I'm glad you really enjoyed this first experience at a church service. I too was nervous upon accepting an iniatial invitation to attend a Sunday service by a friend/co-worker. My fear was soon replaced by a feeling of being misled, misinformed and hurt as I observed before me something totally different than what I thought I would see. Those feelings were soon replaced with joy and appreciation for God. I was crying midway through the service to the end. Beautiful praise music song by people who did not need a song book as they sang from their hearts and knew the words by heart. There must have been a half dozen prayers offered though out the service. The fellowship was more loving than anything I'd know for the most part in my 35 plus years with the JW's. For the first time it felt like I was really worshipping and praising God. It's very exciting to read of your venture. I hope you enjoy many more moving and enlightning services that praise our Heavenly Father and His Son.
silversurfer1
JoinedPosts by silversurfer1
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New Experience: I went to a Christmas service at a church Monday night....
by WingCommander init was my wife's sister's church, a lutheran church.
i wanted to see my neice's sing in the choir and also just to take in the whole experience.
i have been married for 4 years (to non-jw woman) and have only participated in christmas activities breifly.
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Were you ever afraid of demons?
by Regretful_J inhello everyone, my story is a unique one i suppose but here it goes.,, ever since i was a little boy whenever i would voice my objections about this religion my parents would tell me im making satan happy and that i'm inviting demons into are house by saying and thinking things like this.
my parents are such religious fanatics that it seems like nothing i do can ever be good enough for them.
to this day they always claim that they come down hard on me like this because "they're trying to protect me".
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silversurfer1
during childhood I was afraid of demons living in my families basement, thought Satan lived just a few inches under the soils surface, seeing churches at night freaked me out, didn't want to sleep alone, clowns and court jester scared the s*#t out of me. As an adult I was concerned about the source of things I purchased or was given to me, was afraid to watch movies with ghost/demons. Heard crazy stories from my youth up about demons, smurfs, the local anoited brothers battles with possesed people and or some of their belongings. If anything, I think demons are attracted to JW's and not because they have the "truth"
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silversurfer1
I once had a conversation with a CO in inner city Baltimore about judical committes. He said most elders in most congs really didn't qualify to serve on these committees for various reason, such as a lack of education, not truly caring for the friends and spending no time in preparation before meeting with the indidvidual. I agreed and added that most elders seem to want to be on JC's just to be in the know about peoples personal business and not to really help. He said he had suggested to the Society that select brothers be formed into a pool of brothers that the CO could draw from to form JC's whenever needed. But he also realised that these few sincere brothers would quickly burn out. After exiting this group I later came to understand this arrangement was wrong anyway. No wonder he wanted to tinker with it. The whole things wrong.
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Dating/Witnessing to a Lapsed Jehovah's Witness
by Dogpatch ini thought this response was excellent from an anon friend who answered this question for me, since we get it all the time!
randy .
dating/witnessing to a lapsed jehovah's witnessletter from a person inquiring about dating a jehovah's witness:.
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silversurfer1
It was an awesome reply for this young man. He has a very difficult challenge before him because of his feelings for this girl. Your anom friend gave him the ammo he needed to help him defend his life & faith before he gets completely sucked in. In my years in this group I saw this scenario played out far to many times. The shame is that these young girls and women truly think they are doing whats best for them and their boyfriends. I hope this young can break free from the clutches of this cult.
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Jehovah's Witnesses turned Christian....Post Here
by R.F. ini would like those of you former jws turned christian to post here.
specific denominations can be mentioned.
i'd just like to get an idea of how many of you there are.
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silversurfer1
Southern Baptist. Baptized 2005 after being baptized as a JW in 1975.
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Notes: Friday District Convention - Follow the Anointed Who Follow Christ
by truthseeker intoday was the first day of three for this year's "follow the christ" district convention.. for the first time in as many years as i can go back, the theme of this program was jesus christ.. most of the program was ok. the talks considered jesus, his life and his works.
there was nothing about the talks that i considered insulting or controlling.. could this be it?
could the society really be going jesus-centric?.
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silversurfer1
MCSEMIKE: My ex-wife and two sons go to some small college arena up in Philly now. How people with the only true religion and Jehovah looking out for them ended up in such brutal conditions for a D.C. as late as 2001 is beyond me. Once in the early 90's my family was on the Friday morning program. The turf was so hot that our feet felt like they where on fire and they had to constantly hose down the area with water to deal with the heat. I was a child in the mid sixties when my parents took me to NY for those 7 day conventions. I olny remember long lines for food and using the bathroom. Sorry to here about your family ordeal. My two son's still speak to me often. Noth are baptized and I wonder when the pressure will start from their elders to cut off comunications with me. What a destructive organization, huh?
