* this thread is for the church and not to be used for debating christianity.
i would ask that those who are non-believers please respect the beliefs of others today.
thank you in advance.. for two millenia since christ's death, christians all over the world have been participating in what is known as the the last supper.
I think God cares for everyone who is truly loving of him and his creatures.
Why wouldnt he be?
If you were God, really, wouldnt you have mercy on all those who were earnest in their hearts towards you?
I truly believe this.
But I have also come to respect the part Obedience plays in his loving us. When it comes to dealing with billions of people, he must use obedience as one criteria for separating his true friends and rebels who will not work out in the long scheme of things.
Anewme
have you ever been the boss, owner, or manager of a company?
have you ever tried to accomplish a goal using lots of other people?.
what problems arose?
Have you ever been the boss, owner, or manager of a company? Have you ever tried to accomplish a goal using lots of other people?
What problems arose? Did you appreciate it when the people you were using got your instructions wrong or simply did their own thing and made different decisions on their own than what you told them to do?
I have now experienced being a boss of many people. No matter who it is you are dealing with, educated or non educated individuals. Professionals or non professionals, some people just dont like to follow orders. Sometimes the consequences are insignificant. Sometimes they are very significant. The people you appreciate the most are those who simply follow your orders and are cooperative and cheerful in the workplace. The others you seek to fire. Simple.
I have been thinking about our earth and its many problems of late.
What is going to happen to life on earth?
In such a short time the entire planet is in grave danger. All around are signs of significant damage.
It seems to me, religion aside, that obedience and cooperation is called for from the human population. But who do we obey? Who is our leader? Do we need a boss?
Who is earth's leader?
Anewme,
deep in thought today
it these tough economic times many of us have looked back at the decisions we made concerning money with much dismay.
the organization has cost many people 100's of thousands of dallors or more over the course of their life time.. 1. all the time and gas spent on knocking on doors.. 2. brothers that ripped you off in business.. 3. all the money i gave my exwifes dead beat relatives.. 4. making just minumum wage for two years of poineering.
than going to bethel for four years making only $22 a month, 9 dallors of which went for subway tokens.
Remember, whatever the costs and sacrifices, they were entirely up to you. Not everyone gives up everything to serve Jehovah.
Some go to college, some COs retain their homes and properties, some JWs never pioneer and continue to work full time.
You made choices which admittedly were influenced by literature or counsel from the meetings, but ultimately you made choices to sacrifice where others have not.
We need to get over it.
considering this looks to be mostly a ex-jw site, you're probably thinking "coming into it?
run.
" but i have friends in it who have persuaded me to have a bible study and attend meetings, and well, hey... it isn't doing me much harm.
Roxane, the cong. is a mixed group and there is no welcoming committee. It is up to the individuals to make you feel welcome or not. It is just like anywhere else, people are distracted by their own lives and problems and troubles and may not be reaching out to you due to this reason.
a year or two after leaving the borg.
i was on shaky ground.. any major catastrophe in the world that took place, i thought.
today i can not think of one single event.
Preaching time requirements?
Meeting requirements?
dress length suggestions and requirements?
who is an appropriate associate? One who attends all meetings? Or one who attends and comments at least once? Or one who attends and comments appropriately twice and whose answers are concise and which stick to the paragraph? What about someone who tries to comment by holding his or her hand up for every question but who is never called upon? Is that a subtle indication by the elder conducting that this person is to be marked or something?
What is proper employment? Should I work in a store which sells cigarrettes? Can I work in a hospital and sterilize equipment which might be used for unchristian type surgeries? What about handing out medicine or hormones to gays in the line of my pharmacy tech work? Should I say hello or greet an ex JW when they are the cashier or store clerk helping me?
Should I work full time or part time? My job insists I work Saturdays.
What kind of colors should I decorate my home with so others will not think I am celebrating a holiday?
(One Bethelite advised that three bricbrac items only should be on a tabletop and no more for Christian decor. More than that appears materialistic) If I am an elder's wife what example should I set?
Should we celebrate our Wedding Anniversary? Is it worship of our marriage to give gifts to each other at that time?
Should I seek medical help to have a child if I am married and cant have one myself?
What does the Watchtower say about adoption or fostering a child?
If I am having depression troubles, should I seek medical help? Or should I just pray more and go out in service more?
I am an unmarried sister, is it wrong for me to help a disabled man bathe and dress in the morning as part of my job?
A sister said my purse looks like a "hooker's purse", should I discontinue to use it?
Should I buy anything from the Salvation Army? Money is tight and I am only working part time.
These are just some of the daily questions, dillemmas and concerns of the super conscientious JW which I proudly was.
The answers to these questions and a thousand others fill the pages of the Watchtower and Awake magazines.(Notice the Awake is always headlined with a question? As if the average person needed to look outside his own conscience for the answer)
They meddle into the minutia of Christian conscience so much so that the conscientious witness does not even exercise his or her own conscience after awhile because all the answers to everything are in the Watchtower or Awake...right? Or why does the society archive the magazines?
The views and opinions of earnest JWs eventually become enmeshed with Watchtower-speak. The views are all based on a firm belief that the Watchtower's interpretation of the apostles' words and Jesus' words and God's own words and all the Bible's principles and teachings is the only right interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.
