Category: Meetings

#watchtowerstudy today is entitled, You Can “Strip Off the Old Personality.” Theme verse: “Strip off the old personality with its practices.”​—COL. 3:9.

Para 4, “We dress up in clean clothes “and then we stop at McDonalds and get ourselves all dirty again,’ says one sis speaking of struggles to be “without spot, and maybe giving away more than she realizes. #watchtowerstudy

Para 5, It didn’t happen in our congregation: “I just explained the rainbow flag attached to paragraph 5 to my mum. Everybody! come and see this woman exclaiming loud in the hall”…1/2   I barely noticed it. Figured it was some national flag. I mean, it was pretty small and in the background. You could have fit 100 of them in that huge liquor bottle up front….2/2

Para 6: “It pains him to see us hurt ourselves and others.” Like watching a creature harm itself trying to get out of a trap?

Para 7: In the quest for “independence”— the king can always persuade his people that they are the victims, that they are the good guys, be they in America, Russia, or China? And there these folks think they are “independent?”

Para 9: Exit the parking garage at night, see that sign, “Are your lights on?” No they’re not! says the dodo, who keeps on driving. Just like looking in the mirror and not acting on the mess revealed. Who would do such a thing?

Para 17, Bible with her. started to make serious changes. “Some of my vices were easy for me to give up,” Nabiha says. “But quitting smoking was another story. ….one bro speaks of a coworker who threw his pipe down the embankment—-“but he watched where it landed.”

 

“Then “Samuel” said to Saul: “Why have you disturbed me by having me brought up?” (1 Samuel 28:15)    ‘I thought I told you to buzz off’ is what he would have said were it actually possible to bring him back. If he wouldn’t speak with him while living…. #midweekmeeting

“I was so looking forward to taking my mask off and I totally forgot,” said the masked Gems conductor at end of questions after he totally forgot.

Then there’s that duo of younger and older elder, both good speakers, but both love to be teased, and so I rise to the occasion.    “Gary has struck down his thousands, And Greg his tens of thousands’?”(1 Samuel 29:5) I mean, no matter what opening songs they select, the chairman substitutes ‘We Need to Have Endurance’

Imitate Jesus by Serving Others is the #watchowerstudy article. “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.”​—ACTS 20:35, the theme verse.

Para 2 “We, though, who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those not strong, and not to be pleasing ourselves.Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even the Christ did not please himself, but just as it is written: “The reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen upon me.” (Rom 15:1-3)

Para 6– I never realized this: Jesus was likely grieving when called on to give what would become the ‘sermon on the mount.’  “At hearing [of John’s death], Jesus departed from there by boat into an isolated place to be alone.” Matthew 14:13 #watchtowerstudy….1/2

so we may give talks, and afterward people say ‘good talk, good talk,’ and maybe they are tolerable—but none of us were grieving just before…..2/2

Oops. It was not the sermon on the mount, though it was one just like it in which he fed multitudes. My bad—but effectively it is the same….3/3

Para 6: I related the story, not mentioning the name, of a well-known bro in the circuit who suffered an auto accident on the way to the Hall. He must have been in shock. A motorist offered to help—he said, ‘yes’—run him to the KH, 1/4 mile away, ….1/2

where he entered and said he could not give his talk that night, then had the fellow run him back!….2/2

Look, he did it. That doesn’t mean I’d do it. Let us not try to outholy each other. I’d leave the brothers hanging, just having been in an accident. Someone can pinch hit.

(Of course, the accident was not as bad as the one pictured. If if had been he would have come to the Hall on the end of a spatula.

 

Para 11: I like the point about being honest with self. ‘Yeah, but I don’t want to’ is a perfectly understandable human response. I mean, much of the good things people do is not necessarily their first instinct.

Foreshortened Watchtower. This was the week of the circuit assembly, streamed as the really large gatherings haven’t yet resumed.

 

The assembly program began with the song ‘We Must Have the Faith.’ It has staccato very distinct notes and I will forever remember our two-year-old, ages ago, turning to us with eyes aglow, exclaiming, “It’s dah da da da DAH!’

