iamfreenow

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Posts by iamfreenow

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  18

  I saw a beautiful thing yesterday --- a gift from God

  by jgnat in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  yesterday i saw a couple i hadn't seen for many years sitting together on the bus.

  i'd always wondered if they had managed to stay together.

  they looked the same, save a few more dry wrinkles, as they did twenty years ago.

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  iamfreenow

  What a lovely story, thankyou for sharing it. It is sad about the baby, but they are still together.
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  12

  New Website for those raised JW

  by mblack in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just want to let you know about my new website.

  i was raised jw and disfellowshiped at 16. along with a few of my own experiences that i relate, i interviewed fourteen people raised jw for my senior thesis in college.

  after quite some time i have finally gotten it up on the internet.

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  iamfreenow

  Hello Marie, and welcome to the forum, I will have a look at your site soon.
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  25

  Question for JW believers...or whoever wants to answer

  by kittyeatzjdubs in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i often wondered this myself a lot growing up, and i must know.... if there was no paradise hope, no promise of living forever or having your dead loved ones resurrected....would you still serve your god and follow the organization?

  would you have ever began studying with the witnesses for that matter or stayed in the ''truth'' if you were raised in it?.

  because isn't that the golden ticket that jw's wave in front of their studies or interested ones?

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  iamfreenow

  When you are brought up in the Watchtower Society, as I was from birth, you have the hope of eternal life in paradise dangled in front of you from a very early age. You are told to expect ridicule at school, possibly bullying, but are continously told that it will be all worthwhile in the end, because one day all the ridiculers and bullies will be gone, and you will be with your brothers and sisters in paradise.

  And you tend to believe it, because it's what your parents are telling you, what your friends in the congregation are telling you, what you are being told at conventions, and what the Watchtower's leaders are telling you, so it must be right.

  So you endure all the ridicule, all the bullying, all the disappointments, like 1975 and the 1995 generation change, because you absolutely know it's going to be worth it in the end. This terrible system is going to end soon, Armageddon is just around the corner, and after that corner is turned, all the wickedness will have ended, and you wil be living in perfect conditions with perfect health, and will be able to enjoy both through all eternity.

  Without that hope, why would anyone become a JW? There would simply be no point enduring all those things without the promise of a reward at the end of it all. I have heard people say they would serve Jehovah without that hope, because it's the right thing to do, and I have probably said the same thing myself, but those saying it haven't had that hope taken away. No one knows how they would react if suddenly the Governing Body announced that maybe the new system might not happen after all, or it wasn't going to be as wonderful as the picture they have always painted of it. I rather suspect that the worldwide figure of 6.5 million active JWs would diminish overnight if they did not have that hope. It's all that sustains most of the ones I know, and it's all that sustained me for many, many years.

  Marion
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  22

  Confirmed TED JARACZ has heart problems.

  by yesidid in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i received info from brooklyn and can confirm that ted jaracz has seen a heart surgeon.

  the source gave the impression.

  that he is not in immediate danger, and there was no comment on his location..

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  iamfreenow

  While I bear no ill - will to anyone, it's not easy to feel sympathy for such a cold, ruthless man as Ted Jaracz. He is obviously the most powerful and outspoken member of the Governing Body, and maybe JWs in general will benefit in some way if he has to give up his power, or has it taken from him by death. I have wondered how many of the GB actually completely believe in everything they teach. I suspect that some of them may not.
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  42

  If U Don't Go To All The Meetings & Conventions You're Not Jehovah's Friend

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so said an elder's wife who is considered the most respected sister in the congregation.

  she said this at my mom's bookstudy where many elderly attend.

  when my mother told me what the elder's wife has said, i said, "well, it's better to know now where you stand with jehovah than later, i guess".

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  iamfreenow

  I wonder if that same sister will reflect on her words if she ever has a problem that prevents her from attending all the meetings and conventions? I wonder how she will feel if that situation arises, and someone makes that comment to her?

  It is a very insensitive comment to make when there are those present who's physical infirmities make it difficult for them to attend everything. She should have thought about who was listening, or kept her mouth shut.

  Marion
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  70

  NEWBIES how many of you

  by plmkrzy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  have joined in the past month or two?.

  i can't keep up there seems to be so many so i wanted to start a welcome thread for new newbies.. sorry if this was already done recently.. note: the in-built search system is currently being redeveloped so i am not able to check for this topic without looking through tons of pages.. anyway...say hello!.

  plm.

