TrueTomHarley

do they now position themselves as champion of gay rights? I fear that one will not go over too well with gays.

They were going through their difficult teenage years then. They sat around playing video games and let the old man do all the work. Just kidding, of course, but as you say, there are often things added to our portrayal of events that weren't stated in verse. It is unavoidable any time you do a drama. When that jerk in the dungeon demanded to see Hezekiah, did the latter really drop what he was doing to put up with his tirade? Did he really routinely take time out during his busy king day to play with the small children? And don't get me going on cleanliness. When I see a half dozen full time servants toiling half a day to remove an ounce of dirt, I realize that my more relaxed view of clean doesn't stand a snowball's chance in you-know-where of prevailing.

I am crazy. I know I am.

It would be hard for Noah to avoid a warning component to his preaching when answering the question "What's that big boat doing in your back yard?" and of course, he would have been known for nothing else. Today it is hard to slip it in. I don't tell anyone "only a short time and all will be destroyed." There is too much preliminary stuff to cover. I'll get around to it eventually, but it's down the road a bit - more so than it would be if I dragged an ark along with me in service.

It means nothing in itself. Laudable people are there. But also some scoundrels. It's a big enough place. Maybe someday there will be a hoeing out. But for now they remain even when in serious financial arrears. I live and die for the 'like' meter.

The public ministry grounds a person. Stray from it at your personal spiritual peril.

Hey, you big so-and-so @James Thomas Rook Jr.. For all your carrying on about being prolific, I just noticed that I have more posts than you.* How did that happen? Though, you get some sort of prize when your posts are liked here. I'm not sure if I have any of those. Have you? And you once accused me of tracking you down via FB and I responded by asking what had you been smoking. But when, within a post, you referred to yourself as 'Tom Rook,' that rang a bell. I don't know from where, but it may be I have run across (not over) you elsewhere. *That is NOT counting Vic Vomidog, A Nice Guy, and the learned Dr. Adhominum.

I like when Riker was on the Klingon ship under the 'exchange student' program and had to eat their stuff.

This is subjective, as are my observations. But to the extent it is true, I'm not sure just how terrible it is. Obviously, it is not the ideal. Nonetheless, door-to-door never comes easily to some. Not everyone is a communicator. It can't be easy to carry around weighty responsibilities affording one respect, and routinely shifting to the field where there is not one grain of respect. Some always find it a struggle, and I will love them for trying, even when they do not knock the ball out of the park. Back before the LDC and its predecessor, If you wanted to build a Kingdom Hall, there were certain brothers, builders by trade, that you just had to get onboard. Everyone else was all-thumbs in comparison. These brothers had the expertise and willingness, and they roamed about instrumental in many a building project. But some considered them 'second tier' because their formal ministry wasn't that hot. Let them bring their gift to the altar, even if public preaching has become a bit of a sideline from them. I fancy myself comfortable at communicating these days, yet I could not build a Kingdom Hall model out of Lego blocks.

I will make the job easier by supplying #14 myself: 14.) "And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire...." (Rev 20:10) That's supposed to bother him? I believe he has a summer cottage on the Lake of Fire.

Disfellowshipped or disassociated persons do accumulate. And they don't always pine for the day they will be reinstated. Sometimes they go on the attack. When they do, like people anywhere, they play down whatever responsibility they had in favor of how others done them in. You would think that the BBC would get the accurate scoop on what circumstances can lead to this most extreme form of discipline and what ones cannot. It's not as though the process is hidden.

Nonsense. Are you in jail? Has your home been burned down or confiscated? Have you been fired? But now this lion will become a kitty cat. Sorry. Assuming no more....

Did the Brothers (and Sisters) who saved up or borrowed money to build the tabernacle, and used their sweat and time to build it .. often with the help of Friends ... did they specifically have the right to sell it as they see fit, and use the money as they saw fit? Yes, or no?" CHOOSE.

Davey the Kid was annoyed at those who carry on about 'hours,' asserting that we should focus on 'people' instead. The hours are people, he said.

Now the wicked Western powers will spot a way to defeat the Surly Bear. Simply keep submitting false JW reports. The Russians will go apoplectic, taking their eye off the ball while they chase each one down.

Many grousing Israelites in Moses' time bellyached similarly with regard to the tabenracle they had donated towards.

All is well. It caused me to scratch my head in non-recognition - a name, apparently a villainous one, and I never did get around to figuring out who it was.