 

Here I am reading about Abigail, Nabal, and David. Pity the woman who must deal with good for nothing men. Even the guy’s own servants called him good for nothing. #midweekmeeting

Look how Abigail got her entire household out of a spot and saved them all from the retribution of a hothead. Had she not, maybe Nathan would have rebuked David earlier and then God not been so patient over his lusting over that hottie on the rooftop and offing her significant other to cover his tracks. 

“About ten days later, Jehovah struck Naʹbal, and he died.” 1 Samuel 25:38. Sometimes I think that the reason it says Jehovah struck Nabal dead, and we go into tortured explanations to explain he didn’t , is that the Bible writer thinks he did. ‘Truth is established progressively as the day dawns’ and so forth.

Ha! ‘Turn Your Eyes Away from Worthless Things’ is the #publictalk title. The speaker opens with the appeal of a garage sale. ‘One person’s junk is another person’s….I know it’s alluring because I live with two of you,” he says of his wife and daughter.

The speaker today I first met when he was 13, then didn’t see him for many years, then serves with him many years, then again didn’t see him for many years. It’s been awhile. ‘Huh! He looks just like his dad!’ I thought today for the first time. Not just like him. But a lot.

An illustration of contaminating mind and heart with wrong stuff, in this case internet porn: Can you imagine farmer sowing corn, then realizing he has sown beans by mistake, getting down on all fours trying to pick it out and replace?

The candy in the checkout line is there because the store knows it is going to end up in your cart, the speaker says. 

 

#watchtowerstudy Does Your Counsel “Make the Heart Rejoice”?

Theme scripture: “Oil and incense make the heart rejoice; so does sweet friendship springing from sincere counsel.”​—PROV. 27:9.

 

Para 6. They used to call it a ‘counsel sandwich’—encase it in praise.

‘Bro, you are so loving, faithful, zealous, a pure joy to be around always, an example to all the flock.’

‘You’ve got breath that would fell an ox. Wanna try brushing your teeth more?

‘It is so pleasurable to…..”

Para 8:Just because a scripture can be attached to speech does not make it scripture counsel to be heeded. Some counsel is not necessary. Some frustration last week at the implication all counsel is golden. Corrected this week. Enough? Love believes all things, hopes all things,

Para 10: We do well to realize that two mature Christians may make different choices, both of which are acceptable. We should not impose our own standards of right and wrong on fellow believers.​—Rom. 14:10.

Para 11-12: Anzious times & some of our bros are hurting. The bro who has never worried a day in his life may not be the best one to give counsel on ‘stop being anxious.’

Para 14: ‘foolish and humiliating’ to reply before you hear all the facts….Proverbs 18:13 reminds us: “When anyone replies to a matter before he hears the facts, it is foolish and humiliating.”

Para 17: Sobering thought, Regarding Jesus, it was prophesied: “No bruised reed will he crush, and no smoldering wick will he extinguish.” (Matt. 12:20) Anxous times and there are a lot of bruised reeds, smoldering wicks

Para 19. “Make sure that the counsel is given with the right motive. Also, be sure that the counsel is really needed and that you are the right person to give it. Before offering counsel, ask questions and listen carefully so that you can understand what the person is facing. …1/2

Try to see things from his perspective. Be gentle, cultivating a warm friendship with your brothers and sisters. Remember the goal: We want our counsel not only to be effective but also to “make the heart rejoice.”​—Prov. 27:9….2/2

 

I’m not so sure that new ‘Bob’s Bible Translation’ [BBT] doesn’t take too many liberties with the text: #midweekmeeting.   

Most Bibles: “[Saul] said to David: “You have treated me well and I have repaid you with evil. ..what man finds his enemy and sends him on his way unharmed? Jehovah will…1/2

reward you with good because of what you have done for me today.” (1 Samuel 24: 17-21)

‘Bob’s Bible Translation:’ “Saul shot back, “Yeah, and you’re gonna buy me a new coat too!”…2/2

 

Give this bro top prize for pithiness: “They weren’t going to stop their marching to help preach the good news of the kingdom so we weren’t going to stop preaching the good news of the kingdom to help with their marching.”

