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TrueTomHarley

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Everything posted by TrueTomHarley

  1. TrueTomHarley
    According to Emily Baran's book, the Soviet Union didn't like being called 'the king of the north.' Atheists there, they could hardly be expected to get their heads around biblical themes. It was all evidence of subversive politics to them.
  2. TrueTomHarley
    Sooooooo! "You must see it, TrueTom. Did you see it yet? How bout now? "Well, when you gonna see it? C'mon! Prove that you're a spiritual man. See it!!!" And now it turns out it's so dull you couldn't plow through it yourself!  I'm even going to like my own comment!
  3. TrueTomHarley
    Oh for crying out loud! Five singers cover Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill. Who is #5? Putin!!! https://www.rt.com/news/407764-fats-domino-dies-89/ One sister said she liked it. It humanized him. But then she remembered how he's treated our brothers.
  4. TrueTomHarley
    Waiting at the bus stop and the bus doesn't come because you misread the schedule or your copy was blurred is a downer. There is no way to spin it as a good thing. But there is no need to overdramatize it as some great tragedy, either - not unless you've decided that you don't know or care whether the bus comes or not since you've come to like it right where you are. If the bus doesn't come when expected, that is a pain, but if you busy yourself in the general vicinity and speak to passerby the time seems to move on quickly. When it comes, the five virgins who took top jobs at Exxon and are no longer around have nothing on you.
  5. TrueTomHarley
    I'm for 2333. It has a lot of 3's in it, my favorite number.
  6. TrueTomHarley
    Well...it is like when I am expected to lead the car group with all sisters who know the area better than me. "Just tell me what you want to do, Shelly, and I'll bless it."
  7. TrueTomHarley
    That one was for real.
  8. TrueTomHarley
    Cat got your tongue?
  9. TrueTomHarley
    In the meantime, one might consider a missed date as the time you swung a hammer and missed the nail. And the dates all around as the frustrated swings you took thereafter, also missing each time.
  10. TrueTomHarley
    If a family head makes rules for his family over such things - and many have - is it so horrendous to obey? It is only for a period of three or four years, which will pass soon enough. Must everyone be obsessed with short-term considerations? Having said that, when a certain young brother wanted to join his school's golf team, his father, a local elder, assessed his son's spirituality and told him: 'just do it. Don't advertise - just do it if you want.' Of course, golf is probably the least 'team' of team sports. Some people think it is not a sport at all.
  11. TrueTomHarley
    No. It is the difference between idling the car and stepping on the gas. Granted, some might choose not to get into the car. Those ones will not be here.
  12. TrueTomHarley
    As stated, such things interest me only to a degree. I will eventually get to it, once a project or two is out of the way. I could spin this all in 'self-righteous' mode if I wanted to - that I am actually applying Christianity while others merely endlessly debate over it. Sometimes in my heart of hearts I entertain that thought. But a scenario just as likely is that they are smarter than me and are able to do both without breaking a sweat.
  13. TrueTomHarley
  14. TrueTomHarley
    Well, no. But I'll get to it.
  15. TrueTomHarley
    None of those things are so. it is simply my applying the consideration over stumbling found in scripture. It is just how I do things. I don't say that others must do it. As Anna said, this is not the Kingdom Hall. Nor are there any rules over such things. Each will decide differently.
  16. TrueTomHarley
    There! It was a like. A real genuine grade A honest-to-goodness like. Don't ever say it wasn't.
  17. TrueTomHarley
    There is a balance, to be sure. When Paul speaks of not stumbling another, it is newer or weaker persons he is speaking of. He is not primarily speaking about those who have been around forever and who should have, by now, resolved such matters and learned not to be offended at the drop of a pin. In this case, I let myself corrected because I thought he had a good point. Maybe he was right entirely and I should allow myself to be reigned in. It made sense to me. If saluting the flag is a form of idolatry, surely 'liking' the comment of an apostate is a form of association.
  18. TrueTomHarley
    You know, this may be a matter of style. I may read too much into this. But..... I would never ever say "I can not help you anymore." And I have tussled with many on this forum. I have had an entire thread taken down because it was deemed too offensive to apostates. But in my most heavy 'rumble' mode, I would not say "I can not help you any more." It would simply reveal that I am too full of myself. And I try hard not to be. If there is one thing that consistently is a turn-off, it is people who are full of themselves. It is God's thoughts, higher than mine, recorded in Scripture, that is the source of help. The best I can do is not screw it up in relating it, and focus on what is most relevant. I think self-exaltation is a trait common to many who oppose here. They think very highly of themselves. God forbid that they should learn! No. They have already learned and they are here only to 'help' those not so enlightened. I have neither. It is a matter of showing consideration for the other person, not stumbling anyone. Have you forgotten such things entirely? It is another common theme of many who oppose. The notion of yielding for another person wears out very quickly. What they love to talk about instead are their rights!
  19. TrueTomHarley
    Given what most of us have learned about not  'saying a greeting' to ones like John spoke of, I don't fault him for it. Actually, he was probably right. A 'like' is pretty much of a greeting. Some might not take it quite that literarly but it is not for me to fault those who do. it makes it a little dicey hanging out here, where all Witnesses who hang out are avant garde. I mean, they're not the typical Witnesses. But since they stumble across the site as did I, by chance, traipsing over from Twitter - and they have no reason to think it not a fine spot for spiritual discussion. But then they find it is not necessarily so - that it CAN be, but is not reliably so - I feel I should remember that those brothers are around and not insist upon my freedoms in their presence.  There! Happy?
