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Timl1980

One Heart-Part 5

Part Five--The Road Back 📜 Research Note: Though the festival ended, the unity they experienced wasn’t tied to geography...it was tied to a decision to put Jehovah first every day. For reflection, see Insight under “Unity” and “Neutrality” and the NWT Study Bible cross-references to John 17:21 and Philippians 2:2.     “The real test of unity isn’t how we worship together...it’s how we live apart.”   The morning they left Jerusalem, the streets were quieter. Pilgrims embr
Timl1980

One Heart-Part 4

Part Four--Seven Days That Weren’t Enough Research Note: 2 Chronicles 30:23 records that the festival was extended another seven days...an unprecedented act of joy and unity. The NWT Study Bible note on this verse and Insight under “Festival” explain the significance of this extension. Hezekiah’s generosity (v. 24) is also worth noting...see Insight under “Hezekiah” for details.     “When unity is real, you don’t count the days...you add more.”   The Passover was so
Timl1980

One Heart-Part 3

Part Three – The City of One Heart Research Note: Verse 12 says Jehovah gave them “one heart” (lev echad) to act in harmony with His word. For a deeper look, see the NWT Study Bible note on verse 12 and the Insight entry on “Heart” (section on figurative use). The temple atmosphere...music, incense, priestly garments...is described in Insight under “Temple” and “Priest.”     “When Jehovah gives you one heart, you stop asking who’s from where and start asking who’s here to wor
Timl1980

One Heart-Part 2

Part Two – Crossing the Divide Research Note: Still in 2 Chronicles 30, verses 10 11 highlight that many mocked the invitation, but “some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came.” The Hebrew for “humbled themselves” (yekhniʿu) implies bending the will...a deliberate act of submission to Jehovah. For more, see the Insight entry on “Humility” and the NWT Study Bible note on verse 11. These help us appreciate the personal cost of leaving political loyalties behind.  
Timl1980

One Heart

* I will also be posting these stories under the creative writing section as well   (I have spent the last four or five months working on a deeply personal research topic. Now, somehow, it has metamorphized several times...until finally it has turned into a short story about a real biblical account.  Even after I wrote it, I wasn't satisfied with it. I broke it down, started over...and did more research...more digging. Finally I reassembled it only to then break it into five separate s
How Would You Answer?

The Expansion — a How Would You Answer? entry —

Reynolds stood in the break room doorway. “Evan, you got a minute?”   “Sure,” Evan said, lifting his coffee as he stood.   They stepped into the factory together. The machines were pounding, gears clashing, belts whirring — a sharp clanging that made Evan flinch for a moment before his ears adjusted. It was the steady roar of work he’d long since learned to live with.   At Reynolds’s office door, the boss motioned him in. The door swung shut behind them, and the noi
Glimpses of Wonder™

The Fingerprints of God’s Precision — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

If your fingertip were the size of Earth, you could run it over a city and know whether you’d just brushed past a house or a car. That’s how sensitive Jehovah made your sense of touch.   In 2013, researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden discovered that the human fingertip can detect surface differences as small as 13 nanometers—about the size of a large molecule. Imagine that: something invisible to the naked eye, smaller than a single wavelength of light, yet your bo
dljbsp

dljbsp in Sensory Design

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Glimpses of Wonder™

The Spiraling Horns of the Markhor — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

High on the rugged slopes of the Himalayas and Hindu Kush, there lives a goat with a crown unlike any other. The markhor doesn’t wear jewels or gold, yet on its head twist horns so elaborate they look as if they were carved by an artisan’s hand. Each spiral rises skyward, winding like a corkscrew. Some of these horns stretch more than five feet long — taller than many people!   No two sets are exactly alike. One male’s horns may form a wide, open spiral while another’s are tighter, alm
dljbsp

dljbsp in Creation

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Scriptural Consideration

Undivided Hearts Belong to Jehovah — a Scriptural Consideration —

As the Supreme Lawgiver, Jehovah has consistently conveyed clear laws to his people (Isaiah 33:22). One of the clearest is his demand for exclusive devotion. “You must never have any other gods besides me” (Deuteronomy 5:7, NWT). That command protects us, guarding our hearts from the slow drift of misplaced loyalty.   For many today, the test does not come with statues or shrines. It comes in subtler, quieter ways. Consider the pull of the workplace. An employer’s approval can feel lik
Scriptural Consideration

