Bible Speaks

MY COMMENTS again:
***********************
the "announcement" from ONE (1) bethel, has become -> 
"at the bethel branches worldwide"
AND: 
"The exact information is not known" !!!

We had to stop our postings online about our Brothers in Russia !!!!  All Bethels want that... I got a message and a call.  Only praying is now useful❤️

? JEHOVAH IS MY COMFORTER ?
3 "Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort,"
4 "who comforts us in all our trials so that we may be able to comfort others
in any sort of trial with the comfort that we receive from God."
(2 Cor.1:3,4) NWT
MANY things in life—suffering, disappointment, loneliness—can bring sadness, even despair. At such times you may wonder, ‘Where can I turn for help?’ The words of the apostle Paul found at 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4 point to an unfailing source of comfort—Jehovah God.
In verse 3, God is called “the Father of tender mercies.” What does that mean? The Greek word rendered “tender mercies” can convey the idea of feeling compassion for the sufferings of others. 
One Bible reference work says that this term may be rendered “feels pity” or “cares very much.” God’s “tender mercies” move him to act. Knowing this aspect of God’s personality makes us want to draw close to him, does it not?
You may ask, ‘How does God comfort us and give us the courage to bear our pain?’ He does so mainly through his Word, the Bible, and through the gift of prayer. Paul tells us that God lovingly gives us His Word so that “through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope.” 
Additionally, through heartfelt prayers, we can come to experience “the peace of God that excels all thought.”—Romans 15:4; Philippians 4:7.

#Repost @happyman
・・・
I received this letter today from a man named Dino that has been locked up in prison for the last 30 years.  A few years ago I was visiting the San Francisco area for work.  
So I went to a meeting at the local Kingdom Hall when I was invited to a home for hospitality by a family of Jehovah's Witnesses.  
I told them that I be writing guys in prison.  So they asked me to write a family member that was locked up.  I said that I would write him and share the Good News of God's Kingdom with him.  
I kept his address taped up on my mirror so that I wouldn't forget.  Days, weeks and months had passed and I still hadn't wrote him.  I felt bad because I'd see the address and I would say I haven't forgot about you.  
Finally after a couple of years of seeing his address and my conscience bothering me I wrote him.  I didn't know if he would write me back.  I didn't know if he had got out already.  I hope that the letter would find him.  
What a surprise I had got a letter from him!  He wrote me saying that if I would of wrote him any sooner that he would of just thrown away my letter and not wrote back.  
He said that I had wrote him at the perfect time!  He said that I wrote him at a time when he was calling on God and asking him questions.  He said that he didn't want anything to do with Jehovah's Witnesses but that since I wrote him at the right time that he was willing to listen!  He said that he had a lot of questions for me.  Now we are going on  about 4 years of studying and that he would love to become a Jehovah's Witness!  
I send him copies of "What Does the Bible Really Teach" and he highlights the answers.  He also asks questions and I answer them for him with scriptures.  I hope that he gets baptized soon... #jehovahswitnesses #ministerialservant #regularpioneers #dontshrinkback #jw4life #jw4ever #prisonwritingministry#StopJWBan
 

IMG_5159.mov
Tap screen for lightning ⛈ 

Soon all enemies of God will face the King ? designated Christ as he brings to nothing all Governments, Power and Authority opposed to God. Do you understand that?—
The Bible says that God’s government is going to destroy all earthly governments.
Why?— Because they don’t obey the One whom God has made King. And who is that?— Yes, Jesus Christ!.
Jehovah God has the right to decide what kind of government should rule, and he has chosen his Son, Jesus, to be King. Soon God’s Ruler, Jesus Christ, will take the lead in destroying all the governments of this world. The Bible, at Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 to 16, describes him as he does so, even as this picture shows.
In the Bible, God’s war to destroy all the governments of the world is called Har–Magedon, or Armageddon.
Now, God says that his Kingdom will destroy the governments of men. But does he tell us to do that?— No, in the Bible, Armageddon is called “the war of the great day of God the Almighty.” (Revelation 16:14, 16)  
Yes, Armageddon is God’s war, and he uses Jesus Christ to lead the heavenly armies in the fight. Is the war of Armageddon near?
31 ‘A noise will resound to the ends of the earth,
For Jehovah has a controversy with the nations.
He will personally pass judgment on all humans.
And he will put the wicked to the sword,’ declares Jehovah.
32 This is what Jehovah of armies says:
‘Look! A calamity is spreading from nation to nation,
And a great tempest will be unleashed from the remotest parts of the earth.
33 “‘And those slain by Jehovah in that day will be from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth. They will not be mourned, nor will they be gathered up or buried. They will become like manure on the surface of the ground.’ (Jeremiah 25:31-33)
When Christ has brought mankind to perfection, he will then give back to the Father the authority that was conferred upon him for this work: “He hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has brought to nothing all government and all authority andpower. For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:24, 25)
The Millennial Rule of the Kingdom will have fully accomplished its purpose; so no longer will there be a need for this subsidiary government to remain between Jehovah and mankind.
And since sin and death will have been completely removed and mankind redeemed, the need for Jesus as a Redeemer ends. The Bible explains: “Then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, that God may be allthings to everyone.”—1 Corinthians 15:28. jw.org 

