TheListener

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Posts by TheListener

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  15

  Met Auld Soul( AKA LiveLife)!

  by nvrgnbk in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  he's a good man.. he sends greetings to all his old jwd friends..

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  TheListener

  I consider Auld Soul a true friend. I miss his regular contributions to the board. Livelife doesn't post much.

  auld soul - I toast you errrr.... auld soul - I toast to you... yeah that's right.
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  46

  NEWBIE- MARKING TALK

  by Tallman64 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  newbie here.

  i feel i will enjoy my stay.

  interesting talk last nite on marking.

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  TheListener

  Welcome to the board.

  The early christians did some sort of disciplinary action.

  At least unlike disfellowshipping the individual doesn't lose all communication with his family and close friends, which I feel is unscriptural.

  Marking seems a little closer to early christian practice. Perhaps I'm wrong - I'm sure many will tell me so.

  Anyway, I don't like marking or disfellowshipping.
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  24

  How Many Former Elders/MS Taught What You Wanted & Ignored The Rest?

  by Seeker4 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this was prompted by the thread on whether you enjoyed being an elder or ms. some mentioned they taught what they wanted when they were an elder.

  that was personally true of myself.

  there were some things i stopped teaching over the years, and would refuse to counsel the friends about.

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  TheListener

  I totally did that. I thought I was the only one. hahahahha

  It's nice to be here and see how similar people can be.
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  17

  Interesting developments with my wife.

  by Paralipomenon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it has been quite a while since i've provided an update but recently things have been odd.

  there have been alot little things i've picked up on that leads me to believe my wife is really struggling with the concept of remaining a witness.

  i provide gentle coaxing here and there.

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  TheListener

  Associating with disfellowshipped ones can be a major hurdle for someone. Congrats on that.

  Someone on this board once told me this (or something very very similar but I'm sure it was more clear when they said it):

  If someone goes against their perceived authority figures for external reasons that person will likely bounce back to the rules that once confined them.

  However, if that same individual goes against their perceived authority figures because they disagree with something then the authority figures have lost a little power and the all-encompassing authority they held is diminished.

  Sounds like your wife is willingly thinking and making her own decisions without any coercion from you. Great.
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  17

  update time

  by thebiggestlie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok first of all i want to apologize for not coming in more often and saying hi, i guess im just lazy.

  richierich did show me that thread from last week with yall asking about me and i intended to post but i completely forgot and other things got in the way but i do want to say thank you for being so kind and caring.

  ok so i had my first elders meeting the other day with the subject at hand as "bad association" seeing that my parents caught me sneaking out to hang with my "worldly" girlfriend and her friends.

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  TheListener

  Hang in there Lie. You are lucky to realize it's all a bunch of crap so early in life.

  You're going to have some rough times ahead, but you will come out of it ok if you have level headed friends and are level headed yourself.

  Good luck. Maybe your parents will follow your lead one day.
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  31

  Former or Current Elders, MS, Pioneers.......Did you enjoy these positions?

  by R.F. in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  did you ever enjoy serving in this way or did you view it more as, "it's the thing that's encouraged, so that's what i'll do"?.

  im currently a ms and pioneer(will shed this one immediately) and before i ever were appointed these, i always wanted to.

  i thought it was a pretty cool thing for someone my age to be instructing the congo, and to have so many look up to you.

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  TheListener

  I enjoyed all the privileges I was given. I liked the prestige and I truly thought I was helping. It was a win/win. I have lots of family in the organization at varying levels of responsibility and my fade isn't know by everyone yet. As it becomes known by more and more I get offers of "help". Of course, by help they mean "go back to the meetings you loser!"

  Little did I realize how much of my life I wasted learning ridiculous WT views on matters when I should have been studying my Bible.

  Nyer Girl, did they actually announce what each of your restrictions were to the congregation? That had to be very humiliating. I'm sorry you went through that. I'm glad you're free now.
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  26

  Birthdays and Job

  by emptywords in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the societys stance on birthdays is either blatantly a lie, or a lack of bible knowledge on the part of the governing body!

  while still attending at the kingdom hall i read job 1:4 where jobs childreneach had celebrations in his own day.

  then read in job after his kids died and all his possession were lost where job cursed his own day.

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  TheListener

  There are numerous threads on the board that clearly address the issue of Job and birthdays.

  Narkissos is correct (I'm sure he rests easy that I agree ).

  When you really research the subject by studying the Hebrew text and reading various Bible commentaries you see that there is weak or no evidence that this scripture points to birthdays.

  A few commentaries make the argument that birthdays are implied, but isn't that exactly what the WT does in so many cases (i.e. evidently, apparently, must be the case, etc etc).

  I slay the birthday argument this way:

  we celebrate anniversaries - we give anniversary gifts - who gets the gifts? God or the couple? In fact the longer a couple is married the more everyone discusses the couple and their ability to stay together and how proud of them everyone is. Hmmm. shouldn't all honor go to God?

  we celebrate births - we give baby showers with gifts - who gets the gifts? God or the couple/baby?

  Birthdays are not called out as bad in the Bible. From the above examples we see that we could celebrate birthdays by stating we are celebrating God's invention of the life giving process. We could give gifts to the individual because we are following the example set by the anniversary and baby shower routine.
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  38

  A lurker says hello

  by Madame in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  r. f. wondered how many lurkers there are on the board.

  i don't know the answer, but i will admit that i since a few years am one of them.

  i read here almost every day.. like many others here i am an ex-jw, left the organisation about 25 years ago and never regretted it.. .

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  TheListener

  Welcome.

  I'm glad you stopped lurking and started posting. It's great to get different perspectives.

  Again, welcome.
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  10

  I wonder how many lurkers there are??

  by R.F. in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've noticed that there seem to be new ones starting to post daily.

  i've also noticed that a thread can be created, then have a couple hundred views within seems like minutes.

  i'm not sure how many registered posters may just view a topic and move on without posting, or even if non-registered viewers are even counted on the view count, but i sure hope there are many lurkers and that some will join the fold soon.. .

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  TheListener

  I don't know the statistics but I lurked for a long time before posting. Since new posters show up regularly I suspect many are lurking.

  If you're afraid to post. We understand.

  If you're lurking - please post. Keep whatever information you choose confidential.

  It feels good to finally share in the communal feeling this board can have.
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  31

  Claims about decreasing donations.

  by proplog2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  every so often it is mentioned that donations are decreasing.

  i have never heard that directly from the publications or from the platform.

  this is the only place where i have seen this claim.. is there anything factual to this?

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  TheListener

  For the last 5-10 years certain COs have mentioned donations being low on a congregational level.

  One measure of health sometimes used is to review the amount of literature received by the congregation and the amount of money donated for the worldwide work. Doing that, many congregations have found that they don't even donate enough to cover the basic literature they are receiving much less extra or money from anyone they meet in the field ministry.

  Congregations can do this analysis using the old costs of similar or same literature or they can just state that they receive the same literature as when prices were charged and compare the amount of donations. Either way congregations keep coming up short.

  The problem I see is that the WTS keeps doing separate requests for money. For example, the circuit overseer car insurance fund or special money to build a local assembly hall, etc etc. The friends may respond to this specific request but the money comes from somewhere - that somewhere is usually the general worldwide work fund.

  If you're still active in a congregation try asking the secretary if the congregation contributes as much as it used to for the literature that it receives. Of course, they may not like you nosing around about it. You know, Jehovah will take care of it.