... the text for June 25, 2020

How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell toget in unity. - Ps. 133:1

The 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!!

... the text for June 23, 2020

Do not be mislead. Bad associations spoil useful habits. - 1 Cor. 15:33

A recent book I read had a chapter entitled "Have friends who want the best for you". It went on to explain how environment and association affect your own progress in life. Some people have friends who do not want the best for them, but the best from themselves and will take advantage of you to attain that goal. That's unfortunate, but it happens.

The Bible makes the same conclusion in other places. Proverbs says, several times, that bing with wise people will make you wise, associating with unwise people will make you unwise.

So, the scripture above carries the warning not to be mislead. Don't kid yourself. Don't suffer delusions that if you hang out with someone who doesn't have good qualities that your good behavior will rub off on them. It can have the oppsite affect, and that can be dangerous.

When I was in school, a kid I knew was in my class. I knew his family, was friends with his sister, who was in my congregation. He didn't go to meetings himself, but we knew each other. One of the teachers approached me and told me that this kid has come to her and was trying to improve his grades. Why? Because I was doing so well in the class, that he wanted to imitate me and my example.

So, it's not wrong to want to push yourself to a higher level. But you need to associate with the right people. You have a good friend that you want to do well in life, so you help him or her to attain their goals. They in turn want the same for you, so they will help you attain your goals. It's much more difficult to look at someone and think, "That person will do this or that for me and I will improve my life." It doesn't wsork that way.

This book gave an illustration. This man was manager of a department that was a well oiled machine. Everyone got to work on time, they dressed appropriately, the got their job done. In another department, there was one employee that was always late, did sloppy work and had behavior problems. So, an executive thought moving this person to the top department would "straighten him out". So, they made the trasfer. Within the six months, the morale of this top department was damaged.


What happened? Well, when the good employees saw the misfit employee come in late from lunch, leave early, make a lot of mistakes, they thought to themselves, "Why work harder? This person take advantage of everything and he's just complacent and all, so why bother?"

And so it goes. We need good association to make ourselves excel, but we can drag another person down if we're not excelling. Do we want to be bad association for someone else? We would not knowingly do this, but sometimes it happens. Having a friend who wants the bes for us, he or she is in a position to be a positive influence, to correct us when we're wrong, to commend us when we're doing well.

So, while we avoid people who have bad habits, we have to try to maintain good habits and help others do the same. Our preaching work is a wonderful thing to do, because we're trying to teach others to benefit themselves and all of us can praise Jehovah together.

Stay safe!