Melinda Mills

...... I forgot to mention the acrobats, jugglers, and veiled belly dancers ....

Money does not impress me, but if I had enough of it, I would go to the Kingdom Hall in a huge old steam Locomotive Train, belching columns of fire and black smoke and burning coal embers, with clanging bells and blasting train air horns, ... having a construction crew of hundreds lay railroad tracks in front of it all the way from my house to the Kingdom Hall parking lot, and in front of the train, have circus elephants in tutus dancing and blowing trumpets.

Nice to hear of the work you did to facilitate your mother's comfort.
Sometimes just attending one of these functions is a high point in one's life in that under normal circumstances one might not get to experience it.  In 2001 I got invited to my uncle's wedding (not a Witness) (he got married for the third time to a socialite). It was the best spread I ever saw.  It was in a garden with water pools with lights shining in the water, and food stations every couple of yards - items of the richest quality. So I always remember it, and can also say I was really impressed.  That same year I  had two other very impressive invitations - one theocratic, one in connection with secular work - which I would not mention here. I always remember them. I am still wondering how I was selected.
In God's new system these things would be regular occasions, I believe, but we might still show great appreciation for an invitation to share with others. 

Many persons don't have the thinking ability  to come to the conclusion mentioned in the last sentence.  They usually learn by trial and error (often refusing to listen or without asking for advice from those with experience) and the aftermath is usually worse than when they were living a simple unpretentious life.
One has to examine himself/herself also as to why we might wish to share this kind of experience, as that in itself could also be a showy display. Are we too secretly impressed with this state of affairs?  The heart is treacherous.

Hmmm. You probably found some good counsel for me on that one. The beauty of some of these places really was impressive to me, especially the Huntington Library (Gardens). And so was the wedding, with "bowers of flowers" and other decorations everywhere. Also, I was not just "secretly" impressed either, as I gladly admitted it out loud. And, of course, I am also secretly impressed that all this "free vacation" for a week, cost me no more than the plane flight, as everything else was paid for -- through no merit of my own.
(I paid for the plane ticket because my wife and I were coming out here anyway for an "anniversary trip" -- which mostly means that I am out here installing an automatic "lift" in the back of my parents' car so that my mother doesn't have to push my father's electric wheelchair/scooter up an aluminum ramp at a too steep an angle anymore. [She's afraid to just put it in gear and let it drive up the ramp by itself.] My father usually uses a walker, but for assemblies and other places with a lot of walking, he uses the scooter.)

Me missus wants to open up the castle in Capri. 🏰 Mmmmmmmmmm. 🙄

Sorry for the strange type style, but I am down in the basement of my Super-Yacht, in the money bin where all the gold coins are stored, with my picture on the front, and Warwick HQ on the back, trying to get the bulldozer unstuck from the escalator landing up to the pontoon helicopter landing pad/olympic swimming pool.
I try to lead a simple life, but it is so hard to get good help, nowadays!
 

Not that I understand your reasons for the locomotive/circus, but the line "money does not impress me" reminds me of a group of us (6) driving in a rented van just a few hours ago. As it turns out, due to a "Grammys" connection, I am right now in a hotel in Beverly Hills for the wedding of a singer/songwriter who is also a dear friend of my daughter. Actually the father is the more internationally famous singer/songwriter (Bill Withers). The wedding was in the same hotel and the reception is going on right now and will last until about 1 am. It's a completely "worldly" wedding, very tasteful but ostentatiously expensive.
At any rate, as we are driving through a Beverly Hills residential area to get here (from the Beverly Hilton past the Beverly Hills Hotel) we were in a neighborhood where the average house cost $50,000,000 and we passed up one that was for sale. My daughter joked that it was for sale for only $35,000,000. I told her she should be embarrassed for even knowing that fact, because it meant she had looked it up earlier. (She had passed it up yesterday because she drove here last night for a rehearsal dinner, and it caught her eye, so she looked it up later just for fun.) 
Personally, I can't imagine having anywhere near that much, because of all the good friends who would definitely be getting chunks of it. (Of course, having 35 million doesn't mean one could afford a house that costs that much, because over the next few years it would cost ANOTHER 35 million for maintenance and taxes. Missing this point has bankrupted many an entertainer, athlete or lottery winner who lost/stopped their income immediately after such a purchase.)
You can make beauty even more beautiful with money, and the beauty can be impressive, but it isn't necessarily worth the extra expense because purely natural beauty can be just as pretty, even if less "concentrated." My wife and I visited the Huntington Library on our first day here on Wednesday. (Our 39th anniversary.) I visited it alone several years ago to see my first major exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I was surprised to see that this "library" is actually a set of art galleries and exhibitions set on the property of one of the top botanical gardens in the country. It's a huge place of beauty and many of the hundreds of different species of flowers and trees and other plants are discreetly labeled so you know what you're looking at.
But the worldly attitudes toward money became very apparent at the hotel. We went up to the pool on the roof, and felt very out of place. Most of the visitors are merely "on display" never intending to go in the water. And, for some of the more female-looking types, I doubt their tiny thongs would even hold up if they got wet anyway. It's as if even people with a lot of money can't just be comfortable with it, even in laid-back California. They still have to make a showy display of it, speaking very pretentiously, holding their drinks pretentiously, etc, etc. They hope other persons will be just as impressed with their expensive style as they are with their own. Seems no one is really satisfied.

