not a captive

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Posts by not a captive

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  22

  A sister from an old congregation wants to talk to me tomorrow....

  by not a captive in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it is peculiar.

  she called the woman i work for to set up a visit after noon tomorrow to talk to me.. i don't know this sister very well.

  she is from a congregation i attended about six years ago.

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  not a captive

  Dear dgp, It is odd that the sister didn't talk to me. P.S. I'm getting old, but I'm still a "she". Someday I'll freshen up my avatar's poofy pink hair and fix her make-up.

  I'm hitting the sack now. I thought a while before posting this. I gather that some who stop in at JWN go on after a while. I am so thankful that there is such a caring community of people to share this stuff with. I love that we can kick ideas around ---------but there is nobody trying to crush you on this board. I am so glad. Thanks for being there. Thanks.

  I'll check in tomorrow. And I have re-read each post and will take care. Maeve
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  22

  A sister from an old congregation wants to talk to me tomorrow....

  by not a captive in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  it is peculiar.

  she called the woman i work for to set up a visit after noon tomorrow to talk to me.. i don't know this sister very well.

  she is from a congregation i attended about six years ago.

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  not a captive

  It is peculiar. She called the woman I work for to set up a visit after noon tomorrow to talk to me.

  I don't know this sister very well. She is from a congregation I attended about six years ago. This sister has known the woman I work for(not a JW) for several years. A month ago she had stopped to visit the family while I was working there. She asked how I was doing. I looked her straight in the eye and told her I was doing great. I wasn't attending meetings and I had DA'd myself. She was shocked and assumed I could have no sound reasons for leaving.

  In fairness, I let the sister know that the elders had told me not to discuss the matter-- that I had been gagged as long as I was a Witness. But I told her I wasn't bound anymore and would be glad to answer any questions she had---if she really wanted me to answer them.She kind of played at guessing if I had wanted to celebrate holidays, etc. I told her that in the end I had to choose between loyalty to God or the Organization. She didn't talk to me the rest of the visit.

  What she intends to do tomorrow is beyond me. The woman I work for said she didn't know what to say to this sister except "Come on and just play it by ear, she'll be working tomorrow."

  I just thought those who have concern for family and friends who are still "in" might be interested in what can possibly transpire.

  I'm disassociated and she is "overstepping the elders" isn't she? Not that I care! Isn't this strange?
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  43

  2010 - NO District Convention For Me - WoooHoooo! Anybody Else?

  by mentallyfree31 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have attended district conventions since i was a little kid every year.

  now that i have woken up from the wt nightmare, this will be my first year to miss a district convention!

  and it feels so liberating!

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  not a captive

  This is my first anniversary of not going to Convention.
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  140

  I HAVE JUST BEEN APPOINTED AS A MINISTERIAL SERVANT.

  by african GB Member in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  after being reinstated in 2008, i was finally appointed ms last night.. i am so excited now that i have a certain measure of 'power'.. ex-ms's/elders, what types of challenges come with this priviledge?.

  what will be expected from me?.

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  not a captive

  It's army talk for "Kitchen Police" (meaning you peel potatoes for an army)---or has that changed since I was a kid?
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  23

  So, Who Really DOES Write the WT? ( A LONG But Worthy Post)

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  " 1 john 2:26-28. .

  "when the time comes to clarify a spiritual matter in our day, holy spirit helps responsible representatives of "the faithful and discreet slave" at world headquarters to discern deep truths that were not previously understood.

  nor does it say, "helps the governing body.

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  not a captive

  Shelby,

  Thank you for putting this out there. Their faith program makes me retch.

  I wrote the Branch at this exact time last year, May 10, 2009, to settle something the elders could not. I had stopped going to meetings after the 2009 Memorial pending a resolution of the matter because the elders had forbidden me to talk to any other JWs on the topic which had to do with my conscientious rejection of an important and recurring error in the literature.

  August 31, 2009 was the date of the Branch response. I went to the elders to discuss it a month later. I pointed out that I had sent a letter to the Branch and signed it with my name. My life as a Witnesswas at stake. In return I received a fat letter signed by whom? Not the Faithful Slave. But who were they? It was signed:

  Your brothers in Jehovah's service, Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

  
  The response had been farmed out to other "sheep"like myself, something I had not wanted. Years previous to this, I had mentioned my thoughts to an older JW. Her son worked in the writing department. She in turn in a phone conversation with him mentioned my scripture investigation to him and she relayed his response: "Has she checked to see what the literature says?" That was when I knew I was alone. He was on the writing committee and all he would do was endorse old news; recycle/reuse. The writing committee would only run anything I sent them through the filter of old writings without giving it a thought or a prayer. It wasn't their place, was it?

