last week's watchtower study related an experience of a sister who prayed that god would help her with her rent.
she needed $66 dollars.
she went to her waitressing job on an off night and would you believe?
Was it part of Jehovah's mindful, active, purposeful plan?
Great post! However, I must remind you...God doesn't have a plan...He has a "purpose." Does he have a purposeful purpose? Or if he is a Prince fan...Does he have a purple purposeful purpose? If he were a marine mammal that liked Prince, could he be called a Porpoise with a purple purposeful purpose?
By the way, great scientific angle in addressing the subject.
Just a thought,
SOP
last week's watchtower study related an experience of a sister who prayed that god would help her with her rent.
she needed $66 dollars.
she went to her waitressing job on an off night and would you believe?
Now, was her rent $66 dollars or she just needed $66 dollars to complete her rent?
If she's renting somewhere for $66 dollars then THAT is the proof of divine intervention! Then again, if she is renting someplace for $66 dollars that means that the area is obviously economically challenged, if it is that challenged then $66 bucks would be a phenomenal take in tips!
Knew a sister who ran out of gas while pioneering because she didn't have the money for gas. Her car stranded her and two sisters out in the boondocks. A farmer came along and picked them up, took them to his farm so they could use the phone. It took the tow truck three hours to get them, $50 dollars for the tow on one of the other sister's credit cards, and several other people inconvenienced because they had to pick up the two passenger sisters from the gas station where the "credit card" sister put $10 of gas in the pioneer's car (now she's out $60).
Evidence of God's blessing? The pioneer sister left a set of mags with the farmer. Divine intervention!
Hey, where's that sister's $66 bucks, she be ahead $6!
SOP
last week's watchtower study related an experience of a sister who prayed that god would help her with her rent.
she needed $66 dollars.
she went to her waitressing job on an off night and would you believe?
Last week's Watchtower study related an experience of a sister who prayed that God would help her with her rent. She needed $66 dollars. She went to her waitressing job on an off night and would you believe? She got a whopping $66 in tips. Amazing!
This was the best example they could find to show that the Almighty is looking after his people? $66?
What about that brother with cancer or those that don't have insurance? Those that lose their jobs and have a family to support? That brother stricken with ALS or that sister with ovarian cancer whose husband ran out on her? Where is there $66 bucks? I mean, if this is the best example you can provide in a study article to encourage the brethren of God's intervention in behalf of believers...it would have been best NOT to include it.
Seriously?!?!
Just a thought,
SOP
most of you know the game of "marco polo.
" a blindfolded player calls out "marco" and the other players who are hiding call out "polo.
" the blindfolded player tries to find them by following their voice.
Most of you know the game of "Marco Polo." A blindfolded player calls out "Marco" and the other players who are hiding call out "Polo." The blindfolded player tries to find them by following their voice.
This is how it typically played out:
The blindfolded kid would get close to one of the other players all the while saying "Marco?" The other players would say "Polo," but then when he'd get close, they would scamper off to another location instead of staying where they were supposed to. In just a couple of minutes the blindfolded player would get upset because the voices kept moving around and he couldn't locate anyone. He would finally take off his blindfold, throw it on the ground and yell, "you guys are cheaters! You keep moving around! How am I supposed to find you if you keep moving around?!"
Yeah, that's right...fun game.
While on the train this morning, I realized that the Society plays a sort of "Marco Polo" game with the R&F. Those still in are blindfolded and trusting. They hear the voice of the only channel of communication and seek to locate the truth in it, thinking that by doing so, they will win the game. The voice, however, keeps moving...the target keeps shifting. Eventually, some recognize this and in the immortal words of the computer in War Games decide "the only winning move is NOT to play."
Marco?
Just a thought,
SOP
today is a strange day.. i have been out of the borg for a while now.
some years have passed and i thoroughly enjoy the freedom, not having to bend my mind and rape my soul to force myself to do and say things that i don't feel or believe.
i started my own business, got a wonderful girlfriend and made some friends (that are not monsters like the wt$ likes to portray others).. my parents, siblings, brothers-in-law, cousins, aunts, uncles, ex-wife, "friends" and my daughter, have cut their contact to me.
Hang in there BluePill2. Most here can sympathize with what you are going through. It is a rough road, but remember, you never know when those people you love are going to wake up, and then, it will be like the "resurrection" for them and you will be there with open arms.
Just a thought,
SOP
i was speaking to my sister the other day.
she has faded much quicker than i. she moved on with her life along with her husband and family.
we still talk every day and share our little ditties about life.
