Greetings, dear, dear Tams... peace to you... and thank you for sharing that, luv!
You are totally right: neither JAH nor Christ care what one is wearing, if anything at all. "Clothes don't make the man"... even if they are suits (LOLOL!)... any more the outward appearance of the flesh makes one "spiritual" in JAH's eyes. You spoke out of love and truth ABOUT the truth. Out of your HEART'S abundance. And it is the heart (and "kidneys") that JAH looks at. And you weren't afraid, but were of "good courage"... in spite of having mussed hair (cause that CAN be scary for a girl, right? LOLOL!).
I received one of those invites last weekend while out walking the pups, which of course led to a discussion, as well (no way was I gonna let THAT opportunity go by - LOLOL!). It lasted close to 20 minutes, though, because we went over a LOT (their comments just kept opening doors to more topics - LOLOL!). As usual, they were initially (overly) nice... then became cautious... then nervous... then hostile... then nervous... then tolerant... then surprised... then, nervous... then, I dunno, "defeated"... in what I shared... and, finally, as we ended, burst forth with a great "hail Mary" of "hopefulness" (in the WTBTS and their beliefs).
I chose not to share my encounter here at the time as ultimately it was the same 'ol, same 'ol. Eye-ee:
1. I was able to show them from their Bible where their teachings are wrong... on a number of topics; 2. They TOTALLY got what I shared; 3. But they were no way ready to immediately leave off following false prophets/false christs and follow the TRUE Christ and Fine Shepherd right then and there (and while some might say, "Well, THAT's understandable; no one does that!" I would counter that the Apostles did exactly that...).
Perhaps our dear Lord will follow-up with them at some point (or they with him), but I'd done my part: shared the GOOD news about Christ with them.
But I want to share this, because of the (erroneous and perhaps even blasphemous) connotation of the NWT:
The reason our discussion was able to as long as it did is because of where one "lead" woman went about "why Christ died for [us]." She tried to share with me what occurred in the Garden in Eden (and ya'll know I went all manner of "places" with her, once she went there and opened THAT door!), but she said that Adham/Eve sinned when they "ate from the tree in the middle of the garden."
Now, ya'll know pendantic ME, and so I said, "Which tree do you mean?" to which she responded, "Well, there was only ONE tree there." Uhhhhh-ohhhhhh...
When I tried to explain to her that there were actually two trees, well, you know where that led ("No, there was only one!"). I asked her which one, and she said the TKOGB, and I told her I agreed that one was there, TOO... "BUT," I said (of course - LOL!), "That was not the ONLY tree in the MIDDLE of the garden, right? The Tree of Life was there, as well, yes?" Well, she argued me down that THAT tree was NOT in the garden, only the TKOGB was and she was absolutely certain of that!
SOooooooo... I asked her to show me where it says there was only ONE tree. And she was MORE than happy to show me... of COURSE! Only... well...
She said, "We need to read in Genesis Chapter 2, FIRST!" I was totally game with that and so let her find the verse she wanted share with me (about the TKOGB being the ONLY tree in the middle of the garden). She opened her little gray Bible, found the Chapter, and started reading. Except... what she read, stated:
"Thus Jehovah God made to grow out of the ground every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food and also the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad." Genesis 2:9
Wait. WAIT! What I heard her read was that only the Tree of LIFE was in the middle of the garden!? Of course, I knew better... or did I? Because isn't that how it reads?
"The tree of life in the middle of the garden... AND the tree of knowledge of good and bad."
So, okay, THAT made my heart almost leap from my chest. Why? Well, according to the NWT, not only was the Tree of Life the ONLY tree in the middle of the garden (or in at all, per my argument with the woman), BUT:
"... God has said about the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden: ‘You must not eat from it, no, you must not touch it; otherwise you will die.’” Genesis 3:3
Say, WHAT??! Read in the way the NWT sets it out... and if one goes not further, the implication COULD be that one should not eat of the Tree of LIFE, lest they die, let they become "like God, knowing good and bad"!!!
That was SO anathema to what I (believed I) had received from our dear Lord, that I almost didn't know what to say/think/do! But I held this in my thoughts to ask my Lord about later and returned to the topic at hand (how many trees, and that at least the tree of life WAS in the garden). Praise JAH, the question was resolved (for me, at least), because as I started to comment to the woman (that the tree of life WAS (also) in the garden), she said, "Oh, no, wait, that's the wrong verse. Let me find..." and then went to Chapter 3, and read:
"For God knows that in the very day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad." Genesis 3:5
OKAYY! That made me feel a bit better, at least at the time. I since read the verses in the NIV and Interlinear. The first gives a better indication that there were two trees and both were in the garden. The latter could be interpreted either way; remember, it is Hebrew translated from Greek translated from Aramaic... translated from an even more ancient Hebraic/Aramaic/Phoenician dialect.
SOoooo... I had to go with what our dear Lord told me:
The Tree of Life gives life.. and only life; one who eats from IT... will not die (eternally). That Tree is he himself (Isaiah 11:1, 10; John 6:48-58; 14:6; 15:1, 2, 5; Romans 6:23; 11:17-20; 15:12)
In contrast, the TKOGB grants [knowledge of] life AND death: one who eats from IT will know life... but will ALSO know death. Know good... AND bad.
And so, as you can see, just the one topic is a lot to write about/share. And we covered many topics.
And, ultimately, as I shared, they totally got (and I do mean understood) more of what I shared than not. A good 90%. BUT... they were not ready to follow Christ alone. We discussed that and they admitted they weren't. That they needed the "association." I told them I understood that, that they were not alone; most do... and would live as slaves as well as sell their souls due to that need... rather than live as free people (let alone give themselves over to Christ, who PURCHASED them with his BLOOD, as we were initially discussing - we went into that, too, the sacrifice and "why").
Looking forward to hearing any other experiences, if others have had them.
Peace to you all... and to your dear, dear households!
YSSFS of Christ,
Shel
|