John Lindsay Barltrop

Isn't the resurrection a marvelous hope that we hold on to Queen Esther. Thinking of those times we will see our loved ones once again..........to many, that is too good to be true..........but, we, as avid students of God's Word, have that firm faith that our Almighty and merciful God, Jehovah, will indeed bring this about through His son, Jesus Christ, king of God's Kingdom, who showed the power he has over death, with three resurrections, whilst a perfect man, when he was on earth. What better testimony could we have?......NONE!..........."Just Around the Corner"

Yes I agree Queen Esther that all cats are unique...........and many are very clever..........some of those big cats are fascinating to watch, especially in the David Attenborough series he has filmed in Africa and other countries.

Oh  yes,   very  very  clever !!  Can  open  doors,  a  cooler - door,  many  cupboards  and  much  more

This video reminded me of cat my mother used to have, many years ago, his name was Fred...........he used to sit on a stool at the end of the kitchen table, my mother would place his meal on his saucer, in front of him and he would pick up each piece of meat with one of his front paws and put it in his mouth. He would not start eating until we were at the table and started to eat.

This brought back memories of the past. Many years ago at one of our regional conventions I was in the drama on on Moses and the crossing of the Red Sea............must have been in the seventies, I think??

There is unfortunately a sad PS to this story............the cockatoo has died.

..........methinks I will leave Jehovah to sort my brain out during the 1 000 years, as we grow back to perfection............he will also sort our HEARTS out as well...........especially since Adam and Eve and our most evil contenders, Satan and his demons appeared on the scene...................after all as we know the heart is so vital in our love for Jehovah, e.g. Psalm 51:10; Matthew 22:37..........and, of course, our heart, can also be the seat of negative things, e.g. Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19 

..........methinks we leave it to Jehovah to perfect our brain and........OUR HEARTS........because as we know, not only our love for Jehovah come from our heart, e.g. Jeremiah 1:33; Matthew 22:37...........but, also wicked reasoning, e.g. Jeremiah 17:9; Genesis 6:5

Yes it was...........very good.............and then along came Adam and Eve and our constant rivals Satan and his demons..........and hence the mess we are in today............BUT, we KNOW that Jehovah will sort it all out in the not too distant future...........and everything again will be........very good. 

..............talking of parrots, I happened to come across this photograph of a sulphur crested cockatoo, a little worse for wear:

This poor cockatoo had just been through a category 4 cyclone, (or typhoon, or hurricane), Cyclone Debbie, that hit the state of Queensland, Australia, earlier this week...........he certainly looks a "bit" bedraggled. The person who took this photograph wrapped him in a towel, and passed him on to a person who cares for inured wildlife.........a very kind act I thought.

I quite like using the scripture at  Colossians 2: 8 ...............then use the example of Paul, who would probably have become a highly respected pharisee, but, instead became an apostle of Jesus and his words at Philippians 3:7, 8 are, I think outstanding, ⁷ Yet, the things that were gains to me, I have considered loss on account of the Christ. ⁸ What is more, I do indeed also consider all things to be loss on account of the excelling value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have taken the loss of all things and I consider them as a lot of refuse, that I may gain Christ. I think that it really puts the value of Gods Word in the right perspective when talking about worldly knowledge........including science that is not in agreement with Jehovah's thoughts......e.g. evolution

You ain't wrong there Sister Arauna.............it has me mystified why David Attenborough believes in evolution, especially with all the knowledge he has on the animals, and on the earth...........but, I just guess he is one of those scientists that believes science has the answer to everything and that it can explain all things????

Although I do not speak Russian, I recalled some of the points in the talks........looking at the notes that I took at the Convention last year, and the videos I certainly remembered.

The opening video shows how we are "extremists".............in one sense.........in natural disasters, who are among the first to come to the aid of their brothers, both materially and spiritually, and many others, non witnesses, who may be affected.......those examples shown:........ after the earthquake in Nepal the tsunami in Japan, the aftermath typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and of course hurricane Sandy in the US..........the number of Brothers that assist others in dire need is certainly faith strengthening...........as is that of those, who may not be able to physically be there, due to geographical location, age, health, etc., but, they assist these ones with donations of material things, or if able, monetary donations............we as Jehovah's Witnesses are are an "extreme" organisation and and more importantly, a world wide, united, true brotherhood.   

I reckon you could be right there Tom............it will certainly keep them busy for a while, and all the revenue from the postage may well keep "the wolf from the door" a little while longer!!!

Thank YOU Queen Esther..........and keep up those informative posts, you do a terrific job, and I am sure that I could say:             "We all love you, our dear Sister"

True Tom........... I was referring to your post:

"Russia, like many countries, has many protesters. Sometimes there is violence. They should not devote their energy to harassing the one people who do not protest."

.............I was saying that I agreed with that I agreed with that statement 

I was talking to my son last night at our mid-week meeting..........he had spoken to someone who had lived in Russia, before he emigrated to Australia, some years ago, and he was saying that in Russia, all mail to Government Authorities are opened, read, stamped and then archived..........IF that is still true.........methinks several people will be a little busy............they may even get to a stage where they have no unemployment........!!!!!!??????

"It may be that I owe Queen Esther an apology, for she posts much fine content"

English is not Queen Esther's first, or primary language and sometimes she may not quite get the point of something we find easy to understand...........mind you she does do extremely well with her English postings, I THINK that she also has postings in Spanish??.........certainly much better than I could even dream of doing in any other language

.....and you are certainly right True Tom when you said that Queen Esther posts very fine content..........I think that she must spend most of her waking hours on the internet to come up with so many relevant and good points in her posts.

This is also true..........no pun intended True Tom!!

.............or, on the other hand!!!!!

...........get that ball out of the ROUGH!!!!!!...........and play fairly.

I thought this was an interesting comment that I came across.

This Senator could add to that statement............these events are showing that even the Russian people are getting fed up with the hypocrisy of the their "upper echelon" 

...........its nice to know that we have not been so closely related to birds since the dinosaurs...........I THINK NOT............otherwise very good........they certainly are playful. 

I had seen photographs of Koalas being given drinks of water in heat waves, and after bush fires............I must admit I was unaware of their plight..........thank you for that update. 

Dear Sister, Queen Esther..........I am not sure, but I think!!, that you may have misunderstood True Tom's comments to a degree........one of the points he was making concerning yourself, just as an example, was that anyone can, and some unfortunately do pose as someone who they really are no............it can be difficult to tell sometimes.

He also made the point that, referring to the internet troll as apostate.........they know that brothers and Sisters will not visit there web pages, blogs, etc ("or go into their homes")., so they come onto one where many Jehovah's Witnesses frequent, (like our home), with upbuilding photographs and experiences 

"there will be sometime without electricity in the new system I guess ..."

That WILL be interesting............how will the young ones cope without their mobile phones and other electronic gadgets

e.g. some time ago I went into "Maccas" and their computers were down and when I paid for the order the young girl was trying to work out the change with a pencil and paper.........3 times she tried........3 times she was wrong.........the shift manager came over to ask me if there was anything wrong, I said no, just that I was intrigued that many young peoples abilities in maths and English are usually pretty poor..........however, I will say that most of our young ones are streets ahead..........all due to study of the Bible and of course their preparation and participation in meetings..........the education system in Australia......and I am guessing in many other parts of the Western world is a farce........ 

Maybe!!!!!...........if it isn't electronic??????