Anyone else notice that Jared is getting fat again?
undercover
JoinedPosts by undercover
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Subway Commercials
by blaid inis any one else getting pissed of at subway lately?
with their latest tv ad that stereotypes artists, anbd their wanna be r&b radio commercial, im tempted to blow all of them up!
i cant stand stereotypes, and the artist one hits clsoe to home for me.
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Now That We've Stopped Meetings, What Should We Expect???
by minimus inmy daughter stopped all meetings in the spring.my wife and i went to only a few meetings in the early summer and haven't been to a meeting in over 6 weeks.
my elder friend stops by my work every so often and recently has asked, "am i going to see you at the meeting tonight, min?
" i have said now on 3 occasions, "not tonight......" the other day another elder friend called me out of the blue and asked me how things are going.he said,.he'd like to come by my work and talk a little.
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undercover
I personally had two elder visits, one of which went badly. Not my fault. The one elder was a pompous ass and after years of not reacting to his bullying, I finally let loose on him. After all he was in my house. I don't take shit from nobody in my house. The second visit was a good visit with an elder who is also a friend. We discussed my "doubts" and he promised to do research and get back. Haven't heard a peep since. Either he's busy building a case against me or, as a friend, he will just let me slide on out without a fight. I haven't figured out which yet.
I've been all for laying low and fading away gradually and I think I have done a pretty good job of it. But something still bothers me at times. I'll go a while and be enjoying my new freedom and then I start to dwell on the situation all over and I feel that something is incomplete. Maybe I need some kind of closure. Maybe I need to confront people and let them know where I stand. Of course, that leads to a whole new set of problems. I'd like to stay friends with certain ones and of course keep my family ties. If I confront anyone and argue against the "truth" being the truth, I will lose that. But at the same time, I want to just lay it all on the line and let the chips fall where they will.
While I have had no problem adjusting to not having to live as a JW and deal with their schedules and routines or believe things that don't make sense, I feel like I'm in limbo, between being a JW and being completely free of their influence. So the internal struggle continues.
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Time, Meeting Attendance, School Talks, Good standing
by CaptK inwhat happens to a persons record when one gets d'f.
i use to attend all the meetings, give #4 talks in the school and turn in 6-10 hours in service every month.
i was on vacation and had a relationship with a lady.
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The troubling thing about your experience is that if this "indiscretion" happened while you were out of town and no one knew it(I'm guessing) until you told the elders, how did the rest of the congregation find out about it? The elders are not to let that information out to the rest of the congregation. Sounds like there might be a leak (if you told no one outside the elders).
Assuming that you were indeed DF'd for your "unrepentance", then the congregation is to shun you. They are not to speak to you, associate with you, sit with you at meetings, etc. Your record means nothing at this point. When you are reinstated, you basically have to start over in building up "a record of good-standing".
If you weren't DF'd, but publicly reproved, you will lose "privileges" but should not be shunned. But some of the more over-zealous, over-righteous ones will look down on you anyway. Again the record doesn't mean a whole lot. Your true friends may be hurt or embarrassed for you or because of you, but they will forgive and forget and continue to be your friends. It seems this is when you find out who your real friends are, when something like this happens.
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"Jehovah" in the New Testament
by robhic ini just got a return visit from a couple of jw that visited me last month.
all was very nice and friendly.
i have inadvertantly agreed to a study of sorts and figure it might be an interesting challenge for me to try out my newfound knowledge/information with them.
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The WTS placing Jehovah "back" into the NT or Greek Scriptures is very interesting. As a JW I didn't know of any conflict or controversy regarding this. All I know was that the WTS claimed to put God's name back where it belonged in the Bible. I believed it. Most JWs still do. How many people(still in) know of the controversy? Not too many, I bet.
It's the arrogance in which the WTS claims to know all and be all that, over time, really starts to irritate me. It's one thing to claim to have a certain belief, but to propose that it's truth or the only viewpoint without acknowledging any other viewpoint by any other knowledgeable group or person is unfair and dishonest to it's members. It's members think(as I did) that they are the only knowledgeable source in the world on Bible fact or history.
For twenty some years, I learned everything(well, a lot anyway) pushed by the WTS. Granted, that's more than the average, non-church going person, but now I see that what I've learned really isn't all that special. I am amazed at some of the history and language knowledge of the Bible as written by "worldly" scholars and researchers. Many here have learned so much, as seen in this thread. It just shows me more and more that the WTS is just a book pedaling organization under the guise of religion. They have just enough Bible knowledge and truth to convince some people who will not research for themselves that they are the true religion.
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Sad again at the Service Meeting
by Euphemism inthe service meeting on thursday was really saddening, particularly the last part, about preaching with boldness.
it was about overcoming nervousness, shyness, etc in the ministry.. all these people gave their experiences about difficulties they had in the ministry.
a regular pioneer (and elder's wife) admitted that she used to just pretend to ring the door bells; service is still really difficult for her, but she does it just because she feels obligated to.
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I believe that their love for God drives them to do this door-to-door preaching even though it emotionally hurts them.... but I think they are pretty brave to have the courage to go to someone's door and preach.
I think that they believe that it is their love for God that drives them to do this. But as attested to, a lot, if not the majority, have a hard time going door to door. If it was love for God and sincere, wouldn't God give them the strength or the spirit to overcome their fears and enjoy this work? They have been fooled into believing that it is a love for God that motivates them, but actually, it's peer pressure and motivational tactics that keep them on the streets.
If you knew that a terrorist attack was going to happen next week, you wouldn't need to be encouraged or motivated to go warn people. You'd be running around like crazy trying to warn people. JWs should have that same zeal if they believe that Armageddon is imminent. But they don't. They are going through the motions. They are doing what they are told to do and feel that as long as they do it, it is because they love God.
