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Monday, November 16 Commit to Jehovah whatever you do.—Prov. 16:3. As the present system of things draws closer to its end, we can expect economic conditions to worsen. Political turmoil, armed conflicts, natural disasters, or new pandemics might lead to unexpected expenses or to the loss of our job, our possessions, or our home. What can help us to make decisions that show our trust in Jehovah’s hand? A primary and effective step is to take your concerns to Jehovah. Ask him for the wisdom you need to make good decisions and for a calm heart to avoid “being in anxious suspense” about your situation. (Luke 12:29-31) Petition him to help you cultivate contentment with life’s necessities. (1 Tim. 6:7, 8) Do research in our publications on how to deal successfully with financial problems. Many have benefited from material available on jw.org that deals with economic problems. w25.03 28-29 ¶10-11

So we have finally come up with a rough idea of a road trip from Los Angeles to Seattle in 5 days. I would like to hear anyone's thoughts. We are going to leave Chino Hills CA on Thursday 12 Aug and drive to Sacramento. I see it is just over 6 hours drive on the I5. In Australian standards that is nothing. We'll decide if we want to exit off the highway but we are aiming to arrive around late afternoon. AI suggests staying near Old Sacramento and downtown so we can walk around. We love a decent cup of coffee so AI has suggested a good roaster to start our next day off before heading to Redding as a stop and look around. Next stop Dunsmore with another look around. Next Mt Shasta which we have visited before so if time is running out we will leave that off. Next stop for the night Ashland, OR. Saturday we will begin our drive to Portland with a few detours for sightseeing. We hope to arrive in Portland late afternoon in time to have dinner and our plan is to stay 2 nights in Portland. We hope to go to a meeting on Sunday. AI suggests staying Northwest Portland and leaving our car and using rail to go to the city. This portion of our trip I wonder @Hope what do you think? Is there a congregation close to that area? Then on the Monday 16 Aug we are going to drive with detours to Seattle and aim to arrive in the city around 6.30-7pm after rush hour. I would love to hear any suggestions/ideas/thoughts.

I might meet you.

You do realize that all members of the armed services in the US receive combat training. This go for soldiers, mechanics, technicians and medics. They are all soldiers first and their area of expertise second. One cannot be a medic in the US military and be 'neutral' since they are a combat soldier regardless of their rank or department. The US military does not use civilian medics or mechanics.

2015 Yearbook The Issue of Neutrality The Bible Students wanted no part of this war. However, they did not then fully understand the Christian position of strict neutrality. While they did not voluntarily enroll in the army, some of them accepted conscription and endeavored to obtain noncombatant roles. If forced into the trenches, others felt that they could simply “shoot over the enemy’s head.” The Watch Tower of July 15, 1915, published the story of a Hungarian soldier who was baptized while recovering from his injuries and who later returned to the front lines. The account relates what happened next: “They [the Hungarian soldiers] came within 800 feet of the Russian line, and they received the command, ‘A bayonet charge!’ The Hungarian brother was at the end of the left wing. He sought only to protect himself from the enemy, hence endeavored merely to knock the bayonet from the hand of the Russian with whom he was confronted. Just then he observed that the Russian was endeavoring to do likewise . . . The Russian let his bayonet fall to the ground; he was weeping. Our brother then looked at his ‘enemy’ closer—and he recognized a ‘Cross and Crown’ pin on his coat! The Russian, too, was a brother in the Lord!” a “Christian Duty and the War,” an article published in The Watch Tower of September 1, 1915, addressed the issue of Christian neutrality. It stated: “To become a member of the army and to put on the military uniform implies the duties and obligations of a soldier as recognized and accepted. . . . Would not the Christian be really out of his place under such conditions?” In time, it became clear that Christians could have absolutely no part in war.

Jesus set the example for Christians everywhere by the way he loved his followers, caring for their needs and being patient with them . When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he counselled to love their wives continually even if the going gets tough .

