jwhess

The admonition to refrain from "toasting" goes as far back as my association with Jehovah's people. Here is a 1952 QFR. *** w52 5/15 p. 319 Questions From Readers *** In shunning this custom of toasting, along with many other objectionable customs, we may appear narrow-minded to worldlings. So we are. But never forget for a moment that our Christian narrowness is our salvation, just as the world’s broadness is its destruction.—Matt. 7:13, 14. That was the year my father began studying. He was baptized in 1954. Change is upon us...♥️ Oh my. That emoji is a former religious symbol...😁

If the series holds true...the number would be 031

Since you asked and since you mentioned it is just my opinion I will tell you. In the congregations that I have been associated with over the last 70+ years, I have noticed that many more anointed ones partaking are women. As a wild guess, my observations would be 3 to 2 or more (half-again more women). Over the last 2000 years it is hard to say but in general the 'women are a large army' in God's service and there is no reason to believe anointed publishers are different. So, yes, I assume more Kings and Priests in heaven used to be women on earth.

I said "approximately" because I knew he was born near my birth year of 1947. I am 77 yrs and 9 months old. I have all of the dates somewhere but when I answered I was not researching the exact year. I am younger than Br. Splane by 'about' 3 years and older than Br. Lett by a year or two.

To start with, we only have some 20,000 partakers who claim to be anointed to chose from (out of 9,000,000 publishers). And a large majority of these are women who would not qualify because of gender. We would not choose the very aged because of health. We do want spiritually experienced brothers so the pool of anointed pioneers, COs and so forth is a relatively small group of possibilities. Also, to mesh seamlessly with the existing GB, they would have to speak English.

Our old songs were not produced with the quality of more modern renditions. Many of the words reflected beliefs that were clarified in later years. But the middle verse of song 40 from our green songbook "Songs to Jehovah's Praise" from 1950 had a statement of purpose in it. The song (40) was titled Praise Him More and More. The middle of the 2nd verse makes the reminder to us...'To the rising generation, We will tell what you have done.' So as long as we live in this old system, the older ones among us will continue to share the roots, the beginnings and the unfoldings of Truth to a "rising generation" of newcomers. Just as we lived it and sang about it...way back then.

Brother Lett and I are approximately the same age, 78. He was our CO some years back. He even gave our Memorial Talk one year when he was here.

This subject got me to thinking about our music and singing. I have one or two songs from early days (Russell & Rutherford). Song 107 is from our "Hymns of the Millennial Dawn" (1905) https://app.box.com/s/dbq6fnn1jl0zq9t6j0hhkiuv2uqb9nhx I have several songs from our 78 rpm records used in the phonograph ministry (the Bethel Quartet). I have most of the songs produced by 'New World Records' from our green songbook Songs to Jehovah's Praise (1950). One of my favorites is listening to the Gilead students chorus singing "Christ is Here" for the 1958 International convention. That was song 90 I have the entire set of vinyl records from the purple/pink songbook 'Singing and Accompanying Yourself with Music From Your Hearts'. I have the entire set of CDs from the brown songbook 'Sing Praises to Jehovah'. and of course our more modern songs from the yellow and silver songbooks and 'original' songs on JW.ORG

We all like the GB members we know. But what about the 'other' 143,970 Kings and Priests we don't know personally? They are (or will be) just as important.

According to some reports, companies (like google and Microsoft) will begin requiring passkeys soon...😞

We used to have KHConf for audio only (around 2017). We could do 10 phone lines. Our LDC meetings were all on Skype. Our congregation had a ceiling mounted projector and a dropdown stage screen for broadcasts and videos. The pandemic came and we bought a camera and went on Zoom. We still have Zoom operational every day.

WTL updated last week...2503 is the third update in 2025 (June).

And welcome to our forum Br. Kenneth...♥️

We are up to 1103 languages now.

Remember 1 John 3:20..."regarding whatever our hearts may condemn us in, because God is greater than our hearts and knows all things."