a proof of brain capacity... Maybe i'm too analytical...
Grr...don't you hate it when people use science that they clearly don't understand to try to back up their theology?
Incidentally, here's a recipe for something else with more possible states than the total number of atoms in the universe:
Voila! There are almost 10 to the 100th (1 followed by 100 zeroes) different possible combinations in that box! How wonderfully made it is! Praise be to Allah! :-)
SNG
Reasons why "we know the baby's ready"
People are already streaming to Jehovah's temple
The number of anointed ones is dwindling.
Yeah, I don't think so.
2% increase worldwide from 2004 to 2003 (you call that "streaming"?)
8570 partakers in 2004, 5 more than the previous year!
dorayakii........(aka you!) I'll see you there on Sunday!!!
Scott
Looking forward to seeing you 2moro Scott :))
