Some of my thoughts as I am reading the rag for sunday:
Paragraph 2: "Only Jehovah, the true God, can undo all the damage and provide the sort of help that is needed so that such calamities will never occur again."
How does that sentence help anyone to get through a difficult situation? It is the equivalent of saying, hang on; we will deliver you soon. Don't worry, God will "soon" wipe out all the nasties and you will not have to worry.
Some comfort.
Then, check out the total missing of the point of this scripture:
"Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those in any sort of tribulation throught the comfort which we ourselves are being comforted by God." They then ask, how does God comfort us? The answer they give is the equivalent of HANG ON; God will deliver you from Adamic sin and death "SOON". Jesus will destroy Satan soon.
THEY HAVE MISSED THE ENTIRE POINT. The scripture says, God comforts us; not God WILL comfort us. I learned about real reliance on God as a higher power, not through the WT, but from a recovery oriented belief system. I felt the strength of God as I never had in 20 years of being a witness.
This entire article is lacking any real discussion of how we can rely on God and Jesus to get through each day; each minute, each second if need be. All one needs to do is look inward and discover how the depth of belief alone can guide us through what would be impossible otherwise, by surrendering ourselves to God and learning acceptance of what we can change and what we cannot.
But then, the WT cannot speak of what they do not know. The concept of allowing worshippers to connect with their own internal belief in God is anathema to them; if we, the rank and file, could access the power of God without getting if from a meeting, or field service, or a meeting with a disinterested elder, then OH MY they will realize that WE DON'T NEED THEM. In fact, they get in the way.
More proof of how OUT TO LUNCH they are in this article:
paragraph 8:
"As Jesus Christ carried out his earthly ministry, he did not always provide the help that the people thought they needed. Some longed for a Messiah who would free them from the hated yoke of Rome. But Jesus did not advocate revolution; he told them to "pay back...Caesar's ghings to Caesar." This paragraph cleverly SKIPS the point that Jesus blew away the jewish system of laws and reliance on a central, organized body of control over worshippers. Is that not a revolution? Oh ok it is not a political one as such, but it was a religious revolution to be sure. (He repeatedly and bluntly told the Pharisees, who probably did nothing illegal according to the law, that they were hypocrites, white-washed graves and that they were missing the point of the law: Love God, and your neighbor as yourself. Is it OK for anyone in the congregation today to call the elders, or the GB for that matter, on it's gross hypocrisy in allowing child molesters to walk in the congregation, or go in field service??? I guess we can't be THAT much like Jesus; just go in preaching work, go to meetings and SHUTUP about the child abuse scandal.)
More evidence that this idea bothers the WT: When this article looks for examples of how God comforts, the very first place they go to is the Hebrew Scriptures, otherwise known as the OT, and make reference to PROPHETS pointing forward to a date, specific or non-specific. Blondie hit the nail on the head: they are drawing the comparison to themselves, but as usual, they do not come out and say it honestly; you have to know that the connection is made in every mind in the audience.
Why the OT again? Oh for the good old days when God had a channel, prophets, and most of all, a SYSTEM OF CONTROL.
Check out paragraph 17: "Jesus Christ was himself under intense pressure as the end of his earthly life drew near. He was fully aware of how his conduct could affect the name of his heavenly Father and of what it could mean to the future of all humankind." Incredible: in a discussion of comfort for us, a veiled reference is made to the need, as always, to WATCH OUR CONDUCT.
As usual, the lesson has it backwards: if we can rely on our own relationship with God, unaffected by any modern day pharisees telling us how to worship, we will WANT to do what we believe God's will is for us. We won't need to be constantly beaten with the equivalent of a parent telling us to behave ourselves.
What a piece of crap again for a lesson. Not one paragraph on how a Christian can focus on his own personal relationship with God and Jesus as the means to endure; to seek to find what God's will is for each one of us, instead of listening to the repeated harping on preaching to a public that knows more than the rank and file what a BAD place the congregation has come to be.
Thanks for listening; I am on a rant again.