Oubliette and OnTheWayOut,
My family has seen alot. They are the typical "where else can we go?" type of witness. Hardcore and scarred. Cynical yet trusting. I will tell you the game changer for most if not all of THEM to walk away. It is something my grandfather said about the time the elder arrangement came into play, early 70's, when the GB first started. "Our allegience is to Jehovah." THAT has always resonated with the family. So, I think that if the organization ever asks the R&F to swear an oath of loyalty to it, the majority would walk.
I know, some would say, "Well, isn't that what they are doing with the adjusted baptism question?" No, I don't believe it is. I mean an "oath" of loyalty like I think Ray Franz mentioned Schroeder had suggested in one of their meetings and it was summarily rejected by the majority.
I believe that this requirement is right around the corner. The spirit of this group (the GB) and their revisionism is a hint of what is to come. When it happens, I will be there to help them live up to what OUR family knows is right. THAT is the main reason I have stayed. Maybe an overactive sense of justice or an overactive thyroid causes me to "stand still and see the salvation of the LORD."
As for my sister, she experiences NO shunning from anyone that matters to her. Those of the family that "shun" her, "shun" just about everyone else. They are just wierd like that. I am proud of her because she chose to marry a man that has his head squarely on his shoulders and not... He has helped her to intelligently and systematically fade. I have followed that lead to a great degree, but have not severed the cord for reasons as noted above.
SOP
i was speaking to my sister the other day.
she has faded much quicker than i. she moved on with her life along with her husband and family.
we still talk every day and share our little ditties about life.
I was speaking to my sister the other day. She has faded much quicker than I. She moved on with her life along with her husband and family. We still talk every day and share our little ditties about life. She knows that I am still holding on by a thread. No, not because I believe in any of it, but like many on this forum, I am just trying to keep the peace...for the rest of my brothers and sisters still in the strangle hold.
Interestingly, she stated the following,
"What will it take for you to simply walk away? What more do you need? The GB have risen to a station even above the apostles. They blatantly change...not adjust...doctrine, and I know you don't believe it. What else do you need to see? If you are waiting for the rest of the family to climb on board this train, THAT may never happen."
So, I pose the same question to the rest of you, those who, like me, are holding on for the sake of your family and the need to experience some semblance of normalcy.
i believe the gb has typically been an odd group of men.
this new batch, the faithful and discreet slave seem very impressed with themselves....like they are modern day apostles or something....or maybe it's just me..
@ SAHS
Kind of reminds you of the movie The 10 Commandments where Pharoah says, "Let the name of Moses be stricken from all the public records!"
Revisionism is a powerful thing!
i believe the gb has typically been an odd group of men.
this new batch, the faithful and discreet slave seem very impressed with themselves....like they are modern day apostles or something....or maybe it's just me..
I apologize as it appears that my "age" notation was incorrect. The majority are currently in their 60's and 70's.
The notation that is incorrect is the article being written in the 1980's. The reference actually was from the discourse that Fred Franz had given at the 1970 Gilead graduation. At that graduation, Franz stated emphatically that there were no more "additions" to the anointed remnant only "replacements." Therefore, the argument stands. The majority of those currently serving were in their late 20's or early 30's when the explanation of the "replacements" was given. Narcissism at its best.
(Reference to this event could be found in the W99 2/1 pg. 19 "Treasures in Earthen Vessels")
Just a thought,
SOP
i believe the gb has typically been an odd group of men.
this new batch, the faithful and discreet slave seem very impressed with themselves....like they are modern day apostles or something....or maybe it's just me..
My first inclination would be to say that they are completely narcissitic. You have to understand that the majority of them are in their late 50's to early 60's. That would mean that in the 1980's when Fred Franz gave the talk and the subsequent article written about the "replacements," the majority of them were in their late 20's to early 30's. If that is the case, then when Franz stated that any "new" anointed would be simply "replacements" of those anointed that had been unfaithful, and that reasonably, we should expect that any replacement be an individual with a..."long history of faithful service to Jehovah." Now, I don't know about you, but if I am a guy in my late 20's or early 30's and I consider myself to have a "long history of faithful service" compared to some of those old-timers at Bethel, then I'm pretty narcissitic.
To solidy this position, one has to remember that these guys claim to recognize that the organization is the only channel. If that is the case, and they had read that magazine back in the 80's, can you honestly say that they believed then that the organization is the only channel? I mean to completely reject the explanation of the "replacements" and believe that your couple of years of pioneering or Bethel service equated to a "long history of faithful service" when you have a 90 year old brother working in the laundry who had served at Bethel since he was 19 and hung out with Rutherford and he is still of the GC.
You got to love it !!
Just a thought,
SOP