If the head of your firm sent you to head up a project in an out-of-city office and you did such a good job that on finishing your assignment your manager thought you should be promoted and not merely returned to your former office, this is something that happens regularly.  It is not strange that Jehovah God would wish to do the same for Jesus when he returned to heaven.  Just an understandable situation - nothing farfetched about it.
(Acts 2:32-36) 32 God resurrected this Jesus, and of this we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore, because he was exalted to the right hand of God and received the promised holy spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, ‘Jehovah said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.”’ 36 Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for a certainty that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you executed on a stake.”
(Philippians 2:9-11) For this very reason, God exalted him to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every other name, 10 so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend—of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground— 11 and every tongue should openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
When an employee does a good job it is to the credit or glory of the company that employs him. Jesus was a good representative and ambassador for Jehovah while on earth, that is why he said:
(John 5:19-24) 19 Therefore, in response Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to you, the Son cannot do a single thing of his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things that One does, these things the Son does also in like manner. 20 For the Father has affection for the Son and shows him all the things he himself does, and he will show him works greater than these, so that you may marvel. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead up and makes them alive, so the Son also makes alive whomever he wants to. 22 For the Father judges no one at all, but he has entrusted all the judging to the Son, 23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Most truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes the One who sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.
(John 14:9-11) .9 Jesus said to him: “Even after I have been with you men for such a long time, Philip, have you not come to know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also. How is it you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in union with the Father and the Father is in union with me? The things I say to you I do not speak of my own originality, but the Father who remains in union with me is doing his works. 11 Believe me that I am in union with the Father and the Father is in union with me; otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. 

(1 Corinthians 15:25-28) For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. 26 And the last enemy, death, is to be brought to nothing. 27 For God “subjected all things under his feet.” But when he says that ‘all things have been subjected,’ it is evident that this does not include the One who subjected all things to him. 28 But when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone.
Jehovah the King of the Universe is not subject to anyone.   
 

But where one was the first one born, was it correctly used? As when Jesus was called firstborn by his mother? Was he not the very first child born to her? And was not Jesus the first child born to God, among all the other sons in heaven, of all creation he was the first, because before anything came into existence it came by the will of God, not the Son. There has to be a Father. A Father makes a Son, not the other way around. Like the egg before the chicken? We know the chicken came first, because God with his Son created life first, not the egg, the animal,right? So his " ONLY BEGOTTEN " the one formed by his hands only, came first. And as the scriptures state all other life came through Jesus. So simple, common sense. One enitity with no beginning with a Son who was his only begotten.

Just look at the human family.
 
The father is older, greater in knowledge, insight and all other qualities, than the son, who is junior, now learning. The son admires the father and hopes to be like him when he is grown up.  The son  is usually obedient to the father.  Nothing far fetched about that.  Any one with half a brain can understand that. I could go on and on.

Men and women are equal before God and intellectually equal, but  he made the man to preside over the family to keep order. Hence,  God put a strong craving in woman so she would desire the man to such an extent that she would be submissive to him. (Genesis 3:16)16 To the woman he said: “I will greatly increase the pain of your pregnancy; in pain you will give birth to children, and your longing will be for your husband, and he will dominate you."
 There is also a physical limitation - the reason men and women don't compete in sports. Women have to be more gentle so they can carry a pregnancy to term and then deal gently with the children. Women who do strenuous sports usually tend to look less feminine after a time.