19 "They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning, and said: ‘Too bad, too bad, the great city, in which all those who had ships at sea became rich from her wealth, because in one hour she has been devastated!’ (Revelation 18:19) NWT 
Why do “the kings of the earth” grieve over the very entity they themselves have devastated? 
The reason for their grief is strictly selfish. After the destruction of Babylon the Great, the kings of the earth evidently come to realize how useful she was to them. She provided a religious front for their oppressive deeds. Babylon the Great also helped them in recruiting youths for the battlefields. Moreover, she played an important part in keeping people in subjection.
In additional significant factor is that when Babylon the Great goes down under the devastating attack of the ten horns of the symbolic wild beast, her fall is mourned by her companions in fornication, the kings of the earth, and also by the merchants and shippers who dealt with her in supplying luxurious commodities and gorgeous fineries. 
While these political and commercial representatives survive her desolation, notably no religious representatives are depicted as still on the scene to share in mourning her downfall. (Re 17:16, 17; 18:9-19) 
The kings of the earth are shown as having judgment executed upon them sometime after mystic Babylon’s annihilation, and their destruction comes, not from the “ten horns,” but from the sword of the King of kings, the Word of God.—Re 19:1, 2, 11-18.
A further distinguishing characteristic of Babylon the Great is her drunkenness, she being pictured as “drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” (Re 17:4, 6; 18:24; 19:1, 2) 
She thus is the spiritual counterpart of the ancient city of Babylon, expressing the same enmity toward the true people of God. Significantly, it was to the charge of religious leaders that Jesus laid the responsibility for “all the righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah.” 
While those words were addressed to religious leaders from among Jesus’ own race, the Jewish nation, and while persecution against Jesus’ followers was particularly intense from that sector for a time, history shows that thereafter the opposition to genuine Christianity came from other sources (the Jews themselves suffering considerable persecution).—Mt 23:29-35.
All the above factors are significant, and they must all be considered in arriving at a true picture of symbolic Babylon the Great and what it represents. jw.org
 

22 "And Noah did according to all that God had commanded him. He did just so." (Genesis 6:22)
Preservation Through the Flood. The people did not believe that God would act to destroy a world of wickedness. So it was because Noah possessed strong faith that he, in implicit obedience, did “according to all that God had commanded him. He did    just so.” (Ge 6:22) 
It was because of his unswerving faith in Jehovah that the Christian writer of the book of Hebrews included him in that “so great a cloud of witnesses.” 
He wrote: “By faith Noah, after being given divine warning of things not yet beheld, showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; and through this faith he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the righteousness that is according to faith.”—Heb 11:7; 12:1.
A Prophetic Pattern. The prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jesus Christ as well as the apostles Peter and Paul all spoke of God’s servant Noah. 
Noah’s days are shown by Jesus and Peter to be prophetic of “the presence of the Son of man” and a future “day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.” Jehovah, in sparing Noah and his family when he destroyed that wicked world, was “setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come.”—2Pe 3:5-7; 2:5, 6; Isa 54:9; Eze 14:14, 20; Mt 24:37-39;Heb 11:7; 1Pe 3:20, 21.

