The crux of the matter for me NOW, was, as a jw, only knowing Yah-Hovah, the God of the wt. He certainly does "make" you, through his supposed "Channel" behave and be decent, or your'e out and discarded. The Christian, or "Christ-one" gets Jesus' words, "that we may be one with them, just as you and I are one (DOES NOT mean the old jw anti-Trinity claptrap of One and the Same!) : 2 Cor 6:16 onwards,"For we are the Temple of the Living God, As God said, " I WILL LIVE IN THEM".......v18 "And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty." NLT. Now this was a whole new ball-game........The wt don't believe the indwelling of the Spirit so have removed all references from their translation. Gggggrrrr! - How were we supposed to know about it?? We could NEVER experience the "Abba! Father" moment. We were just spiritual orphans. It is not just to have Christ, but being IN Christ. That is why we eat the bread and drink the wine (or grape juice) - "eating My flesh and drinking My blood to have eternal life WITHIN you". "Behaving and being decent" becomes the norm for the "Christ-one". You can call this "religion" if you like, but there isn't a word glorious enough to describe it.
abbasgreta
JoinedPosts by abbasgreta
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97
Are You Interested In Religion Of Any Sort At This Point In Your Life?
by minimus inpersonally, i respect that everyone has choices to believe whatever they want to believe.
i have no interest in joining another religion....what about you?.
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97
Are You Interested In Religion Of Any Sort At This Point In Your Life?
by minimus inpersonally, i respect that everyone has choices to believe whatever they want to believe.
i have no interest in joining another religion....what about you?.
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abbasgreta
Baptised and confirmed Anglicans, Chuch of England.(Me, ex MS hubby and two late-teen daughters.) Simply freakin' awesome! Also, we have combined services with the Methodists and Baptists about 4 times a year. Just like a huge family reunion. I also watch a Catholic televised service from Germany twice a month. Being a Christian is NOT about being' in a religion' as such. The Church (Gk ecclesia - gathering or group) is not a denomination or a building. The Church was us from St Andrews enjoying drinks and fellowship in the evenings and worshipping in a marquee at Parish Camp (Great fun!). Or 8000 strong at New Wine, Newark, Notts next month. It is also when you get together in a very small group and pray together. All who take Communion are in God's Household, and we have to meet together to "build it up". The bond we have is staggering.The services for worship from All-age to Holy Communion, from worship songs to intercessional prayers and the talks (old word = sermons) just blow you away...... Believe me, for me as an ex-pioneer and a TOTAL "Babylon the Great" hater formerly - to be able to write this, is testimony to the Grace of God. (Don't wish to bleat on, this is just what happened to us, and I appreciate some of you will be letting out a deep sigh....!)
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First post venting
by Freethinking76 inhello ,i am a jw,been in the "truth " for about 6 years.i have to be very careful because i know the witnesses monitors sites and report to the elders ,i know cause that is what my blood sister does,she spends hours trying to find apostates in the closet.i know stuped.. so this is my situation.i have known about jw almost all my life and heard that only them have the truth,lots of my family are in it.i was the one taking too long to baptize ,i knew it was expected from me.and i always had a need to make ppl like me .so i took the dip.i started to notice that there are lots of jws that belong to little groups.i wanted friendship so bad and at the time had a need o tell ppl about my horrible childhood traumas i guess i was not over it yet,and needed some to lisent since i had drove my spouse nuts already .what happend this ppl pretend to want to be close to me so they can know all my business and then tell everyone at the hall.then you realize uhhh,they never confided their personal stuff to me.is like a game " you can tell me your stuff,but do not expect me to keep it to myself and do not think i will tell you my dirty laundry.a lot of mind games.. so i was alone ,invisible ,i still can't believe i put up with so much !
i can't wright not even half of what i when through.i feel paranoic now.so i came across a youtube video by jwstruggle and blow my mind ,now i can't stop researching,my spouse is not a jw,and is very shock too.so i decided that i want to fade,i guess it won't be so hard since the sis and brothers did not had a close relationship with me.i have kids and i suffer from pts ,anxiety attacks,panick attacks and severe depression.i moved to the next town of my hall,so i have change hall too.i have not been to my new hall,and wanted to know,will the elders in my old hall contact the elders in my new hall just to see if i am attending?..
my spouse told me " i will tell them i am not letting you go" "and "i found out that your liars!