 

#publictalk “On Whose Promises do you Rely?”     um—a little dated here, methinks. A reference to promises to spring loved ones from purgatory in return for payments. Is that still a thing?

Eccles 5:4 “Whenever you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it, for he finds no pleasure in the stupid ones.” Well, you don’t HAVE to vow, is the point, so if you do…… “Do not allow your mouth to cause you to sin, and do not say before the angel that it was a mistake.”

“O Jehovah, who may be a guest in your tent? …The one who is …speaking the truth in his heart. He does not slander …does nothing bad to his neighbor…does not defame his friends…rejects anyone who is contemptible…honors those fearing Jehovah…1/2

does not go back on his promise, even when it is bad for him.” (Ps 15) The speaker illustrates ‘bad for him’ with the bro who has agreed to help another move, then is floored by how much STUFF the fellow has. #publictalk …2/2

 

“Jehovah has never let me down. People have let me down, but Jehovah has never let me down,” my father-in-law used to say.

“Do not put your trust in princes…” Psalm 146:3    The reason?   “His spirit goes out, he returns to the ground. On that very day his thoughts perish.”   So you look to somewhere that doesn’t happen.

 

#watchtowerstudy article: “Listen to the Words of the Wise”

Theme scripture: “Incline your ear and listen to the words of the wise.”​—PROV. 22:17

Para 2: “in my profession (a branch of medicine) we have a saying, you can’t learn something that you already know,” one sis says. “And these people are dangerous,” she adds. #watchtowerstudy

Para 4: always liked this one at Eccl 7:9    “Do not be quick to take offense, for the taking of offense lodges in the bosom of fools.”

Para 5: It might be reading something into the picture that is not intended, but the bro is looking in direction of direct counsel. People bristle at counsel today. It is just the world we live in. He does not.

Para 6: A great disrespect for age in the overall world that is not undeserved. The old have originated ideas that have not worked out. The young are always on the lookout for the latest idea.

Para 12: On people bristling at counsel, one bro likened how you tell someone that a tire on his car is almost flat. “Oh yeah!? he shoots back, “well, your car has a dent in the fender.”

Para 14: It’s like when you ask God for advice and he says ‘yeah, I’ve got people to handle that.’ Complain that some of those people are a bit rough and he says, ‘well, you’re no cream puff yourself. Do you have any idea how you try me? You’ll just have to work it out.”

 

No #midweekmeeting this week due to the Memorial. (April 15) …referred to here:

 

***The bookstore

Remember when you were young and used to record the ballgames, says the #publictalk speaker, and would play them back even if you afterward had heard the final score. He likened that situation to when people uneasily enter the tribulation but it helps they know the final score.

The angel that ‘strengthened’ Jesus in Gethsemane immediately after prayer, that he hadn’t seen in 33 years—what do you suppose they talked about? posed the speaker.

Speaker calls ‘ridiculous’ that saying that ‘experience is the best teacher.’ Is it? The ‘best?’ You may learn the lesson but get bruised in the process since it puts the test before the lesson. Anyone care to take the test in school before the lesson?

Ha! Speaker compares those who say ‘As long as I am a member of a religion [referring to ours] I am okay’ to those who think ‘As long as I have a bank account, I am rich.’

Now the departing CO fesses up that when assigned our circuit 4 years ago, he and his wife didn’t want to come. They loved their prior circuit. But ‘Jehovah fooled us’ he says, and now we have become his ‘Covid circuit’ and he and his wife our ‘Covid CO couple.’

 

#watchtowerstudy Do You Trust in Jehovah’s Way of Doing Things?“The Rock, perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness who is never unjust; righteous and upright is he.”​—DEUT. 32:4.

