by frigginconfused 26 Replies latest watchtower bible
.... Your spiritual calling is to give glory by your actions, choices and the life you lead..... not just the words you profess.
Your first obligation was to be a good husband and father......
You can be an excellent pastor, evangelizer, or teacher......but if you forsake those of your own household it means little to nothing.
Christ dwells within and manifests from the inside out.
Thanks for sharing your concerns and thoughts here. I want to be a bit blunt. Jehovah's Witnesses are a dangerous mind-control cult. It's not just the 1914 doctrine and generation and stuff like that. They control the thoughts, emotions, information control, behaviour of the members. They tell them who to avoid and shun, what to wear, how to feel about outsiders, etc. etc.
Until you get a better grip on what you understand and need, you sound like someone who is very vulnerable to another dangerous mind-control group scooping you up. Do a couple of things. Read Steve Hassan's COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL and if you still need help freeing yourself from the idea that JW's are okay except for the manmade doctrines, then read Ray Franz's CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE. Afterward, you can follow your own spiritual path and go where you may, armed with vital knowledge about groups misleading you.
Good luck.
I cannot recommend a church for you to join but look around. Join a membership organisation that do volunteers. We get more happiness in giving than in recieving. Good luck dude, you will be fine.
There has always been wars and poverty. I have no doubt that somebody living and fighting in the days of Egypt, persia, greece, rome, the huns, the mongols, the dark ages etc also felt the end must be comming soon.
The end did come for those worlds, as it surely will for our modern day civilizations. Who knows, one day the dominant world powers may be India or china or some as yet unheard of country.
You feel a pull to do something? Then change how you choose to look at the world and life!
Because you cannot change anything else, period.
I dont mean it to sound cold... but it is true none the less.
all the best in the search for inner peace you need.
oz
Have you read 'KS91'? (ie Pay Attention to Yourselves and All the Flock or Elder Manual)
Here is a link to download it if you haven't (this copy also has handwritten notations given to the Elder via WTS direction)
You want to see people doing acts of kindness and getting organized. You also would like for the GB to "listen to reason." I thought Jehovah's Witnesses were all they claimed to be for over thirty years. It was devastating to find out that they, indeed, are more about outward show than real love. Unfortunatelly, I think the utopian dream of an organization you'd like to see will never happen in an imperfect world.
I've never seen war first hand as you have, and I realize that it was hard to live through. My dad was a Marine and fought in WWII and Korea. He lived to be 85, and I should have told him how proud I was of him, but was, unfortunately, a JW, so didn't. I am closing in on sixty now, have left the witnesses. I've been forced to take a hard look at myself, and people on the planet we share.
I have seen kind acts. There is a woman at work who took me to her group of ladies, through a church, that gets together to discuss things they can do for each other, and those less fortunate. They sponser an orphanage in South America, and missions in other areas. They have clothes drives for homeless, etc. They don't blow a trumpet to advertise. There are many other groups that do good for others. I didn't realize it when I was a JW. There are good people out there, in quiet groups, showing love...perhaps organizing drives to get glasses to those who need them, doctors who fix cleft palates in children of third world countries, etc.
Perhaps you could start by being the kind of Christian yourself that you'd like others to be. The kind that doesn't scare children. The quiet kind that works hard, and looks for good in others, not expecting perfection.
When my children ask me when Im going to do certain things I answer, "when its time". At first they dont like that. But I explain that in order for me to make my desition I am waiting for things to happen first. So its driven by my waiting for things to be right for me to act.
Take the time to calm down, breathe, and realize that you can't always wait for or expect "things to be right" but you can be a real dad now, the kind your kids are proud of, and know it will please God and Jesus. Maybe you can find a group and do volunteer work. Make a difference. I know I try to do the same.
I wish the best for you.
Thank you all. I will take everything said to heart.
