Yes, I've been re-reading the gospels and see the sheer simplicity of the message. The two basic commands of loving God and neighbour. All the other stuff is details.
I must say though that it's difficult to read the Bible without the wt filter interfering. As a result, I've taken a break from all the reading. My brain needs time to heal itself before I can see anything objectively.
tall penguin
tall penguin
JoinedPosts by tall penguin
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36
Bible reading without the WT filter
by watch the tower inyou know even though i think the wt doctrine is mostly all garbage now, i still do believe that the bible is inspired from our creator.
the flaw in my understanding of it in the past was because i was interpreting it through the filter of the wts.
recently i have started clean slate and read the bible without the wt filter (easier said than done, your mind has a way of reverting back to what was programmed in there).
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tall penguin
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34
Street work
by pratt1 in.
maybe this only happens in urban neighborhoods but when i was growing up, many dubs engaged in street work, basically offering the magazines to people on the street as they walked to a destination.. usually it was an area with a lot of foot traffic at a time when many people would travel the area.. did you or people in your congo engage in this and were there any funny stories relating to this practice?
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tall penguin
Street work was my favourite, although it's now called "approach work." I found it the least stressful because you could take your time, look at the shops you passed (did a lot of shoe shopping that way) and only talk when you felt comfortable. I placed a lot of mags this way and actually many of my congregation's bible studies got started during street work. We had a very busy main street to work and on Saturday mornings there would be witnesses fighting to work it so eventually it had to be assigned to a different service group each week.
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Witnesses.....will they REALLY be any different in the New System?
by gumby inin talking to a fellow ex-dub buddy of mine the other day, it occured to me that in many ways....witnesses could be living the life they expect to live in the new system.......but they don't.. in the publications we see picture after picture of smiling brothers helping each other frame each others new houses ....for free.
we also never see in the publications poor african people walking through aligator/ piranna infested swamps to get to a kingdom hall either in the new system.. .
the fact is......brothers hire brothers in this system to help build their new homes and are taught not to expect free labor, but to pay them as you would the next guy.. with regards to the poor africans.....and others...., the jehovahs witness organisation has enough money to see that fellow believers in poorer countries should not go hungry or be without a meeting place to worship in.
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tall penguin
I know an elder whose wife left him and later divorced him. She's still a jw. I would ask him how he thought things were going to take place in the new system, since they don't have a "scriptural" divorce. He said, "Jehovah's going to bring the two of us together and say to her, 'Here is your husband.' And we'll have to make it work." Sounds like fun!
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Words at the right moment.
by bebu inyesterday one of my sons had a seizure while getting ready for school in the morning.
this is the second time such a thing has taken place, the first time was his being on the way to school a couple of weeks ago--but due to circumstances it was suspected to be related to a possible heart problem, and not a seizure after all.. when my other son came into our room to let us know something crazy was going on, my husband raced upstairs and realized it was a grand mal.
he helped clear the area, and held my son's head in his arms.
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tall penguin
Beautiful.
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Words at the right moment.
by bebu inyesterday one of my sons had a seizure while getting ready for school in the morning.
this is the second time such a thing has taken place, the first time was his being on the way to school a couple of weeks ago--but due to circumstances it was suspected to be related to a possible heart problem, and not a seizure after all.. when my other son came into our room to let us know something crazy was going on, my husband raced upstairs and realized it was a grand mal.
he helped clear the area, and held my son's head in his arms.
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tall penguin
Beautiful.
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A couple of questions for those who have been reinstated
by Lady Lee in.
i have a couple of questions for anyone who has been reinstated.. what kinds of questions did they ask you?.
if they decided to reinstate you were you told not to discuss why you were dfed, especially if another jw was involved?
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tall penguin
My story sounds similar to Dave's. While a dub, I'd been disfellowshipped for a year and a half. I had applied a few times during that time period. My situation was a bit different in that I was waiting on a divorce, so the first time I applied, the questions were about that issue. I was questionned on the timeline of events and how it seemed that I'd arranged everything to "put away" my husband, get a divorce and get reinstated all in 6 months. No such plan. I was mortified. My reinstatement request was denied.
At the next meeting, they asked me if I was "sorry" for what I'd done. They asked me why I thought I'd been disfellowshipped. They asked me if they thought Jehovah had forgiven me. They asked me what I would advise someone who was in the same situation I was in originally.
I also told them at this meeting that I'd been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress due to the jc process and the way I'd been treated. They shared the scripture about 'discipline yielding peacable fruits' and asked "If you were truly repentant and humbled by the discipline you've received, you wouldn't be having these emotional issues, now would you?" Arghhhh!!!
In the end, I got reinstated, a year and a half later mind you. I'm still not sure why as at every reinstatment meeting they continued to treat me like dirt. It sure didn't seem like they wanted me back.
And no, they didn't say I couldn't talk to others about why I'd been df'd.
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Did you smile and love bomb as a JW?
by greendawn inwhile jws can you recall having that artificial smile and sweet, smooth way of talking at the doors?
also did you participate in the deceitful love bombing of newly interested persons in your kingdom hall?
it was all part of the artificial charm meant to entice unsuspecting victims into the wts nets.
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tall penguin
I didn't do the love bombing thing. I was actually too suspicious and judgemental for that. I would wait for a while to see if the newbie was really interested in being a jw. They'd have to come to a few months of meetings before I'd give them much attention, unless they were my own study of course. A strange kind of paranoia really. I guess I was a theocratic snob.
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Nut Jobs...aren't we all?
by wanderlustguy in.
ummm some of us worse than others.... i just felt like saying it for some reason, lets see where this goes, if anywhere.. i've got to go now, time to converse with my lord the flying spaghetti monster, peace be with you all.. the fateful and de sweet slave
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tall penguin
I'm feeing like a bit of a nut job too these days. The difference now is I know why.
:) tall penguin -
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Bachelorette parties...
by Country Girl ini was wondering, besides a stripper, what games can be played at bachelorette parties?
my best friend is getting married in a few weeks, and i am the hostess of the bachelorette party.
we're not going out, so i was wondering what kinds of games we could play?
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tall penguin
http://www.party411.com/theme100.html
Sorry the link isn't live. You'll have to cut and paste. I'm on a mac.
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My First "Birthday" party!
by tall penguin inmy former colleagues at the clinic i used to work at took me out for lunch today.
what i didn't know was that they'd arranged a "birthday" party for me.
although my birthday isn't until june they wanted to celebrate the 25 birthdays i've missed while a jw.
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tall penguin
My former colleagues at the clinic I used to work at took me out for lunch today. What I didn't know was that they'd arranged a "birthday" party for me. Although my birthday isn't until June they wanted to celebrate the 25 birthdays I've missed while a jw. So they had a bunch of gifts for me.
Some were gifts I would've gotten as a child--plastic barnyard animals, a puzzle and a sparkly magic wand. Others were more adult like bubble bath and jewellery. And they even decided to get me ready for my first Halloween in 25 years by buying me some really neat spider web stockings and a headband with bobbly bats and flashing lights. I actually had to wear the headband through lunch. Quite funny really.
After the meal, they made me close my eyes and when I opened them, there on my plate was a muffin with two candles. They sang me "Happy Unbirthday" and I made a wish and blew out the candles. Something I haven't done since I was 5. I was in tears and overwhelmed by their love and kindness. I'm still not used to "worldly" people being nice and normal. But I'm getting used to it.
:) tall penguin