Dear Brother, Thank you again for your continued work on tra.VER:ture — it is a very useful tool. Earlier I asked about the possibility of reducing the font size in the right sidebar so that the Bible text could be seen more fully. You kindly made an improvement, and I appreciate that. However, the main difficulty remains. Even with the smallest font size, the scripture text is still often cut off because the Study Notes panel sits directly underneath it and takes up a significant part of the sidebar. Please look at the attached screenshot. You can see that the Bible verse is not fully visible — the lower part is hidden behind the Study Notes section. Having to scroll the sidebar every time just to read the complete verse is a bit inconvenient during study. Would it be possible to give higher priority to the scripture text itself? For example: - Make the Study Notes section start lower, or - Make it more compact / collapsible by default, or - Allow the Bible text area to take more vertical space so the full verse is visible without scrolling. Scrolling through the notes when needed is perfectly fine. The more important thing is to be able to see the complete verse at a glance. Thank you very much for considering this. I am grateful for the tool and for your willingness to improve it. Your brother, Faik Shakhbazov

Good example! That shows that it is not always clear what is non-combatant or what is combatant. In this case, I would clearly view it as a combatant because you can compare it to someone putting bullets in a machine gun while someone else shoots them. Also because mechanics first get basic combat training before they receive specialised training. Your point made me think about Jesus' advice: "and if someone in authority compels you into service for a mile, go with him two miles." (Matthew 5:41) The WT article quotes a scholar about this: “Anyone could be impressed to carry the baggage of the army for a certain distance,” says one Greek scholar, and “anyone could be compelled to perform any service that the occupiers chose to lay upon him.” (‘If You Are Impressed Into Service’ — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY) So when a Roman soldier forced you to carry his baggage, Jesus said you should go the extra mile. Of course carrying military material on occasion is not the same as serving in a non-combatant role. But this shows Jesus wasn't uncomfortable with assisting the Roman army when forced to. Again, imho, this shows that there are clearly things that are not allowed. But there are also things that are not that clear and a matter of conscience.

Yep, when an equation doesn't balance, physicists often invent hypothetical "dark" numbers to account for the missing mass or energy. They are not the same thing. Scientists in measuring the rotation of outer stars in spiral galaxies, noticed that the stars were moving way too fast. According to newtons gravitational laws these galaxies should have torn themselves apart, but they are not doing that. So instead of assuming that their model of things might be wrong, they added an invisible "dark" variable, dark matter, to provide the extra gravitational pull they needed to make the math work. It's the same with dark energy. The universe is expanding, but since gravity pulls things together, it was expected that the expansion would slow down over time. However, further research showed that not only is the expansion not slowing down, it's actually speeding up. So to once again balance out their equations, they added another "dark" variable, dark energy, to act as the repulsive force that's pushing the universe apart. I think the image below illustrates the process perfectly

But what has that to do with neutrality? A medic needs to help wounded men of both sides in a conflict. The Hippocratic oath requires you to help everyone in need of medical assistance. There is no taking sides in that. In the US, a large amount of taxes goes to ministry of defence. Some hippies may say that you are directly supporting the war effort. But that would be not fair. I am not saying that the Bible allows us to be a medic. My point is that the Bible is silent about serving as a medic. So everyone should use their Bible trained conscience to decide how to react. So some may think it will please Jehovah, others may think it will not. This seems to be the official position of the Governing Body. Everything else is just personal opinions.

Perhaps we can simplify the situation a little. As we go about our day-to-day lives, we generally aren't being pressured to participate in activities that violate a conscience properly trained by God's Word. We make choices that reflect what we believe. For example, we choose our entertainment. Jehovah hates violence, so we avoid making violent entertainment our enjoyment. We are being faithful in little things. We also make choices about obeying traffic laws and other requirements of daily life. Again, these are personal choices that reflect our respect for Jehovah's principles. But consider matters such as saluting a flag, singing a national anthem, or taking an oath of allegiance. Those, too, involve personal choices. However, they may present a much more direct test of where our allegiance lies. Jehovah invites us to choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19) Ultimately, no one can make that choice for us. We must decide personally whether we will put Jehovah first. So, yes, military service involves a personal decision. But let's not confuse the right to make a decision with the freedom from its consequences. What we choose to do can demonstrate whether we are remaining loyal to Jehovah. The choice is ours to make. But the choice also identifies where our loyalty rests.