Eventually they give up all right to their own lives and opinions to the Watchtower and live in hope of being spared at Armageddon to live and serve a new government on a changed earth for a thousand years during a judgement period.
Then, finally if still alive and serving loyally they are granted life everlasting on earth and continue to serve God faithfully on earth as the angels do in heaven.
I left the Watchtower organization after 35 years. After my baptism in 1972 there was rarely ever that cozy warm feeling that I was safe and secure in Jehovahs love as long as there were meeting requirements and field service requirements or the possiblity of stumbling another person. As a married couple we became very plastic smiling zombies in our neighborhood. Be nice but dont get too close with others in the neighborhood or at work or even with worldly relatives. It was rather a stressful and unhappy life. Pioneering, not going anywhere due to congregation responsibilites. I got pneumonia from going out in field service in the winter cold when I pioneered but I had no medical insurance due to just working as housecleaner at the time. Crazy.
I also had extreme witness relatives. Do you know what an extreme witness is? You may not. They are the ones who compete with everyone to be the best witness. They want to be first in line when called to the paradise. They study their watchtower in front of you. They keep their Awakes and Watchtowers on the coffee table like in the pictures in the Awake magazines. They are always saying "Praise Jah!" (even though they know you already do) They have their "family Bible Study" it seems everytime you want to do something with them. If wordly family members visit they leave them at the house and go to the meetings if they refuse to go to the meetings too, citing "what if Armageddon came during the next two hours? They pioneer as a family and have parts on the platform at the District Assembly and they are elders and elder wives......I was too but they made me feel like I was never good enough. Not slim enough (I must be a secret glutton) or not rich enough (Jehovah isnt blessing me) I dont know.
Anyway, this question of what world events would cause you to run back to the JW religion?
That is not going to happen.
However I am watching world events and would not mind if God wanted to step in and do something. And I no longer am concerned whether I am a survivor of such an event.
I welcome our creator correcting the immense unhappiness on the earth and saving the earth from man's destruction.
Glory to God in the heavens!
Anewme
i am so sorry on the post are you still fighting.. i copied a pasted a list of things the wt wont tell you.i was trying to answer curtains .
but when i answered it the list i have on my computor for newbies went on it.
please forgive me... remember my age ...i am on the way to alzheimers so please pity for me.
Please tell us Mouthy how and why you joined and then left the Watchtower org.
So many new members dont know you and your powerful story.
Anewme
Hi Grace! Hey Grace dont you think it might be time to tell your story again to the newbies?
The great stories get lost in the archives.
Good to hear from you again. Your strength and determination and zeal will help others who are struggling to get free and remain free.
Anewme
i'm sure others have had the same experience, but it's a bit odd to me now as i see how all the business of jw-land and the constant social proddings can keep a person from leaving for quite some time.. if it hadn't been for the inquisition i might not have left.. .
i'm glad they felt my wife and i were important enough to hound, because that helped immensely.. now for the past two years now i've finally gotten back to being the book-consuming, thinking-machine i was in the past.. .
i feel like i woke up, came home and found myself sitting in a chair reading some odd sort of esoterica and the me that was there said:.
Yes, happy for you!
i just heard the sad news that a very loving and kind elder for the congregation that i belonged to for 15 years just died from a heart attack.
he was someone that i had great admiration and deep respect for, even now that i'm out from the jws.
he was my mentor and an inspiration to me as an elder, and in many ways he showed me the contradictions of the wts, he was a breath of fresh air within a cult.
It seems you really want to go in order to pay your respects.
Like someone else said, everything will be alright if you decide to go.
Taking a friend or two is a very wise decision. The Wits will definitely treat you nicely if there are potential converts with you.
You know you will hear the usual gobbledygoop commercial for serving god in these last days so you too can hope to be in a paradise.
Sounds like you were never dfd so many Wits will most likely express joy at seeing you. Some elders on the otherhand may frown dissapprovingly because they know you are fading and will want you to know they know.
No one will spit at you or curse you or slug you.
Sometimes I think it is very healthy to revisit the KH or read an Awake or Watchtower just to remind yourself why you left in the first place.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41282726/ns/world_news-americas/.
naco, ariz. drug smugglers used a catapult to fire contraband over the border between mexico and arizona, authorities said wednesday.. national guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system on friday evening saw several people using the device beside a border fence near the town of naco, and border patrol agents contacted mexican authorities, nbc station kvoa of tucson reported, citing u.s. customs and border protection.. "i have not seen anything like that in my time before as a border patrol agent ... although we are trained to handle any kind of a threat that comes over that border," tucson sector border patrol spokesman david jimarez told reuters.. the mexican government declared war against drug smugglers in 2006, and the resulting conflict has left more than 30,000 people dead.. the crackdown has pushed smugglers into ever-more daring and ingenious attempts to move drugs into the united states.
one technique involves the use of specially designed trucks with ramps built in the back and front.
I think all the illegal drugs are bad for America. What is behind all of this illegal activity is organized crime, an underworld so big and so rich, it has taken over governments and is bent on taking over the world.
