Two Number 4s, and a large Cup of...

RichieRich

A family in my congregation, who has recently fallen on some hard times, just had some hard times fall on them. Last Saturday, a very large tree fell right square on their house. No one was harmed, but it definitely hurt their wallets. They are now in a hotel, and it was announced at the bookstudy that the elder's had checked on them, and that they were fine. I called the husband (he's young, and a good friend of mine- recently deleted as a MS) and he told me that the elders only called to see if he could still give his talk this week. He was pissed. I told him I'd give the talk for him. That's what *real* friends do. Then I asked what the situation was with his house.

He told me that the 80 + year old oak that had fallen had made their house uninhabitable, and that they were staying in a hotel. When I asked how he was going to afford living in a hotel for months, he told me that the Red Cross was helping out. (Wait, didn't my mother just stop me from giving them a dollar a WalMart 2 weeks ago? i.e. "they just spend it on commercials.") He then said that just having the tree removed to cover the roof and protect from further damage would be almost 7 grand. (Thats 74079873987985 $ canadian)

I called another fringe brother, and we decided to take the day off yesterday, and go do what we could with the tree. I gained access (and permission) to some large, fire fighting chain saws, and we used those to remove the entire tree from the roof. We then covered it with thick plastic sheeting to protect from as much water damage as possible. When the brother came by his house to pick up a few things, he was moved to tears.

There stood 3 men. 2 dirty, 1 stressed, and 1, astonishingly handsome (me). Not "brothers" in Jehovah's sense, but brothers in a the true sense. Working for others feels amazing, and chainsaws are an incredible stress reliever.

So then I have this fellow's talk to cover. Its tonight, the #4, based on Prverbs 4:23 "Safeguard your Heart". We all know I'm an expert on that . And then the week of Feb 20, I've got the daggon #4 AGAIN, but this time about Violent Video Games (which I'm actually innocent on, I spend all my time on Apostate websites).

So there we have it.

COuntdown to Richie's Freedom: http://mattyg-lieb.com/profiles/users/countdown.php?id=16608&sn=%n&a=b

Quentin

Way to go!!

lucifer

aww thats good that some people actually care about others, good job RR

What-A-Coincidence

u r a hero!

carla

I want to adopt Richie. If your mom doesn't see what she's got, she's nuts. What a good friend you are, hope the family is doing ok with all the other stuff they have to deal with. Not just financially.

RichieRich

Oh, and here's the talk.

"Safeguard Your Heart"
Just south of Wendell and Zebulon exists a little park called the Historic Oak View County Park. This park's namesake was its hundreds of tall oak trees that dotted it's landscape. Visited by more than 100,000 people a year, it was one of Wake County's most popular parks.
However in early September, 1996, Hurricane Fran came through and partially or completely destroyed over half of the tall oaks that once stood proud. After the storm had cleared, botanists set out to find why such seemingly strong trees had fallen. The conclusions from their research showed that the staff scientists there had only monitored the exterior health of the trees, and that they had known nothing about the strength of their cores or the health of their roots.
Similarly, Solomon once appeared to be a strong servant of Jehovah, ruling with Wisdom over God's people. However, he began to allow himself to be influenced to act against Jehovah, and then found his reign to be oppressive, harsh, and full of reprisals.
Why? Because he failed to heed the counsel he himself scribed, found in Proverbs 4:23, where it says," More than all else that is to be guarded, safeguard your heart, for out of it are the sources of life."
Are we successfully safeguarding our figurative heart? How can we know the condition of the inner person? Jesus tells us at Matthew 12:34. He also stated: “Out of the heart come wicked reasonings, murders, adulteries, fornications, thieveries, false testimonies, blasphemies.” We can see that our words and actions speak volumes about what we are at heart.
The Bible book of Proverbs contains some very fitting admonitions from King Solomon at Proverbs 4:24-27. (READ)
In view of Solomon’s admonition, we need to examine our speech and our actions. If we are to safeguard the heart and please God, crooked speech and deviousness must be avoided. Therefore, we should prayerfully reflect on what our words and deeds reveal about us. Then let us seek Jehovah’s help in order to correct any weakness we detect.
Above all, may ‘our eyes look straight ahead.’ Let us keep them fixed on the goal of rendering whole-souled service to our heavenly Father. As we personally pursue such an upright course, may Jehovah grant us success in “all our own ways,” and may he bless each of us richly for heeding the inspired counsel to “safeguard your heart.”

Elsewhere

Rich,

You need to confront the elder who made the announcement about your friend being OK when in reality he was not. I suspect when the elder called the guy he quickly asked the polite question "How ya doing?" as most people do in passing. When your friend responded with the usual "ok", the elder used that to warrant the announcement.

Talk to your friend and if it turns out that this is what happened, dig up the May 1st 2002 Watchtower and find the article titled: Jehovah Hates The Course of Treachery

10. Are we personally alert, so that no unrighteousness is found on our lips? For example, can our family members really trust what we say? Can our spiritual brothers and sisters in the congregation do the same? It would be easy to develop the habit of couching one’s words in terms that are technically accurate but misleading.

Two Number 4s, and a large Cup of...

RichieRich

Quentin

lucifer

What-A-Coincidence

carla

RichieRich

Elsewhere

undercover

RichieRich

greendawn

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