A Revelation

No, nothing like what was revealed to St. John on that island of Patmos.

A realization that rocked my world was that non-JW's (christians specifically) took the Bible seriously! It wasn't that I didn't have a grasp of this before. It's just that I thought churchgoers, including pastors and priests, had a...feathery approach to it, a light respect, but nothing substantial.

I became aware that this wasn't really so. In service (door to door preaching) one Sunday morning, my group drove past a church. There were a lot of people making their way inside, including a lot teenagers. They were all in their 'regular' clothes, but what caught my attention was they each had a copy of the Bible in their hands and nothing more!

Yes, and their walk and how they held their Bible spoke to me. Telling me they regarded the Scriptures as authoritative and sufficient.

What a difference to what I had known. Since kids we were taught to carry briefcases/bags with all these various books, magazines, tracts, and even the Bible. (The longer you were in The Truth the exponentially bigger your case got to be. Some elders may as well have been transporting tubas.)

I got to see similar scenes like this and felt even a bit of jealousy. This wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back, but it did carry some weight. There was a simple and elegant way they went to their services, no fancy dressing seeming necessary!

Was there something really not right with us?

Memorial 2007, Part 2: Vacuous Tradition

Vacuous. This Holy Night in our JW calendar.

Knowing Christ on a personal level allows me to recognize this event for what it is: stricken with error and deficient of substance.

Not that it doesn't bring Jesus on a more prominent platform, but that this Jesus is a created being, an angel who was sent to Earth, Michael the Archangel.

Let's see what the Bible says.

Hebrews 2:5-9

“It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.’ In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

The brother who gave the talk summed up what this angel did by saying, "Hundreds around the world will benefit because of his sacrifice". Whether or not he mispoke is unknown at this time, but the whole purpose of the Memorial is lost somewhere. My guess is that the JW's have been led to believe they are just there to observe and not be involved.

Jesus told his disciples to "do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). This doing is actually taking the wine, giving thanks, and drinking it (vs. 17) and taking the bread, giving thanks, and eating it (vs 19 and Matt 26:26).

It is not that rubbish that I had been doing every single year without fail which was receiving the bread/wine, looking at it, and passing it to the next person. I'll go as far to say it's not even the physical eating and drinking that Jesus was looking for, but the certainty that you could and ought to be involved with Him in the Covenant. That is the reason He came for.

Please, my dear JW brothers and sisters. Jesus loves you more than you'll ever know. Do you remember that invitation that you passed out for this year's Memorial had an illustration of the Messiah? He didn't just get a black eye, a bruise here, and a cut there (previous Society depictions are even softer). He was brutally tortured, humiliated, experienced unfathomable agony on that cross, all the while thinking of you and me, so we could be forgiven for our transgressions and be with Him for eternity in Heaven.

And guess what? He not only died, but rose from the dead.

Matt 28:6 He is not here; he has risen

Jesus Christ is calling you from a empty organization into His royal family!

Hebrews 2:11 Jesus, who makes people holy, and all those who are made holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus isn't ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Sing to the Lord!

Ephesians 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jehovah's Witnesses have a songbook "Sing Praises to Jehovah". A song is sung before and after each meeting and also during the assemblies and conventions. Although an exception to this is the Book Study meeting. It's unclear to me why no 'praising' with songs are given there.

There are 225 songs in their book, but only 7 songs are decidedly focused on Jesus Christ. Even sadder, they don't sing to Jesus, just about Jesus.

In Revelations 5, there is an engaging and dynamic song glorifying and worshiping the Lamb.

Perhaps later I'll discuss this in greater detail, but I would like to share one piece of music which I found lyrically more moving than any of the more than two-hundred the Watchtower has produced.

Here I Am To Worship written by Tim Hughes.

Enjoy!

Praise Jesus!

I am out of the false prophet's reach, the Watchtower Society. It is maniacal to think this was once the ultimate reality. Being in the "truth" was all that mattered. Anything else could have been different, but ultimately meaningless. Being a Jehovah's Witness was the most important decision anyone could ever make. Acquiring the knowledge the leads to eternal life was also, the biggest privilege anyone could hope to receive.

God works in mysterious ways. That's what they used to say. Growing up, I didn't think that could appropriately depict God nor His plans. These last few weeks, I've come to terms that God is magnificent in every sense of the word. It is true, he works all things, good and bad, for His Glory.

Praise be the Lord.

You truly are King of Kings.