"Do not be misled. Bad associations spoil useful habits." (1 Cor.15:33)
Let us now discuss some scriptures that teach us important lessons about our choice of friends. This will help us understand how important it is to study the Bible and to meditate on it so that we can get to know Jehovah well. 
Psalm 26:4 says: “I have not sat with men of untruth; and with those who hide what they are I do not come in.” At Proverbs 13:20, we read: “He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly.” 
What important lessons can we learn from those scriptures? (1) Jehovah wants us to choose our friends carefully. He wants to protect us from doing something that could harm us and our friendship with him. (2) Our friends influence us to do good things or to do bad things. That is simply a fact of life. 
The way the verses above are written shows that Jehovah is trying to touch our heart. Notice that these verses are written as simple truths, not as rules, such as “you must not do this” or “you must not do that.” It is as if Jehovah is telling us: ‘These are the facts. What will you do? What is in your heart?’
On the night before he died, Jesus prayed with his 11 faithful apostles and asked his Father to protect them. He said these unforgettable words: “Watch over them because of the wicked one.” (John 17:15) 
Just as Jesus cared about his apostles, he cares about all his followers today. So we can be sure that Jehovah will answer Jesus’ prayer by protecting us during these difficult times. Proverbs 2:7, 8 tells us that Jehovah is like a shield for those who are faithful to him, and “he will guard the very way of his loyal ones.” 
It is not always easy to obey Jehovah’s requirements. But only those who obey Jehovah will have everlasting life and true freedom. (Romans 8:21) Others may think differently, but do not let them fool you!
Who wants to mislead you? Not Jehovah, but Satan! 

@ARchiv@L @Kurt He gave me the info. Just made the picture, so he gets the credits. ????

@ARchiv@L @Kurt He gave me the info. Just made the picture, so he gets the credits. ????

very nice @Bible Speaks ! thank you !! 

9 "At that Satan answered Jehovah: “Is it for nothing that Job has feared God?"
(Job 1:9) NWT
Job Kept Integrity Under Test
Job lived in Uz during the time the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt.      Though not an Israelite, Job was a loyal worshipper of Jehovah. He had a large family, great wealth, and influence in his community. He was a highly regarded counselor and an impartial judge.             He was generous to the poor and       needy. Job was a man of integrity.
Job clearly showed that Jehovah was the most important Person in his life
1:8-11, 22; 2:2-5.  
 • Satan took note of Job’s integrity. He did not deny Job’s obedience to Jehovah; rather, he questioned Job’s motives
• Satan claimed that Job served Jehovah out of selfish interest
• To provide an answer to Satan’s charge, Jehovah allowed Satan to attack that faithful man. Satan brought devastation to all aspects of Job’s life
• When Job maintained his integrity, Satan questioned the integrity of all men
• Job did not sin or accuse God of doing anything wrong

WHO CARES? DOES GOD CARE?
IT IS only natural to call to God for help when we are in dire straits. After all, he “is great and is abundant in power; his understanding is beyond recounting.” (Psalm 147:5)
He is in the very best position to help us to cope with our problems. Added to that, the Bible invites us to ‘pour out our heart’ before him. (Psalm 62:8)
Why is it, then, that so many have the impression that God does not answer their prayers? Does that mean that he does not care?
Rather than being quick to blame God for any seeming inaction, think back to the time when you were a child.
When your parents did not give in to your every demand, did you ever accuse them of not loving you? Many children do. When you grew up, however, you appreciated that love is displayed in many ways and that saying yes to a child’s every request is not really the loving thing to do.          
We can be certain that in God’s due time, there will be no more suffering or death on planet Earth.
Rather, the conditions foreseen in the book of Revelation will hold sway: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3, 4)
You may say, ‘I will never live to see that time.’ However, the fact is that you might. And even if you die, God can raise you from the dead. (John 5:28, 29)
That is what God purposes for us, and that is what will happen. How far from the truth it is to say that God does not care for mankind!

Repetition is, when learning most things, is an advantage, (especially to us as JW's when studying God's Word). We in our imperfect state do tend to forget things and the Brothers kindly remind us of many of the important things, by repetition and we can be truly thankful for that.
Its like when we use a number of specific scriptures in the preaching work.........once we use have used them a quite a few times we tend to remember them.........even years later, we can generally call them to mind, if the need arises........and, this is why it is important to try to use scriptures in, for example in the segment "Teach the Truth" in our Christian Life and Ministry meetings........it enlarges our repertoire of scriptures.

