SuzA

Forgot to use this scripture in my first post.
Reason we go to meetings and conventions and assemblies (apparently these two are not synonyms)
(Hebrews 10:24, 25) And let us consider one another so as to incite to love and fine works, 25 not forsaking our meeting together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you see the day drawing near.
Plain and simple.
 

Law of diminishing returns is also a fundamental principle in Economics, not only Engineering.  And you talking money already.
But remember you go to meeting every week and you don't  necessarily learn anything new, it costs clothes, gas, tyres, road tax, etc.  The Convention is just a bigger meeting.  You don't complain for regular meeting, so why complain for a more exciting, bigger meeting, even if you are eating ordinary spiritual food served in prettier plates or settings.   Where did you meet your wife?  Put yourself in the place of those who are new to the spiritual food, are now meeting other Witnesses/Christians or are even looking for mates, all these are normal things Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24.  But he said some would take no note of the spiritual things until they are swept away. 
So what can you/I do to show more  appreciation for what may begin to look ordinary?  Form a longing for the ordinary food (milk) - it is necessary to grow from infancy to maturity both literally and spiritually; it will help you to grow to salvation.  You know a year in advance and you prepare with anticipation. When it comes you show appreciation.  I already have three sets of clothes put out and a bag packed. My convention is next week. I got my lapel card today.
(1 Peter 2:2) "As newborn infants, form a longing for the unadulterated milk of the word, so that by means of it you may grow to salvation,"
Even if we really knew everything that we need to know, we are all works in progress, we need to work on what we know.  There is always room for improvement in putting on the complete suit of armour and the new personality; in setting spiritual goals.
(Ephesians 4:23, 24) And you should continue to be made new in your dominant mental attitude, 24 and should put on the new personality that was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.
Always remember that the Israelites complained about the manna, then God send the bird with lots of flesh and while they were still eating they were punished.  (Someone can enlarge on the reasons why he gave them meat and then punished them.)
(Numbers 11:31-34) 31 Then a wind from Jehovah sprang up and began driving quail from the sea and causing them to fall around the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and they were about two cubits deep on the ground. 32 So all that day and all night and all the next day, the people stayed up and gathered the quail. No one gathered less than ten hoʹmers, and they kept spreading them all around the camp for themselves. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, Jehovah’s anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking the people with a very great slaughter. 34 So they gave that place the name Kibʹroth-hat·taʹa·vah, because there they buried the people who showed selfish craving. 
Let's appreciate the spiritual manna.  Fancy a dish prepared by God himself and people were complaining about it!
If we were starving and someone gave us plain rice and water,  it would help us to survive, though it might not satisfy us completely. While we are excited about new information, we still need the milk of the word as it would help us to live to salvation. It would help us renew our goals, remind us of what we already know,  and keep us on the path to salvation as the apostle Peter said. We need manna and milk to live, grow and mature.  People would be there who are at different stages of Christian development; some still need milk, some would be there who need solid food, some would be there who need the deeper things of God to satisfy them, but we all need spiritual food.   "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need". Matt 5:3.
 
If and when we get into the Kingdom of God, we will be learning about love forever, as there will always be Jehovah, Jesus, and people to love.  Love (Agape) never fails. (1 Cor 13:8)
 

In my opinion, the "beard issue" was one of the stupidest stands that hung us up for far too long, and I am so glad to see that it has finally been addressed. I wish it had been done long ago. It caused loyal ones like Anna to go into contortions trying to explain it:
The verses of Paul and eating meat seldom applied in the U.S, from where I write. There would be a few off-the-grid places where they would, but mostly they did not. Paul was concerned about stumbling new ones and unbelievers. Mature ones would not be stumbled by his eating meat that had been sacrificed to an idol.
With beards, the situation was the complete opposite. New ones and unbelievers generally had no problem with them, but mature ones would balk. It made no sense.  Though nowhere forbidden by scripture or Bible principles, no "rule" was applied with more vigor than the "no beard" rule, and I am glad to see it go.
It is working out pretty much as I thought it would. It is gradual. Brothers progress to the point of qualifying for privileges, but there are some elder bodies who say: "Yeah, but he has a beard." "That doesn't matter," says the C.O, and the brother is appointed.

I have heard it said that soon pedophilia will be classed as just another sexual orientation and that pedophiles will feel discriminated against and will insist on their "rights".
Just to lighten things up a bit, are you the "man on the rocks" ?  😄: Cool song actually
 

Way off topic.
 

