Melinda Mills

October 24 is also United Nations Day since 1948.

Jehovah spoke to Joseph in a dream through an angel . (Matthew 2:13-15) 13 After they had departed, look! Jehovah’s angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying: “Get up, take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I give you word, for Herod is about to search for the young child to kill him.” 14 So Joseph got up and by night took along the young child and the child’s mother and went into Egypt. 15 He stayed there until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what was spoken by Jehovah through his prophet, saying: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” In the case of Mary she was not yet married, though promised in marriage to Joseph. When Jehovah spoke to Mary it was also through an angel (Gabriel) not directly. (Luke 1:26-38) 26 In her sixth month, the angel Gaʹbri·el was sent from God to a city of Galʹi·lee named Nazʹa·reth, 27 to a virgin promised in marriage to a man named Joseph of David’s house, and the name of the virgin was Mary. 28 And coming in, the angel said to her: “Greetings, you highly favored one, Jehovah is with you.” 29 But she was deeply disturbed at his words and tried to understand what kind of greeting this might be. 30 So the angel said to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And look! you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. 32 This one will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and Jehovah God will give him the throne of David his father, 33 and he will rule as King over the house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his Kingdom.” 34 But Mary said to the angel: “How is this to be, since I am not having sexual relations with a man?” 35 In answer the angel said to her: “Holy spirit will come upon you, and power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason the one who is born will be called holy, God’s Son. 36 And look! Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son, in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her, the so-called barren woman; 37 for no declaration will be impossible for God.” 38 Then Mary said: “Look! Jehovah’s slave girl! May it happen to me according to your declaration.” At that the angel departed from her. Therefore I think you can leave out the word "directly". Point taken about Jehovah speaking to the head of the house, Joseph; but also through an angel.

(Acts 28:1-3) . . .After we made it to safety, we learned that the island was called Malta. 2 And the foreign-speaking people showed us extraordinary kindness. They kindled a fire and received all of us kindly because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. 3 But when Paul collected a bundle of sticks and laid it on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. . . Was a viper - a venomous snake, which lived among the sticks (wood). Sea snakes are even more venomous but they live in the sea.

You can look at it in conjunction with these scriptures. (Matthew 24:21) for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world’s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again. All systems might be breaking down in the future, for that scripture to be fulfilled. (I did not say 2038) About the problem of fixing something that is destined to occur in the future we might apply this scripture as well. (Matt:6:34) "  So never be anxious about the next day, for the next day will have its own anxieties. Each day has enough of its own troubles." It is not wrong to do what you can to solve foreseen problems, but we have much to do already. Anxiety will not add anything to our lives. Seek first the Kingdom and do Jehovah's will. Jehovah has a way of working everything out.

When the Finnish episode was going on, I saw it on the Internet, made a copy but still have not read it. I glanced through it and saw nothing untoward, so I did not read it. Interesting?

Not bad! If it is not photoshopped. So hoses spying on people now?

There are more than one version of it. I love the one with Keira Knightley. I also have the DVD.

I guess the suit is just representative of what has to be taken off; but point taken. They could easily have found a picture with clothing also representing the new personality of a more respectable nature. Or start with home clothes and finish with more elegant home clothes. Things like "none are perfect" creeping in too. But to err is human.

Heading is incorrect, unless it is done on purpose. Slave not slavery.

Where I live it was customary to send children to Sunday School and the parents stayed at home. We even have an elder whose mother chose to send him to the Kingdom Hall and he never left when he got older. He is still an elder and happy to serve Jehovah. The mother came into the truth years later, but she sent him from a small boy.

Matthew9969 It is not adult content.( We don't have Sunday School where the parents send their children and they stay at home. Everyone learns together.) Read what Jehovah said about it. (Deuteronomy 31:12, 13) 12 Congregate the people, the men and the women and the little ones and your alien resident who is within your gates, in order that they may listen and in order that they may learn, as they must fear Jehovah YOUR God and take care to carry out all the words of this law. 13 And their sons who have not known should listen, and they must learn to fear Jehovah YOUR God all the days that YOU are living upon the soil to which YOU are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it.” Learn to trust Jehovah. Jehovah knows it is good for children to sit quietly and listen. They learn discipline by what they see they parents do. If the parents pay keen attention, the children imitate that. If the parents chew gum, get up every half hour, talk while the speaker is talking, etc, that is what the children learn. Little people are capable of much more than we think.

Yes, you are.

You can say then that objectivity is not necessarily diminished by abject circumstances. -------- I think Tom has met his match. Which Tom doesn't matter.

OK, but I was'nt being serious.

If you don't want the corrections, when the updates come in to the computer, you can tell it No. And keep your bound volumes.

They probably don't want to start a trend, as it could become touristic.

A quote is not a comment.

