Navigator

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Posts by Navigator

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  17

  Slavery in the BIble

  by Ariell in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  leviticus 25:44-46 "your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.

  you may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.

  you can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow israelites ruthlessly.

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  Navigator

  How ridiculous to imagine that God approved of slavery!
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  14

  NEWS: Stock Market Bubble Affects Freemasons

  by slipnslidemaster in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  stock market bubble affects freemasons

  ap - may 3rd, 1:32pm

  in a press release today, grand lodge of england, which is freemasonry's oldest extant lodge, announced that due to the stock market collapse they would be dropping the "free" from their title and be known as "masons" starting the first of the month.

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  Navigator

  Uzzah is correct. You have to be a mason first in order to be a Shriner. I've had some friends who were Shriners and they were hit dunned pretty hard to maintain the Children's Hospitals and burn units where the care is completely free to the Children.
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  36

  Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

  by Leolaia in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  twice (john 4:29, 39), the samaritan woman is said to have reported to her townspeople that a man had told her ?everything?

  one may surmise that those whom she told knew rather well precisely what the things were that she had done, for they followed her urging to see this remarkably perceptive stranger.

  precisely what did jesus tell her that so moved her and others, and how did he go about it?

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  Navigator

  Leoleia

  I always enjoy your posts and those of Narkisos and Peaceful Pete. However, it does seem a bit of a stretch to envision Jesus as the bridegroom at the Cana event. George Lamsa points out that the greek bible writers display a lack of familiarity with aramaic customs and culture. He points out that the responsibility of providing wine at the wedding feasts belonged to the guests and not the groom. The grooms best and closest friends provided the first wine (and likely the best wine). It was a rank order kind of thing and it would have been a social faux pas to go out of turn. Lamsa points out that wedding feasts were pretty much drunken orgys and suggests that it would have been scandalous for a Rabbi such as Jesus to provide wine to an already "over imbibed" party. According to Lamsa, Rabbis generally provided water and encouraged everyone to sober up. Having sampled a fair amount of middle eastern wine, I can understand why the Chief Steward thought water tasted pretty good. He also may have been "crocked". When Mary came to Jesus and told him "They have no wine", she was in effect saying, "It is your turn to provide the wine". His reply was :"My time has not come", meaning it is not my turn to buy. Nevertheless, he accedes to his mother's request and has the servants fill the jars with water. The writer of John, who apparently had an account of the incident at Cana, clearly had a different purpose in mind than just relating the story. He uses the story to portray Jesus as a miracle worker ready to embark upon his ministry. The custom of guests providing wine still survives today. When I was stationed in Europe, it was very common for dinner guests to show up with a bottle of wine.
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  31

  Power of the Mind?

  by Frannie Banannie in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been here on jwd since last august (?

  )....i've read and posted and begun some threads that addressed beliefs in the paranormal and spirituality and i'm truly wondering now.....it seems paranormal or spiritual experiences (even my own) are the products of what we've been led to believe....or been taught to believe.....do any of yall find this to be true for you?

  i can even remember having a pre-borg "out-of-body" experience, simply because i read a book on the subject and consciously decided to do it..... if so, what does the possibility of retraining our minds to actually believe only good things for ourselves and our loved ones hold for the future?.

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  Navigator

  There is a very profound truth outlined in A Course In Miracles which states:

  "That which you defend against, you make real to your own mind". The constant harping of the JWs about demons and Satan make them "real" to those who believe in that sort of thing. Someone once referred to the mind as both healer and slayer. When one speaks of mind, it is necessary to specify which part of the mind we are referring to. There is the conscious mind, the sub-conscious mind and the super-conscience mind. Our sub-conscious mind is very powerful and creative. I believe the holographic analogy is a good one. If you create a holographic image in a crystal and then smash it on the floor, each part will contain an image of whole. HOWEVER, EACH PIECE WILL BE SLIGHTLY OUT OF FOCUS. It will only be completely clear when the parts of the crystal are pieced back together. Perhaps the bible is correct when it says there is only one son of God. Not just Jesus, but all of us are part of that Sonship. We will achieve that clarity when we realize our oneness with each other.
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  31

  Light A Candle To Remember

  by cruzanheart in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  tonight on the news i saw yet another story about that dear little 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped and killed.

  i thought of her.

  i thought of the 77-year-old woman who was kidnapped and killed in our area last week.