For years I was steamed that Bethel so universally spoke ill of R rated movies, when PG-13 movies might easily be more objectionable. They outmaneuvered me by saying 'alrght, PG-13 movies are also no good.' I had a friend high up in a theater chain and during 1971-1972, saw virtually everything coming down the pipe for free. Recently, via Netflix, I revisited 'Colossus: the Forbin Project,' a sci-fi offering in which computers took over the world (I hate when they do that). "I enjoyed this drivel?" I asked myself. I continued watching many a movie after baptism (Network was a favorite, despite abysmally foul language), but gradually tapered off from lack of interest, and now become impatient with putting in the required two hours, unless a film is truly excellent. Dunkirk sounds like a film I might like. I've not seen Private Ryan or Schindler, not because of any particular principle, but because I never got around to it. The most recent current movie I've seen was Captain Fantastic, which played into some themes I like.

Gasp! I don't think it will be @PeterR; he does not seemed geared that way - but I fear one of his chums will label me a false prophet!

If you don't want to report hours, don't report hours. No one is saying you must. Sit there in your congregation - are you in a congregation? - as a gurgling fountain of pious love, and let godly life go on about you as usual. When it comes time for privileges like ministerial servant, elders will say: "we can't consider PeterR. He thinks he is more holy than anyone else and is too pure to follow a simple direction." But you don't 'accept titles' anyway, so it is a win-win. You would start a revolution over this? For what reason? Is it not merely to undermine the work the Governing Body takes the lead in? At the end of the month I report my time, because that is what I have been asked to do. And yes, some of the points you have raised do go through my mind. It's not the points you've made that are juvenile - It is your shrill insistence upon them that is juvenile, and your impugning the motives of those who feel otherwise.

It's just the government trying to defuse a firestorm of international condemnation. If there was anything to it, it would have been part of the court case.

I will concede that counting time has some drawbacks. It leads to notions of being 'on duty' or 'off duty,' even though we are encouraged not to be that way. I suspect evening witnessing is eschewed by pioneers in favor of less-productive daytime witnessing largely because they can get more time with the latter. That's not the only reason, but it is probably among them. Videos are changing the nature of reporting, as are the contact cards, which I use as a businessman uses his cards. "Everyone has a cause," I will say, "and this is mine," followed by perhaps an observation of the 900 languages and how, for that reason alone, they ought to check it out. Or something else. There is no way I am going to keep track of cards, and at the end of the month, I give a ballpark figure. increasingly, I do something like that for hours, too. I enjoy evening witnessing. Those hours, IMO, are 'better,' though fewer. What with using cards and even the videos on devices spontaneously, how can one keep track of that time-wise? I don't attempt it. Ballpark suffices. And don't get me going on internet writing. I count none of it, until Bethel is more enthused about it. It's just a personal choice. Some probably do, though I think going online solely to witness is extremely ineffective. Ones who do it, from what I have seen, end up merely talking to each other or arguing with opposers. Perhaps if we were going to track anything, it might be people talked to, not hours. Or choose one or the other depending upon the nature of one's territory. But this could also lead to manufactured situations. No matter. The main idea is that the preaching work ought to get done, and nobody is doing that other than Jehovah's Witnesses. Few know the Bible well enough to do it if they wanted to. I'll stick with the people spearheading this work and I'll leave it to them how or to what extent they want to keep track of it.

Oh come now. Reports sent to HQ are cumulative, not individual. There they are used to get a thumbnail on the preaching activity in that area. 'Tabulating them' is merely adding up the publisher reports by the congregation secretary so he can send the final sum to HQ - where you would have us believe, they must shake with rage because they want to know each individual's report so they can JUDGE them, but are thwarted in their sinister scheme by only having a single number.

I once worked with an agnostic woman who knew God's name was Jehovah because she had seen 'Indiana Jones.' She knew God's original purpose was for the earth to be a paradise because she had seen 'Dogma.' Though she had never been in a church, she knew from two movies, more about God than do 90% of churchgoers!

They're also fairly unique among Christian denominations about actually doing anything about the Word of God, insomuch as it involves spreading a united message. Denominations that do not completely neglect that work fritter away most of their energies taking sides over social and national issues, and in the end convey only that 'Jesus is God.' When I see the group that has participated in the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14 to even a fraction of JWs, perhaps I will bolt to them. 'Advertising the kingdom' is the overwhelming theme today. All else is fine print, arguable this way or that, but fine print nonetheless.