I think this is the intended scripture quote in which Jesus directs us to worship the Father, Jehovah God. (Luke 4:8) In reply Jesus said to him: “It is written, ‘It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.’”

Most employers would have fired him, especially in banking where confidentiality is a serious prerequisite. As one commentor said, there is a right way to do the right thing. Even if he had resigned in order to report what he saw, he would still be indebted to his organization to keep confidential anything he saw. It would be a difficult situation regardless. If he told them to investigate her without giving them a lead or the source of his information, they would still be after him; then it might still get back to her that he said something, so it would still be detrimental to him. She might even sue him.

"We never know who will return, but we learn it will be a resurrection of all that have died." --Bible Speaks -------- It is true we never know who will return, because none of us can judge people. However, the Bible does not teach that all that have died will be resurrected. It says there is going to be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. (Acts 24:15) It did not say the wicked. There is something called Gehenna, second death, lake of fire, from which there will be no release. The ones thrown there are wicked people. The name of the wicked one will rot. (Prov 10:7) These will have committed the unforgivable sin. They are willful sinners and the ransom will cover them. Adam's offspring was ransomed but Adam and Eve were not because of their willful sin. Judas is called the Son of Destruction indicating that he will not benefit from the ransom; also some of the Scribes and Pharisees who saw the powerful works of Jesus and denied them will merit Gehenna which means total annihilation. There are not in the memorial tombs (John 5:28,29) - they are not in God's memory like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and other righteous ones. See scriptures below: "(Acts 24:15) And I have hope toward God, which hope these men also look forward to, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous." (For example the thief who died alongside Jesus on the torture stake - surely Jesus could read hearts) "(John 5:28, 29) Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment." (Those in God's memory) "(Hebrews 10:26-29) 26 For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, 27 but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a burning indignation that is going to consume those in opposition. 28 Anyone who has disregarded the Law of Moses dies without compassion on the testimony of two or three. 29 How much greater punishment do you think a person will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God and who has regarded as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt? " "(Matthew 12:31, 32) 31 “For this reason I say to you, every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven. 32 For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in this system of things nor in that to come." "(Matthew 10:28) 28 And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Ge·henʹna. . ." "(Matthew 25:45, 46) 45 Then he will answer them, saying: ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of these least ones, you did not do it to me.’ 46 These will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life.” "(2 Thessalonians 1:6-9) This takes into account that it is righteous on God’s part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for you. 7 But you who suffer tribulation will be given relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels 8 in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. 9 These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength,.." Those who are judicially destroyed by Jehovah's executioner Jesus at Armageddon will be destroyed forever (no resurrection for them). Jehovah is able to deliver the righteous from among the wicked - selective destruction - no accidents. (2 Peter 2:9) So, then, Jehovah knows how to rescue people of godly devotion out of trial, but to reserve unrighteous people to be destroyed on the day of judgment") *** it-1 pp. 616-617 Destruction *** Everlasting Destruction. The Bible does not indicate that all the dead will be resurrected. Jesus implied this when he spoke of “those who have been counted worthy of gaining that system of things and the resurrection from the dead.” (Lu 20:35) The possibility of eternal destruction for some is also indicated by Jesus’ words at Matthew 10:28: “Do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Regarding this text, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (edited by C. Brown, 1978, Vol. 3, p. 304) states: “Matt. 10:28 teaches not the potential immortality of the soul but the irreversibility of divine judgment on the unrepentant.” Also, Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (revised by F. W. Gingrich and F. Danker, 1979, p. 95) gives the meaning “eternal death” with reference to the Greek phrase in Matthew 10:28 translated “destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Thus, being consigned to Gehenna refers to utter destruction from which no resurrection is possible.

(Heading is incorrect. Phillip did not get baptized - the Ethiopian eunuch/government official did.) Once the water is clean and the person can be immersed, it does not matter.

