James the Less

Some beautiful concluding thoughts from the discussion about Revelation 21:1-5. David talked about having his tears collected in a book. Rev. 21:3 talks about tears being wiped away. How are we to combine and understand these two thoughts? Jehovah will wipe the pages of his book clean and completely erase the tears that were recorded there—tears of loneliness, tears of sorrow, tears of fear, tears of despair. They are wiped away because the causes of those tears will be fully eliminated, including death. This is the great vision of Christianity—death is conquerable. Death doesn’t have to say the last word. The last word belongs to God, and what does he say? Verse 5: “I am making all things new.” There will be a new era for mankind. There will be peace. There will be a resurrection. The last word in the lives of Stefan, Sebastian, James and Marie, Stefanie, Dahn, and little Romy has not yet been spoken. We have come together to say goodbye to them, but we are convinced that our reunion will be soon. It is now our task to live with the death of others, part of which means allowing for grief. This funeral service ends soon, but life goes on. Know that you are not alone. We want to be there with you. We want to walk the path of grief together with you. Cry with you, pray with you, even say nothing at all with you. But just be with you.

A nice thought from Brother Sanderson: The Bible tells us that in times of tragedy or when we are dealing with overwhelming concerns, we may pour out our hearts in prayer to God. And what does he promise to do? He will give us peace and comfort so profound that the Bible says it “surpasses all understanding”—we cannot even comprehend it! (Php. 4:7) He uses our Savior, Jesus Christ, to make that possible. But God also gives us qualities that no one can take away from us. Our hope, our faith, and our love can survive tragedy. They can rise above hatred and violence. When we lean on our faith, when we share our hope, and when we show our love to those around us, we reflect the light of God. In conclusion, may Jehovah God grant the survivors of this tragedy and all who have ministered to them the marvellous peace that only he can give.

Brother Ciupeck did such a wonderful job. I was so moved and that was just from the auto-translate. Some points I really liked from the first part of his talk: King David experienced the torment of sorrow. (1 Sam. 30:4) Sorrow pushes us to the limit of our own strength, even to the limit of our own existence. In this fragile moment, David had no answers as to what had happened. He had no perspective on how to proceed. And he had no strength left. But one thing he was not left without was support. “David strengthened himself by Jehovah his God.” (1 Sam. 30:6) For David, Jehovah was more than just an abstract Being; God was a very close friend. From this friendship sprang the strength to endure the unbearable. David’s God is your God. What carried him also carries you. Expressions from a brother who was shot and in intensive care: “There wasn’t a single moment I felt abandoned, afraid, or alone. Isaiah 41:10 was fulfilled constantly for me that night… Until today I have spoken to Jehovah many times and assured him that I will make a clear stand for him no matter what I still have to get through.” In these words, the faith and trust that David had speaks today. Faith has the strength to carry us; trust conquers fear. Ps. 56:8a—“You keep track of my wandering.” There was not a minute in David’s life that God didn’t know where he was. David’s God Jehovah knew his exact coordinates in every second of his life. Do you sometimes feel so alone, like you are in a hidden cave, in a state of free fall? There is someone who knows the coordinates of your world. He knows your emotional landscape and exactly where you are on it each second of your life. Ps. 56:8b—“Do collect my tears in your skin bottle.” Skin bottles of ancient times were like little leather bags. Gem collectors gather diamonds into such bags. God collected into his “bag” something far more precious than diamonds—your tears. Each tear has a story. Each tear of yours tells the story of what you’re feeling and why you’re feeling that way. By figuratively collecting our tears, God assures us that he knows exactly how we feel and why we feel that way, and that our feelings and emotions are precious to him. For David, faith was not religion. Faith meant friendship. A friendship with God that is founded on faith has the strength to carry us through any trial.

This is how the lyrics of the first verse of song number 30 in German translate back into English. When translating songs, our brothers try and convey the thought and feeling rather than the English words. So each Kingdom song in other languages is a little, or sometimes a lot, different to the English original.

27 miles doesn’t seem like a very big distance between Assembly Halls. Interesting that the land was bought with a property on it already. Since it is office space, makes me think it could be a branch project of some kind.

