Weekend Meeting:

Where is this speaker from? They announced it, but I forgot. Judging from backdrop and quality of speech, it may be from one of the Bethels. Good stuff on ‘finding the pearl of high value.’

My wife said my munching oatmeal could be seen onscreen, so I withdrew a few minutes till done. All these things should be done prior to meeting, of course. Alas, Zoom has made inroads on many a fine routine. #SundayMeeting

It really is a very good talk. He has gone to “policy previews” of the Kingdom, and here is a pic of Jesus’ and disciples’ boat swamped in the windstorm. The point is that the Kingdom will control earth’s forces, “solve environmental problems.” #Sundaymeeting

Also “previews,” each accompanied with artwork of Jesus feeding multitudes, healing sick, raising dead. I used to put it as, “You going to support the government that promises health care, or the one that promises health?”

“How do we sign up to be a citizen of this kingdom?” he says. He answers with Matthew 6:33, “33 “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these [other] things will be added to you,” & reject conduct that would disqualify us as citizens.

Then the speaker goes back to his opening illustration about the villager who actually did find a pearl of (staggering) high price & stuck it under his bed, having no idea of its worth. Then worked like a dog throughout his life, without realizing the solution lie beneath his bed. #Sundaymeeting

Now he incorporates a video. These Bethel brothers have the new methods down pat, whereas I am just getting my head around that they exist. Alas, the video crashed. The speaker is taking it in stride, as local mods are discussing how to fix it.

They fixed it. It concludes with the football (not the US kind) that turned down the contract for Christian dedication. Necessary? Maybe not. On the other hand, Prince stayed where he was, (someone said contractual reasons), ...1/2

amazingly, was active in meetings & field service, but career did kill him. ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ begins with an appreciative chapter on Prince, probably the largest (maybe only) collection of his activities as a JW...2/2

...WatchtowerStudy

Maybe some will come to feel they were mistaken, stop partaking. It is odd that the number partaking has been rising for years. Just a drop in the overall bucket, insignificant in itself, but still not what you would expect.

A reference to the “thunderous applause” at the “behold the great multitude” 1935 Rutherford talk. Maybe as in relief, like when you are doing something that doesn’t quite feel right but you keep doing it because you know no other way, and then the other way is presented.

I got my own comment in there, that the prospect of living forever on earth, from someone of church background who knew nothing of such things... That really did it for me, like a camping trip that never ends. #watchtowerstudy

The elderly sister just commented who, in two days, we will drive her all the way a Finger Lakes town where she has a summer cottage. She has her hair done there. We were just there, and I wrote up a post of the Publick Universal Friend (and the Mennonite.

Have I heard the illustration of wedding guests attending a wedding to show support and love? It almost seems like I have, or should have, but I am not quite sure. #wathtowerstudy

One brother, who does have a room divider backdrop, has hung a clean shirt on that screen. My wife got a kick out of it. I said, were it not for her, perhaps a line of my underwear might hang in my background. Not everyone thinks of such things. #watchtowerstudy

Meetings almost over. Let’s see how many of my brand spanking new computer generated AI Facebook friends are still around.

All those years ago, decades even, a local couple lost a baby. They still get choked up at comments of welcoming the dead on earth back to life.

The sister just commented who really didn’t do much prior to Covid, but her activity has exploded under Zoom protocol.

When FB friends leave, you don’t know it. There should be a “This speech is shocking—who can listen to it?!” notification.

Ha! The speaker’s wife, when newly married and new in the faith, said, “I thought you guys went in for full time service to God” and helped him get undistracted by his growing business affairs. #aftermeetinginterview

His wife has a way of breaking into laughter. Not derisively, but rather savoring the “diplomatic” way her husband phrases things, like (at Warwick) how “The lockdown has been good for us,” and “Covid will be gone soon,” as he gives updates on Ramipo.

Midweek meeting:

I have the Bible reading tonight. It is a good one, too, not one of those Leviticus jobs that evoke all the emotion of reading a grocery list. Numbers 11:1-15, in which the Israelites start bellyaching over how good the chow was in Egypt. #midweekmeeting.

There was an Italian circuit overseer who used to draw out, savor, and caress the garlic of Numbers 11:5. “How fondly we remember the fish that we used to eat without cost in Egypt, also the cucumbers, [and]...the GARLIC!” Will I? Am I Italian? Now if the verse had said coffee...

I would outdo the Italian brother, launch myself into the air, and come down on a cloud of ecstasy like that cartoon dog.

That sister in the yellow sweater has a “stink face,” the lead-off speaker said.

John usually hams it up as a householder. “The wife and I don’t even attend the big ones,” he says of Christmas and Easter. A few weeks ago, he said “the wife and I are expecting a little one.” He is 65. “I guess the poor kid is going to look like you,” I told him.

John and I would pair up in the ministry, often working separately, but sometimes together. “Try not to screw this one up like the last door,” we would say to each other.

The householder in the last talk had a problem with Jesus being called “the ransom.” She thought of as in a kidnapping. A good setup for Darlene to explain how Jesus’ death provides release from the “captivity” of sin and death, his death just like paying to release a captive.

If in doubt, you go into a wine shop and ask for a Passover wine. If it works for them, it works for us. A Merlot will not do. #MemorialofChristsDeath

Someone pointed out, as they should, that God has feelings and can be “broken-hearted.” Ezekiel 6:9. Several verses say this. I like best Ps 78:40: “How often they would rebel against him in the wilderness, They would make him feel hurt in the desert.”

Another reference to a future message that might be hard-hitting. I asked that elder I love to tease if I can practice for it by announcing when he is to give the public talk.

No, it was not MY dog that auditioned for that picture of checking out Ezekiel while he is on assignment