Here's a short one:
Thursday, May 27, 2021
I'm still alive...
Hello, all. Letting you know I'm still here.
Whew, what a year it's been. Pandemic Pandemonium for sure. All this unrest everywhere, Israel, here in the United States. It seems crzay.
I've been playing this game, WGT. "World Golf Tour". My username there is Psykiatris0. Since everyone is enamored with Zoom, I decided to give it a try. I was able to record videos of me playing the game, and providing explanations for what I'm doing. I'm only posting videos of the greens, as they are the most challenging for many, including me.
I got a lot of help from others, and want to pay it forward, so I will be posting vids here occasionally.
Saturday, June 27, 2020
... the text for June 27, 2020
Accept ... the sword of the spirit, that is, God's Word. - Eph. 6:17The comments make this interesting point:
But we must learn to use it skillfully when defending our beliefs - or adjusting our own thinking.This "sword" is not an offensive weapon, meaning that we don;'t attack other people with it. It's clear from the comment above, that it is used in three ways: to teach others about Jehovah, to cut out wrong attitudes and, thoughts, and to defend ourselves against the influence of the world, ruled by Satan. (John 5:19)
To use this "sword", we need to wield it every day. That is, to read it. I participate in meetings in American Sign Language (ASL). The public talk I watched today made this wonderful point:
The speaker showed us a picture of a "Play" and "Pause" button. The "play" button was green, while the "pause" was red. So, he pointed out that the green means to watch the Bible verses, and then "pause" was to stop, and meditate on what you have just seen.
I encourage you: Don't read the Bible like it's a novel you have to burn through to get to the end. Stop occasionally to let your eyes rest, and let your brain think about what that scripture said about Jehovah. Think about how Jehovah deals with imperfect humans. Think about how different characters in the Bible felt about Jehovah or how they worshiped him.
If we do this often enough, we will be able to wield it skillfully, recalling scriptures that apply to different situations or when making important decisions. Doing this will help you improve on learning what Jehovah thinks about a matter, as that is more important than your own thinking on a matter.
John 17:3 explains just how important it is to take in the knowledge of Jehovah and conform to His way of thinking. I encourage you all to continue in your efforts and you will be the happier for it.
Stay safe!
.. the text for June 26, 2020
The hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he has offered a sacred service to God. - John 16:1The comments today talk about conscience. Religious fanatics who kill for their religion have existed for a long time, from the famous Crusades, the Spanish Inquisitions, to ISIS and terrorist groups today. Their acts clearly violate the thinking of the One they claim to be doing all of this for. Exodus 20:13 clearly says, "You must not murder."
Yes, Israel fought the people in Canaan under God's direction, but Jehovah is The True Judge. If he decides a people should be wiped out, it is His perfect judgement that decides that.
Taking it upon ourselves to be the judges and executioners of others due to the "sins against you" is wrong. When we've been shown contempt or discrimated against or put down or treated as an inferior or oppressed by dominant people, learn to maintain self-control and leave it with Jehovah, who will judge righteously and perfectly.
The comments encourage us to carefully and diligently study God's Word, and meditate on the lessons we learn from it. If we train our consciences toe accept Jehovah's thoughts and feelings, we will not be switching from one extreme to the other.
The other day, I saw several headlines on Yahoo that illustrate the world's conscience. One headline described a biracial woman being set on fire in her car. She didn't die, but was hospitalized. The police are investigating this as a hate crime. In another headline, an episode of The Office TV show was edited to remove a "blackface performance" because it was racist. So, it's clear that most people's conscience is either too sensitive or too calloused.
It's important to obtain and reflect Jehovah's thinking. We will be more balanced and reasonable people if we do so.
Stay safe!
Thursday, June 25, 2020
... the text for June 25, 2020
How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell toget in unity. - Ps. 133:1The comments ask this question:
Could you "widen out," that is, do it to a greater extent and more consistently? (2 Cor. 6:11-13)The organization of Jehovah's Witnesses are unified worldwide by having the same teachings. We all study the same material, view the same videos, read the same Bible.
The psalmist was referring to another unity, one in which we all associate with one another as friends. Because of imperfection, there is always room for improvement.
If you feel that brothers and sisters don't associate with you enough, you are not invited anywhere and no one calls you, should you sit there and be sad about it?
There's the maxim that's true: If you want friends, you need to be a friend. So, waiting for other people to connect with you will be a long wait. I've always been much of a loner. I don't like the way I sound when I speak, so I stay quiet most of the time. When I was in school, occasionally I would hang out with the other kids, playing dodgeball or handball. But, most of the time, I wandered the field behind our school and meditated.
But, I do need interaction with others and communication, so what can I do? Reach out to others. Show them that I'm thinking about them. If I want to do something, I will invite them over.
That's not easy. "Well, I've invited so an so and they just never accepted, they always had an excuse or other arrangements." That's true. I have done the same, only to get stood up time and again. Should I give up? No.
I can't expect others to drop everything for me. Everyone has their own schedule, they have other people to consider. So, in order to apply the scripture today, I need to be the one to reach out, and continue doing so when it seems pointless or maybe they don't care. I have to keep trying.
Why is it important? Because we need each other to face thecoming great tribulation. That's not a time to try to go it alone, to survive on your own mettle and resources. We need to help our brothers and sisters, and they need to help us.
It's not about picking someone up and carrying them on our back. It's holding them up so that they can keep moving forward.
Jesus, when speaking of the coming Great Tribulation, "unless Jehovah had cut short the days, no flesh would be saved." (Mark 13:20) That means it's going to be bad! He also indicated that anything like it has never happened before and will not occur again. It's going to be truly awful and scary. We can depend on our brothers and sisters to provide assitance, but they need to depend on us for the same thing.
Unity is so important. Not just knowing hte same things, but we need to have thc close relationships.
There was this brother I knew, who apparently doesn't really like me that much. He purposly ignores me, despite my efforts to talk to him. The way Jehovah teaches us will be that he will find that I am the one he needs the most help from, and I will need his help when the time comes. Wouldn't that be a shame if that happens, and you know you need to help but you simply can't, because you've never taken the time to develop true love for that person? Jehovah may request an accounting for that.
So, let us do our best to promote unity with each other. Be willing to invite those you don't know that well to spend time with you or do some activity together. Even in the stay-at-home or lockdown, you can still Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime, call or text someone and start with a simple hello, hope you're doing well and try to develop a good friendship.
And don't give up. Please. Even loners like me need people to talk to besides ourselves.
Stay safe!!
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