Posts by humbled

19

Why should God answer a prayer to get a job while atrocities happen everyday?

by BU2B in

jw
friends

i had a conversation yesterday with my wife, who seems to think every good thing that happens to her just has to be jehovah, and every bad thing, she just knows is satan.

this irritates me to no end.

i told her yesterday that i have trouble praying to have relatively petty thing resolved in my life, meanwhile around the world, many people are raped mutilated, tortured, and killed everyday.

humbled

This is pretty much what Job said: Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people.

It bothered his idea of what God was "about"?

Nothing got resolved, really. What he saw didn't tell him there was no God but it didn't inform him about how God relates to our actions down here.

I don't pray for touchdowns or parking places. I don't pray for a cure for my cancer.

I do pray for love, the ability to keep from freezing up in the face of futility. I do believe we have to love.

That was in the end the big thing Jesus said. Love each other.

That is a huge thing to do, actually.

It is a really huge thing to do. That is why I pray for help with it.

88

Former Long Time Elder, New Member

by James Jackson in

jw
friends

i have served 20 years as an elder, 5 years as an ms. was on the district committee in 2010, held various positions on the district , circuit, and rbc level.

probably been on more than 100 judicial committees and even an appeals committee.

was the coordinator in our congregation and deleted because adult child was df ( i kicked him out at the time of his wrongdoing, but that wasn't enough for thr brothers).

Every time an elder steps out of the shadows I look over their shoulder (so to speak) and hope to see some of the good men that actually used to be my good kind friends--my own old elders. I hope that they too will come out of the shadows and once again talk to me and all the rest of us who couldn't stand the lies.

I am a "sister", unbelieving mate, lived in the rurals mostly. Have a large family of 7 children. 22 years a JW. I finally had it out with Bethel and the local brothers over the right to read the bible, basically, and the freedom to talk to my fellow witnesses about it.

Of course that didn't fly.

I am still healing up on this board when I can get the internet.

If you have lurked here awhile then you know we bust each other's chops occasionally--just like family, real family. Then sit down and talk some more.

Not like being a JW.

Please tell us more about what changes you see in the Org. Thanks for coming here.

544

FINALLY! Can you prove God exists? If you can I won't ask again!

by punkofnice in

i have seen debates and shizzle about god or not god etc etc.. i was even confronted by an aggressive and trheatening muslim in the street, who was angry that i wanted proof that god existed.

he ranted on a load of old b0110cks about 'hell' and stuff.

finally he yelled at me: 'do you want god to write your name in the sky?

humbled

maybe jesus talks to us all, just the way tec talks to rawe and rawe listens and talks back. They don't see each other but, o well, they are inching ahead.

Some people heard or read that Jesus lived long ago, said some things that struck our hearts. One of which was to do his teachings and see if what he said was so. some of us took up the invite.

Communication is difficult anyway you look at it, EP.

You have a 10 year old? Have you ever spoken to him and had him tell you later that he didn't hear you?

Sometimes they don't hear us.

Also, my father died a couple years back, but things he taught me ring in my ears still.

But more to the point of hearing Jesus.

If I internalize his teachings and stay attuned, can't you grant, even without conceding to the supernatural, that I might hear him direct me during the day?

Rawe and tec are trying to communicate between themselves the difficult concept of "hearing Jesus" when words are NOT spoken.It is too easy to laugh but it is not fair.

Your acid comments are sometimes deserved but maybe you haven't read the careful exchange of thought these two people are developing.

I don't think Jesus is exclusive. Personally, I have trouble hearing him. But I have a 10 year old boys problem. Busy with my own concerns and just not listening.

544

FINALLY! Can you prove God exists? If you can I won't ask again!

by punkofnice in

i have seen debates and shizzle about god or not god etc etc.. i was even confronted by an aggressive and trheatening muslim in the street, who was angry that i wanted proof that god existed.

he ranted on a load of old b0110cks about 'hell' and stuff.

finally he yelled at me: 'do you want god to write your name in the sky?

humbled

I, too, am watching. I enjoy the manner of dialogue.