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abbasgreta
Hi, nice to have you here. It does get better, just hang on. Sammy Jenkis' comment was spot on.Reminds me of Psalm 35:11-16 (NLT) "Malicious witnesses testify aginst me...I was sad, as though they were my friends or family, as if I was grieving for my own mother. But now they are glad that I am in trouble, they gleefully join together against me. I am attacked by people I don't even know; they slander me constantly. They mock me and call me names; they snarl at me." When you start to doubt, read these words and remember that we have come out of a malicious, evil, destructive cult. A veneer of love and light concealing hatred for others and utter darkness. Wishing you increasing inner peace and contentment. xx
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Emotionally manipulative claptrap
by under_believer injust watched the first drama of the convention.
man what a load of simplistic, lurid, manipulative garbage.
off to barf now.
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abbasgreta
"You went out to your car"... Haha - At our last special ass day we went, by this point totally off the wt "radar", to our car, drank, albeit 2.1%, lager and watched an AC/DC Concert, Live at the River Plate for 2 hours. Mentally free that day, body and soul followed a couple of weeks later.
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Can Anointed Members Be Disfellowshiped?
by Cold Steel insince the anointed class used to be the faithful and discreet slave, i wondered if and how they can be disciplined through being disfellowshiped?
aren't they given a little more latitude in how they interpret scriptures and in what they say?
do people in kingdom halls who have anointed members defer to them in any way?
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abbasgreta
Brilliant, brilliant Blondie.(hope your'e feeling better.) Para: "God does not. however forgive all sin." The wt have wilfully and knowingly added or deleted pronunciation marks, words, passages and whole paragraphs from the Bible to support their heretical doctrines. (Holy Spirit "breathed"/inspired). This is the one fact that I must admit enrages me - the real root of all the other evils. How CAN they EVER justify it.
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Andy Murray - Woop woop!!!
by not bitter inmy voice is sore from shouting this afternoon.
i'm so so happy.
did all you brits watch?
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abbasgreta
May the Lord forgive me, I had no faith in Andy at all! Am I overjoyed he proved me wrong. I'm ashamed of myself. That last game! Giving birth was easier to handle.
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Introducing Myself
by DilloTrace ini'm new to this forum and wanted to give everyone a shout out.
i've been a silent observer of this forum for a long time, but now i feel it's time for me to break the silence and get involved.
i've been inactive since november of last year.
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abbasgreta
Hello, your'e among friends here, even if we have differing views on a number of things. But after an initial struggle (it will ease in time) you will be able to grab YOUR life in YOUR hands and realise freedom from the cult equals sheer joy and happiness because YOU are in control of it. I wish you increasing inner peace and contentment.x
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Interesting quote from the DC
by GoodGuyGreg ini don't know if anybody else has mentioned this, but i'm currently at a dc in sweden, and this morning, during the symposium on different kinds of service, it was mentioned that 40% of baptisms are the result of informal witnessing.
if you add the number of baptisms of children of jw parents to this, how many are left that are baptized as a result of the door-to-door work?
doesn't sound very effective at all....
