Posts by JamesThomas

65

"For as OFTEN as you eat it...."

by AGuest in

jw
friends

may you all have peace!.

i posted the following to a request on another forum regarding where to partake of the "memorial.

" although that is not quite what *we* call it, i wanted to share with you my response, for those who are wondering.

JamesThomas

Thank you again SJ for your thoughtful response. There is a deep and wide rift, a fundamental difference in our views, that seems to have us dancing in circles, light years apart. I feel it comes down to this one statement:

"James, evil itself is very real."

The entirety of your last post was based on your belief in the power of evil. Probably 99.9% of all people would agree with you....and would probably see me as a raving mad man to say otherwise. I would agree that what we call "evil" exists on a level of carnal consciousness, but ultimately, it is false. When (within our minds) we create a god less than Infinite, we make room for evil. We now have God over here, and not-God (evil) over there; and we have a god with an enemy that needs destroying and the human emotions and anger of "vengeance" to attack. We have stepped into the carnal-mind; we have eaten from the tree of good and evil; and the carnal, phenomenal, time and space drama of the war between good and evil begins......and never ends until we step out of the mind and back into our True-home, the spiritual heart within. Evil will be "destroyed" when we see it as untrue; and we will see it as untrue when we discover the Christ, the Truth, within us; when we discover and awaken to the True-essence of Being and realize all seeming separation from God/Truth is mind generated illusion. This is not a belief system or teaching. Not an intellectual exercise. It is an unspeakable sense that is here, now, within for those willing and open to know it. What the word "God" points to, is not absent from anyone, or anywhere. Only in our minds is God/Truth too tiny to be here. Only in our minds, does the battle rage. We are free to dwell there. Or not. JamesT

5

Keep trying to reach us JW's

by Scooby in

jw
friends

just want to say that, if you can, try to talk to witnesses when they come to your door....don't give up.. a man i met in field service last year actually listened to what i had to say when i came to his door.

what a sweet man!!!

he then stood there for a whole hour with me and my friend and we talked about truth.

JamesThomas

Scooby the Newbie, Loved your post. Sometimes we forget, that the Witnesses who come to our door are trapped. The try so hard to put on a happy face. Some open love and kindness from a stranger for no reason, is far more special than the oh so conditional "love" from another Witness. Certainly can't hurt. JamesT

29

New Order Mormons Forum - JWs Can Learn From LDS Mistakes!

by Derrick in

jw
friends

can jws learn from the latter-day saints mistakes?

i recently ran across a forum for mormons (http://www.aimoo.com/forum/freeboard.cfm?id=319220) that brings back memories of the jw forum hourglass2 outpost (h2o) when it started in the year 1996 (and believe it or not still exists at http://www.geocities.com/hourglass2.geo/).

this new mormon forum is named appropriately "new order mormons" (http://www.aimoo.com/forum/freeboard.cfm?id=319220) and is on the same isp forum site as the h2o forums.

JamesThomas

JT, you crack me up.

22

Witness memory

by Descender in

jw
friends

have any of you had a similar occurrence when you were a witness as this?

i was 18 years old and had taken a trip with my witness buddies to new york.

one of them had been drafted into bethel and we decided to go along to tour the place and visit new york and patterson.

JamesThomas

RunningMan wrote:

Being a Witness is like living in an intellectual twilight zone. You can learn more accurate history from an episode of The Flintstones.

LOL. You gota love that.

JamesT

15

My first post...Questions from Readers 4-08-03

by IWasDuped in

jw
friends

hi...this is my first time posting...been lurking and working up my courage to post... .

awake 4-8-03.

"luaus- i read with interest your article, "let's have a hawaiian luau.

JamesThomas

65

"For as OFTEN as you eat it...."

by AGuest in

jw
friends

may you all have peace!.

i posted the following to a request on another forum regarding where to partake of the "memorial.

" although that is not quite what *we* call it, i wanted to share with you my response, for those who are wondering.

JamesThomas

Yes, I see the "evil" too SJ; and there is pain and there is sorrow. It is easy and natural to feel a sense, an unspeakable Presence of what that word "God" points to, when sitting in awe of a sunset or gazing silently into the unjudgmental and depthless eyes of an infant. But when faced with tragedy, when experiencing what we call "evil", what then? Here is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where one walks the walk, instead of just talking the talk. Can I remain true even here? Even in the middle of hell? Even when everything screams God/Love/Truth, is absent? Even here, can ones eye remain single? Can attention be drawn within on what is deeper, on what is Real, on what is True? Can I shift consciousness to the Infinite Invisible that transcends phenomenal expression? Can I surrender even more to the Beloved? Thus "evil" becomes not a reason for God to condemn and destroy, but an opportunity to dissolve even more into Truth.....until all there is, is Truth; and "evil" is seem for what it is: as not truth, as false, as illusion. Perhaps too radical a vision for most. But this is the way I see it. JamesT

65

"For as OFTEN as you eat it...."

by AGuest in

jw
friends

may you all have peace!.

i posted the following to a request on another forum regarding where to partake of the "memorial.

" although that is not quite what *we* call it, i wanted to share with you my response, for those who are wondering.

JamesThomas

"And THAT is because God... is not IN most of us; therefore, LOVE... in not IN most of us. Not automatically, dear one. Not 'naturally'."

I understand SJ, your need to hold on to such separating and exclusionary beliefs to vindicate a God which ultimately kills and destroys. There must be good and evil classes or your idea of God falls apart. You're getting first hand experience of what it means to eat from the tree of good and evil, you just don't know it. Indeed, the majority of people would agree with you. It certainly seems that God is not "IN" most of us; and not the "natural" essence of our true being. No denying that. But this is where your and my vision takes a major turn (or perhaps again, it is just a semantics problem). We seem to have a choice. Do I bear witness with "this world" and it's testimony that God is indeed absent from most as you say? Do I honor and accept the material and carnal as true? Do I agree with the world's evidence that God is too tiny, too limited, to be here now! We are certainly free to do so; but, since when was "this world" the purveyor and herald of truth??? Is it not, far more likely that we are the problem, rather than God? Is it not far more likely that it is OUR ignorance and blindness to the Living-Presence of God, rather than God's absence and limits? Is it not far more likely OUR numbness and lack of presence, rather than God's incompleteness, distance or boundaries? Why do we so easily place the blame, the shortcomings on God? I shall truly come to love my neighbor as myself, when I come to see within my own being that what Jesus said was not a restrictive or relative truth " I and the Father are One", but a universal truth. Then, to love others -- is to love me -- is to love God. For the separation has evaporated. God's limits and boundaries seen as illusory. We are free to believe in and worship as tiny and restrictive an idea of God as we please. Myself, fool that I am, have come to see that God's only limits are those I create in my mind. God is always more, and never ever less. Closer, never farther. I need only be still, and know. I have no scriptures to quote. No teaching to share or preach. No stories or drama to tell. The truth is felt, or it is not. Either way, it does not mean it is not here; as clouds do not prove the absence of the sun. It's not easy to let go of ideas of God as a deity or person, just another character within a grand drama of good against evil. It takes a great deal of trust and love for God's Infinite and unlimited Presence over all conflicting evidence. It takes an inner knowing that God is not within the universe; the universe is within God. I bid you too SJ, the greatest of love and peace. And forgive me if I offend, or read something in your post that you did not say or mean. JamesT