Truth for the Teachable, Not the Proud - a Scriptural Consideration -

Ever try to pour a five-gallon bucket into a Dixie cup? That’s what it would’ve looked like if Jesus had unloaded everything he knew onto his disciples in one sitting. Their minds would’ve sloshed over like a cup left out in a rainstorm. So he didn’t. He told them plainly: “I still have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now” (John 16:12, NWT).   That doesn’t mean the truths weren’t vital. They were. But timing mattered. He wasn’t hiding treasure in some locke
dljbsp

dljbsp in Humility

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Glimpses of Wonder™

The Scream Beneath the Armor — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

When you picture an armadillo, what comes to mind? Maybe a quiet, armored ball scurrying off the roadside at night. Now imagine picking one up and being met, not with silence, but with a piercing scream loud enough to rattle your bones. That is exactly what happens with the screaming hairy armadillo (Chaetophractus vellerosus). True to its name, this little creature shouts its protest with a squeal so shrill that predators—and humans—are often left stunned.   Found in the dry grassland
dljbsp

dljbsp in Creation

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Glimpses of Wonder™

Always Moving, Always Breathing — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

Picture the open ocean. The sun ripples on the surface, light bends into deep blue, and far below, a silver torpedo is on the move. That torpedo is alive — a tuna — and it has a secret: it can never stop.   For most fish, resting is simple. They pull water over their gills by expanding and closing their mouths, a process called buccal pumping. That steady motion keeps oxygen flowing whether they’re darting through a reef or lying still under a rock ledge. But tuna are different. Their
dljbsp

dljbsp in Creation

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Glimpses of Wonder™

The Parrot Who Talked Too Much — and Outlived Everyone — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

Most parrots learn a polite “hello” and spend the rest of their lives screaming it at the mailman. But not Puck. Puck was the heavyweight champion of bird banter, the undisputed parrot prodigy, the feathered freak of the dictionary world. By the end of his life, this pint-sized chatterbox had racked up 1,528 words — more than most toddlers, and let’s be honest, more than a few adults whose vocabulary has been whittled down to “dude,” “literally,” and “no worries.”   If you tried to tea
dljbsp

dljbsp in Nature

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Scriptural Consideration

Life in the Blood Belongs to Jehovah — a Scriptural Consideration —

As the Supreme Lawgiver, Jehovah has consistently conveyed clear laws to his people (Isaiah 33:22). One of the most tender and solemn is his command about blood. Why? Because Jehovah himself says that blood represents life — a gift so sacred it cannot be replaced. “The life of every sort of flesh is its blood” (Leviticus 17:14, NWT).   That truth is not abstract. It touches us in the most vulnerable of places. A waiting room. A hospital bed. The rustle of papers as a doctor explains a
Wonderful Little Lessons

iFun1.0

“No resident will say: ‘I am sick.’” — Isa. 33:24.   Picture the moment: Armageddon ends, silence like the pause after thunder, and then the world exhales. Someone blinks twice, takes off their glasses, realizes they can see every pine needle on a distant hill. Another tosses crutches into the air — they clatter like cymbals on pavement — while wheelchairs roll away, riderless, like shopping carts nobody needs anymore. Hearing aids buzz once, then are flicked into drawers that will nev
dljbsp

dljbsp in Fun!