Jacob got rights of first born but he was not first born; same with David, Jehovah gave him right of first born in relation to kingship. Jesus is therefore the greater David. Jehovah is developing his purpose since the time of the first rebellion in the Garden of Eden, so all his sayings reflected that he was developing for the future saving of the human race.

(Psalm 89:27) And I will place him as firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.
 

(Matthew 24:36) “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father."
(Acts 3:22) 22 In fact, Moses said: ‘Jehovah your God will raise up for you from among your brothers a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. 
(Mark 9:7) 7 And a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the beloved. Listen to him.” 

Anyone who says anything that is not in the Bible will have to eat his words, sooner or later. God said to listen to Jesus, who said that even He did not know the timing of the end, only the Father.  (There also goes your Trinity.  The pot cannot call the kettle black.) All men are fallible.  The disciples thought that Jesus was restoring the heavenly kingdom at that time in the first century. They thought he would deliver them right away from Roman rule - a fallacy.  Jesus forgave them and taught them many other things.  After he went back to heaven the gospels were written to enlighten Christians who were not on earth at the time, and later he gave John the Revelation about the end times and a thousand years into the future. Christians are imperfect and sometimes over-zealous.  They can also be presumptuous. The only thing they will not be forgiven for is sin against the holy spirit.  So cool it.
 
 
 
 

WOW! Wahahaat a concept!
1.) ... an Earthly Class ... those of the "other sheep".
2.) ... a Heavenly Class ... those of the Anointed.
3.) ... a Corporate Class ... Watchtower Lawyers and Accountants.
 

Since you don’t know that it is, why do you bring it up?
Next thing you know, you will have everyone at the convention counting their time once a visitor walks into the auditorium.

It is possible that my “dream” could come true. 
The present tactic of enemies of Jehovah’s Witnesses is to portray the faith as composed of two classes—with the evil “corporate” class manipulating the ones “below.” Just as in a war, strategists might call for killing off the enemy generals, and thus “liberating” the enemy troups who are being evilly manipulated. 
Of course it is nonsense, just as it is nonsense in a literal war. It doesn’t occur to the presumptuous strategists that the “enemy” soldiers might actually believe in their cause. Or perhaps they know it full well, but they have just hit on a pious-sounding way—posing as the people’s liberator—-to bust up what they don’t like.
At any rate, one way to defuse this idiocy is to avoid any perception of the “corporate class” telling the underlings what to do. I believe this is happening now in Europe, where privacy laws enacted against data-collecting are being applied to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Don’t collect data, then, the Branch says, and they provide no direction as to how to do it.
Opponents celebrate the blow with which they have struck the Witnesses’ preaching work. If it was the work of men—the corporation “telling” members what to do—they would be right. But if the directive to preach the good news and make disciples of ones who respond favorably is from God (via the Bible), then members can be trusted to devise their own methods for carrying out the work that they believe is the Christian privilege and duty.
Maybe the same thing will happen someday with “counting time.” Alexander Dvorkin, the anti-cult ringleader in Russia, said that as far as he knew, Witnesses were required to report their activity to HQ each month—insinuating that it was for the purpose of updating a file kept on each member, instead of simply reporting the aggregate number that it actually is.  One way to counter such misrepresentation—whether it be deliberate of just through ignorance—might be to simply not tally the stats centrally. Forget all about counting time.
I wouldn’t be sad to see it go, if it did. There are goofy things about counting time. A major one from my point of view is that one can achieve far more productive results during evening witnesses than one can during the weekday, but nowhere near the number of hours. I think it serves to discourage witnessing during these more productive times. 
 
 

I think Noah was a bit more proactive. Or did he just put a sign on the side or the Ark ? 

(Matthew 13:8, 9) 8 Still others fell on the fine soil, and they began to yield fruit, (Matthew 13:8, 9) 8 Still others fell on the fine soil, and they began to yield fruit, this one 100 times more, that one 60, the other 30. 9 Let the one who has ears listen.”
9 Let the one who has ears listen.”

