James Thomas Rook Jr.

..... too soon?

Even back in Jesus day there was controversy and dissension about was it a cross, a stake, an "X", a tree,  a hewn plank of gopher wood, or  just a 10 foot length of a section of one of the cedars of Lebanon, with or without cross arm.

When they were going to do executions people would come into town from the farm areas to watch .... especially someone as famous as Jesus had become,  and they would rent a hotel room (barn, shelter, or sleep on the town square, hoping for some hospitality to be shown at a private home, as was the custom back then.).

There is recorded in Josephus about a disciple who came into an Inn in Jerusalem, the night before Jesus was killed, the same night in another part of the city that Jesus was being arrested, placed two very large black iron nails on the night clerk's counter, and said "Can you put me up for the night?"

Sigh .... the chemical industry also makes laundry bleach, and paint, and gasoline.

...and a million other things.

You are supposed to be smart enough to not drink laundry bleach, and paint, and gasoline

.... and a million other things.

Screw Legal.

What is your MORAL obligation.

20 hours ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

That is why i brought the problem here. Even before i put it up on here I had gone to my bedroom and prayed to God and cried about it. It hurts me, the problem itself, the people involved, and not knowing what to do. 

John Butler:

I gave you excellent advice ... and you ignored it ... or at the very least did not consider and meditate on WHY it really would work.

It cost you nothing.

Had I charged you $500 for the advice, you would have probably taken it to heart, you would have ACTUALLY solved the problem, and stopped hopping around in circles with one shoe nailed to the floor and your hair on fire, trying to put it out with your tears.

If you send me a check for One Thousand Dollars, after it clears the bank, we will BOTH feel better .... you would have gotten high-priced out-of-town advice that really worked, , and I would have a thousand dollars. 

Win-Win for BOTH of us.

This is simply a social engineering problem, but, to mix metaphors .... like Dandruff .... if you cured it in six days, ... you would have nothing to fiddle with and scratch until it bleeds.

4 hours ago, BillyTheKid46 said:

Is this Porkchop Hill? I believe the Americans kept it with persistence and much senseless bloodshed that millennials don't remember.

I know about Porkchop Hill .... but I was speaking only about general principles.

MYOB = Mind Your Own Business

When you see someone on the street, THIS should be the greeting ... "MYOB" ... instead of "Hello!".

Here is my advice ... from a Barbarian .... and it is worth every pence you paid for it.

What you think you know is hearsay. 

It may be completely true.

It may be completely false.

Or any variation on that theme.

This is why the scriptures COMMAND one to do what is to my personal knowledge, NEVER, EVER done.

Otherwise you will CERTAINLY ruin someone's life, who may be completely innocent of all suspicions... AND RUMORS.

The same SERIOUSNESS as murder ... when you carelessly destroy anothers' reputation.

The person who knows about this thing from personal knowledge, either by being an eyewitness, or hearing a confession FROM THE ACCUSED,  has the responsibility to report it to the police ... BUT FIRST ... he must go to the accused and educate him on proper behavior ... FACE TO FACE .... AND CALL HIM TO ACCOUNT FOR ANY MISSTEP,  whether through impulse, diminished capacity, or even deliberate evil. 

This does not involve "snitching to the Elders", and starting a Witch Hunt.

THEN ... and only AFTER taking that step .... if the Brother does not change his ways,  and all that entails, including apologies and reparations, and repentance acceptable to the actual accuser who was actually harmed .... bring out the chain saw.

BECAUSE, for you, this is ONLY hearsay, you have no responsibility whatsoever to report this to the police, but you do have a responsibility to report it to the Congregation Elders ... if, and ONLY AFTER you have had a thorough discussion with all parties involved ... but ONLY as a "heads-up", so that they do not get sucker punched.

ACTUALLY involved.

Otherwise MYOB.

18 minutes ago, BillyTheKid46 said:

suggest you research the point of the matter before you sarcastically call victory. None of which was rightfully understood by a junior researcher and a person that is no longer in good standing to the organization I presume he was baptized in by his own admission. I would say he is playing for the other team and only uses he personal logic to distract and confuse. Personally, I agree with the Watchtower findings, however, I do my own research through scholastic measures which I find no evidence of it here.

After carefully considering the matter I would have to adopt the philosophy of winter combat in North Korea during the 1950's.

" ... is this the hill you want to die on?"

I have completely solved this quandary by not caring either way ...... BECAUSE ... of all the infinite things in the Universe one could care about ... or SHOULD care about ... this does not even make it to the list.

This is, figuratively speaking, not a hill worth  the effort.

Not really.

2 minutes ago, Space Merchant said:

Well it is going to get harder granted with what will come in several years, but one's happiness and building up of faith in themselves and to others should not cease due to these changes.

Yep.

... there is really nothing that can be done for professional grumpy, miserable people ... except keep them drugged up.

47 minutes ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

I will agree with you on your last sentence. Happy are those who serve the True God.  But it's knowing the 'proper way' to serve God that is confusing. 