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  Navigator

  Here is one for my Father, wonderful man that he was. And for my Grandmother who passed away when I was young. I believe they are still watching over me.
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  30

  Money and career tips for EX-JWs....

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's a safe bet that if you were raised as a jw, or if you came into it early in life, you have some strange ideas about money and finances.

  the wt for decades made even minimal post-secondary education utterly taboo and only recently has capitulated that "some" extra schooling might be neccessary (associate degrees good, bachelors degrees bad).

  the average youth raised a jw has little understanding of investment due to the apocalyptic worldview of the organization (why invest in a dying system when the big "a" is right around the corner?).

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  Navigator

  Education is always a good investment and can never be lost in the stock market. I would invest a bit in aptitude tests to see what sort of work you like to do. Counselors at Community Colleges can make these tests available at very reasonable cost. Life is too short to be stuck in a job that makes you miserable. If you are specializing in a technical area, don't neglect the business side such as economics, money & banking, business law, managment, etc.. You may want to go into business for yourself someday. Take advantage of 401k's and 457's (for public employees) as much as possible. Subscribe to a good financial magazine. It is a wonderful souce of information and advice. MONEY and FORBES are both excellent. You don't have to pay commissions to a salesman to buy mutual funds. There are excellent "no loads" available which have low annual management expenses and no 12b1 fees. Buy low cost term insurance and invest the difference. Pay your credit cards in full every month. Avoid debt like the plague except for a home mortgage.
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  55

  When Was The Last Time You Prayed?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends
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  Navigator

  There is NOBODY out there. God is IN HERE! Praying to God "out there" is a waste of breath. Jesus said that "the kingdom of heaven is within you". So every morning I meditate in order to "get in touch" with the One Power and One Presence which I AM.
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  23

  My new issue.....

  by Joysome in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  as i've said before i'm very lost and torn and confused.

  part of me still believes in the things that i was taught as a jw.

  1. armageddon.

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  Navigator

  Re: Your point about being punished by death.

  If God is Real, there is no death. If death is real there is no God!

  I believe that it is God's will that we all make it. Nothing can defeat the will of God, especially the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society.
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  22

  A sincere question about prayer for any kinds of Christians out there...

  by somebodylovesme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few weeks ago, i received a mass e-mail from one of my mainstream christian friends requesting prayers for headaches she's been having.

  i wrote back and told her i hoped she felt better (i'm personally not religious at all).

  today, i got another mass e-mail thanking everyone for their prayers, and that her headaches were gone now through the grace of god.

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  Navigator

  Joel Goldsmith, the Christian Mystic, says that it is a waste of breath to ask God for anything since God isn't withholding anything. The only prayer that God always answers is the prayer for God to reveal Himself/Herself. Jesus told us specifically NOT to pray for things and that would even include health. Instead, we should pray that our eyes be opened to that which we have already received. However, if one reaches out for healing to someone who has a consciousness of health, the very act of reaching out opens the door to the healing that was already present. Consider the woman who reached out and touched the hem of Jesus's garment. Who healed her? In a sense, she healed herself. More and more is being learned about the mind/body connection. The medical community refers to the practice of techniques using mind/body connection as PsychoNeuro Immunology. Christian Scientists have been using these techiques for years, but frequently attempt to demonstrate beyond their consciousness and get a bad result. They sometimes spend a lot of time treating a headache when taking an asprin would be more effective. The human body has been demonstrated to be a miraculous pharmaceutical factory whose power can sometimes be unleashed by meditation and other mind/body techniques.
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  14

  Uplifting music

  by El blanko in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi there and good day to you all .... i purchased an album yesterday which has just been released called immortal memory by lisa gerrard & patrick cassidy, it really is beautiful in places and has a certain uplifting meloncholy throughout.

  i know that sounds contradictory, but really, the first few tracks really tug at the heart strings.. if you need an aural and highly textured experience, this album is worth going for.

  it really helped lift my mood and is playing in the background as i work.. one track features the lords prayer sung in aramaic taken from the peshitta version of the holy scriptures.. if you do not know who lisa gerrard is, she used to sing with a group called dead can dance and is probably most noted for her vocal work in the film gladiator.

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  Navigator

  Die Moldau by Smetana

  Symphone #9 (The New World) by Dvorack(sp)

  Those pieces always lift me up.