#Repost @happyman
・・・
I received this letter today from a man named Dino that has been locked up in prison for the last 30 years.  A few years ago I was visiting the San Francisco area for work.  
So I went to a meeting at the local Kingdom Hall when I was invited to a home for hospitality by a family of Jehovah's Witnesses.  
I told them that I be writing guys in prison.  So they asked me to write a family member that was locked up.  I said that I would write him and share the Good News of God's Kingdom with him.  
I kept his address taped up on my mirror so that I wouldn't forget.  Days, weeks and months had passed and I still hadn't wrote him.  I felt bad because I'd see the address and I would say I haven't forgot about you.  
Finally after a couple of years of seeing his address and my conscience bothering me I wrote him.  I didn't know if he would write me back.  I didn't know if he had got out already.  I hope that the letter would find him.  
What a surprise I had got a letter from him!  He wrote me saying that if I would of wrote him any sooner that he would of just thrown away my letter and not wrote back.  
He said that I had wrote him at the perfect time!  He said that I wrote him at a time when he was calling on God and asking him questions.  He said that he didn't want anything to do with Jehovah's Witnesses but that since I wrote him at the right time that he was willing to listen!  He said that he had a lot of questions for me.  Now we are going on  about 4 years of studying and that he would love to become a Jehovah's Witness!  
I send him copies of "What Does the Bible Really Teach" and he highlights the answers.  He also asks questions and I answer them for him with scriptures.  I hope that he gets baptized soon... #jehovahswitnesses #ministerialservant #regularpioneers #dontshrinkback #jw4life #jw4ever #prisonwritingministry#StopJWBan
 

What is your Dream of Paradise? - Can you imagine what the world will be like? - We have never had Paradise on earth, yet; yes we have beautiful gardens right now that gives us a view of our future on earth!....LOOK...
“THE nostalgia for paradise is among the powerful nostalgias that seem to haunt human beings. It may be the most powerful and persistent of all. A certain longing for paradise is evidenced at every level of religious life.” So says The Encyclopedia of Religion. 
Such nostalgia is only natural, since the Bible tells us that human life began in Paradise—a beautiful garden free of disease and death. (Genesis 2:8-15) It is not surprising that many of the world’s religions hold out the hope of future life in a paradise of one kind or another.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH ABOUT PARADISE ON EARTH?
(Isaiah 35:1,2) "The wilderness and the waterless region will exult, and the desert plain will be joyful and blossom as the saffron. 2 Without fail it will blossom, and it will really be joyful with joyousness and with glad crying out. The glory of Leb′a·non itself must be given to it, the splendor of Car′mel and of Shar′on. There will be those who will see the glory of Jehovah, the splendor of our God."
God’s original purpose for man—to enjoy perfect life in an earthly paradise—and point to God’s restoration of Paradise on earth through Christ. In Paradise Lost, for example, Michael the archangel foretells the time when Christ will “reward His faithful, and receive them into bliss, whether in heaven or earth, for then the earth shall all be paradise, far happier place than this of Eden, and far happier days.”
(Isaiah 35:3-4) . . .Strengthen the weak hands, YOU people, and make the knees that are wobbling firm. 4 Say to those who are anxious at heart: “Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! YOUR own God will come with vengeance itself, God even with a repayment. He himself will come and save YOU people.”
(Psalm 37:9-11) . . .For evildoers themselves will be cut off, But those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth. ו [Waw] 10 And just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; And you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be. 11 But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, And they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.
(Psalm 37:29) . . .The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it.
REJOICE! - SOON THAT PARADISE WILL BE HERE! LEARN NOW HOW TO BE PART OF THOSE THAT LIVE IN THAT EARTHLY PARADISE! 
www.jw.org

"What sort of persons ought you to be in holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion!"— (2 Pet. 3:11)
Peter was not posing a question but making a rousing statement, an exclamation. Peter knew that only those who do Jehovah’s will and exhibit godly traits will be preserved through the coming “day of vengeance.” (Isa. 61:2)
Thus, the apostle added: “You, therefore, beloved ones, having this advance knowledge, be on your guard that you may not be led away with them [false teachers] by the error of the law-defying people and fall from your own steadfastness.” (2 Pet. 3:17) 
Being among those who had “advance knowledge,” Peter knew that in the last days, Christians would have to be especially on guard in order to maintain their integrity.
Later, the apostle John clearly explained why. He foresaw Satan’s eviction from heaven and his “great anger” against those “who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.”— (Rev. 12:9, 12, 17)
www.jw.org

#StopJWBan

Spread the word, help stop religious repressions, help #StopJWBan in Russia! https://tv.jw.org/#en/video/VODOurOrganization/pub-jwb_201703_14_VIDEO
 

#StopJWBan