  I told the the elders that I gave my name, but a corporation had answered me.

  I was told that I had better watch out, I was on thin ice.

  The entire experience thoroughly opened my eyes, little by little. I am out now and, well, the light does get brighter the further away I get from the Organization.

  Again, thanks for the post. Maeve
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  42

  Sister in my Congregation claims Jehovah always answers her prayers....including her new skirt and shoes for $20 bucks???

  by Witness 007 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  to show you how dumb and shallow my congregation is a one of our "deeper" sisters claimed in field services that "jehovah answers all my prayers...like last week i wanted a new skirt and shoes for field service but only had $20 dollars....and would you believe i found them!!!

  now i for one though well, why didn't you pray or the oil pipe in the mexican gulf to dry up...or food for the poor in haiti.

  other pioneers tell of vegetables falling off trucks just when they had nothing for dinner???

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  not a captive

  Maybe he didn't answer her prayer, really. She had to pay for them after all.
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  159

  Getting into Arguments with JW's...

  by ForbiddenFruit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm trying to fade away, but i sometimes find myself in discussions or arguments with jw family/friends/white haired virgin elders.

  now, i usually have them beat on things but i'm not very experienced, so i was thinking if you guys could help me put together a list of completely unanswerable questions to pose to my jw friends/family/elders so they can stop bugging me.

  if i keep asking them questions they simply cannot answer, then they might leave them alone.

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  not a captive

  In looking at the difference between "sacrifice" and "burnt offering" and why Jesus' Father would not have commanded Abraham to do both:

  Been thinking... the difficulty of communicating a thought from one human to another (marriage is like that too) is so much evident in our discussion. Don't you see how God would have over-run Abraham's thought processes to instil His meaning--that would have been violating the essences of what listening is. God had to present a dilemna to Abraham that Jesus spoke of later:" 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, And the God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead but of the living." Matt. 22:32

  Just a thought . Not done thinking. Gotta go to work now.

  Maeve
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  52

  Was it EX JW literature / WT's or the BIBLE which woke you up? Post scriptures if any....

  by EndofMysteries in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i considered myself immune to ex jw stuff.

  no amount of old watchtowers or anything would change me.

  it was seeing treatment of others by elders and the bible itself, which woke me.

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  not a captive

  I never read any ex-JW literature before I sent in my letter of DA.

  I was convinced that God was a real being through an experience similar to the one that Abraham experienced when he was tested. That experience and reading the Bible made me feel primarily responsible to God not the FDS. Over the years the way the Organization undermined Jesus and Jehovah as our leaders made me look again at the significance of Genesis 22. Of the many things that are misrepresented in this account one that began to resonate with me is the ignorance that Abraham had of any "doctrine". He didn't rely on a committee to help him "take in knowledge of God". Rather he got to "know God" in a more direct way. Never mediated by anyone else.

  The scriptures finally separated me from the Organization. The Branch would not tolerate an alternate understanding of their version of Jehovah's test of Abraham.They say that God called for a bloody sacrifice. I read that God asked for a new thing when he asked for Isaac as a burnt offering. I believe that each of us have to find where we are called to our own mount Moriah and engage with God at that point . "Taking in knowledge of God" is a lousey translation of John 17:3 that destroys or at least distorts the only way of knowing God---- through a measure of ignorance. Yes, a measure of ignorance in which he shows each one of us who he is.

  I study the scriptures to deconstruct the layers of falsehood the Organization force fed us. There are many treasures in the scriptures. But we can search and search them and never, ever find God in them alone because the men who wrote them hardly knew what they were saying. We won't find God without a little risk--and Jesus.

  I understand "burnt offering" to be a free and trusting relationship not a forced bloody submission. No committees, no corporation, no governing bodies. Only Jesus. Only his Father. Genesis 22.
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  68

  Do You Think Prostitution Should Be Illegal?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  recently, in my area, a number of people have gotten caught looking to pay for sex from a call girl.

  a catholic priest was one of the "johns" that got arrested.. i know there are some that argue that it is debasing.

  still, for a million years, it's been going on and there are willing parties who want to engage in this activity.. if two consenting adults want to have sex with one another and are willing to pay and accept the services, is it a horrible thing, in your opinion?.

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  not a captive

  Great points, finally free and freydo,

  But now I'm wondering how my husband got seven kids out of me and I didn't even get running water??!!!!
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  58

  Feeling down

  by tec in

  1. social
  2. family

  my son got suspended from school for fighting.

  not just fighting but choking another boy during their fight.

  he started it in anger over something the other boy did, but none of that actually matters.

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  not a captive