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Scriptural Consideration

Guarded Hearts, Pure Devotion — a Scriptural Consideration —

As the Supreme Lawgiver, Jehovah has consistently conveyed clear laws to his people (Isaiah 33:22). Among them are his high moral standards, designed not to restrict us but to preserve our dignity, our joy, and our friendship with Him. “Let marriage be honorable among all, and let the marriage bed be without defilement” (Hebrews 13:4, NWT).   Yet the struggle is real. Desire often comes quietly, uninvited, slipping in through a glance, a memory, or a screen. The apostle Paul used stron
Glimpses of Wonder™

Passengers in the Current — And the God Who Carries Us — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

We think of blood as red. Red with hemoglobin, red with the iron-rich buses that load oxygen in the gills and carry it faithfully to every waiting cell. That color, that transport, is so much a part of our picture of life that it seems unimaginable without it.   But in the frozen seas around Antarctica swims a creature whose blood doesn’t just run cold — it runs clear. The icefish has no hemoglobin, so no buses to transport the oxygen. Instead, oxygen drifts into the plasma, a molecule
Glimpses of Wonder™

Riding the Invisible Sky — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

Picture a spider no bigger than a freckle, climbing to the tip of a blade of grass. It pauses, raises its front legs, and releases a thread of silk. The strand doesn’t just float on the breeze. It shivers, stretches, and suddenly carries the spider into the air. The tiny passenger is gone — not just drifting on wind, but sailing on something deeper.   Many who ride the air this way are spiderlings — baby spiders that hatch from a silken egg sac already looking like miniature adults. Do
Scriptural Consideration

Learning Without Scars -- a Scriptural Consideration --

The popular idea is: “You’ll learn when you make enough mistakes.” But scripture paints a different picture. Jehovah does not want us bruised and broken before we gain wisdom. He urges us to listen, to be taught, to avoid needless pain.   “By means of your orders I behave with understanding. That is why I hate every false path” (Psalm 119:104, NWT). Here the psalmist didn’t say, I learned by crashing into sin again and again. He said, I learned because I listened to Jehovah’s orde
Glimpses of Wonder™

Black for a Reason — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —

Natural rubber doesn’t begin life as a tough, black tire. It starts much softer—tapped from the slender bark of the Pará rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) as a milky latex. In its raw form, it appears pale—white or creamy—with subtle shades of yellow or brown depending on natural compounds like proteins or resins present in the latex (Rubber Board India).   Look even deeper, and you discover an astonishing truth: the very trees that provide this latex are themselves built from carbon. W
Glimpses of Wonder™

The Strength Within — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ — The Waiting Curve - Series 12 of 12

A dozen eggs. The carton is full now. If you’ve followed along, you’ve seen it quietly change — one egg, then two, then three — until today, twelve. Maybe you noticed the count, maybe you didn’t. But here it is, complete. And isn’t that how Jehovah works? What He builds isn’t always loud or obvious — but it is steady, it is sure, and in time, it is whole.   Look closer at the eggs themselves. They appear fragile, as if a careless touch could ruin them. And yet the shell, with its gentl
Glimpses of Wonder™

The Bantam’s Gift — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ — The Waiting Curve - Series 11 of 12

Not every chicken is built the same. Some are made for laying — dependable, almost mechanical in their rhythm. A Rhode Island Red or a White Leghorn can fill a carton with eggs faster than you can make an omelet. But ask them to brood? To sit faithfully and bring those eggs to life? Forget it. They’ll wander off the nest, distracted, bored, moving on before the work is done.   Then there’s the bantam hen. She doesn’t lay many eggs, and what she does lay are smaller. But give her a clut
Just the Beginning?

What is it Called?

Scrambling for my phone in the dark to check the latest news or post has unfortunately become a habit in the early hours of my mornings.  This morning squinting, without my glasses I try to make out the notification. Melissa* called about 10:00 pm, no voicemail. Melissa is, I'm gonna say a young sister, though she's just younger than me. She was the cute lil flower girl in my wedding. My pretend daughter that would sit on my lap during the meetings. Now, she's in her 40's,  baptized and out

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