This mornings WT was pretty amazing in it's totally asinine application of the term "relationship".
It started right off the bat asserting that Jehovah is only interested in a relationship with "you" AFTER "you" put forth the effort to get close to him. I asked a person I know, "What would people think of me if I went in the hall and just sat in a chair ignoring everyone and waited for people to come to me, as a condition of being friendly?"
Then they said that communication with God is vital for a good relationship. The example of a long distance friendship was used, writing letters and phone calls. They said that humans talk to God by prayer and he answers when we read and meditate on the Bible. I could not resist raising my hand and making the comment, "We pray to God. Then we get an answer when we read and meditate on what the Bible says. However, the WT has stated many times in print that we cannot really understand the Bible without the "loving" instruction from the governing body who help us hear gods words after he inspires the governing body to let us know what the Bible really teaches." (normal head bobbing, shlt eating grin agreement)
Par. 8 basically said we shouldn't get upset if the Bible doesn't answer our questions. God knows best. Then some barely remembered OT example of a king with two different names was given. I wonder why they didn't use David and the way he got 70,000 innocents slaughtered for his actions?
Par. 10 informed us we don't need an explanation for everything God does. Reading between the lines one sees that one should never question the governing body as they are God's inspired mouth-piece. Actual wording was study and meditate on God's word the Bible, but how many times has the governing body said the Bible cannot be understood without their interpretation?
Par. 12 made the assertion that one should know God answers prayers, and that the belief that putting thoughts into prayer, identifying the issue, then setting ones mind on finding a solution is wrong. So much for the governing body mandate to "work in harmony with your prayers."
Par 14 said to be specific in prayer so you could see "subtle" answers. I would think if God wanted us to believe in his willingness to answer prayers he would be just a bit more obvious in his answers. Silly me!
Par 15 then directly contradicted par. 12 with a "experience" of someone who didn't like field serve us. She prayed, and then did something about it, and lo-and-behold she started to "love" field serve us. Why didn't she just magically love it after praying?
Then of course the guilt was laid on in the last paragraph. It said next week we get to find out how to face the "special challenge" of our personal problems persisting even when we pray. Of course OFS had to raise his hand and comment again. "We saw in par. 3 that friends will communicate with each other via letters and phone calls over long distance quite often. If one of the persons involved consistently ignored repeated letters, emails, and phone calls we would rightfully question the value of that friendship. So the special challenge we face today is when we repeatedly pray and see no answer to our prayers. The next article will tell us why that is our fault." (Damned head bobbing shlt eating grins again!)
