Circuit Overseers Visit

[Golfguy74]

IHad our second day of the circuit overseers visit. He made a great point. Think of what comes to your mind when the prophecy of pestilence is mentioned. Cancer, diabetes etc. Now think for a minute before reading furthur. 

 

Is that what comes to mind? How often have we heard and read this.

 

Now look what the insight book brings out.

 

*** it-2 p. 617 Pestilence ***
PESTILENCE
Any rapidly spreading infectious disease capable of attaining epidemic proportions and of causing death. The Hebrew word for pestilence (deʹver) comes from a root meaning “destroy.” 
 

 

Not cancer, heart desease and the suc, but infectous desease. Truely we are living in the last days. In the USA the health organizatons are predicting a new form of polio hittings schools this year.

[carlos]

We had our CO visit this week. His first talk was beautiful, about clothing ourselves with love. The public talk was about receiving the mark to survive. But the one I really loved was the last, not sure if this is the same in every congregation or it's prepared by the CO. It was titled "What will you do with Senacherib's letters?".

 

The same as Ezekiah received letters from Senacherib discouraging him from trusting Jehovah, we suffer pressures from the world to stop trusting in Jehovah too. When faced with such problems, we must do the same as Ezekiah did:

- Do not try to find a solution by yourself, present your problem to Jehovah and trust in his solution.

- Never compromise.

 

One beautiful point he mentioned is that often Jehovah finds solutions we would have never thought about. He mentioned Daniel as he was being carried to the lion's den. Surely he was praying fervently not to be thrown there. And as he approached the den, he may have thought that Jehovah was not listening his prayers. Yet Jehovah's solution was more wonderful than anything Daniel might have thought: he allowed Daniel to be thrown in the den, then closed the lions' mouth. Imagine if Daniel had compromised in view that apparently Jehovah was not listening his prayers!

[Qapla]

We have our CO visit at the end of this year and the start of next - we are supposed to have the CO and his "assistant/trainee"

 

[Tortuga]

35 minutes ago, carlos said:

We had our CO visit this week. His first talk was beautiful, about clothing ourselves with love. The public talk was about receiving the mark to survive. But the one I really loved was the last, not sure if this is the same in every congregation or it's prepared by the CO. It was titled "What will you do with Senacherib's letters?".

Our CO visit is next month and the first two talks are the same as yours, the final talk is "You can't change the wind" 

I'm curious about what that is about.

[Áine]

Ours is this coming week 

1 hour ago, carlos said:

We had our CO visit this week. His first talk was beautiful, about clothing ourselves with love. The public talk was about receiving the mark to survive. But the one I really loved was the last, not sure if this is the same in every congregation or it's prepared by the CO. It was titled "What will you do with Senacherib's letters?".

 

The same as Ezekiah received letters from Senacherib discouraging him from trusting Jehovah, we suffer pressures from the world to stop trusting in Jehovah too. When faced with such problems, we must do the same as Ezekiah did:

- Do not try to find a solution by yourself, present your problem to Jehovah and trust in his solution.

- Never compromise.

 

One beautiful point he mentioned is that often Jehovah finds solutions we would have never thought about. He mentioned Daniel as he was being carried to the lion's den. Surely he was praying fervently not to be thrown there. And as he approached the den, he may have thought that Jehovah was not listening his prayers. Yet Jehovah's solution was more wonderful than anything Daniel might have thought: he allowed Daniel to be thrown in the den, then closed the lions' mouth. Imagine if Daniel had compromised in view that apparently Jehovah was not listening his prayers!

Our first talk is clothe yourself with love so hopefully we will have the same talks on the Sunday ... edit... just checked the public talk is are you marked for survival 

Edited December 6, 2020 by Anniebea

[booboo]

29 minutes ago, Anniebea said:

Our first talk is clothe yourself with love so hopefully we will have the same talks on the Sunday ... edit... just checked the public talk is are you marked for survival

Those are the talks we had with our CO visit last month.

[Risha]

11 hours ago, carlos said:

His first talk was beautiful, about clothing ourselves with love

We had our CO last week. He delivered same talks as mentioned by brother Carlos. However we noticed that he visited us after only 4 months not the usual 6 months.

[Luisabola]

We just had ours last week and our last talk was ‘Stay Focussed on the Road to life’. It was excellent.
 

He gave an illustration that I really loved about our spiritual life being like the ingredients to make a cake. Basic ingredients are butter, flour, sugar, and eggs. What would happen if you bake a cake without eggs? Or without sugar? It would be very unappealing. Same with us, if we take away one thing from our spiritual life: prayer, study, meetings or ministry- everything else can get that bit harder, that bit less appealing. 
 

Also, where we are in the stream of time. The Bible explains to us exactly what’s coming: peace and security, great tribulation. The bible tells us the near future. Just like driving your car in a dark country lane, you would never dream of turning off your lights, we should never dream of stop looking to the bible for its principles or prophecies. 
 