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Notes: Friday District Convention - Follow the Anointed Who Follow Christ
by truthseeker intoday was the first day of three for this year's "follow the christ" district convention.. for the first time in as many years as i can go back, the theme of this program was jesus christ.. most of the program was ok. the talks considered jesus, his life and his works.
there was nothing about the talks that i considered insulting or controlling.. could this be it?
could the society really be going jesus-centric?.
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silversurfer1
Just like MCSEMIKE said ANIRON, they're all "HYPOCRITES". Very few who claimed to be of the "anointed" that I knew avoided being laughed at and flat out disbeleived by many. Sometimes the ridicule seem to be born of jealousy. There was this one black brother from Bethel (his name might have been Cash) who claimed to be of the anointed and I was told that most of the GB tolerated him and thought he was crazy. But he was very popular with the inner city brothers.
MCSEMIKE: I used to go to the Philly conventions for years. The only thing I looked forward to was Smittys on South Street and ChinaTown. We left the D.C. one day because my oldest son (about 4 at the time) passed out and was unresponsive from our having to sit in the sun. We left mid morning to give him the attentioned he needed. From that point on we sat in the corridors (which was a BIG NO NO) to avoid the sun and heat. Didn't learn anything sitting in the sun and didn't learn anything sitting in the corridors, OH except the fact that this was a really stupid and uncaring way for the FDS to be giving us our precious proper food at the right time.
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REPOST: For those without Mothers
by Lady Lee inmothers day can bring up many issues for some of us.
for some their mothers have passed away and the opportunity to say i love you in person is forever lost.
for others our mothers are lost to the borg.
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silversurfer1
I called my mom to wished her a "happy mothers day" even though I knew there would be at least some objection to me doing so. We talk every week, she knows how I feel about her, so she should expect me to call and talk to her on this special day. My moms retort was that every day should be special for mom and that "Mothers Day" was for the greedy comercial people to take advantage of people. I lovingly / kindly pointed out to her that married people should feel special every day too, but that doesn't stop JW's from celebrating their wedding anniversaries once a year and that the commercial world profits from JW's getting married / celebrating wedding anniversaries. Are JW's going to stop doing either of these to things because of that? NOT!!!! What others do should should not distract from the "Day" what so ever. So my mom piped down, got off her JW high horse and allowed me to tell her all the good things I heard about mothers preached in my church over the weekend and to personally tell her why I thought she was so special to me. So over all it went great!
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silversurfer1
We had one elder who liked to use foul language with the sisters and sometimes with brothers. He told one sister, "shut up you one tiddy b***h." Or in front of another couple, besides my wife, his wife and I at dinner at his home proceeded to explain to us in grafic detail where the term "s**t eating grin" came from.
Or another elder who approved of his 70 year old plus wife breast feeding kids that she baby sitted. And when he was on jc's he loved to get all the sordid details on sisters/sex, so he could share the stories with his wife.
Or the many hypocrites who would tell you to get out in field service when in many instances more than half the elders I ever served with never averaged any more than 3 - 5 hours a month in service themselves.
Or this one elder who seemed to be obsessed with sex. In one instruction talk he describe how girls loved to get aroused by riding horses or bikes, "getting that friction", as he called it. Or how boys could get a "stiffening of the penis". This guy and his wife where totally whacked out.
I knew some really nice elders too. But the bad ones caused way more harm than the good ones could ever overcome.
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Am going to be reinstated
by Caine inhello true believers.
had jc meeting.
will be reinstated next meeting.
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silversurfer1
I hope you gain what you think you will gain by going back. I'm not trying to be pessimistic but I don't think you will. Real happiness and joy comes from something deeper than the approval of family and friends caught in the same trap as you. Will your depression be allieviated by wearing yourself out in their approved works? The "Law" was a nice system to live under for worship too, huh!? If there is such a thing as Christian and or spiritual freedom and you've found it, don't give it away to a person or group of persons, i.e. the JW's. That freedom along with your mental well being is to precious. Perhaps you could talk to a mental health doctor about your feelings/thoughts in this matter before totally commiting again. You're worth this effort. I wish you well!