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  iamfreenow

  Hello, I'm new. I joined at the end of last month.

  Marion
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  40

  Whats your worst household chore.........?

  by vitty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ......................mine has got to be the weekly grocery shop....................oh how i dread and hate it.

  i used to think it was the ironing but id rather do a ton of ironing if i didnt have to shop.. its so boring, same food week in week out.................loading it onto the conveyer belt, packing it putting it in the car.........taking it out of the car...........putting it into cupboards then saying " what shall i cook for dinner?

  " but by then i just can face the food.. so whats yours?, mowing the lawn and cleaning the car are included .

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  iamfreenow

  I hate dusting and polishing, it never seems to have much of an effect either, the dust is always back within hours of moving it.
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  16

  Things we were persuaded to believe

  by iamfreenow in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  linda and i were just chatting about some of the more odd beliefs of jws, and how we tended to accept them despite not totally understanding them.

  the jws have a tendency to pick incidents from the scriptures and look for a modern - day application, priding themselves on being the only ones who can truly understand what these things mean for todays' world.

  there are severa that i had trouble getting my head around, but gullibly accepted the society's take on them.. for example, i always had problems accepting or even understanding the jw interpretation of the 7 trumpet balasts of revelation, which they said were fulfilled by 7 conventions held between 1922 and 1928. the wtbs was an insignificant religion then compared to the more mainstream churches, and isn't all that significant now in terms of membership, and i just couldn't see why a seemingly - significant event in the bible would find it's fulfillment in a series of conventions that the majority of humanity wouldn't even be aware were taking place.

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  iamfreenow

  Linda and I were just chatting about some of the more odd beliefs of JWs, and how we tended to accept them despite not totally understanding them. The JWs have a tendency to pick incidents from the scriptures and look for a modern - day application, priding themselves on being the only ones who can truly understand what these things mean for todays' world. There are severa that I had trouble getting my head around, but gullibly accepted the Society's take on them.

  For example, I always had problems accepting or even understanding the JW interpretation of the 7 trumpet balasts of Revelation, which they said were fulfilled by 7 conventions held between 1922 and 1928. The WTBS was an insignificant religion then compared to the more mainstream churches, and isn't all that significant now in terms of membership, and I just couldn't see why a seemingly - significant event in the Bible would find it's fulfillment in a series of conventions that the majority of humanity wouldn't even be aware were taking place. I accepted it, of course, but never quite understood it.

  Another strange idea, to me at any rate, was the Society's thought that the ships of Kittim, from Daniel 11, had a modern - day fulfillment by the British Navy during World War 1. When we discussed this at the book study, no one could really grasp it, and I can remember the conductor saying that JWs are the only religion that realise the significance of the ships of Kittim, and how they have a modern fulfillment. Most of us left the study with a baffled expression on our faces that night, but we all accepted it, after all the Watchtower said it, so it must be right.

  That's just a couple of bizarre, to say the least, JW ideas, there are more. Was anyone else baffled by these "explanations", or can you think of other strange interpretaions that bothered you at the time, but you went along with anyway because you thought the Society was infallible?

  Marion
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  27

  Would you still remember most names of JW's in your congregation?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  would you still remember most names of jw's in your congregation if you saw them again.. let it be the children or people your age or older.. gee, even when i was active, i knew less than half the names of brothers and sisters and their kids..

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  iamfreenow

  Having only just left, yes of course, I expect I will remember them for some time to come, although most of them will act as if they don't know me when we meet.
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  7

  Great visit with my cousin/best friend yesterday....

  by AK - Jeff in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  he made an appointment with me to discuss pre-need funeral arrangements - he is a funeral director now.

  i agreed and he came to my home for the first time since we left borgland three years back.

  in fact he had never seen our home, since we moved in the meantime.. we discussed the business at hand and then spent several hours talking about my leaving the organization, his attitudes toward me and that, the un scandal, and a few other matters of that sort.

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  iamfreenow

  Well done Jeff, you handled that very well

  I am learning to live with losing friends and family to the borg - but hope that in this case it turns out differently

  That's something I have to learn, sooner or later. I don't yet know how I will cope.

  Marion