Also, with driving, how dangerous it is to drive while tired. There’s things called micro sleeps where you can nod off for a few seconds to a few minutes without even knowing you’ve been asleep. How dangerous it would be to drive and that happen. Same too with our spirituality, we wouldn’t want to ‘micro sleep’ or drift off without even realising it. We need to take in our spiritual caffeine, or open a window for fresh spiritual air to stay awake. Especially in the times we live in.

 

He explained them much better, but it was such an excellent talk to remind us to carry on going because we’re so close now. 

[JennyM]

On 12/7/2020 at 6:09 AM, carlos said:

One beautiful point he mentioned is that often Jehovah finds solutions we would have never thought about. He mentioned Daniel as he was being carried to the lion's den. Surely he was praying fervently not to be thrown there. And as he approached the den, he may have thought that Jehovah was not listening his prayers. Yet Jehovah's solution was more wonderful than anything Daniel might have thought: he allowed Daniel to be thrown in the den, then closed the lions' mouth. Imagine if Daniel had compromised in view that apparently Jehovah was not listening his prayers!

Thanks Carlos.. This is what I need.. I lost my full time job last October and I approached government agencies for help. They did.. and I keep on applying everyday..It is stressful because I am a responsible person. Ive been studying and working hard not only for myself but for my family. Sometimes, I struggled to go overseas for work and more money and leave my daughter behind.... But Jehovah sustained me for years. However, its unavoidable that Im facing same problem from time to time. 

[New World Explorer]

On 12/7/2020 at 9:09 AM, carlos said:

We had our CO visit this week. His first talk was beautiful, about clothing ourselves with love. The public talk was about receiving the mark to survive. But the one I really loved was the last, not sure if this is the same in every congregation or it's prepared by the CO. It was titled "What will you do with Senacherib's letters?".

 

The same as Ezekiah received letters from Senacherib discouraging him from trusting Jehovah, we suffer pressures from the world to stop trusting in Jehovah too. When faced with such problems, we must do the same as Ezekiah did:

- Do not try to find a solution by yourself, present your problem to Jehovah and trust in his solution.

- Never compromise.

 

One beautiful point he mentioned is that often Jehovah finds solutions we would have never thought about. He mentioned Daniel as he was being carried to the lion's den. Surely he was praying fervently not to be thrown there. And as he approached the den, he may have thought that Jehovah was not listening his prayers. Yet Jehovah's solution was more wonderful than anything Daniel might have thought: he allowed Daniel to be thrown in the den, then closed the lions' mouth. Imagine if Daniel had compromised in view that apparently Jehovah was not listening his prayers!

We are having CO meeting right now. 

Still waiting for Sunday though.

[Tortuga]

On 12/6/2020 at 2:09 PM, carlos said:

Imagine if Daniel had compromised in view that apparently Jehovah was not listening his prayers!

That is a powerful point, thank you for sharing.

[New World Explorer]

We just had our CO Friday meeting with appointed brothers, and I could not exaggerate about the outline "Proof your faith NOW, to be marked for survival" 

When GT strikes it will be simply too late. 

All this hard work neds to happen before GT, supporting FDS etc 

Jesus will by-pass (spare their lives) only those who are marked for survival prior to GT.  

[CHecker]

6 hours ago, New World Explorer said:

We just had our CO Friday meeting with appointed brothers, and I could not exaggerate about the outline "Proof your faith NOW, to be marked for survival" 

When GT strikes it will be simply too late. 

All this hard work neds to happen before GT, supporting FDS etc 

Jesus will by-pass (spare their lives) only those who are marked for survival prior to GT.  

Yes Greg, those were all the points from our CO as well. Helps us to stay focused, not lose sight as where we are in time. The end will come as a thief, we need to stay as the faithful virgins waiting for the bridegroom, with our oil reserves firmly available.

[Golfguy74]

9 hours ago, New World Explorer said:

We just had our CO Friday meeting with appointed brothers, and I could not exaggerate about the outline "Proof your faith NOW, to be marked for survival" 

When GT strikes it will be simply too late. 

All this hard work neds to happen before GT, supporting FDS etc 

Jesus will by-pass (spare their lives) only those who are marked for survival prior to GT.  

I need to review my notes. Powerful imformation during this visit,

[CHecker]

9 hours ago, Golfguy74 said:

I need to review my notes. Powerful imformation during this visit,

It also goes with the last talk on Update #8

[Jack1979]

On 12/6/2020 at 5:09 PM, carlos said:

We had our CO visit this week. His first talk was beautiful, about clothing ourselves with love. 

Our CO visit is this week as well. We had the same introductory talk as you...

 

I was reviewing my notes from the Love Never Fails convention last year, and found it to be very closely related to Brother Splane’s talk (might even be the same outline), which was delivered via video from the St. Louis international convention. 

