brotherdan

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Posts by brotherdan

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  98

  It might be better to not even have the Internet. April 15th WT

  by life is to short in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ok i was just blown away when i heard this today while driving, at first i thought it was the some old same old but then it went on and it seems like it is on a different level.. the subheading is "guard your heart by exercising self-control.

  on page 27 par 17 it says "one way a person could wonder into the foolish course of the "young man in want of heart" is by aimlessly flipping though television channels or surfing the internet.

  whether intentionally or not, he might chance upon sexually stimulating scenes.

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  brotherdan

  Finally-Free: Exactly! So it seems to me, IMO, that porn wasn't even the issue. The Watchtower seems to like to focus on all the symptoms of things, but never gets down to the actual PROBLEM. It wasn't porn, necessarily, that was the issue. It was that sex was being withheld and you couldn't have a normal sex life with your wife.

  You BOTH could've focused on the movie she found and blown the porn issue all out of propotion and you could've felt guilty and you could've "relapsed" and gone through a buch of things that were pointless to go through. Or you could've focused on fixing what was REALLY in error: her using sex as a tool against you.
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  61

  Wow, This is Getting Tougher!

  by Franklin Massey in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm having a really hard time giving my meeting parts.

  i had a service meeting part this week and i could hardly get through it.

  i am no longer convinced of some of the things jws teach and so i try to either eliminate those things from my parts, or reword them so that i'm not speaking about that which i do not personally believe.

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  brotherdan

  Focus on topics that you can teach that do not violate your conscience. Unless you are a complete atheist, you can create a part that avoids the things that bother you, and the things that you can say without reserve.

  For example, focus your parts on not being judgemental to others. Give parts that focus on love. Give parts that focus on Jesus. Remember that chances are, there are people that feel JUST like you do in the audience.

  If there is a specific talk that you feel like you can't give, make up an excuse and get out of it. I think the important thing is that if you are not ready to step down and fade, then also focus on NOT violating your own conscience.
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  98

  It might be better to not even have the Internet. April 15th WT

  by life is to short in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ok i was just blown away when i heard this today while driving, at first i thought it was the some old same old but then it went on and it seems like it is on a different level.. the subheading is "guard your heart by exercising self-control.

  on page 27 par 17 it says "one way a person could wonder into the foolish course of the "young man in want of heart" is by aimlessly flipping though television channels or surfing the internet.

  whether intentionally or not, he might chance upon sexually stimulating scenes.

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  brotherdan

  I rarely agree with the Watchtower, and I don't agree with this comment...at least not completely.

  There are some that have been addicted to porn to an almost destructive result. They have allowed it to ruin their family and spiritual life. If you can't control yourself, then you need to get help. But in the meantime, maybe in certain cases it would be helpful to not have that sort of access available to you.

  I think that's just a band aid to the situation though, and to suggest such a thing is rediculous. I think that this would only be a solution in .0000001% of cases. I think the more appropriate discussion is "Why do you feel the overwhelming compulsion to view porn?" There may be a deeper issue at work.

  But it goes to show, they don't trust their own followers. If a rule is not made, then who know WHAT the "brothers" will do?!?!?
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  8

  A good speaker, teacher, etc.

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  answer this and think about it .... if i was an amazing speaker, and taught in ways you never saw before and touched your heart deeply.

  how would you explain to others if you had, no internet, no phone, no usps and the roads were nothing more then dirt paths between locations.

  also, keep in mind that the people you tell it to are unable to read or write and have to share what you said from their own memories and only after days had passed or longer.

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  brotherdan

  The problem too with the thought that he was just a good man, is that you get into the pointless feuds of the Jesus Seminar people. They have muddled the gospels so much that there are only a handfull of sayings that they've desided can be attributed to Jesus.
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  8

  A good speaker, teacher, etc.