It's a 'conscience matter' until you enlist. Then you are 'disassociated'.

I need time to think about the gravity of your conclusion....

So much packed into just a few words. It’s amazing how a few lines can hold a whole universe of emotion! Since the forum limits me to a single reaction—and I went with 'Thanks'—I wanted to add a 🤗 here for the tender mention of your late husband, and a 😄 for your great sense of humor about the missing poll!

Lets try to be an apache helicopter mechanic in the army and still be considered a witness ... 😉 Others did give another and imho better explanation: many ceasars made laws about organisations so they cant dictate to NOT vote or NOT do military service. Thats a reason we say "personal decision". Besides each of us needs to have personal motivation also.

The prohibition on being a medic would still apply if you were asked to be a medic for the military. That would be directly supporting the war effort and breaks your Christian neutrality, as the article says. Being a medic at an Old Folks Home, for instance, would not break neutrality.

WHEN LIFE GETS TOUGH, BE A BUTTON!

Just bought it, The DVD was $19.99 and $8.00 for shipping. My sons, who are in their twenty's and still live at home, are really into science. Thought this would make for a great family study.

Gravity is actually very simple, or rather there is a very simple way of looking at gravity. Gravity is a slowing of time; the presence of matter slows time. Clocks run slower near large masses like the earth, while clocks farther away from earth run faster. This means everything that has mass is surrounded by a slow time field. More the mass, the slower the time. Slow time acts as an attractive force, sort of like getting stuck in something sticky, easy to go in, hard to pull back. Think of all matter as vibrating back and forth, the slower time pulls the matter in. Objects passing by will have the side closer to the slow time field will move slower, causing the object to turn towards the center of the field. This is how I think of gravity, and I have recently seen science videos which explain gravity this way, which of course I had to show my son who thinks this father is crazy. I believe that time is the key to gravity.

I wanted to discuss this with an elder in my congregation before writing a new post. We came to the following conclusions: 1. There is no rule about non-combatant military service. We make a decision based on our Bible-trained conscience, informed by the following principles: 2. Christians remain neutral. 3. Christians do not kill. So this indeed the case. With the caveat of it referring to combatant military service. And I just saw the article shared by @Jim Jam: Paying Back Caesar’s Things to Caesar — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY, paragraph 11-15. So it indeed appears that nothing has changed. It is just that many made rules about it and presented it as "this is the way" (e.g. "you can't serve as a medic").

iPad has options for learning Braille. and it is still pretty smooth.

And here I was hoping I might finally catch a glimpse of your face. Don't do this to us!

Android JW behavior very very depends from device brands. Brands A like Samsung usually have no issues. But not everyone can afford it. From other hand I faced with critical issues with cheaper devices. For example, on some devices after update library become broken. I was unable to agree with the new license agreement, button agree was grayed out. So only way was to find earlier version on APKMirror and it work somehow. I has found reports of this issue from other brothers. And this is only one case. Sometimes Library become crash and so on. This shows production QA differences between Apple testing and Android testing. On Apple is enough to test just on 4 new devices, on Android - there is a zoo on thousand devices / versions, I believe that society QA department in general is testing JW Library on brands A but physically cannot test on cheaper.

I've been learning how to read Braille on my electronic device, it's been pretty smooth so far...

Sunday, November 15 Husbands, continue loving your wives, just as the Christ also loved the congregation.—Eph. 5:25. What can help a husband to overcome abusive and demeaning behavior? He can strive to imitate Jesus. The way he treated his disciples is a model for how a husband should treat his wife. Consider what husbands can learn from the way Jesus treated his apostles and from the way he spoke to them. Jesus treated his apostles in a kind and dignified way. He was never harsh or domineering. Jesus did not feel the need to prove his authority over them through displays of power. Instead, he humbly served them. (John 13:12-17) He told his disciples: “Learn from me, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and you will find refreshment for yourselves.” (Matt. 11:28-30) Note that Jesus was mild-tempered. A mild person is not weak. Rather, he has the inner strength to show restraint. When provoked, he remains calm and in control of his emotions. w25.01 10 ¶10-11