That is half-baked reasoning.  That can only satisfy people with partial knowledge of God and the Bible.  Won't spend any more time on this.
Where did God put Adam and Eve before his purpose was temporarily suspended when Adam and Eve sinned?
In the earth - Garden of Eden
If all of God's servants go to heaven, what would happen to God's original purpose for the earth? 
 Genesis 1: 28; Matthew 5:5. Isaiah 55:11   Earth - a paradise - will come true in God's allotted time.
Psalm 37:10,11.  Meek, mild-tempered ones will inherit the earth
Matt 11:11,12  Heavenly  hope opened up after the days of John the Baptist.
Ps 45:16  Jesus' earthly forefathers will be princes in all the earth. (Abel, Abraham, Jocob, Joseph, David, etc)

Anybody heard of poetic licence? 
Def.  "The freedom to depart from the facts of a matter or from the conventional rules of language when speaking or writing in order to create an effect."

Anybody heard of poetic licence? 
Def.  "The freedom to depart from the facts of a matter or from the conventional rules of language when speaking or writing in order to create an effect."

Anybody heard of poetic licence? 
Def.  "The freedom to depart from the facts of a matter or from the conventional rules of language when speaking or writing in order to create an effect."

Anybody heard of poetic licence? 
Def.  "The freedom to depart from the facts of a matter or from the conventional rules of language when speaking or writing in order to create an effect."

@BillyTheKid46, You seem to spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to provoke persons into fighting with you. It is as though you have a NEED to fight. I have seen this from you (and yours) for quite a while now. In a recent thread about Brother Morris visiting a liquor store, I agreed with you completely that the post was irrelevant and irreverent and it tried to make something scandalous out of a potentially innocent activity without 100 percent proof. (And I thought your pun was good, too. See page 4 of that topic.) You and Melinda Mills spoke about the Venezuelan economic issues under Maduro. You helped to clarify the picture that Melinda posted, the one with worthless money in the gutter, when you provided a link to the explanatory SNOPES article. I mentioned that I appreciated that same SNOPES link you provided because it gave details about how and when those pictures came about, and I quoted verbatim from your link. 
Then you inexplicably decided to reject the explanation from your own link, and claim that I was somehow attacking the vision that your mother had told you about in the 1960's. What made this so odd was that I had already agreed that the picture was related to that same expectation. My own mother referenced that point from Ezekiel 7:19, as did Melinda's.
You said:
BTK: "What was fasinating to me, My mother pointed it out to me in the '60s as a devout JW that would happen, and it sure the hell did. There is no photoshop on that. It's not a tale." To which I responded, that in spite of the propaganda use that was presented in SNOPES that, Yes. . . :
JWI: "It was still related to Maduro, and is still related to money becoming worthless. It is still supportive of the idea that people will be throwing their money (even their gold) in the streets, because money is of no value as a savior in the day of Jehovah's fury. It shows how bad things can get." To which you responded:
BTK: "I understand you are trying desperately to delegitimize my mother’s vision. Do that with your own mother, lay off mine." I didn't bother to respond, after which you added:
BTK: "Its unfortunate someone like JWinsider decided to insult and denigrate a relative, and James thinking it’s funny to do just that, makes them the biggest AH’s in this forum." I'm sure that a few people didn't realize that you had made up the whole thing about someone "denigrating a relative" just to provoke a fight in the same way worldly people do when they hurl insults about each other's mother, and call each other "AH," which has been used as an abbreviation for a**hole. When you provoke and the other party doesn't respond in kind, I'm sure it can be frustrating. But please don't bring these same worldly attitudes and posturings into every topic. You end up discrediting yourself instead of your target.
"A slave of the Lord does not need to fight." (2 Tim 2:24)

This just says it all. It really does.
 
It is a little mean for me to do this. I agree with you on that and I’m not necessarily proud of it. I apologize.
But for the sake of drawing out such a remark as you made above that clearly shows you regard yourself as a shining light in the darkness, even as you miss no opportunity to malign the GB, (although you have offered nothing tangible to establish your own authority,  other than an ability to quote scripture, as anyone can do) it was worth it.
 
You quote  so many long passages that I would have to make my reply a mile long—nixxing this and okaying that—and I just won’t do it. 
It reminds me, though it is not exactly the same, of Jesus telling ones that they were searching the scriptures because they thought that by means of them they might find life, when all the time he was there among them. They were reading scripture far more than the ones who actually chose to follow Jesus, many of whom doubtless could barely read, but their obvious high self-regard for themselves torpedoed most of their search.