Thanks, you two.

13

Very Upset- Would Like Feedback

by Band on the Run in

i just returned from a remarkable day in nyc.

it will be one of the key days of my life.

it was everything i wanted to hear.

humbled

If you HAD been in rags and Had been begging all the worst for her response.

No excuse for her treatment of you. So very unkind.

Glad you let the Bishop know. He should know. He should tell that woman who was so cruel that she isn't showing the face of Jesus at all.

30

Do you believe Jehovah enjoys watching people suffer and why would you want to worship him?

by booker-t in

jw
friends

i have to admit i never really thought about this question until one of my classmates challenged me with this very question.

she made an excellant point and i have to admit i am asking myself the same question does jehovah enjoy watching people suffer.

the case she brought up was the flood story.

humbled

It depends on what book of the OT you are reading--

I hear that it was edited.If so the guy did a lousy job.

3

Since when are the Watchtowers implications on certain passages to be automatically considered accurate & true when the same technique is used by the Catholics?

by I_love_Jeff in

jw
friends

1) the so-called perfect creation of adam & eve:.

since when is "very good" equivalent to the word "perfect"?.

"there was no defect at all, just as there is no defect in anything that god does.

humbled

If we could even see the rough early texts of the oldest stories of the bible, if we could view the lack of punctuation and capital letters and the problem of sorting out past, present, future verb use and the problem of pronouns and grammar, then we would REALLY ask how dare anyone declare they know the "truth" about any of the old writings that launch the Hebrew Scriptures.

It is outrageous that the WT told us the stuff they did. They slicked up their pictures of the Patriarchs and acted like the text was indisputably clear if you were Anointed.

Rotten stuff, theology.

57

The Elders want to meet with me ... (Judicial Meeting)

by Oubliette in

the elders want to meet with me.

at least that's what they keep telling me, and they've been saying it for more than a month and a half now.

just so you're clear: this is a judicial committee.

humbled

Surely they will let you in again. How can they not?

40

Who on here, are close to 60

by Quarterback in

jw
friends

wow, where does the time go?

i'm scared of reaching this number, and yet i'm so close.. what is your health secrets?

what do you do for stress releif?

humbled

61 next month. yes on sex--and my husband is a lot older than that.

544

FINALLY! Can you prove God exists? If you can I won't ask again!

by punkofnice in

i have seen debates and shizzle about god or not god etc etc.. i was even confronted by an aggressive and trheatening muslim in the street, who was angry that i wanted proof that god existed.

he ranted on a load of old b0110cks about 'hell' and stuff.

finally he yelled at me: 'do you want god to write your name in the sky?

humbled

The WTS stole our innocence and filled us with a toxic theology.

My whole being is sickened by the battle to regain the simple gratitude felt when, years ago, I met the Goodness that is often called God. God. That word is too loaded with the burdens of centuries of man-made theologies to be of any use some times. I am not comfortable with that word any more than i am with the word Jehovah. WT theology .

So it may seemed a strange anti-dote to recover my faith in that simple Goodness that I would read the writings of yet another theologian.

In reading James Cone, who rejected the prevailing white European theologies in favor of a Black Liberation theology, I was encouraged not to cramp my experience to conform to someone else's story. I do not have to fit my experience with the Good one Jesus spoke of into a church that does not love me and doesn't try to understand me.

I am not saying that picking this theology or that one holds the key to proof of God--Just saying that sometimes we are kicking against ideas of God that are formed to fill the agendas of certain men instead of for ALL PEOPLE. We even have to accept that we may have an experience of ,well, God and still not know much about him/her.

Indoctrination is a heavy burden. I do know Jesus takes that burden off. I just have to stop putting it back on.

I tried to add to the discussion and stay on topic. Thanks for the thread. It helps me think.

Maeve