Jehovah will help us to cope as it is His will that we survive and do the warning work. However since Satan is ruling the world, He is not going calm all the storms and prevent all the earthquakes and floods,etc. He is showing us that man has ruined the earth (Rev 11:18) and that Satan's rule will not be successful and that it will certainly be a disaster and not a success. Please read the excerpt from the Bible Teach book. *** bh chap. 11 pp. 109-113 pars. 9-17 Why Does God Allow Suffering? *** 9 It is comforting for us to know that God does not cause suffering. He is not responsible for the wars, the crimes, the oppression, or even the natural disasters that cause people to suffer. Still, we need to know, Why does Jehovah allow all this suffering? If he is the Almighty, he has the power to stop it. Why, then, does he hold back? The loving God that we have come to know must have a good reason.—1 John 4:8. A VITAL ISSUE IS RAISED 10 To find out why God allows suffering, we need to think back to the time when suffering began. When Satan led Adam and Eve into disobeying Jehovah, an important question was raised. Satan did not call into question Jehovah’s power. Even Satan knows that there is no limit to Jehovah’s power. Rather, Satan questioned Jehovah’s right to rule. By calling God a liar who withholds good from his subjects, Satan charged that Jehovah is a bad ruler. (Read Genesis 3:2-5.) Satan implied that mankind would be better off without God’s rulership. This was an attack on Jehovah’s sovereignty, his right to rule. 11 Adam and Eve rebelled against Jehovah. In effect, they said: ‘We do not need Jehovah as our Ruler. We can decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.’ How could Jehovah settle that issue? How could he teach all intelligent creatures that the rebels were wrong and that his way truly is best? Someone might say that God should simply have destroyed the rebels and made a fresh start. But Jehovah had stated his purpose to fill the earth with the offspring of Adam and Eve, and he wanted them to live in an earthly paradise. (Genesis 1:28) Jehovah always fulfills his purposes. (Isaiah 55:10, 11) Besides that, getting rid of the rebels in Eden would not have answered the question that had been raised regarding Jehovah’s right to rule. 12 Let us consider an illustration. Imagine that a teacher is telling his students how to solve a difficult problem. A clever but rebellious student claims that the teacher’s way of solving the problem is wrong. Implying that the teacher is not capable, this rebel insists that he knows a much better way to solve the problem. Some students think that he is right, and they also become rebellious. What should the teacher do? If he throws the rebels out of the class, what will be the effect on the other students? Will they not believe that their fellow student and those who joined him are right? All the other students in the class might lose respect for the teacher, thinking that he is afraid of being proved wrong. But suppose that the teacher allows the rebel to show the class how he would solve the problem. 13 Jehovah has done something similar to what the teacher does. Remember that the rebels in Eden were not the only ones involved. Millions of angels were watching. (Job 38:7; Daniel 7:10) How Jehovah handled the rebellion would greatly affect all those angels and eventually all intelligent creation. So, what has Jehovah done? He has allowed Satan to show how he would rule mankind. God has also allowed humans to govern themselves under Satan’s guidance. 14 The teacher in our illustration knows that the rebel and the students on his side are wrong. But he also knows that allowing them the opportunity to try to prove their point will benefit the whole class. When the rebels fail, all honest students will see that the teacher is the only one qualified to lead the class. They will understand why the teacher thereafter removes any rebels from the class. Similarly, Jehovah knows that all honesthearted humans and angels will benefit from seeing that Satan and his fellow rebels have failed and that humans cannot govern themselves. Like Jeremiah of old, they will learn this vital truth: “I well know, O Jehovah, that man’s way does not belong to him. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.”—Jeremiah 10:23. WHY SO LONG? 15 Why, though, has Jehovah allowed suffering to go on for so long? And why does he not prevent bad things from happening? Well, consider two things that the teacher in our illustration would not do. First, he would not stop the rebel student from presenting his case. Second, the teacher would not help the rebel to make his case. Similarly, consider two things that Jehovah has determined not to do. First, he has not stopped Satan and those who side with him from trying to prove that they are right. Allowing time to pass has thus been necessary. In the thousands of years of human history, mankind has been able to try every form of self-rule, or human government. Mankind has made some advances in science and other fields, but injustice, poverty, crime, and war have grown ever worse. Human rule has now been shown to be a failure. 16 Second, Jehovah has not helped Satan to rule this world. If God were to prevent horrible crimes, for instance, would he not, in effect, be supporting the case of the rebels? Would God not be making people think that perhaps humans can govern themselves without disastrous results? If Jehovah were to act in that way, he would become party to a lie. However, “it is impossible for God to lie.”—Hebrews 6:18. 17 What, though, about all the harm that has been done during the long rebellion against God? We do well to remember that Jehovah is almighty. Therefore, he can and will undo the effects of mankind’s suffering. As we have already learned, the ruining of our planet will be undone by the turning of the earth into Paradise. The effects of sin will be removed through faith in Jesus’ ransom sacrifice, and the effects of death will be reversed by means of the resurrection. God will thus use Jesus “to break up the works of the Devil.” (1 John 3:8) Jehovah will bring all of this about at just the right time. We can be glad that he has not acted sooner, for his patience has given us the opportunity to learn the truth and to serve him. (Read 2 Peter 3:9, 10.) Meanwhile, God has been actively seeking sincere worshippers and helping them to endure any suffering that may come upon them in this troubled world.—John 4:23; 1 Corinthians 10:13.

We were reminded of this scripture last night at the mid-week meeting along with a letter relating to the arrangements to assist the brothers in the hurricane-devastated island of the Commonwealth of Dominica (not Dominican Republic). The Barbados Branch and the French Branch are working together to assist the brothers.

Very good idea, and don't forget to add up the time and potential return visits.

I can think of a bigger point but it would just be a magnified full stop.