That's not to take away from those that have actually become good speakers or overcome extreme shyness. Some of these people have been helped by giving talks and knocking on doors. But it wasn't God's spirit that did it.
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"Jehovah" in the New Testament
by robhic ini just got a return visit from a couple of jw that visited me last month.
all was very nice and friendly.
i have inadvertantly agreed to a study of sorts and figure it might be an interesting challenge for me to try out my newfound knowledge/information with them.
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undercover
It's always, as you said Jehovah this and Jehovah that
Reminds of the scene in Monty Python's In Search of the Holy Grail where Arthur and his knights(pronounced ka-nig-its) have the grail revealed to them by the Lord. LOL
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Strange days at my old hall. please read
by josephus ini havent said too much here recently, mainly due to a severe lack of anything to say !, however, tonight my old hall has had a special meeting with a talk by the head of the ireland branch.
he is visiting for a week and afterwords all present will be having snacks and drinks, in the hall.. please tell me what is happening with the world when special saterday night meetings are held with refreshments.
i think its because about 10 people have left recently and made no secret of their reasons, but still, its unheard of for this to happen.. any thoughts.
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undercover
I remember at one hall, all the book studies had a snack night every so often, usually once a month, at the home of whoever had the "privilege" of having the study at their house. Well, in time, the book study group that met at the hall got jealous. They wanted a snack night too. So they picked one night once a month for all to bring snacks. There was a small kitchenette in the hall, so it wasn't like they wasn't any way to store the food or clean afterwards. But along came the Circuit Overseer who had a cow over the situation. Not only did he ban "snack night" but the pioneers couldn't bring food into the hall and eat lunch between morning service and afternoon service.
Even though I thought the whole thing kind of silly, I didn't really think of how stupid this was until I read the first post in this thread. Every so often something jars my memory to some stupid, silly, ridiculas thing that happened with the "friends" or at the hall and I think, "how did I never realize how stupid all of this is, and how come I fell for it?"
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Transcript: Beware of the Voice of Strangers
by Scully inmany thanks go to the following who made this possible:.
nosferatu for originally acquiring the recording and uploading it for everyone to hear.. hamas for hosting it so that even more people could listen to it;.
and finally to euphemism and odrade for their help in transcribing the entire talk with me.. without further ado, here is the transcript for the talk beware of the voice of strangers:.
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Open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 9. We’re just going to look at the first part of that verse. And notice how the Apostle Paul warned against listening to any of Satan’s sounding boards. Hebrews 13:9. Here Paul warns: “Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings.” Well primarily, who is it that promotes “strange teachings” today? Is it not the apostates? Certainly it is. Apostates promote those “strange teachings” in an attempt to undermine the spiritual balance of Jesus’ followers, of his sheep, of Jehovah’s people.
At Acts chapter 20 and verse 30, Paul said that apostates “speak twisted things.” Why do they do this? Well, they do this to speak half-truths, to withhold details, in an effort to, again, undermine the spirituality of Jehovah’s people; to deceive and corrupt Jehovah’s people.
At a recent course for traveling overseers at Patterson, the brothers in the course, in the circuit and district work, were asked if the work of the apostates was having a negative effect on the preaching work in their areas, primarily in the house-to-house ministry. Well, interestingly, the consensus among the brothers was that the only real negative effect was on the brothers and sisters in their circuits and districts who had listened to the apostate teachings. And usually, it’s been via TV documentaries or the Internet.
Sad to say, these very, extremely wicked opposers of Jehovah, and of truth, have succeeded in affecting the spiritual balance of quite a few of our brothers and sisters, who have listened to their poisonous propaganda. In fact, in one congregation in a local circuit, eight publishers were very shaken just a few months ago, because of watching an apostate-promoted TV documentary. And this was in spite of the fact that, that very week, the elders had set aside ten minutes of the service meeting, a couple of days before the documentary was aired, to warn the brothers that it was going to be on, and they used material from the Faithful and Discreet Slave to help them to see why it would be dangerous to watch it. And in spite of that, eight publishers were very shaken because they did watch it.
So those affected in such ways have not heeded the warnings to beware of the voice of apostate strangers.
I noticed this when I heard the talk, but wasn't sure if maybe I missed it, but nowhere do they come right out and say that apostates or opposers are lying or wrong. The closest they come is when they say, "they do this to speak half-truths, to withhold details".
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I WANT REVENGE!!!!!
by worldlygirl inwell, it has finally happened.
my jw husband came home last week and told me he is moving out.
it seems he has been talking to the elders, and they feel his spirituality is being threatened (even though i have not insisted he stop going to meetings, i won't allow any jw material in my home because of my children from a previous marriage - i don't want them exposed to it.
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undercover
double post
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I WANT REVENGE!!!!!
by worldlygirl inwell, it has finally happened.
my jw husband came home last week and told me he is moving out.
it seems he has been talking to the elders, and they feel his spirituality is being threatened (even though i have not insisted he stop going to meetings, i won't allow any jw material in my home because of my children from a previous marriage - i don't want them exposed to it.
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undercover
First of all, I hate to hear about your troubles. This must be a terrible time for you. I hope you come through okay.
While I got a chuckle out of some of the revenge ideas, I'm gonna offer some advise that goes against revenge. Don't waste your time on this guy. Yes, it hurts and it will hurt some more before it's all over. Take him to the cleaners as far as any alimony you might can get and definately child support. Get a lawyer and defend your rights. Outside of that, though, let it go. Move on with your life, enjoy it and your kids as they grow up. He's made it clear that he doesn't want to be with you, why waste any more of your life worrying about him. Simplistic statement I know, and things will get worse before they get better, but I wouldn't waste any more time than I have to, dealing with someone who has made it clear that they don't care anymore about me than that.