Attending a Real Memorial

by ozziepost 9 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  ozziepost

  Mrs Ozzie and I have just returned home after celebrating the Lord's Evening Meal in the manner of that first night 2,000 years ago.

  We gathered together with 'authentic' foods of the time and then showed how the Passover was celebrated with the bread and wine. Why we even had the bitter herbs!

  Then we shared as a group of about 40 in the Communion.

  Then, just as those early disciples did, we sang a song of praise to our Lord. We stayed around in pleasant conversation, then we departed for our homes, feeling uplifted and strengthened.

  Some of us Dubs there couldn't help but wonder why we couldn't have been doing this scriptural act for all the preceding years. How free we felt as we passed around the bread and the wine without having a formal talk, nor sitting in our 'Sunday best' while a man stood before us and spent most of the 45 minutes admominishing us not to partake.

  Oh, what a difference!

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

  
  - Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
• 

  Frenchy

  "nor sitting in our 'Sunday best' while a man stood before us and spent most of the 45 minutes admominishing us not to partake."

  That always seemed to be a big concern...what if...gasp!...someone unworthy drinks or eats!
• 

  anewperson

  Was this sponsored by a church, or as I'm guessing a group of Australian exJWs??
• 

  ozziepost

  I conducted a memorial talk on many occasions over the decades and the over-riding concern was to make clear to the "Interested Persons" that they shouldn't partake.

  Seems strange now to think that we believed that we did our darnedest to invite all interested people to an occasion where we tempted them with the bread and wine but told them they shouldn't partake. Hard to justify, ain't it?

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

  
  - Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
• 

  You Know

  Is that part of the apostofest ritual? LOL / You Know
• 

  ozziepost

  anewperson,

  I'll be coy but say simply, Both!

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

  
  - Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
• 

  ozziepost

  You Know,

  Nice try but you're so wrong!

  I'll make it quite clear: At no gathering that we have had, known as Sydney BBQs, have we introduced ANY religious proselytising of any kind. All those who gather do so because of a common experience as JWs. Each one is on a different part of his/her road to freedom. For some it is a road to Christian freedom, but it's not the purpose of these gatherings to direct people to an organisation.

  I hope, You Know, that's quite clear.

  Oh dear, I think you may have taken on the role of Devil's advocate!

  Not very good for a TRUE Christian!

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

  
  - Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
• 

  Francois

  My spirit warrior friends and I get together whenever the Spirit moves us to do very similar stuff. We do not have a "speaker," however we each may say whatever the Spirit moves us to say. And sometimes that "small, quiet voice" will indeed move us to say plenty. But mainly, it's a short, quiet time, with meditation and inward prayer each to the God of his own understanding.

  Many times this remembrance is spontaneous, and occurs when we've gotten together for some other reason, like when an out of town warrior comes to visit. We all feel the "once a year in your Sunday best" to be harrangued by some jerk whose IQ is not but bigger than his hat size is just sheer nonsense.

  Francois
• 

  AGuest

  Dearest You Know... it is YOU and your current 'friends' who are the apostates, those who 'stand away' from God and 'shut up the kingdom of the heavens before men.' You completely disregard his instructions to ALL of his 'belongings', that ANYONE may eat of it and live forever... and that 'UNLESS you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood YOU HAVE NO LIFE IN YOURSELF.' Those are HIS words.

  And yet, you and your false leaders teach that those who do NOT eat 'have life... in themselves'. From what is the 'source' of such life, You Know? For it does not originate with the Father, by means of the Son. So from where do such ones GET such 'life in themselves'? They are not PERMITTED to eat and drink, thus barring the Way from before them. So, you... please... tell me.

  You hypocrite. Today my patience with you is quite short. You and your friends teach the 'traditions of men' as the doctrines of God. You trust in YOURSELVES that you are righteous, yet forgetting all along that my Lord did not come to CALL righteous people... but sinners. Yet, you all believe yourselves to be 'without sin' and so run around 'casting stones'.

  Go, then, and follow your false prophets and their golden calf. Go on following those who seat THEMSELVES in the seat of Moses. Go throw yourself at the feet of the thieves and plunderers who have come 'in place' of my Lord, naming THEMSELVES as the 'visible representation of the Lord on earth', when in TRUTH, the ONLY representation of God... and my Lord... is the 'temple', as it has always been. And the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of the Religious Order of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and Kingdom Service... Incorporated... is NOT that temple. Never has been.

  For the temple is made up of LIVING stones... and although such men that YOU 'adore' have deemed it their personal duty to shut up the Way, the DOOR is STILL opened, the Way STILL accessible... and the temple STILL being constructed... NOT by the WTBTS... but by the Son of DAVID. And NOT as a place for people to gather and pass BY the flesh and blood of Christ, which true food and true drink is a feature of the means for saving them... but as a place for God to inhabit... by SPIRIT. For where the BODY is, the eagles gather... and EAT.

  Sigh! Your blind, self-righteous hypocrisy chagrins me this day. I beg you: GO! BUY EYESALVE... that you may see! For as long as you continue to THINK you see... although you do NOT... your sin... remains.

  A slave of Christ,

  SJ
• 

  AGuest

  And sometimes that "small, quiet voice" will indeed move us to say plenty.

  Say what?! No, not you, dear Francois. Hearing a voice, albeit small and quiet?! Indeed!

  Proverbs 8:4-9

  Peace to you, my brother!!!

  YOUR servant and a 'fellow' slave of Christ,

  SJ