Hi Buffman,
Welcome!! How long you been out?
What's your story?
gold_morning
JoinedPosts by gold_morning
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12
NOT placing BOOKS? Spiritually weak!
by Alligator Wisdom ina few months back we had the usual elders/ms meeting with the circuit overseer during his visit.
there was a point that the co had emphasized and it brought me sick to my stomach anyone didn't put the effort to make such placements, that these publishers were in need of spiritual help and that we (elders/ms) should help such ones to do so.
talk about the pressure!
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gold_morning
Hi Aligator
Most people of different religions, especially witnesses, have a difficult time seperating God from religion. Chatholics believe they must be baptised Chatholic to go to heaven. Baptists believe they must be baptist, mormans believe they must be mormans. We were no different. We felt we must be baptised as one of Jehovah's Witnesses to be saved. ; Look at where the bible says we must turn to be saved. It was such a big shocker to me after all the years I spent pioneering
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Acts 4:12....."Salvation is found in NO ONE ELSE, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."Here it shows our salvation comes from Jesus. It does not say salvation is found from ; religion to be saved (or found from jehovah's witnesses)... but found in NO ONE ELSE but Jesus.
1John 5:12.."He who HAS the Son, HAS life..."Again, it does not point to a religion or code of ethics from a group of men to be saved, but merely the Son, Jesus.
Look what it says in Ephsians 2:4-8; ...."But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made US ALIVE with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.........IT IS BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED.....(verse 8)..."For it is by grace you have been saved, IT IS A GIFT FROM GOD..NOT BY WORKSso that no none can boast."
So we are made alive with Chirst because it is a GIFT from God. A present. See, we don't have to do anything for a present. IT is a gift. To make that clear he said that it is NOT our works that save us. All those countless hours in the door to door, and all those meetings we could not miss does not save us!! ALL THOSE BOOK PLACEMENTS CANNOTearn our salvation. It is a gift because of the great love of God. It is knowing Jesus personally. It is accepting that it was He who died for us so that we could be righteous before God to receive the gift he gave us....namely everlasting life. Remember that scripture we just read.... He who has the son has life.
Titus 3:5 backs this up. ; It says...."He saved us, NOT BECAUSE OF righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy."
There is no acts we can do religiously that can save us. Religion makes us "self-righteous" Only being saved thru Jesus makes us righteous before God. We can't give oursleves life..... a religion cannot give us this gift. It takes away from Jesus. When he died, Jesus said..."It is finished!! He bought us life forever. Who does the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society think they are? They think they can grant us life thru them and take it away thru disfellowshiping. They are taking the place of Chirst.How about Romans 3:22..."This righteousness from God comes through fiath in Jesus Christ to ALL who believe."
Notice again that we become righteous from faith in Jesus and that it is open to ALL who believe in Him. Not a select few from a particular religion. But ALL!! It is there for Jew and Gentile. Not just Jew and Jehovah's witnesses.
Does knowledge get us life? Not according to the bible. Jesus himself says in John 5:39..."You diligently study the scriptures (like we did as witnesses) because you think by means of them you posses eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me.Yet you refuse to COME TO ME TO HAVE LIFE.".......So there goes all those books that are published to give us 'THEIR' KNOWLEDGE to gain everlasting life.So it is not knowledge that saves us either. There is nothing wrong with knowledge, but that is not where our salvation lies. We must come to Jesus to have life. It is the love of God and knowing him that saves us. A few verses down in 41 Jesus says "I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts."
The key to salvation is knowing Jesus and having a good heart, just like Jesus did. As witnesses we knew "all about Jesus", but never knew him personally. You can know all about President Bush. You can know what school he went to, his ;grades, who he dated, what year he married, how many children he had, where he lived, when he quit drinking, about his political life and his presidency. But can you say you personally know him? Have you talked to him? Are you a friend of his? Do you talk on the phone? No. So you know all about him, but don't know him personally. That is how it is with God and being a witnesses.
<P>I remember fearing Jehovah. He was this God exacting exculsive devotion that I just could not measure up to. No matter how many works I did, no matter how many years I pioneered. I never knew if I would survive armegeddon. My salvation was not assured. Would I survive Armegeddon??..lurked on my mind. Now I know that he is a God of great love, mercy, kindness and patience.
So, I am sorry that this is so long. I have only touched the tip of the iceburg.
I think God is working in you aligator!!!! I really do.<IMG class=smilie src=" "></P>
<P>much agape love ; ; gold morning -
21
Not Fair
by myself inno, life isnt fair.
there are no answers.
there are unwanted babies being aborted, or given up for adoption while at the same time there are families who are unable to have children of their own.
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gold_morning
(((((myself)))))),
I am sorry to hear about you mother. I remember my father's death a few years ago and the pain is still fresh.
Have you heard of essex tea? Do a search on it. I was amazed at the clinical trials on this tea. They had a certain number of people dying of cancers and as a last resort they used the tea. I remember reading there was like 40 people dying of bladder cancer and were about to have their bladders removed. They were given the essex tea and the vast majority of them were cured of the cancer.
They used it on aids patients that had no hope and many of them had a hudge turn around. I cannot remember all the cancers that the study contained. It was not a guru study, but a real medical study. The tea tastes a little bitter, like burdock root. I really recommend reading up on this tea. It can be ordered thru most health food stores..like GNC.
Try to stay positive. I do not know if you are a spiritual person. Don't blame God. Right now this world belongs to satan. He is the god here. Jesus is not ruling here yet. Remember when satan was tempting Jesus and he offered him the world if he would do an act of worship to him? He was able to offer it because it was his to give. Satan has us just where he wants us. Blaming God for the things that he has caused to God's creation.