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abbasgreta
In our area in Nottinghamshire, England, 90%ish of homes all have a sticker in the window or on the door which says" NO UNINVITED CALLERS" with like a no entry sign or similar (don't pay much attention to them now as I don't engage in cold-calling any more!) On one street (the KH street, which we as newbies in the cong (moved from another one) ALWAYS got the slip for, we were legitimately able to call on 2 houses out of perhaps 40 who did not display such a sign. I mentioned to an elder, look if they have this sign up we SHOULD NOT be knocking. He said, "Oh don't worry about that, we have been told(?) to knock anyway, and just disregard it".We never bothered these householders and just walked around looking at pretty gardens or whatever. Whilst pioneering NEVER went on Christmas day, Boxing Day etc. This was just a test to see who had the leeming mentality.One elder said on the platform "OOh, sometimes you get a mince pie and a sherry, and I ask them to put the Panda tract up with their Christmas cards". There were a few gasps and even...... not a few - shaking of heads. This was about 1998 tho.
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Hello and my exit story from WTS
by free2Bme13 ini thought it was fitting for me to share my freedom from the witnesses story on independence day weekend.. i dont have any secret info, just experiences that happened to me and started to open my eyes.. i was a third generation, raised in the truth kid who was never supposed to be born, and then never supposed to graduate high school.
ive now been out of high school longer than i was in school.. the beginning of the end started a little less than a decade ago.
i was late 20s at the time.
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abbasgreta
"Beat Up"!" Oh, what a great expression. Love your story. Welcome to the joy that is life away from the Borg. I wish you real contentment and inner peace. x
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Hi! I'm new here.
by abbasgreta ini have so enjoyed all your threads and input this last year!
i really feel like i know you all.
very briefly, all four of us left da troof exactly one year ago and dissed ourselves within days.
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abbasgreta
Mornin' all! Beautiful here today in Notts, England - got to make the most of it. Wonderful comments, thanks so much. Just wanted to say don't worry that we "rushed" into "another religion" too soon. There was a lot of spaced out soul searching and prayer in that three month interim period. Without going on about it, we just knew where the Spirit was leading us. The first hymn we sang with the Church Band (all uner 20 - amazing!) was Amazing Grace. The words went to my heart. At the end and enjoying a warm (genuine) welcome from the Vicar, YES THE VICAR! on the walk home I was just enthusing. My younger daughter said "Don't get so emotional mum, THIS IS ALWAYS HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN". What a staggering comment from a 16 year old born-in who was baptised at 14. We then enjoyed 6 months of one-to-one shepherding from the VICAR at THE VICARAGE (I still find it so hilarious!) who just blew our minds with his insight, calmness and overwhelming bible, I repeat BIBLE knowledge. I realised that jws are kept bible-ignorant on purpose because there are such gaping holes from Genesis to Revelation in the NWT.HUGE pieces of the puzzle missing. This deceit will not go unpunished, I really feel its the real meaning of "grieving the Spirit". I was a jw for 55 years and he showed us things, for example, from the Gospel of Matthew that I never, ever knew. He has been a tremendous teacher and so loving, I can't tell you, he is a real brother to me. He baptised all 4 of us in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (dunked 3 times) in a kiddie pool in the Church on January 6th last. I emerged a "new creation", nothing less, it was pivotal. We had all "unbaptised" ourselves in the family bathtub from that fake baptism to the org within 3 weeks of leaving. It was just a symbolic "washing us clean" but it changed us. Just one very interesting point. Within 2 DAYS of leaving the Borg, I had noticed something quite strange whilst praying and at other times of contact with God during the day. I decided to ask my two girls if they had experienced anything different, apart from the wanting to hug perfect strangers whilst out shopping etc. (We really honestly did that, we were so wildly estatic). They shifted about a bit and then Roxie, the eldest came out with it. "Yes, mum, I can't explain it, but when I pray I JUST CANNOT USE THE NAME JEHOVAH ANY MORE, ITS LIKE BLOCKED FROM MY MOUTH, I'm just saying God, Lord or Yahweh. The younger one had exactly the same thing to relate. And yes, you guessed it, that was my startling revelation too. Incredible isn't it? I send you all hugs and a big fat kiss you luvvies. Blessings, Greta.xxxxx (ps, Greta is my pet name that I want to use, its like a new identity, I'm actually called Ingrid). I'm not scared about any possible come-back from ANYONE, heck, our baptism made the local rag!)