[JennyM]

20 hours ago, New World Explorer said:

We just had our CO Friday meeting with appointed brothers, and I could not exaggerate about the outline "Proof your faith NOW, to be marked for survival" 

When GT strikes it will be simply too late. 

All this hard work neds to happen before GT, supporting FDS etc 

Jesus will by-pass (spare their lives) only those who are marked for survival prior to GT.  

Do we have to rush our bible studies to act then?

[Tortuga]

47 minutes ago, JennyM said:

Do we have to rush our bible studies to act then?

The current WT study article helps you to reason on that and gives helpful suggestions.

[Mykyl]

1 hour ago, JennyM said:

Do we have to rush our bible studies to act then?

Just continue studying and if they continue to respond, it's fine. No need to worry. 

[New World Explorer]

4 hours ago, JennyM said:

Do we have to rush our bible studies to act then?

All instructions remain the same as before, the outline highlighted the point about “marking for survival” 

And it's our personal responsibility to qualify for marking prior to GT, because on the day when it happens simply it will be to late, according to the outline presented. 
Pioneer meeting did not touch on the matter of “rushing the studies” 

But, hey Jenny ...we are living so deep into last days, and the time remaining is short, therefore it’s always a good idea to give our best and pay close attention to our teaching, so our Bible students can make good progress and make dedication. 
Keep up a good work my dear sister. 

[jwhess]

On 12/11/2020 at 1:57 PM, New World Explorer said:

Jesus will by-pass (spare their lives) only those who are marked for survival prior to GT.  

Br. Greg, I thought of the Exodus and the 10th plague.  They had 4 days to select and care for the sheep of the Passover.  Then they had just the hours between evening twilight and midnight to put the blood on the doors, cook and eat the Passover meal.  Then at midnight the deaths occurred.  Only the marked houses had the firstborn survive. Not a long time.

[carlos]

On 12/12/2020 at 3:29 PM, JennyM said:

Do we have to rush our bible studies to act then?

Rushing students is useless. Every one has a different pace. We can offer to study with them twice a week, as the Watchtower article suggested last week, but other than that, there's nothing we can do to rush them.

 

 I mean, you can scare your student with the GT coming soon and rush her to baptism, but if she's not sincerely dedicated to Jehovah that baptism doesn't have any value.

 

As long as your student is making progress, just follow their own pace and help them to love Jehovah. He will not miss any of his sheep.

 

 

 

[Dustparticle]

On 12/12/2020 at 9:29 AM, JennyM said:

Do we have to rush our bible studies to act then?

The Bible tells us what we need to know who survives the GT. And it does not tell us what we do not need to know. Millions of others might survive like, babies, kids who are misplaced, mentally off people, people in war torn areas, etc. These consist millions of people and they might survive the GT. 

[jwhess]

Here are quotes from last week and this week’s Watchtower Study. 

 

They use words like “quickly”, “accelerate”, “few months” and so on. 

 

I have had brothers tell me that it took them 12 years to get baptized.  What are they indicating? That they believe their current Bible Students have another 12 years to slowly move toward the ark of salvation?  Is that the speed at which they teach?

 

WT October 2020 – Study Edition…Part 1 and Part 2

 

As long as Jehovah is patiently allowing people the time and opportunity to become Christ’s disciples, we want to do all we can to help them progress to baptism as quickly as possible. Time is fast running out!—1 Cor. 7:29a; 1 Pet. 4:7.

 

Eventually, to accelerate his progress, you might even ask the student if he would be willing to study twice a week.

 

What do we know about the importance of baptism? It is a requirement for those seeking salvation.

 

Within a few months of having a regular Bible study and especially after beginning to attend meetings, the student should understand that the purpose of the Bible study is to help him to start serving Jehovah as one of His Witnesses.

[carlos]

On 12/15/2020 at 1:20 AM, jwhess said:

Within a few months of having a regular Bible study and especially after beginning to attend meetings, the student should understand that the purpose of the Bible study is to help him to start serving Jehovah as one of His Witnesses.

Thanks, John.

 

I think those quotations are compatible with what I was saying. We don't want to waste time with students who simply enjoy spending time with us but are not making any progress. Those articles explain our student needs to know what the purpose of the study is. We also need to do all we can to help them make progress. One way might be to study more often. Another, studying more material and not wasting time in unnecessary explanations. We should invite them to attend the meetings from the beginning and make them curious about what we learn there. These and other suggestions can help us achieve what the article suggests.

 

But every person has a different pace, and it's Jehovah who makes it grow, not ourselves. Scaring a student with Armageddon doesn't make any good. I have seen many people, especially young ones, pressured to get baptized, just to leave the truth a few months later. Baptism without dedication is valueless. Going in service, giving talks, or any other spiritual activity which is not done wholeheartedly to please Jehovah but out of pressure is a waste of time.