Hopefully we will find out very soon, but until then, let’s “exercise patience” 😉

Exactly. And the thing to remember about this prophecy is that the replacement of the materials is not from bad to good, but from good to even better. There was nothing wrong with the copper, the irons, or the stone, but gold is better. It’s an improvement. You don’t hang on to the stones when the gold is doing an even better job. Likewise, there was nothing wrong with the online Bible study lessons. But our interactive Bible course is much better. Why hold on to something when the same job is being accomplished even better by something new?

Wow, over 15,000 Kingdom Hall construction projects needed! That’s a lot of work.

That’s an awesome Kingdom Hall! Do you know when it was built?

The video does show up in the media section for that meeting. It’s less than one minute long, so who knows, we could receive direction to play it during the meeting, and doing so wouldn’t greatly affect opportunities to comment. It’s still more than four months before we consider it as a congregation.

Actually I believe it was January 2016—almost seven years! “Jehovah Keeps His Promises”: (10 min.) [Play the video entitled Introduction to Ezra.] (from the January 2016 Meeting Workbook)

Of course, we may see more than 1 episode per convention. On average, 2-3 episodes will be completed each year.

Phase 2 has already begun 😊

The schedule has had to be adjusted countless times due to the pandemic, but as it stands currently, filming for the entire series should be completed roughly in late 2028.

I can understand the confusion. However, it is just Phase 1 of filming for Episode 1 that is complete. Phase 2 (still of Episode 1) begins soon, and that will be complete in early October. Then onto filming Episode 2 while the post-production team works on editing the video footage for Episode 1.

And as stated in the latest news release, filming will not be finished for Episode 1 until October, and post-production and editing takes many months after that. Stay tuned for more info on what 2023 will bring.

As well as the digital edition, it will also be available in printed format. More information on this new publication will be provided at an upcoming midweek meeting.

It is for use by Bethel family members. Their Bethel log-in provides them with access to the Bethel edition of Watchtower Online Library, which has digital publications going back to 1879, rather than 1950.

In a way, yes. Kenneth Cook is one of the Governing Body members on the Teaching Committee, so he has come to the Australasia branch primarily to provide support, shepherding, and encouragement to the Regional Video Team (RVT) tasked with this mammoth project. However, the whole Bethel family will benefit from his visit as he provides encouraging Morning Worship talks and a special lecture to the Bethel family after the Monday night Watchtower, and as they get to interact with him and his lovely wife on a day-to-day basis. The Governing Body are as “hands-on” with the Jesus project as they can be from the other side of the world, and they are showing how invested they are by making the big trip over. It is anticipated that visits by members of the Governing Body and their helpers to the Australasia branch will be quite frequent over the next few years.

The vast majority of the helpers are of the other sheep but new members of the Governing Body always serve as helpers first before being appointed to the Governing Body. So not all of them are of the other sheep. Some recent additions to the helpers over the past couple of years are as follows: 2021: Clive Martin (Writing) Leonard Myers (Writing) 2022: Gage Fleegle (Service) Paul Gillies (Coordinators) Jonathan Smith (Service) Jeffrey Winder (Personnel) As a side note, Paul Gillies was transferred from the Britain branch to World Headquarters in 2018 to serve with the Office of Public Information before being appointed as a helper to the Coordinators Committee. I am not familiar with the background of any of the other brothers above.

And yet more discussion on the book of Daniel. Study article 42 highlights lessons we learn about Jehovah from Daniel chapter 7. Great stuff!

As mentioned in the below post, our in-person conventions going forward may look slightly different to what we remember. Whatever arrangement we see next year, I’m confident we’ll all feel it was the ‘best convention yet!’

I would like the ability to add images to notes and to bold, italicise, or underline notes in the study pane.

I am expecting the same… I certainly hope so!

It is a live-action dramatic series. Every event recorded in the Gospels will be brought to life on screen. It will be several years before this project reaches completion. However, we don’t have to wait until it’s all finished to begin seeing the results. I’m sure you’ll see Episode 1 in the not too distant future. The dialogue is lifted directly from the sacred text. Adam and Eve do receive a couple of mentions in the Gospels. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.