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  answer this and think about it .... if i was an amazing speaker, and taught in ways you never saw before and touched your heart deeply.

  how would you explain to others if you had, no internet, no phone, no usps and the roads were nothing more then dirt paths between locations.

  also, keep in mind that the people you tell it to are unable to read or write and have to share what you said from their own memories and only after days had passed or longer.

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  brotherdan

  The Bible is not the only source to speak about Jesus. We can track his sayings back to believers in the 2nd century. If you research some of the teachings of the early church fathers, they preached much of what is preached today. There are differences, of course, as there are today.

  How can I claim to know ANYTHING about Alexander the Great. The first biography done about him didn't get written until 400 years after he died. Much of history was passed down through word of mouth. The Jews practiced GREAT care in passing down the things that they heard. Using the "telephone" game senerio does not quite work when you learn all that went into passing down history from generation to generation.

  We live 2000 years after Jesus, so taking a broad outlook, you may think that things have HAD to have changed greatly. But going back to the early church fathers, Jesus was viewed very much in the same way as we view him today.

  I suggest reading some Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, etc... to see how close their views of WHO Jesus was matches to who WE view Jesus as being.
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  24

  I've Taken So Much From This Board ...

  by snowbird in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sometimes, i feel guilty that i haven't given back as much.. i hate feeling like a moocher.. perhaps, one day i will be able to reciprocate all the good y'all have been to and for me.. love.

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  syl.

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  brotherdan

  I'm not sure others would use the word "delight"...

  But I have to know what I believe and why I believe it.
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  29

  Have you ever thought about, what is nothing? If you did, did it make your head hurt?

  by miseryloveselders in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as a born in jw, i've always believed that jehovah had no beginning per say.

  at the same time i've had the house and watch having a creator argument stamped within my brain for use against evolutionists.

  some days its difficult rationalising god's existance as having always been, with everything else needing to be created by him.

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  brotherdan

  misery, that argument about eternity is also what I bring up when speaking of the Trinity and the nature of God. The Watchtower says that because we can't COMPLETELY understand the Trinity then it CAN'T be correct. That just isn't true. Just because you don't understand something fully, that doesn't mean that it's not true. I can't wrap my head around eternity, but it must be true either within the physical universe (like atheists claim)or outside time and space, like God.
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  29

  Have you ever thought about, what is nothing? If you did, did it make your head hurt?

  by miseryloveselders in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as a born in jw, i've always believed that jehovah had no beginning per say.

  at the same time i've had the house and watch having a creator argument stamped within my brain for use against evolutionists.

  some days its difficult rationalising god's existance as having always been, with everything else needing to be created by him.

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  brotherdan

  Some days its difficult rationalising God's existance as having always been, with everything else needing to be created by Him.

  Eternity is beyond our comprehension. And that isn't just a theist argument. Even atheists are hard pressed to discuss eternity. They shy away from talking about "The Beginning" because it naturally turns into a discussion of how nothing can create something. Or how an effect can come without a cause.

  The most reasonable conclusion, IMO, is that there MUST be a higher intelligence. I think that is less a leap of faith than saying that "nothing caused something".

  Oh and silly superpunk! That is Gmork! He represents the Nothing. Kinda like the GB represent...NOTHING.
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  24

  I've Taken So Much From This Board ...

  by snowbird in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  sometimes, i feel guilty that i haven't given back as much.. i hate feeling like a moocher.. perhaps, one day i will be able to reciprocate all the good y'all have been to and for me.. love.

  .

  syl.

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  brotherdan

  Your faith has been a bright light here on this board. You've encouraged me in many of your posts. Sometimes we don't realize the effect that we are having on people. But you have given back alot!!!
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  38

  Need tunes to play when my JW window cleaner is next here...

  by highdose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as you may remember, i have a jw window cleaner, one who likes to whistle kingdoom melodies while he works.

  drives me crazy!

  so i put music on while hes here and it stops him.

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  brotherdan

  If you are trying to give a "witness" you could try casting crowns.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7qi2KlUffs