Para 2: Judas maybe thought he and God were tight—he afterward went to the chief priests, after all—it this character claiming to be the ‘messiah’ he had an issue with

Para 5–Yeah, that picture of the guy with fogged-up glasses works pretty well in this age of masks

Para 14: Flee to the mountains. Which mountains? There were many mountains, one bro says. Apparently Jehovah used appointed men at the time to provide specifics. (Luke 21: 20-21)

Para 18: Inconveniences at first in the new system, like in the Sinai wilds. Regarding the LDC bro in our congregation, I said he’ll probably make us live in dormitories.

 

Trying to figure what to do with this gem from the weekly Bible reading. There has to be a perfect application somewhere, but I just haven’t yet hit on it? Any suggestions?  “You see that this man is crazy! Why bring him to me?  Do I have a shortage of crazy men that I need to have this one acting crazy before me? Should this man enter my house?” (1 Samuel 21:14-15)

“What can we learn from David’s actions?” asks the #midweekmeeting. That you can’t go wrong playing the crazy card. …2/2

Jonathan had children the same age as David, age, skin color, nationality “not barriers for us—they’re bridges,” says the speaker, commenting on 30-year age difference between Jonathan and David. …1/2

Saul to Jonathan (the bro summarizes): “What’s wrong with you? Are you stupid? This kid is going to take your throne,” ( Samuel 20:30)…2/2

“Maybe you’ve been passed over for a privilege. Some bros call it ‘passover season.” Hmm. This bro is a little quirky, but he can turn a phrase.

“And all those who were in trouble and in debt and who had a grievance gathered to him, and [David] became their chief. There were about 400 men with him.” (2 Samuel 22:2) Thus collects Robin Hood his band of merry men.

We live in a world where everyone says, it’s not my fault. Unexpected change, therefore, when David says “I am personally responsible for the death of everyone in your father’s house” due to an incautious action of his. (2 Samuel 22:22)

Ooh ooh. I got to say my modification of Romans 3:4, “Every man online is a liar,” after they played that ‘Be Social Network Smart’ youth video. https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/teenagers/whiteboard-animations/social-network-smart/

 

***The bookstore

Where can you find real hope?’ is the title of the #publictalk today. This one is uniform, given to all congregations through local or visiting speakers. The speaker explains early he will address three questions: ….1/2

1) Why so much suffering today?

2)What hope does the Bible give?

3) Why can the Bible’s hope be trusted?….2/2

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but through the one who subjected it, on the basis of hope,” he develops the thought from Romans 8:20 starting with who was the one who did the subjecting.

“We don’t need you, we can rule ourselves, we’re better off on our own,” he how the speaker quantifies that early Genesis scene. “God gave them what they asked for,” he adds, with a future reconciliation at hand when “creation itself will be set free.”

“For centuries human governments have tried to make the car run on water, so to speak,” he says, referring back to a previous illustration.

 

#watchtowerstudy today is ‘Make “the Best Use of Your Time”“ Theme scripture: “Keep strict watch that how you walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, making the best use of your time.”​—EPH. 5:15, 16.

Para 2: Good. The Zoom tie-in works seamlessly. You just can’t see the commenter—that’s all.

Para 3 “It is not good to eat too much honey,” says the proverb, I was brought up in a household where all-evening watching TV might easily take place. When rec has assumed such prominance, it may seem crazy to dial it back, but you sure gain time if you do.

Para 5: one sis likens something or other to “trying to buy a house while it’s on fire.”

Para 8: all good suggestions on finding a quiet place to pray. Alas, when I was in my twenties, i got it in my head that I could pray while driving—it’s kind of an automatic activity, but I almost got into a accident. ‘Forget that!” I said, and never did it again.

Para 10: one bro mentions Jesus kindness in that he didn’t say: “Great. Now when I really need you, THIS is what you do?!” He came pretty close: “Could you not so much as keep on the watch for one hour with me?” though allowed, “The spirit, of course, is eager, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:40-41)

 

 

 

Para 13: “Before assemblies and conventions, we are often told to adjust our electronic devices to a setting that will not disturb others.” I never knew how to do that and just relied on the fact that no one wanted to talk to me. ….1/2

Scammers do, though. They should just say, ‘Put it in airplane mode.”….2/2

“We’re back and so is George,” says the conductor about the bro who never comments without inserting a pun or similar joke—and just did so.

