this is my first post and here's my story.. my father became a witness long ago and my mom remained a lutheran.
our attendance was sporadic due to mom's opposition.
they knew our mom was lutheran and that she kept us from attending many meetings.
Well Krista,
You have found the home of countless people at various stages of the same journey you are on. It is good to be validated and have support from others who understand.
Hopefully you have not traded your real world of friends for the JW community already. Reviewing all the folks you describe at your KH made me wonder at how hard I tried for 40 years to make friends out of so many people I didn't even like.
Stick around, you fit in already.
Jst2laws
it appears 2 me that jws harp so much on the new system and the " good news of the kingdom " that maybe the real theme of the bible is lost in the process.
from what i've studied the theme of the bible is all about jesus.
from the seed of genesis 3:15 to gods promise to abraham to giving the law as a tutor to christ ( you can't live or justify your salvation by law, you must have sins atoned 4 by jesus' sacrifice) 2 the real good news of the first century faith in that sacrifice and living like jesus did and being a christian which is learning how 2 love which brings life right now and future prospects of hope.
Yep they preverted the good news, as Honesty points out above.
TheOtherSide,
I have not welcomed you to the board yet. You already have the picture. If you read Galations and Romans, especially with that hated LIVING BIBLE (paraphrased bible) it is perfectly clear that WORKS OF LAW "saved no man" but getting "right with God" is FREE, just believe it is so.
While I believe the message Jesus offered is much deeper then Christendom offers and yet is only a stepping stone itself, this getting RIGHT WITH GOD BY FAITH is a step that cannot be skipped by western society riddiled with guilt.
Just remember Paul said, "I came to know nothing but Jesus Christ". In the Watchtower we came to know EVERYTHING BUT Jesus Christ.
Jst2laws
being consciously present in this moment of life's expression, being open and meeting with this present moment of reality, being truly with what is actually here without judgments and mental commentary, does not seem to leave much room for beliefs in deities and their shenanigans.
in fact such imaginings only seem to steal away the vibrant aliveness of here.
so, perhaps, it is when we are not that much present with the truth of life, right here, right now, and rather lost in mental interpretations that we feel a need to become involved in the drama of gods and religion.
Tetropod,
i guess i have always been afraid of letting myself go
That's it. Fear. And if you are intellectual you fear being a fool to 'experience' rather than being . . . well . . Rene DesCartes comes to mind.
Codeblue,
Knowing you a little, you might go to the library and check out The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. He will give you an introduction to this thinking and maybe help you personally.
Steve
being consciously present in this moment of life's expression, being open and meeting with this present moment of reality, being truly with what is actually here without judgments and mental commentary, does not seem to leave much room for beliefs in deities and their shenanigans.
in fact such imaginings only seem to steal away the vibrant aliveness of here.
so, perhaps, it is when we are not that much present with the truth of life, right here, right now, and rather lost in mental interpretations that we feel a need to become involved in the drama of gods and religion.
James Thomas,
I can see that there is a warm familiar security in staying within the confines of thought, for I am king there; but to open consciousness wide and step outside, naked and exposed, is to lose all sense of control..... It can be exciting just holding, sensing and looking upon a leaf too deeply. Just being with life, can be quite an experience.
Many, especially those like myself who want to keep a grip on the allusion of reality, will not take the leap until we see some room for validation from science. No science, not even Quantum Mechanics, promotes this type experience because science is not into "experiencing" in research but only OBSERVATION. Yet anyone who understands what Quantum Physics has found, contrary to what they expected to find according to the Newtonian world view, must fight the tendency to wonder about the possibility that our perception of reality is only that, A PERCEPTION. From there even skeptics as myself may feel justified in asking, "is there a reality beyond this perception". I have, since youth, had a sense of connection to something. After leaving the WT I decided it was all a fraud and my feelings were imagined. Then I got hooked on science and found more reason to question my perception of reality then to question my spiritual "experience". It depends on where you are coming from. But you are right regarding where we should end up. I guess I'm trying to make it easier for people like myself to take the leap to where you are. Steve (jst2laws)
i just made a copy and paste of the paid advertizements appearing on the "active" page.
that didn't work when i posted.
so i will describe the advertizing supporters of jwd.
