xjwsforChrist

HABUB SAID

Where/how do followers of Christ do this --- other than internet.

Appreciate comments from those that do belong/attend.
Habub

TEC SAID

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:39 am Post subject:
In one another's houses I suspect, if you are close enough to another person who follows Christ, but has no religious affiliation.

The internet is like being in one another's house though also... I am in my house, but you are in mine, in a sense as well. (my kitchen to be precise )

I truly care for the people here, and I feel true fellowship here.

(I have been in a church before (various ones), and just feel... out of place.)

Peace to you!

tammy

JUSTMOM SAID


Hello habub

Where there is "two or more" the Christ is with us.

For me, not being identified with any partticular denomination or group worshiping in a building....I can now feel free to discuss Christ with a wider range of people than when I was a witness. I don't have to just be around other witnesses. I can discuss, agree, disagree with anyone because I am not trying to "make" anyone believe anything at all. It is between them and Jah what they do or don't do/believe.
My husband and I share with each other. I am able to share with our sons. And I can share or do for others anytime I make myself available.

just my thoughts
justmom

YPPUPLLEH SAID

Anywhere. A group of friends do not have to have religion as the basis for their friendship.
_________________
Love is a warm rubber puppy...

LOZ SAID

The Internet is proving to be a solution for many of us. I have friends who attend churches and I've occasionally visited one or two, but I don't affiliate with any religion. I value the freedom in the way JustMom describes. I can't put my trust in religions again, and thankfully I don't need to.

I'm sure the fellowship here is being blessed.

Loz x
_________________
Don't let anyone put you down, and don't do it to yourself.

HABUB SAID

I appreciate your replies and feel so negative about religion and attending church yet understand why some individuals feel differently. I think for some a family atmosphere, friendships, socialization, is needed.

The internet is definitely a place for discussion of God and Christ and everything spiritual and quite a learning tool. Reading about the faith of others is inspiring/strengthening to me.

MEDEWTYSENU SAID

I myself can agree with wanting to have that family association and get why many attend a church even though disagreeing with some if not all of it's doctrines (the main reason many JW's stay in the organization.

However Jesus did say that "where two or more are gathered, I am there." As it was written it would indicate in group gatherings. With the invention of the internet it would seem this can also be the case in this circumstance.

Gathering together in spirit as it's done on these boards would surely invite Christ to be among those (in spirit) and guide them in the ways in which they should walk.

Jesus also said that those who were unwilling to give up their families were unworthy of him. Or that he that denies me (Christ) in front of men, I will deny in front of the Father and the holy angels. Such denying could come about by individuals refusing to make that sacrifice (disowning themselves and all that they value, including their family) if the things they value keep ones from a proper relationship with Christ. We mustn't fool ourselves. As the Master said "No one can slave for two masters (ourselves or Jesus), for he will love the one but hate the other."

YSand FSoC
Morgan
_________________
"Those that matter don't mind and those that mind don't matter"--Dr. Seuss

AGUEST SAID

I have to agree with dear MS, dear Habub (the greatest of love and peace to you, both!). Somehow, some have the impression that serving Christ is a largely social situation... when the TRUTH is that it can be just the opposite. Sometimes one has their entire family to fellowship with (think Rahab, Cornelius, and others)... while others have no one EXCEPT JAH/Christ themselves (think Moses, after moving out of the camp; Elijah; David, when he had to feign insanity; even Christ himself (he loved his disciples, but they weren't always "on board" with him)... and his fleshly family certainly didn't come around until after he was put to death).

It can be lonely at times... which is why we need to focus on our relationship with Christ FIRST... THEN on our relationship(s) with others, including perhaps our own flesh. If we put him first, HE takes care of the others things; if, though, we try to do it ourselves, rely on ourselves that we know what... and who... is "best" for us to please, we may not only find ourselves caught up in a tug-of-war... but with our consciences "bothering" us because we chose father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter... OVER him.

In such a case, it isn't he that "beats" us - it's our own conscience that does.

The Adversary, though, knows how much we allow ourselves to "need" other people. That's the very reason why he went after Job's children FIRST... and then had that one's wife start to torment him: the thinking that family... is 'everything.' Family, though, while it can BE a part of everything... isn't always everything, if it ever is. Ask any former JW who left that harlot because they realize "she" was NOT the truth... to the loss of family. Apparently, THEY weren't "everything" to family.

Again, peace to you!

YOUR servant and a slave of Christ,

SA

MEDEWTYSENU SAID

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 5:08 am Post subject:
I myself am going through this exact thing at the moment. Back in November my sister invited me to live with her as we hadn't seen each other in quite some time and she wanted me off the streets. I was homeless.

However while I was homeless I was preaching to the masses, something I haven't done while being here with her. Suffice to say it has bothered me greatly and I feel the need to be about the Master's business, despite how much my sister wants me to stay.

I'm also going through a disability claim which if it succeeds would provide me with income to support myself in the missionary work (I have Scleroderma which makes it quite difficult to hold down any sort of job that I have experience in). So I understand the problem all too well. I don't get along well with her husband and I feel I made a mistake. On the other hand perhaps I needed this one last visit with my sister before I disappear into the fields to sow.

It's quite the conundrum. Saying vs Doing.