Para 18: I like that this writer is called an “anxious man.” I guess he was: “You hold my eyelids open; [he can’t sleep] I am agitated and cannot speak.” Psalm 77;4 There’s anxious people today. It’s good to see someone in scripture they can identify with.

“When David and the others would return from striking down the Phi·lisʹtines, the women would come out from all the cities of Israel with song and dances” (1 Samuel 18:6) #midweekmeeting….1/2

Not just his mom and sisters, the speaker says, but all the women of the land. More popular with the ladies than Saul, he was…..2/2

“The women who were celebrating would sing: “Saul has struck down his thousands, And David his tens of thousands.”  Saul became very angry, and this song displeased him.” (1 Samuel 18:6)

Upstaged by an underling. I mean, who doesn’t want accolades from the women?

 

At that Saul said…‘The king does not want any bride price except 100 foreskins of the Phi·lisʹtines, to take revenge on the enemies of the king.’ (1 Samuel 18:25)

WHAT?!…..1/3

Not to be too crude here, but this was a common way of verifying kills during battle, so as not to be suckered by tall tales of braggarts  and to safeguard against ‘cheating’ by killing women.  (not recommended today. Just snap a battlefield photo with your smartphone).. 2/3

No, I didn’t say this at the meeting……3/3

(Bonzo put it the best I have heard. Making the axis lords send golden images of their piles is just the ultimate example of Jehovah doing something “in style”—the ultimate humiliation of those who resolutely put their trust in false gods. (1 Samuel 6:4)….1/2

The question is whether he, with such a grasp of biblical realism, will begin ‘behaving as a prophet’ after consideration of 1 Samuel 19:24…..2/2

#publictalk: “How We Can Protect Ourselves from Satan’s Snares.”

“The fish sees the lure, but doesn’t see the hook, doesn’t see the line, doesn’t see the net, and certainly doesn’t see the skillet on your kitchen,” the speaker points out.

Understand Satan and ways better so we can protect ourselves, he says. Yes.

Some say devil created by God to balance universe? Instead, it works as Jas 1:14 says, each one is enticed by own desire, that desire when fertile leads to sin. That sequence happened to Satan, who really created himself, since name satan means adversary,,

“Any lure this system offers nothing but a cheap knock-off, it’s a farce,” says the speaker, as he goes on to focus on two “lures”—pride and greed. And after that, discussion of that suit of spiritual armor from Ephesians 6.

 

#watchtowerstudy today: “Why We Attend the Memorial.” Theme scripture: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”​—LUKE 22:19

Huh! Conductor was disconnected. Someone else had to introduce, now he is back. This kind of thing won’t happen starting next week.

Para 5: The hope of anointed is immediate, one bro says. If he dies, he is in the grave until the resurrection. For anointed to die in the Lord’s day, it is: “We will not all fall asleep in death, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye…1/2

during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up. (1 Cor 15:51-52)….2/2

Para 9-11: 3 paragraphs that open with scriptures. Zach 8:23  ‘ten men grab hold of skirt of a Jew,’ Ezekiel 37, ‘stick of Joseph and Ephraim united,’ Matthew 25:31-36, ‘other sheep supporting Christ’s brothers.

Para 14. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” It’s a good thing to be able to explain just how this works, involving corresponding ransom of perfect life

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things now here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Para 20: Okay, Zoom Memorials got the job done—we made it work—but real live in-person ones will be a welcome resumption of what is normal.

 

“And all those gathered here will know that it is not with the sword or the spear that Jehovah saves, for the battle belongs to Jehovah, and he will give all of you into our hand,” said David to Goliath. (1 Samuel 17:47) #midweekmeeting

The Philistine then said: “I do taunt the battle line of Israel this day. Give me a man, and let us fight it out!” (1 Samuel 17:10) Why do I think of Elon Musk just now, who challenged Putin to hand-to-hand combat with Ukraine as the prize? (Did you know that Joe Rogan offered to train him?)