(Galatians 6:4) But let each one examine his own actions, and then he will have cause for rejoicing in regard to himself alone, and not in comparison with the other person.
(2 Corinthians 9:6, 7) 6 But as to this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Let each one do just as he has resolved in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
 
My take:  All Christians should be productive, bearing kingdom fruit.  Jesus already stated that he knew some would give different amounts, but still their personal 100 percent, if they are doing their best.
A Christian's activity should not be held up for comparison with another's.  Nothing is wrong with encouragement, though.
A goal should be set by the person himself,  instead of being prescribed for him. Whatever is done should be between him and God  and Jesus who are the Vineyard Owners.   Jehovah and Jesus saw the widow's contribution to the temple and were pleased.  Ordinarily no one would have noticed.
However, we should be obedient to those taking the lead, if they ask one to report time  one should report time.  Lots of things will be clarified/shown up in the future.

Over the weekend, I was in a circuit way out there in the back hills, and I came to know some of the strange ways of the local elders out there.
I learned that when they really got riled at one another, they would spit out out the most spiteful words that they could think of: “May you be assigned to preside in JTR’s congregation!”

@JW Insider Some people tend not to take minor and or medium threats seriously unless it concerns them, major things have a lasting effect on some until it happens again. As is with all, the good people and the bad people, all events are unexpected, Ecc. 9:11. A safety is but only a placebo, for even in your own home one isn't safe.

As long as you have an income to support yourself and family, you are good. You'd be surprise that some folk out there would break every bone in their body willfully just to flaunt cash around. And there is a lot of people like this.
Life itself is more valuable than money. You can lose money at any time and get something, big or small back anytime, but for life, once it is loss, it cannot be received again until God's Will is realized, until then, that no 1-UP mushrooms for any of us.

There is a part of me that would like to see the end of counting time altogether. It leads to too many odd situations of doing or not doing something for the sake of accumulating hours or.keeping time going. 
At present, if I auxiliary pioneer, at the end of the month I write ‘50.’ (Or ‘30’ as the case may be) If I feel bad about it afterwards, I don’t do it again.
With a million people in the Branch, if you flat-out lied, it would make no statistical difference.
There is nothing sinister about counting time, and the people who carry on as though there is are just being childish, imo. Few bits of counsel are heard more frequently than the counsel not to boast over ‘accomplishments.’ But as a practical matter, even though it exists so as to get an overall picture of what is happening in the ministry, it has its drawbacks. 

Try this criteria to identify a cult
Any takers?
Run by a charismatic, authoritarian leader, or leadership group, who seeks extreme levels of control over followers. Uses a hierarchical pyramid structure with layers of secrecy surrounding the leader.              Followers are socially, psychologically and sometimes physically isolated. Leader's behaviour is justified by a totalitarian belief system that claims to have all the answers. A brainwashing process takes place. Total immersion in the group leaves no time or space for self-generated relationships or activities The group alternates an apparently loving or attentive approach with escalating levels of stress or fear. This could be implemented through sleep or food deprivation, apocalyptic predictions, or threats of violence or sexual abuse. This process of coercive control creates followers who are controlled by or for the leader without regard for their own needs.

(Matthew 13:8, 9) 8 Still others fell on the fine soil, and they began to yield fruit, (Matthew 13:8, 9) 8 Still others fell on the fine soil, and they began to yield fruit, this one 100 times more, that one 60, the other 30. 9 Let the one who has ears listen.”
9 Let the one who has ears listen.”

(Galatians 6:4) But let each one examine his own actions, and then he will have cause for rejoicing in regard to himself alone, and not in comparison with the other person.
(2 Corinthians 9:6, 7) 6 But as to this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Let each one do just as he has resolved in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
 
My take:  All Christians should be productive, bearing kingdom fruit.  Jesus already stated that he knew some would give different amounts, but still their personal 100 percent, if they are doing their best.
A Christian's activity should not be held up for comparison with another's.  Nothing is wrong with encouragement, though.
A goal should be set by the person himself,  instead of being prescribed for him. Whatever is done should be between him and God  and Jesus who are the Vineyard Owners.   Jehovah and Jesus saw the widow's contribution to the temple and were pleased.  Ordinarily no one would have noticed.
However, we should be obedient to those taking the lead, if they ask one to report time  one should report time.  Lots of things will be clarified/shown up in the future.