I'm reminded of the parable of the man who had two sons and he told the one son to go work in the fields and he said he would but didn't. the the father asked the second son to do the same and he refused. But then he felt guilty and went and worked in the fields. Jesus then asked the question "which son really loved his father?"

I hope I end up being the second son.

YSand FSofC
Morgan
_________________
"Those that matter don't mind and those that mind don't matter"--Dr. Seuss

AGUEST SAID

You are where you are... because it's where you're supposed to be, dear Morgan (again, peace to you!). Serving the Christ isn't always a rose garden; indeed, it's more often a torture pole (many just don't WANT it to be and so teach/preach a more "comfortable" kind of "christianity." The Holy One of Israel, however, had nowhere to lay HIS head... and often stayed with others, including Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. He sent his disciples out and told them to stay where they were received and not be transferring from one house to another. Paul stayed with different ones from time to time, as well.

Of course, it's MUCH easier when one has one's own roof over one's head and one's own bed to lie in... but if one can keep in mind that perhaps there is a REASON (in relations to Christ) that they are where they are... and in whatever situation they are in... at a given moment... one might see what they need to do while there... as well as the way out, if that's necessary/desirable.

Throw your burden on the Holy One of Israel, dear one... and let him carry it for you. You, though, look for the "assignment" where you are. It isn't always "preaching" to others, though - sometimes it's just letting the love, joy, faith, peace, goodness, kindness, mildness, long-suffering, and self-control of the spirit be manifest to others,as THEY might need to see these... THROUGH you. You, an ambassador... substituting for Christ.

Again, peace to you!

YSSFS of Christ,

SA

TEC SAID

That was a great post, Shelby. My spirit bears witness to that.

Morgan, go where you are led and let your love and light shine. Both shine clearly here, btw. Of course, what matters is what Christ speaks to you. I do think that sometimes we feel we should have stayed somewhere, perhaps from obligation or because we are comfortable... but we are headed somewhere new. In either case, follow Christ and where He leads you, and simply let your light shine. I know that you already know this.

Peace and love to you!

tammy

CHARIKLO SAID

We are all different, and we all have different paths before us, yet if we follow our path with Christ in our mind and heart, he will always be at our side, and we will go with him and to him.

For me, after many months of going nowhere, and simultaneous with coming to your site, Shelby, I realised that my path lay in going back to the Roman Catholic Church, and I experience great joy from that.

I'm interested in all the comments above. Jehovah's Witnesses have their emphasis on community. They have this thing called "association" which seems to mean no more than talking and hugging with people before and after meetings, and in those meetings there is very little sense of personal prayer, or indeed of personal relationship with a dvine being.

For me, while my personal relationship with Christ is a constant throughout my life, despite the sheer nonsense to which I became subjected with the JW's for such a comparatively short but very intense and intensely maipulated time, there is a focus there within the Church. Attending Mass has not so very much to do with being with other people, but is a further rich dimension of my own relationship with God. Silence, within that, is very important.

From that point of silence one then goes out to other people, very definitely not preaching as sich, but in living with Christ and in him and in showing him in all dealings with others, in so far as that is humanly possible.

For me, that gives and brings huge joy and peace. That's where I am. I know it is different from everyone else here, but I am very comfortable with the community here too, and I feel that in our heart and at root we are all with the same Lord, who is Christ.

QUENTIN SAID

Having a relationship with God is deeply personnel and a bond that cannot be constrained to a church/religion which shackles one to drag around an anchor of doctrine and a body of laws, restrictions, servitude.

NO, you cannot allow yourself to be put in a box.
_________________
Vinegar tasts better in freedom
than honey in slavery

How can you unterstand a thing unless you know it?
How can you know a thing unless you understand it?

CHARIKLO SAID

Quote:
Having a relationship with God is deeply personnel and a bond that cannot be constrained to a church/religion which shackles one to drag around an anchor of doctrine and a body of laws, restrictions, servitude.

NO, you cannot allow yourself to be put in a box.

I absolutely agree, Quentin.

As I became more and more dragged in to the Jehovah's Witnesses, a very wise friend (Non-Catholic) said to me, "make sure you are not jumping from one box into another".

I wasn't ready to take that thought fully on board then. I was largely already brainwashed by the JW's, as well as being under a lot of quite heavy psychological pressure and manipulation from them. In fact, if it hadn't been for a particularly heavy and clumsy attempt by two JW elders to exert even heavier pressure, I might never have extricated myself. As it is, I remain determined to keep my freedom of thought, and I don't feel restricted in an environment that I find peaceful. I did fiond myself missing Holy Communion very much, and that's why I took myself back there after eight months of going nowhere.

That's where I am. But I retain the determination I expressed to myself as I closed the door behind the two elders late that evening, that I would never go inside a Kingdom Hall again, and that no-one was ever, ever going to tell me what to think ever again.

JUSTMOM SAID

Good morning Dear CHARIKLO


I have a question for you if I may ask as I am understanding a little of your background with religion and understanding that "BOX" that Quentin is talking about.
Why is it that you feel that you must be in a "structure per se" or box to take "holy communion"?? I noticed that you mentioned you missed partaking of the Christ (and we all know you will NEVER have it offered to you in the WTBS) so you went back to the Catholic Church so you could feel free about partaking?? I'm wondering why it is that individuals feel they have to be in "that box" to partake? Just wondering. Not to offend you in any way please understand this.

Love Justmom