blownaway, I do understand what you mean. It doesn't matter to me either way if my birthday is celebrated, or if I get Christmas gifts/cars or not. But it is fun to do it for others, or to participate and be among the others who are celebrating.
snakeface
JoinedPosts by snakeface
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20
Celebrating a birthday for the 1st time
by Whynot inafter almost a year of thinking and eh feeling, not sure... i decided to throw a small birthday party for my son.
this feels so strange, i have never been to a birthday party.
my husband doesn't feel comfortable with it but he decided to play along lol.
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snakeface
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Celebrating a birthday for the 1st time
by Whynot inafter almost a year of thinking and eh feeling, not sure... i decided to throw a small birthday party for my son.
this feels so strange, i have never been to a birthday party.
my husband doesn't feel comfortable with it but he decided to play along lol.
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snakeface
I have been at the same job here for over 20 years. So when I was the cult they all knew my stand and respected it. They celebrated everyone's birthday except mine. They went ahead and had birthday cakes, sang "Happy Birthday" in the employee break room while I stayed at my desk and worked. They saw that it did not bother me; they were OK with it. After I left the cult - I think it's been 11 years now - they went all out for my first birthday. They had a huge cake - something better than what they normally have for anyone else - and lots of cards. Even the family members of the owner came. Afterward I sent everyone a thank you email and explained that I learned something from them. The WT teaches that birthday celebrations honor the person; this is not completely true. It is not a form of "worship". I learned that birthday celebrations are an opportunity to express appreciation for that persons individuality. What things are unique about that person that you appreciate. If the person likes dogs, they will usually get a birthday card with a dog theme/picture. If the person likes music, the card might have a musical theme, a picture of a piano or something. Those organizing the celebration put thought into which card to select, what kind of cake, and so on. So the birthday celebration is a way of telling the person, "Thank you for being you. We are glad we know you."
And now, I enjoy celebrating EVERY holiday. At work for Flag Day (June 14) we all wore red white and blue ( or at least one of those colors) and had treats in the break room, on red white and blue plates. For St Patrick's day we all wear green; red for Valentine's Day, and so on. I and other men have those crazy flashy socks for each holiday. Everyone has a good laugh. We bring in treats or doughnuts or bagels, cookies, brownies etc. We even did stuff for Cinco de Mayo. These are all just "good clean fun"; we are not worshipping anything or anyone, we are not having any kind of fertility rituals or invoking false gods to bless our work.
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Other Religions use the Name JEHOVAH too
by UnDisfellowshipped inare jehovah's witnesses really the only religion that promotes and preaches the name of jehovah?.
jw's are always claiming that they are the only religion that preaches and uses the name jehovah, and that is why only they will be saved.
for example, look at this quote from the watchtower:.
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snakeface
Yes, I left in 2008 or so and have since become a Baptist. We use the King James Bible which uses Jehovah in several places. Our pastor uses Jehovah frequently and it is in many of our hymns.
The Watchtower led me to believe that no one else uses or even knows about the Divine Name, and that no one else reads/studies the bible as much as they do. Now I know the opposite is true. We also talk about seeking first the kingdom.
I've also visited some non-denominational churches that are primarily African-American and found that they frequently use Jehovah quite a bit.
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I am going to pioneer after the holidays!
by snakeface inyes, you heard right.. as you know, most christian organizations publish and distribute little tracts with their gospel message.
well they also make some that expose the lies of the wt, and explain how it is a cult.
even if people are not interested in the "gospel message" in these tracts, the tracts do a good job exposing the wt as a cult.. now, those of you who are now agnostic or athiests or just non-religious, please keep reading, to understand what i plan to do.... i am expecting to receive $$ for christmas.
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snakeface
Yes Perry, that was really why I left. Like the girl in the country song "she left the suds in the bucket and the clothes hanging out on the line," once I had this realization, I was gone!
Sort of like that scene in the Wizard of Oz when everyone is before the wizard, trembling before the great and powerful oz....their destiny is in his hands....until Toto pulls back the curtain and INSTANTLY everyone sees it has been a sham all along.
I had no real complaints about the elders or the circuit overseers or even the meetings. And I did not realize the teachings were wrong until years after I left. It was this one thing that woke me up. Jesus said "where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I am there." So who are these men in Brooklyn who claim to be the ones through whom Jesus deals with the very ones He died for?
There are many Bible accounts of persons (including non-Jews) coming directly to Jesus to for healing. He dealt with them directly. He did not send any of them to the apostles. God dealt with many persons directly, not through an organization. Job, Abraham, Samuel, Moses, Noah, the apostle Paul...even Cain! Cain did not have to go to a judicial committee. Neither did Ananias and Sapphira. I could go on and on.
The truth is, most JWs are good, sincere people who are mislead. But they are mislead because they are spiritually lazy, content with blindly following rather than being like the Berean Jews who "examined the scriptures daily" to make sure these things are so. The first century Christians used ONLY the Bible (scrolls). They did not use other 'publications" to explain the scrolls.
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I am going to pioneer after the holidays!
by snakeface inyes, you heard right.. as you know, most christian organizations publish and distribute little tracts with their gospel message.
well they also make some that expose the lies of the wt, and explain how it is a cult.
even if people are not interested in the "gospel message" in these tracts, the tracts do a good job exposing the wt as a cult.. now, those of you who are now agnostic or athiests or just non-religious, please keep reading, to understand what i plan to do.... i am expecting to receive $$ for christmas.
