Memorial - Why do i keep going? (page 2)

heathen

Maybe you just like being shunned . That is strange to go and know they will all snub you as an apostate . It's the one day a year sister or brother holier than thou shows they aren't worthy after all. That talk they give is really lame , all about why you aren't worthy , the only religion in the world that can't have a church dinner without ridiculous guide lines .

cantleave

Don't go - you won't be zapped!

OnTheWayOut

You might be attending to be seen by family, or to have word-of-mouth get to the ones that shun you that you are going. If that's the case, you may be asking them to talk to you because there is hope for you.

If not, you might be going because it's been drilled into you that this is the way you must honor Jesus and honor God.

Really consider not going.

Cinciguy74

This might make it easier to not go this year. Consider the facts:

They are celebrating a day early.

The full moon marking the start of Passover (and indeed Passover itself this year) is not until the following night.

Nisan 14 does not mark the start of Passover, Nisan 15 does.

This would be like attempting to celebrate your wedding anniversary a day early. I don't think your spouse would have appreciated that you not only forgot when the wedding was, but purposely tried to celebrate on the wrong day every year.

Hortensia

I am so screwed up now i not sure if i believe in a Creator!, let alone who or what that may be.

That isn't screwed up, it's coming to your senses.

I was born into the truth, married into the truth and my ex is devote.

It isn't the truth, you know it isn't true, why keep calling it that?

I could NEVER return to the CULT now seeing it for what it is.

You return every year in spite of your insight telling you it is a cult. Time to stop going back.

Why are you hanging on to that last little string? Once you know the answer to that, you'll know how to proceed.

Dagney

The memorial only has the power you give it. And we all gave it power at one time.

Step out of box...try not going and do something else to replace it, something memorable. The importance and the hold it has will fade as you build your own life and distance yourself from it. Happy trails!

biometrics

If there's one meeting you should never miss, it's the memorial. As a JW that's something you're conditioned to think.

For some strange reason I felt guilty for not going the first few times.

djeggnog

@maisha:

I do not attend meetings nor active in anyway, My family shun me,(all [devoted] believers) but i do feel drawn to attend each year. I am out for sure, but i no longer have faith, or a belief in any [religious] body as being approved by GOD. [¶] I am so screwed up now i not sure if i believe in a Creator!, let alone who or what that may be.

I could talk to you if you want either here if you start a different thread or via PM.

The power plays that i witnessed within are what first woke me up,,,at first i let it go, forgiving those involved as brothers do. but again and again power and position is and was the thing to have, you got the power you got everything. Other Elders Blatantly lying in a JCM, asking [deeply] intimate sexual questions of people, it just got to the point i had had enough. How could i preach and teach others when i knew in my heart things were not true!. I couldnt.

Of course, what happened at that time has already happened, but I don't believe you should have been subjected to questions of an intimate nature for any reason, but not all elders would ask such questions during such a meeting. I wouldn't have done this, but obviously some elders would and did do this to you.

But i still attend the memorial,,,, for the life of me i cannot answer why i do!. [¶] Am I CRAZY?.....

No, you're not crazy, and you really should go on April 5, 2012, for at Luke 22:19, Jesus did request his followers to observe the memorial of his death, saying, "Keep doing this in remembrance of me." You can read this in your own copy of the Bible, so what other justification would you need to do so? You may not presently be in good standing with God's organization as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, but only those that have been baptized can be disfellowshipped, which means that you are still a baptized servant of God, and Jesus never said that "if it happens that the date on which the memorial occurs should also be when any of you are being disciplined, then...."

You may attend the memorial at any Kingdom Hall wherever this celebration that provided to mankind not just forgiveness of our sins, but the prospect of life in the earthly realm of God's kingdom in the future for those of us that are observers and not participants.

@leavingwt wrote:

Have you read Steve Hassan's first book?

@maisha wrote:

No i havent , will check him out,, cheers

@Pams girl wrote:

Maisha, surely if you are contemplating NOT going, your inner voice is trying to tell you something? Listen to your heart, it wont let you down. [¶] Nothing bad is going to happen if you dont go.

I don't know. Maybe you should skip reading Hassan's Combating Cult Mind Control, since you indicated that you already feel "so screwed up." I cannot concur with what @leavingwt suggested, for I don't see how your reading Hassan's book could be of any help to you unless you should be looking for additional reasons to hate all Jehovah's Witnesses based on the way you were treated by the elders in your local congregation. Keep in mind that many of those doing all of this "love bombing" of you here on JWN were formerly Jehovah's Witnesses themselves, who are now disgruntled and bitter about their experiences after they had either disassociated themselves or been disfellowshipped from God's organization. I would recommend taking the advice they might give you with caution.

@Pams girl talks about an "inner voice," but here is no "inner voice" trying to tell you anything. You have a conscience, the same as does @Pams girl, but if @Pams girl's conscience has become seared, then she hears nothing, but at least your conscience seems to be working. Again, at Luke 22:19, Jesus said to "keep doing this in remembrance of me." It's a kindly request that Jesus is making here, not a command. If you have a conscience toward God, then by all means you should being doing what your conscience tells you is the right thing to do. I cannot tell you what to do, for you must be guided by your own conscience, not my conscience, @Pams girl's conscience, not anyone's conscience but your own.