We don't die, myself!! John 8:51..."Who ever keeps my word will NEVER see death." (this is Jesus words)
John 11:26...."whoever lives and believes in me will NEVER die."
1John 5:12..."He who HAS the son HAS life....." (notice "has" present tense)
2 Corinthians 5:8...."I say, we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord"
Philippians 1:23....."I desire to depart and be with Christ."
Acts 7:59..."Stephan prayed."Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Matthew 10:28.." Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but CANNOT KILL THE SOUL."
The soul IS seperate...1 Thess 5:23 says spirit, soul and body. All distint. There is many more scriptures... too numerous to wirte here.
It was the most marvelous thing to learn that death does not really exist. The spirit goes on living in a different form more appropriate to what we will need.
If you need to talk, myself, feel free to e-mail me.
lots of agape love gold_morning
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9
Keeping an open mind about different religions
by Elsewhere in.
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sometimes i find myself struggling to keep an open mind about different religions... this one is really pushing it for me..
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gold_morning
Actually, Satan loves many of the religions out there because it takes the focus off of Jesus and puts it onto men.
He is the great deceiver. He uses just enough truth to make something wong look right.
If a religion is not teaching the REAL Jesus .. Meaning salvation comes only thru Him, not their religion......keep looking!!
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Christmas gift ideas??? Help???
by Mulan ini have two teenage grand daughters, 14 and 17. they are both very beautiful (not just saying that) and the younger one is extremely popular in school, and has dark hair and blue eyes.
the older one is tall, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and works at an espresso stand, and is a junior in high school.
both are very trendy girls.
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gold_morning
How about the "Left Behind " series of books and the matching video tapes.
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30
"Are you ready to Die?"
by breeze in.
i don't know about the rest of you but i spent the better part of my life believing that i would never die!
i think i have dealt with it....but it still almost seems unnatural.... we are all going to die???
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gold_morning
As a JW I feared death terribly. I lived on the hope that armegeddon would come and that I would make it before I got old and had to die. I use to lie awake at night and picture what it would be like to know nothing at all. I mean totally nothing. Dumb huh? I mean, nothing is nothing so how could I wonder what it would be like.
Now I have come to know that for those that belong to Chirst there is no death ....period!! What a relief. I no longer fear death.
1John 5:11 says that "He who has the son HAS LIFE." It does not say will have life later... but has life (present tense)
Jesus said in John 8:51 that if we follow his word we will NEVER SEE DEATH.
The apostle Paul said in 2Cor 5:8 that he would rather be away from his body and at home with the Lord.
Paul said in Philippians 3:20 that our citizenship is in heaven and in Acts 7:59 when Stephen was being stoned to death he said to Jesus before he died.." Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
I mean, where was my head when I was a witness? These scriptures were there all along. Funny what truth you really see when you read the bible without the watchtower glasses on.
agape love gold_morning
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Daughter in Pain
by Undecided inmy daughter just called and is in bad pain.
she had an operation to try and stop it, but the doctor couldn't see any reason for it, other than stress.
she hurts in the lower section of the abdomen and rectum.
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gold_morning
Undecided,
When my daughter was in high school she had numerous episodes of sever pain in the lower adoman. We thought kidney stones or apenixs. It was neither. There was a few emergency room visits and they could never find anything.
I do not know her age, but my daughters OB found the problem. They found she had an adhesion. A small section of her intestines had an adhesion to her stomach wall. They did a laporoscopy and seperated it and then she was fine.
agape love gold morning. excuse my spelling
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Ozzie's Weekend Poll #26
by ozziepost ini read the news and i feel like i need some "light relief".
how's your weekend going?
mrs ozzie and i are just sitting down with some very exotic espresso coffee (you what that means, mulan!
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gold_morning
MMMMMM would I love a cup of that espresso!!!!!... but alas, I have to settle for a cup of tea.
Can I vote too? I would say... murder, apostasy, and then adultry.
Though you were treated the same no matter which offense was committed.
Gold
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Have you joined another religion?
by freedom96 ini don't think i will never join another organized religion.
that being said however, i have enjoyed going on occasion to non-denominational churches, watching the band play music, and the speaker.
if you did or would attend another church regularly, which one would you go to and why?
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gold_morning
Hi,
Nice to meet you. I understand what you are feeling. I was lost for 16 years. I wanted a relationship with God, but thought I needed a religion to do so. I was so conditioned to think that I had to "Belong"!!
I spent over 3 years searching and like some others here I really discovered that salvation is all about believing and loving Jesus. I did become born again in October 1999. I have never known such peace and happiness as a witness. I attend a non-denominational chuch too. I go to a Calvery Chapel. They are all over the US.
Don't give up. As ex witnesses we are so conditioned to think that there is only one true religion. There is no religion that will save you. No works, deeds or anything else. Just the acceptance of Jesus and being his best friend. I can't tell you enough to just read the book of John. Read it like a real good book. Enjoy it. Get to know the main character. I was astounded when I did that.
much agape love gold morning
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Can we talk about something deep?
by kenpodragon inthe other night my mom called me to just talk.
my mother is a jehovah's witness still, so it is not unusual for that to be obvious in the conversation.
now i love my mom very much, and enjoy any time i can spend talking to her.
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gold_morning
Ken,
I hear you, but sometimes we don't hear them. What I mean to say is that they are hurt as much as we are. They are just so well trained not to show it. They are as lost to converstional topics as we are as the things that revolve around their lives no longer touch ours.
What your mom really needs is for you to make sure she knows that despite it all, you really do love her. That is what her heart needs.
Sometimes we consider those that were our family and friends our enemies now, when really that definition belongs to the society not them. They are as much victims as we once were.
just a thought.
agape love gold morning