You can post as many explanations as you like, but with your previous arguments about the supposed crosses I am of the impression that you are desperately looking for anything that signifies some dark intentions of the WT.  And yet, if it wasn't for the org. you would most likely be holding the cross sacred today.
From reading your extract from ancientpages.com I can still see that the inuksuk was not made for veneration but "is often venerated as symbolizing an ancestor". Two different things. I guess my point about humans finding anything to venerate was lost on you. Jehovah's Witnesses are not opposed to cultural heritage, and that is why the inuskuk is at the Canadian Bethel. I wouldn't read anymore into it than that.

He grinned, but said "Well.... they have their place ..."
I rolled my eyes, but did not say anything more.

Neither have I ever heard anyone say "I am one of the Witnesses of Jehovah".  It may not be grammatically wrong but it doesn't fit our speech patterns.  Non-Witnesses will ask us, "Are you a Jehovah's Witness?" because they use the term as a label, but most native English speakers will introduce/describe themselves as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.  Note, not "one of the Jehovah's Witnesses".  There's more to language than grammar, as I said in an earlier post.  There are patterns of speech and word order (syntax) that are picked up over time through conversation with native speakers and are more important than literal translations from whatever you are accustomed to saying in your own language.  
However, I will practice saying "soy un testigo de Jehova" for my next visit to South America.  So, thank you, Jay.

@Jay Iza If English is not your first language then it may sound strange.  What is more strange is putting the indefinite article, "a" before a personal name.  As in "a Jay's witness".  As I type this, my computer is correcting the phrase by striking out the a.  I guess the only reason it doesn't when I type "a Jehovah's Witness" is because the term is recognised as a label now.  

As Suzy says "A Jehovah's Witness" is grammatically wrong in English. And as Melinda points out it is a label. We are witnesses for Jehovah, we are HIS witnesses, plural. If we are talking about one person (singular) then he/she is either one of (all the other) Jehovah's Witnesses or "a witness for Jehovah". In some other languages it is grammatically wrong as well. For example how would you say in Spanish if someone asked in court whose witness are you. Would you say I am "John's witness", or "one of John's witnesses" (if there is more than one witness for John). Or would not say I am "a John's witness"?

@Jay Iza If English is not your first language then it may sound strange.  What is more strange is putting the indefinite article, "a" before a personal name.  As in "a Jay's witness".  As I type this, my computer is correcting the phrase by striking out the a.  I guess the only reason it doesn't when I type "a Jehovah's Witness" is because the term is recognised as a label now.  

The first one sounds just like a label, the  second sounds like the person is living the faith.

I think we should aspire as humans to do better than our animal cohabitants of the planet.  
Since we can’t seem to stop the usage of plastics, maybe we could at least find ways to recycle and use this massive garbage pile?
in the end it is energy which we all need and want. We ought to be getting smarter about generating, using and recycling it as the years go by.  
And no. We will never have a zero carbon footprint. (My prediction)
But lets at least clean up after ourselves. 

The very reason I prefer to drink from glass and not plastic. If I am in a position to drink from a plastic bottle, I recycle it, but sadly no one likes to recycle.
You toss a plastic item of waste into the grass and or sea you pay for it. You put toxic gases into the heavens, your lungs and health will most likely pay for it.

(Genesis 9:6) 6 Anyone shedding man’s blood, by man will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image He made man.
 (Proverbs 28:17) 17 A man burdened with bloodguilt for taking someone’s life will keep fleeing until the grave. Let no one support him.
 Both of these remedies would be difficult to achieve for a man taking his own life. So there is a difference in taking your own life and taking someone else’s life.
 (Revelation 21:8) But as for the cowards and those without faith and those who are disgusting in their filth and murderers and the sexually immoral and those practicing spiritism and idolaters and all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This means the second death.”
 Murder is something willful and thought out. Note what the scripture says will happen to murderers.
*** w02 6/15 p. 30 Questions From Readers ***
If someone commits suicide, would it be advisable for a Christian minister to give the funeral talk
….
Any future prospect for the dead is in the hands of Jehovah, and no one is in a position to say whether the deceased will be resurrected or not. The minister can concentrate on the Bible truths about death and offer comfort for the bereaved.
 =====
You seem quite capable of doing your own research.

The only thing those sisters need is stars on sticks, and gossamer wings!