@Pams girl also told you that "nothing bad" will happen to you. Satan said pretty much the same thing to Eve though the serpent to deceive her in doing what her conscience should have told her was bad. One thing about the conscience: It will eat you up inside if you ignore what it dictates based on the conscience of someone else. How can she possibly know what effect your not attending the Memorial of Christ's death will have on you? Perhaps @Pams girl is right, but how do you know she is right? Has she somehow managed to enter your inner psyche to know what you feel, what you think, what things you believe to be right and wrong? Have you confessed any of such things to @Pams girl?

That's kinda like when someone suggests that a man not attend his own father's funeral, because in life he was such a heartless bastard and treated almost everyone with contempt. The only person that really has to live with that decision -- and I think it is always a bad decision for anyone to listen to anyone, whether it be a member of one's own family or a fellow Witness -- and not attend someone's funeral, especially if the deceased should be a disfellowshipped family member and that funeral is being outside of the Kingdom Hall, if attending that one's funeral is what one's conscience is telling one to do.

You don't get two bites at the apple. You either attend or you don't. You cannot remember a wedding that you never attended, you cannot remember a funeral that you never attended, just like you cannot remember a particular Memorial of Christ's Death that you never attended. Furthermore, to ignore one's conscience in order to follow another's conscience can kill your resolve to do other things because of you decision like this, to ignore one's own conscience in order to obey the dictates of someone else's conscience.

Once you stop listening to your own conscience in doing the things that you know to be right, you're no longer in control. As is stated at Romans 6:16: "Do you not know that if you keep presenting yourselves to anyone as slaves to obey him, you are slaves of him because you obey him...?" Ignore your conscience and don't go, @maisha, and guess to whom your soul will belong? Not just to @Pams girl, but to everyone else that persuaded you to ignore your conscience and listen to their's.

I happen to recall an occasion when Jesus said to someone, "You will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43) Jesus was speaking to a thief, someone that had never done even half of the things you did when you formerly associated with Jehovah's Witnesses. He had never dedicated his life to God to observe the Law of Moses, nor had he ever been baptized as a disciple of Christ Jesus. Not only had you dedicated your life to unreservedly do God's will henceforth as a follower of Jesus Christ, but you symbolized your dedication by water baptism. That thief didn't do this.

What on earth makes you think that Jehovah God would be so unrighteous as to have forgotten all of the things you did in his Son's name, the work you did, the love you showed in ministering to the holy ones, the anointed followers of Christ Jesus, and ministering to the spiritual needs of us through your witnessing activities? I can tell you this, @maisha: I am persuaded that Jehovah has not forgotten what things you have done, and he fully knows your circumstances and what factors were at work, which led to your disfellowshipment. (Hebrews 6:10) Jehovah is not a human being, but a loving God, The Spirit, and unlike a human being, he will not forever find fault, nor will he forever remain resentful. (Psalm 103:9)

@dog is god:

If you go it's as if there is a game going on, the partakers watch the game having crackers and red wine. you don't see the game but you just sit quietly and watch those watching it. You are not invited to play or watch. Why go?

Have you ever watched a live chess tournament? maybe when chess grandmasters are participants in that tournament? What about one of the Texas Hold'em poker tournaments? Ever watch one of those, maybe on tv? As an observer, you aren't offered any of the libations that are offered the contestants at these live tournaments, are you? Or when you are watching a poker tournament, you have to make your own popcorn and fetch your own drinks during the matches, don't you?

Similarly, when you attend a funeral, do you go there necessarily to observe the ceremony or to participate in it? Yes, some serve attendees may serve as pallbearers, but for the most part, if you aren't giving the sermon, what else do observers do except observe? What about weddings? Ever been invited to one of those?

Have you ever felt dissed or annoyed as an observer because you weren't selected to serve as one of the bridesmaids or the best man? I have been invited to sing at a few of the wedding receptions I've attended, and I'd love to play my alto sax at the next one if the groom doesn't mind me doing both, but I've not been requested to sing at every wedding reception I've been invited to attend, so in these other instances I do what everyone does: I observe.

Of course, the wedding reception is very different than the wedding ceremony, so why go to a wedding if all you are going to do there anyway is observe the nuptials? For the same reason we attend the memorial of Christ's Death, because we were requested by the Lord Jesus Christ to do so.

@djeggnog

Pams girl

My conscience is clear djeggnog, and in no way "seared" thank you. I just wanted to make sure you are clear on that.

You say "how do you know she is right"?

How do you know I am wrong????? Ok, lets not even go there. Why do you insist on turning everything into a nine act opera??? MAISHA........please come back and tell us what you decided to do.

And if you didnt go, as you havent before, how Jehovah didnt smite you or turn you into a fireball in the middle of Wallmart.

And on that note...I bid you ALL, a very good night.

PAULA

redvip2000

I find myself going as well every year, but not out of my own volition. Every year i tell myself that it's silly to attend it, and that absolutely i can do my own private celebration if i want to. Then usually a few days prior to the date i start getting calls from friends who are still dubbs inviting me to go, followed by a nice dinner afterwards.

I end up going, mostly because i want to see them and have dinner with them. I spend most of the actual memorial meeting rolling my eyes at most of the stuff that is said, then happily leave with the friends for dinner.

Nobody has invited me yet, so perhaps i won't go this year.

Memorial - Why do i keep going?

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