I just made a copy and paste of the paid advertizements appearing on the "active" page. That didn't work when I posted. So I will describe the advertizing supporters of JWD.
Book Binding for Witnesses www.bookbind.net
Tour Bethel World Wide www.bethelcoach.???
Meet your match today www.Jwmatch.com
and then an EBAY add for JW lit
Except for the Ebay add, these JW entrepreneurs pay google to appear on top, and I believe they pay a few pennies for every click on their add. Simon gets a morsel from google for their appearing on his site (something like $10 to $20 a month). I may be wrong about this, but if true, isn't it wonderful that these JW's are willing to support an "apostates" web site.
Jst2laws
.
for more information on this topic: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/91009/1.ashx
Ezekial3,
sf: Would you like me to scan a piece of Kingdom Hall toilet paper to go with that?
You can't outdo the WT unless it is thoroughly USED toilet paper. Jst2laws
being consciously present in this moment of life's expression, being open and meeting with this present moment of reality, being truly with what is actually here without judgments and mental commentary, does not seem to leave much room for beliefs in deities and their shenanigans.
in fact such imaginings only seem to steal away the vibrant aliveness of here.
so, perhaps, it is when we are not that much present with the truth of life, right here, right now, and rather lost in mental interpretations that we feel a need to become involved in the drama of gods and religion.
Tetrapod,
I relate to what JT says, but from a scientific foundation based in Quantum physics. You too seem to have interest in science. Have you looked at the philosophies of some of the great founders of QM?
Jst2laws
.
i just noticed, today, that i broke the 10,000 post mark - a tenfold-jedi.. there i was givin' me ole mucker ozzie a right slagging off, t'other day, fer doin' t'same.... ...an i've gorn n dunnit, me sel'.. please don't congratulate, as commiserations are more in order - it's a sad milestone in my life, that so much of the last four years of said live could have been consumed by such ridiculous and inane drivel!.
roll on the new system.... .
You LittleToad,
Ozzie came on here one month before me, you came on 6 months after me, both of you over 10,000 posts and me with 2756 posts. You make me feel like a 1-5 hour publisher.
Steve
the photo above was taken by voyager 1 in 1990 as it sailed away from earth, more than 4 billion miles in the distance.
having completed it primary mission, voyager at that time was on its way out of the solar system, on a trajectory of approximately 32 degrees above the plane of the solar system.
ground control issued a command for the distant space craft to turn around and, looking back, take photos of each of the planets it had visited.
Come on Six,
Yikes! The only way a misunderstanding like this could have happened, is that I must not have highlighted Dr. Sagan's name enough in my post!
You can't blame it all on Carl Sagan. And appreciating what this photo portrays and Carl's comments does not mean you are slipping into a hopeless state of terminal spirituality. After all you are quoting Carl Sagan, not the Dalai Lama.
Steve
just curious if this word is used as much in publications anymore.
it seems to be the wts is using.
"christians" in their writings and not the proverbial "christendom".
AntieJane,
I too once thought it was only a negative label that the WT put on all other Christians, however the label has been around a long time and accepted with pride by many. From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
In its wider sense this term is used to describe the part of the world which is inhabited by Christians, as Germany in the Middle Ages was the country inhabited by Germans. The word will be taken in this quantitative sense in the article R ELIGIONS in comparing the extent of Christendom with that of Paganism or of Islam. But there is a narrower sense in which Christendom stands for a polity as well as a religion, for a nation as well as for a people. Christendom in this sense was an ideal which inspired and dignified many centuries of history and which has not yet altogether lost its power over the minds of men. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03699b.htm
It's just Christian Cults that like to point out the atrocities and failures of Christianity who choose to separated themselves from it by using this label.
Jst2laws