Sometimes you just have to ignore the folks who pretend to know the very best way to be happy, and to serve God, and in the process take an average of 10% commission, and make some basic assumptions.

Every person is different.  Some people like to go camping, and challenge themselves, and the elements, and learn survival skill ... just for the fun of it.  Others,  would be completely miserable being hungry because they caught not a squirrel for food,  and VERY unhappy sleeping in a leaky tent in 40 degree weather, in a puddle of water, shaking uncontrollably ... and I am pretty sure that if it is one thing God doesn't like ... its a wet, cold, miserable grumpy person, with low blood sugar.

I, on the other hand, am just a simple man, with simple tastes, and it does not take very much to make me happy.  I am a happy person .... not by nature, but because I am determined to be genuinely happy, and although I do have my moments, like when trying to reason with Liberal Snowflakes who think the Republic should be run , and look like Disneyland, I enjoy every moment of every day.

But of course, we all want to make progress, and be more and more happy ... possibly stopping short of having an orgasm at a restaurant over a pastrami sandwich ... so I have searched my soul to try and discern what I lack, which if accomplished, would make me a genuinely more happy man than I am, as a general rule ... and after thinking about it for awhile, I have come to the conclusion .....  that it would be being able to devote a small portion of my income to being able to sit at the ocean's edge on a blanket, and look out at the vast endless ocean with it's peaceful magnificent surf rolling in, under the shadow of my very own, brand new, modestly equipped  $40 million dollar  Chinook CH-47 Helicopter.

BillyTheKid46:

How about this ?

I will agree that Stavros is a Greek Name if you will agree that Sean Connery was the only REAL James Bond in movies.

In the interest of having an amicable, non-hostile environment, I will agree with your irrelevant drivel, if you will agree with my irrelevant drivel !

What could be more fair?

A REAL JAMES BOND would not have three nipples as Roger Moore did in "The Man with the Golden Gun", pretending to be Francisco Scaramanga.

There is just so much a REAL 007 would do for "King and Country", and that does NOT include a third nipple.

I mean ....

REALLY!

Roger Moore?

Roger Moore!

ROGER MOORE!!

ROGER MOOOOOORRREEEE!!

I think almost every Republican alive hopes and prays that Hillary will be the Democrat nominee for the 2020 Presidential contest.

She will  be more composed, and again re-invented herself, and will cut quite the fashion figure in her matching ensemble one piece orange jump-suit.

... and risk being disfellowshipped?

I think not.

2 hours ago, Manuel Boyet Enicola said:

Maybe at the very least, a 'responsible' brother will be willing to be interviewed.

... and say WHAT?

Of course this brings up the raging and long term theological debate as the whether or not Sean Connery is the only REAL James Bond.

3 hours ago, Anna said:

It was just now while reading this it suddenly dawned on me that the name Stavros must be connected to Stauros. And sure enough  HERE  it says this about the origin of the name: “Name Stavros is a rather common Greek male name and as we said comes from the Greek word “stavros” which means cross. Of course in the ancient years the word cross was referring to the item of this shape, with no political or religious meaning.

Of course!

I submit for your inspection the name of the fictional arch criminal and nemesis of James Bond, 007 and the British Secret Service .... Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

From Wikipedia:

" Character

Ian Fleming includes information about Blofeld's background in his novel Thunderball. According to the novel, Blofeld was born on 28 May 1908 (which is also Fleming's birthday) in Gdingen, Imperial Germany (now Gdynia, Poland); his father Ernst George Blofeld was Polish, and his mother Maria Stavro Michelopoulos was Greek, hence the well-known Greek name Stavro ..."

"

16 hours ago, Kosonen said:

.... Unforunately the WT has been quite quiet about this subject the last decades, despite the fact that the book of Revelation puts much weight on that. That is a huge minus for the curent leadership of the WT organization. 

Actually, even though they have been "vewwy, vewwy quiet ...shhhhh", it seems they have it all under control.

(When you look at the attached videos ... look at them in the order posted ....)

....

....

When I was younger, I gave consideration to having the tops of my feet tattooed  with an I.D. number, as usually, the feet survive a misadventure ... but then I realized two things ....... 1.) I would be dead, and;  2.) I would have been  (past tense) the only one who really cared.

PS : 3.) And besides, if someone will not sell to you because you have no RFID chip ... the next guy will, because you DO have money.  The most effective weapon known to the human race is a fully loaded check book.

I actually paid money to deliberately have five members of my family micro-chipped ..... an injection at their shoulder blades, and registered their RFID chip numbers with a National Organization.

It was not necessary for my wife and I, because WE ALREADY HAVE biological identifiers in our bodies as also do YOU ...called FINGERPRINTS ... that can identify us even if we have no I.D., and are DEAD.

The rest of our family do not have fingerprints ...... only paws.

... it's a core problem ....

If they cut off both of my arms, in the immortal words of Monty Python's Black Knight, I would kick them where it hurts the most, and yell " ... MERELY A FLESH WOUND!"