  20. TrueTomHarley
    I knew nothing of this brother. Thank you. I did see the movie, though. I liked it when the terminal manager reacted to Hanks' in-house business. "I don't make that much money!"
  21. TrueTomHarley
    There was another in Bethel with same first and last name. I know him. He married at Bethel. We later sent him an anniversary card and the GB Barr answered! He wrote a few chatty paragraphs saying where he had been lately. 'Boy he sure gets around for being just a year at Bethel,' I said to my wife. The wives names didn't match, but I figured maybe the name I knew was a nickname. It took a few minutes to figure it out. Imagine - a GB member writing a few chatty paragraphs to someone he does not know but doesn't want to ignore. These are not proud brothers.
  22. TrueTomHarley
    For those who follow such things, absurd accusations against Russia are made routinely in the U.S - mostly for reasons relevant to American politics. It is said Russia tried to swing the election though hacking. Through Facebook and Twitter. It truly gets loony. CNN ran a story of how Russia try to stoke racial hatred in the US through use of the Pokemon Go game. 'Is there no accusation too crazy?' Russian outlets have howled. 'Is there no limit?' These reports of religious persecution suggests that there is none. The Witness website, jw.org, is banned as extremist in Russia, and no where else in the world. Anyone else can visit. Everyone knows what extremism is and they know that Jehovah's Witnesses are not it. It all goes to suggest that no report, no matter how crazy it may sound, can be dismissed out of hand. No report is too scurrilous to be true. They all must be carefully considered. Andrew Sorokowski, a columnist in the Ukraine posed the question: "Why would a nation of 144 million risk its reputation to persecute 175 thousand? Yet Russia has done so and its international reputation is sinking as feared. Not solely for that reason, of course, but it sure doesn't help. https://risu.org.ua/en/index/expert_thought/authors_columns/asorokowski_column/66964/ Alexander Dvorkin, who got the entire anti-cult meme rolling in Russia, decried the ban of the New World Translation. 'Look, I don't like it,' he said in effect, but it is a Bible.' To ban a Bible makes us look like a nation of goons. If we want to hold our heads up among educated persons, we can't do things like this.' He pushed hard for the movement to ban Witnesses, but the result overshot even his goals - once again, tarnishing the image of a country once great. http://www2.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/170822a.html
  23. TrueTomHarley
    When I liked the comment from someone who I thought fit the description of ones John says we should not greet, I found I had stumbled someone - a person who has since left this forum. I was not able to placate him by saying: 'well, even villains behave now and then.' (I am not calling you a villain here - that's not my intent) So, considering what Paul wrote about giving up some rights so as not to stumble 'these little ones,' I resolved not to do it anymore. But if I did, I would do it now.
  24. TrueTomHarley
    One of my non-Witness dad's friends was a horrible tyrant at home. His wife wanted a computer. He would not permit it! He was tormented terribly after his wife died unexpectedly. He repented, but it was too late. In relating the story to me, Dad said: "If Evelyn had wanted a computer the first thing I would know about it was to see it right here on this table!" And she didn't work outside the home. "There ain't no limit to the amount of trouble women bring." - Bob Dylan
  25. TrueTomHarley
    I was about to explode over this but then I calmed down. I began to think it was not intended the way I, at first, took it. No matter. It lays groundwork for a good post: After correctly assessing @Arauna's gifts, Srecko suggests she "could be very effective in a career or in volunteer work where you are handling people and serving in a humanitarian way." Oh yeah! Go for it Arauna! Why do you waste your time here? Ycu could amount to something. Your gifts could be useful. You could help fix the world! It's almost there; your talents might tip the balance. [okay, okay, so maybe Srecko was not recommending a career in the world but merely acknowledging she would be valuable anywhere, including right where she is.] She could be one more talented person fed into the ever-open maw of a world that consumes them all without response. Srecko is another strange bird to me - a lot of them are. It must be me. They are all normal and I am the weirdo! But he alternately says things very perceptive and very obtuse - confusing true tyranny with the traffic cop's direction to walk in the crosswalk. I can't figure it out. If you leave God's congregation, you leave it. We all have free will. But it seems that if you do so you should take ownership of the world you have chosen. When you see mayhem on the TV - the fruitage of man's independence from God - embrace it! It's yours. Witnesses will take ownership of Jehovah's organization, imperfect though it is. The only significant way I can picture a human organization doing much better is to banish the humans. You should take ownership of what you have chosen. There is only one significant advantage from casting off the Christian congregation that I can picture - the delirious freedom of going where no one can tell you what to do! You can be frreeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is intoxicating - like a drug. All other considerations - material and spiritual - go out the window! And yet even that is not true - that you go where no one can tell you what to do. It may be true in the human sense, but that is the petty sense. By giving up on the sure resurrection hope, old age and death will surely tell you what to do. By giving up on the 'wisdom from above,' the 'schemes and trickery of men will surely tell you what to do,' for the air has authority. By giving up on the Bible's complete explanation of suffering, the 'shit happens' outlook of the world will surely tell you what to do. By the time you pay your new master his dues, God's congregation and the GB will look positively like doddering indulgent grandparents in comparison. Witnesses sacrifice some petty freedoms for the sake of the large ones - no Witness would ever say otherwise. If you lose all faith in God's promises, however, those sacrifices seem for naught and people start complaining. It is no more complicated than that.
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