Goliath wore more in armor than David probably weighed, one sis says, and yet David goes on and on about how he’s going to feed his flesh to the birds, etc, etc. Faith at work, she says.

“When his oldest brother Eliab heard him speak to the men, he became angry with David and said: “Why have you come down?… I well know your presumptuousness and the bad intentions of your heart; you came down just to see the battle.” (1 Samuel 17:28) ….1/2

Is this rush to judgment the heart God could see into but humans couldn’t?….2/2

“Jehovah eventually said to Samuel: “How long will you mourn for Saul now that I have rejected him from ruling as king over Israel? …go…I will send you to Jesʹse the Bethlehemite” (1 Samuel 17:1)   Look, the guy’s a loser. I’ve moved on. How about you?….1/2

I had the Bible reading tonight and tried to make that point stand out….2/2

The dog interrupts Zoom, barks it head off because deer are on the hill across the street. After a lull, it resumes barking, I look, and they are much closer. I expect him to look up again and find them inches away, staring directly into the window, as though in the Twilight Zone

“I was horrified when several masked officers broke down the doors and burst into the home where the meeting was being held. Everything happened at once, loud sounds, noise, the order [for] everyone [to] sit on the floor.”…“I was overcome with fear when they put me in handcuffs place me in the police find and took me to jail.”…“I was afraid because I didn't know how long I would be there and what was awaiting me”…“I was mostly afraid about what I would face in prison, whom I would encounter, how to act,  how others would treat me—the unknown.”…“when one of the officers began to describe how bad life is behind bars I imagined that behind the officer stood an angel just like the one who supported Daniel in the illustration. this helped me to calm down not panic or be afraid. That's how jehovah supported me.”

“When you don't concentrate on yourself and focus on helping others fear disappears.”…“Something that helped me to cope with my fears is hope looking at the situation through Jehovah's eyes seeing what would happen next that this is not the end of the situation but only a difficult phase through which you can pass.”…“I understood that it was important to solve problems as they came up and not to be troubled by what might never happen.”

“Fear is interesting, fear can be inside a person and if someone is afraid that is not shameful but the question is can you overcome this fear can you get the fear under your control can you overcome the surge of negativity and when my heart swayed me to get scared next word to pray I pray to jehovah to give me courage and not be afraid of anyone or anything.”…“I still say to myself….do not fear anybody or anything except Jehovah.”

“I really appreciate your support very happy for all your latest thoughts from all your prayers I really appreciate it a lot I try to do my best and I try to search your home in the best way that I I will do that forever.”

What is Your Relationship with God?’ Is the title of the #publictalk this morning. Speaker is from a congregation I once attended, though he wasn’t there when I was. …1/2

I like this speaker already. His Zoom background is an interior wall on his house—plain and undistracting EXCEPT for a gauge on on his upper left—a thermostat? (Wipe that thought from your mind, Tommy, that maybe he will turn and adjust it!)…2/2

Speaker gives a war scene, not necessary Ukraine. “For about 3 hours we didn’t even move…next day while we were driving away, battle broke out. …very dangerous but staying there was even more dangerous. “ Had to trust in Jehovah, he says, so what is your relationship with God?

(I take it back—it was from the Ukraine)

Each day a challenge, he says. What is a challenge now? With meetings starting up, and we are used to Zoom, will it be hard for some to get back? Speaks of going back to the Kingdom Hall, “getting that big bear hug” and believe me—he looks like he could give one.

He even speaks of some having outgrown their clothes! (I am happy to say I have lost weight, not gained during this time)

Speaker concludes with Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that Jehovah is good. Happy is the man who takes refuge in him.” “What are your tastebuds like?” he says.