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snakeface
ha ha that's funny, Slave4_38y. Maybe eventually I'll be one of the 144,000. ha ha
What will happen now in my former "territory" is, as the JWs go door to door, householders will tell them they met one of their former members who explained to them many WT falsehoods, such as the fact that the "faithful and discreet slave" was only a parable, not a prophecy.
Miles, I do have a life. I do go golfing, fishing, karaoke, flying small planes, shooting firearms, volunteer work....all kinds of things. And now I will start writing a book. As for my door to door work, the fact that I was well received shows that I am not doing "what people hated us for". I am doing what they obviously are happy to hear. They hated JWs for coming to them with WT doctrines, telling them their religions are false, and for waking them up early on Saturday mornings. I have no need to tell others what they should do or should not do - because I have moved on and I focus on what I myself should do or not do.
I am not bitter. My 25 years as a JW were mostly happy years and following that way of life really was a protection for me. Through my late 20's, my 30's and 40's, I did not get involved in immorality, drugs, materialism, drunkenness/partying and the like. The JW life taught me to be considerate of others, to be honest, and to live a clean life. In my book I will mention that I am actually grateful for how those 25 years shaped me. In the big picture, it was good for me. The problem was the false doctrines, and I left when I realized the governing body set themselves up as a mediator between Christ and man, which of course is wrong.
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I am going to pioneer after the holidays!
by snakeface inyes, you heard right.. as you know, most christian organizations publish and distribute little tracts with their gospel message.
well they also make some that expose the lies of the wt, and explain how it is a cult.
even if people are not interested in the "gospel message" in these tracts, the tracts do a good job exposing the wt as a cult.. now, those of you who are now agnostic or athiests or just non-religious, please keep reading, to understand what i plan to do.... i am expecting to receive $$ for christmas.
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snakeface
UPDATE!!!!
I have been having a blast! Pretty much every house I've been to so far, the people are happy that I got out of the cult. Because of this "pioneering" I have opportunities to speak at churches about this cult. One pastor urged me to write a book and his church will finance it. I never knew "pioneering" could be so much fun! ha ha ha
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I am going to pioneer after the holidays!
by snakeface inyes, you heard right.. as you know, most christian organizations publish and distribute little tracts with their gospel message.
well they also make some that expose the lies of the wt, and explain how it is a cult.
even if people are not interested in the "gospel message" in these tracts, the tracts do a good job exposing the wt as a cult.. now, those of you who are now agnostic or athiests or just non-religious, please keep reading, to understand what i plan to do.... i am expecting to receive $$ for christmas.
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snakeface
Thanks for your answers, They do make sense to me. The indifference and apathy...I understand.
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I am going to pioneer after the holidays!
by snakeface inyes, you heard right.. as you know, most christian organizations publish and distribute little tracts with their gospel message.
well they also make some that expose the lies of the wt, and explain how it is a cult.
even if people are not interested in the "gospel message" in these tracts, the tracts do a good job exposing the wt as a cult.. now, those of you who are now agnostic or athiests or just non-religious, please keep reading, to understand what i plan to do.... i am expecting to receive $$ for christmas.
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snakeface
We know that some householders are now reading the WT literature, maybe even studying.
Also, this will show householders that there is at least one JW who woke up and left. I'm sure they will be glad for my sake. I know my coworkers are.
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I am going to pioneer after the holidays!
by snakeface inyes, you heard right.. as you know, most christian organizations publish and distribute little tracts with their gospel message.
well they also make some that expose the lies of the wt, and explain how it is a cult.
even if people are not interested in the "gospel message" in these tracts, the tracts do a good job exposing the wt as a cult.. now, those of you who are now agnostic or athiests or just non-religious, please keep reading, to understand what i plan to do.... i am expecting to receive $$ for christmas.
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snakeface
Yes, you heard right.
As you know, most Christian organizations publish and distribute little tracts with their gospel message. Well they also make some that expose the lies of the WT, and explain how it is a cult. Even if people are not interested in the "gospel message" in these tracts, the tracts do a good job exposing the WT as a cult.
Now, those of you who are now agnostic or athiests or just non-religious, please keep reading, to understand what I plan to do...
I am expecting to receive $$ for Christmas. To celebrate that my car's odometer turned 144,000 miles, I will use a good portion of the Christmas $$ to purchase 100's of these tracts and then I will put on a dress shirt, tie and dress slacks and personally go door-to-door in my former territory and "work" the very same houses as I previously did. To keep my time going I will also leave some tracts at laundromats, doctors' waiting rooms, gas pumps, phone booths.....I will be "zealous".
I wiill explain to the householders that my conscience has moved me to warn them, so they don't get sucked in like I did. I will give the householders my real name.
As my former congregation works their territory, eventually they will encounter some householders who will tell them about - and possibly show them - what I left with them. Can you imagine being a JW and going out in service, and EVERY house has already been contacted with one of these tracts?
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Purging and letting go of the past
by Skinnedsheep inmy wife and i decided that today would be the day that we would let go of the past.
we collected all of our watchtower published books and brochures and threw them out.
it was honestly bitter sweet to toss our old pioneer books, marked up insight books, and notes from 25 years of conventions.
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snakeface
That's great! Now you are FREE! I like that you got rid of even the meeting clothing. It's a healing process.