4 Excellent Thoughts to Remember from December!

[Beggar for the Spirit]

I thought that these thoughts below from the December program were excellent!

So I thought I would post these on here for encouragment, plus

writing these thoughts out would help me to not forget them. 

 

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Our New Songs

 

Why are new songs being produced?

Is this scriptural?

Yes

 

(PS 98:1)

“Sing to Jehovah a new song,

For he has done wonderful things.

The Bible tells us why new songs were composed and sung back then and

why we today should sing new songs

(PS 98:1)

“Sing to Jehovah a new song,

For he has done wonderful things.

 

So these new songs help us in important ways:

1} They help us to think about how Jehovah has done truly wonderful things today for

     our Organization to glorify his name and help his servants here on earth

2} Helps us to think about how each of us have experienced wonderful things from Jehovah personally   

3} These new songs reflect a clearer understanding of the Bible

3} These express the love we have for Jehovah and our appreciation for his tender care

 

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How can we hold onto Jehovah's right hand?

 

(ISA 41:10)
“. . .Do not be afraid, for I am with you.

Do not be anxious, for I am your God. I will fortify you, yes, I will help you,

I will really hold on to you with my right hand of righteousness.’”
 

From the "Tour Video" of the Central European Branch in Germany

"He(Jehovah) stretches out his hand to us everyday by means of the Magazines, books, films, videos"

 

So what are several important ways that we can hold onto Jehovah's right hand?

By grabbing hold of the magazines/books and reading them as well as watching the various films/videos

 

 

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Overconfidence 

When a person leaves the Truth/Jehovah for a while believing they 

will come back later

 

(Illustration)

A family dog "Wheeler" was very much loved and cared for, always having plenty of food and shelter.

1 night a pack of wild dogs come by and Wheeler took off and joined them.

The boy(young Brother Lett) asked his Dad,

"Why would Wheeler leave?"

His Dad said,

"Well maybe there was a female in the pack or maybe he just wanted to have some fun"

 

Wheeler returned a week later, but he was all chewed up, he had been in a horrible fight.

It took Wheeler a while to recover, he was never quite the same, not having the same strength.

 

The sad part of this story is that about 2 years later, Wheeler again ran off with another pack.

He was gone longer and this time he could not even make it all the way back home.

The boys found him in the yard, carried him to doghouse but sadly Wheeler died a day later.

 

Sadly some today are like Wheeler, especially certain young ones.

 

 

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Overconfidence - In Ourselves

 

King Solomon - Kings were told by Jehovah not to increase the number of horses or wives.

                              But Solomon must have rationalized that he was an exception,

                              that he was strong enough, wise enough to handle it.

                              But "pride before the crash" happened to Solomon!

 

Peter -  In affect Peter said to Jesus,

                 "All the others may have weaknesses in their faith, but not me Lord, I will never fail you".

               But this "overconfident, self reliant, I am more faithful than they are attitude" was

               followed by a terrible crash!

 

However 2 Cor 12:10 says,

"When I am weak, then I am powerful"

So then when we are weak, that's when we tend to rely on Jehovah - and that's when we are the strongest!

But when we think we are strong, that's generally when we are relying on ourselves

 

But Jesus never crashed, he was never overconfident

(LU 22:41-44)
“. . .And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw away, and he bent his knees and began to pray,  saying: “Father, if you want to, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, let, not my will, but yours take place.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. But he was in such agony that he kept praying more earnestly; and his sweat became as drops of blood falling to the ground.”
 

What is interesting here is that even after the angel strengthened him, Jesus didn't say,

"Well I've been strengthened, so now I am good to go!"

No.

But instead Jesus even prayed more intensely!

The opposite of overconfidence

 

[Brenda]

Brother Neil, I love this summary.  If you don't mind I'm going to print this off and keep and share with a few sisters who don't have the JWBroadcasting.

 

I'm trying to encouraging them to get it...because it is so wondeful...I want them to be excited about receiving this from our FS.

 

Looking forward to next month's...hopefully, if you don't mind.             

[Beggar for the Spirit]

Thanks Brenda.

What you said about going to share some of this with

a few sisters that have not watched JW Broadcasting in order to

get them excited about it is exactly what the Governing Body is

asking us in the congregation to do, to try and help everyone find

a way to watch the programming and videos.

I think the Governing Body might soon appoint you as the "TV Overseer" 

[Brenda]

Thanks Neil...I check every day to see if anything is new.  But the sisters I am around don't seem to want to bother.  I can't imagine not wanting to watch and see what's there for us to absorb.  I did put it on one brother and sister's computer...they wanted it, just didn't have the computer skills to do that .  It's so simple, everyone should have access to it.