 

 

 

 

“Learn From Jesus’ Younger Brother” is the theme of today’s #watchtowerstudy. “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”​—JAS. 1:1 is the theme scripture…1/2

“Many of you have younger brothers” the chairman says. Uh oh. I’ll refrain from speaking of the big Scrabble cheater here…..2/2

 

Para 3: I love this point. Far from Jesus’ family following his ministry, they thought he was nuts! (though they later came around) “he gone out of his mind,” they said in alarm. (Mark 3:21)

Para 6: Imagine! Religious leaders so concerned about protecting their “power base” (today’s terminology) that they would plot to kill the man Jesus resurrected just to prove he couldn’t do it!  (John 11:53; 12:9-11)

I didn’t get called on! Arrrgghh!! But the conductor was right not to call on me. He entertained about 6-7 different comments & I had commented just three paragraphs ago. He really is a good conductor.

“the Jews were astonished, saying: “How does this man [Jesus] have such a knowledge of the Scriptures when he has not studied at the schools?” (John 7:15)  One disadvantage of “the schools” is resulting inability to be pithy. 30 seconds or less? Fugeddaboutit

Para 11: “Still others had a hard time controlling their tongue.” (Jas. 3:8-10)  Though “free speech” is lauded in the West, the Bible does not celebrate it. Sometimes it celebrates shutting people up, since “the tongue sets the forest afire” and ill words spread “like gangrene.”

Para 13: Imagine how James could have swaggered, being Jesus half-brother. There’s powerful temptation to likewise swagger when awarded responsibilities and roles. Few bros today succumb to that, as James did not.

 

Sometimes you are called for being presumptuous. Sometimes your not. Matthew 12:2-4; Numbers 25:7-9; 1 Samuel 21:1-6. Best to view it as: “Hence, he must have seen some factors about Saul that are not directly stated in the Bible account.” #midweekmeeting

“So keep up the good work,” says the householder to the nine year old child giving her first talk.“Thanks!” she says, brightly as all get-out.

Para 16: I rather like the analogy of commenting to ‘cultivating,’ Recalls to my mind years ago a new person saying how unique congregation meetings were in that “you can prepare for them.” He hadn’t come from a place where preparation made any difference.

Previous week:

Imagine a guy so timid he is hiding among the luggage. “If you’re like me, you imagine his feet and hands sticking out” the chairman says, since Saul was a big guy. 1 Samuel 10:22. #midweekmeeting

The young ministerial servants conducting the gems portion did it just right. No speeches. Just step aside & let the friend comment. The more separate remarks, the better the part.

“Excellent reading,” the chairman remarks on the reading. “You could read the telephone book to me and I’d be thrilled,” whereas the kids in the audience wonder ‘What’s a telephone book?’

“Only after they had a fine meal, a pleasant stroll, a long talk, and a good rest did the prophet feel that the right moment had arrived to anoint Saul.” Sure enough.

Here is a bro telling how he helped his Luddite student to use a tablet. He is the same bro I bought his old iPad from years ago. I was slow to adopt to the new tech but once I did I never carried another piece of paper again. It is well the Luddite did upgrade his skills because his 3D flip phone will not work in just a few days.

“Your sons will take the place of your forefathers. You will appoint them as princes in all the earth.” (Ps 45:16) Just how that works is the topic of discussion at the congregation Bible study.

Para 12  So approachability is the feature stressed the 12 gates of Ezekiel’s city. Gates were a rarity in the ancient world—you do as few as possible for the challenge of defending them.

#publictalk today is entitled: ‘What is Your Standing with God?’ The ‘great cloud’ of witnesses Heb 11 will be focus. Somewhere I recall reading that Greek word for ‘cloud’ is not those puffy clouds of a half-sunny day but a completely enveloping cloud, often used metaphorically.

‘“Who here likes camping?’ the speaker queries & several raised hands. Sure. It’s fun, he agrees. “But there is a threshold at which camping is no longer fun.” He is speaking of Abraham at Hebrews 11:8-9 …1/2

“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance…he lived as a foreigner in the land of the promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the very same promise.”…2/2

Another anecdote the speaker lays on us from his high school days when apparently he was a hot shot athletes. Gym pupils told to line up to race, first place will earn an A—an easy A, he thought as he won the race. ….1/3

But it was an F! “You see these things called lanes? You’re supposed to stay in them!”…..2/3

Why do I think of my high school gym teacher, a popular crew cut guy with super deep voice who nonetheless struck terror into even the toughest kids when he was angry. “Thirty sit-ups!” he tell the class. Glancing at his belly, he’d add, “I can’t—but you’d better!”….3/3

 

#WatchtowerStudy today entitled: Continue to “Listen to Him”   Theme verse: “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved. Listen to him.”​—MATT. 17:5. Such was the transfiguration voice from heaven that cut off Peter as he was talking just for the sake of talking

Focus of first half of study: “Go in through the narrow gate, because broad is the gate and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are going in through it;whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life” with few finding it. Matt 7:13-14

Para 6: the “guardrail near the edge of a narrow mountain road [that] serves as a protection’ resonates with one sis who knows of many such passages “in West Virginia.”

The steep drop off reminds me of some Vietnamese refugees we befriended who immediately crossed ….1/2

the “DO NOT CROSS” sign at Letchworth (because they couldn’t read English” to stare down from cliff edge. They were not impressed. There were deeper drop offs in Vietnam, they told me…..2/2

Matt 5:23-24 is the 2nd focus of the study: “If, then, you are bringing your gift to the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, and go away. …1/2

First make your peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift.”   Be a peacemaker is the idea.

Para 11; A wonderful and heartwarming account of Jacob making peace with his brother. I apply it to making peace with my brother, even if he is a no-good Scrabble cheat (like last night)

Para 14. One bro says of the 12-step program that it includes seeking out those you are not on good terms with and making amends. I did not know this of that program. It’s not easy to do, he says “since we all have egos.”

Para 14:  One bro recalls how he did become a peacemaker with one who bore him a grudge. “I had to buy him a couple of dinners, but it was worth it,” he says.

Para 16: “Remember that restoring peace with your brother is more important than establishing who was right and who was wrong.​.” Would have been hard on Jacob had he done that, wouldn’t it? ‘You see, Esau, the problem was that you were a lout.’  Best not go there.

 

Ha! The midweekmeeting  chairman taking much ribbing over his new wallpaper background of ‘x’s and ‘o’s. Looks like he posts his tic tac toe games, one bro says. Looks like the curtain into the Most Holy, another says. (It doesn’t)

‘Hugs and kisses,’ probably. It’s sort of an optical illusion and looks different up close.

 

I really hope no one goes on and on about the 1 Samuel 6:4-5 images of the golden piles tonight. I mean, how crass.

Yeah, He ridicules and insults the false gods, one bro says, and those who put trust in them. They are compelled to make images of their piles. Oh my.

Is this the verse that accounts for Indiana Jones knowing enough not to look upon the Ark of the Covenant where is his impious foes did not and got their heads mashed? “But God struck down the men of Beth-sheʹmesh, because they had looked upon the Ark of Jehovah.” 1 Samuel 6:19

One sis recalls the childhood game ‘Hot Potato’ as she comments on the verses of passing along the Ark to others.

Yikes! Searching for the right word and he can’t find it. I’ve been there. Chairman is ‘aghast —in a good way’ at the quality of a bro’s reading. Isn’t aghast by definition ‘a bad way?’

My wife has a talk coming up. As it will mean turning the laptop away from me, she checks behind her to see the house in uncluttered back there. Don’t sweat it, dear. Nothing but Better Homes and Garden here.

The chairman makes a really good point that in assembling material for a talk, you gather far more than you will use. It gives you both confidence and depth. Newbie speakers sometimes don’t know this.

Garrison Keillor used to tell of Pastor Inqvist, trying to spice up his sermons by taking tips from the TV preachers. Alas, he began pausing in such odd…………………….places that no one could follow him.

That mountain in the Pure Worship book is high—far higher & more prominent than in any actual scene, with river flowing from within, and reinforces the point that instruction, reinforcement, blessing, whatever will be from God.