Posted by Leastofthese [Leastofthese] on November 17, 1999 at 19:06:47 {xx2d.1sWpQYIiNdpPK7.di7nyYLfJI}:
In Reply to: ***I feel slighted! Att:ROS posted by Tyndale on November 17, 1999 at 00:57:53:
Tyndale,
For your information - I have recieved much persecution for my faith in Christ, sadly, even from fellow JW's at times.
Not only did I have to endure very small minds as a child while in school, where I was beaten and often discraced for my stand; As a teen I had switchblades at my throat for my stand.
As a young man serving I had to endure the jealousies of older and more powerful elders who did not want a yonger brother of any strength or power to interfere with thier control over a congregation.
Was being accused of apostate thinking and behavior a few months later, simply because I moved to another congregation nearby where I was more appreciated and was then serving well and recommended as a ministerial servant in spite of the one elder's contempt of me.
Even though Jehovah thwarted those men, when I began partaking of the emblems it began all over again. - "Too young" some would say, while others would tell me how much more they had served and how much better they still did and how Jah would have chosen them if needing a replacement for a fallen one.
I have been institutionalized for greif and then marked by others as nuts when in fact those elders were the same ones that had essentially given my spouse Carte blanche to be free from showing consideration and love.
They listened to her lies and since I remained silent and did not return reviling for reviling I was deeply hurt and persecuted.
Well - the end result - Divorce of course but guess who wound up disfellowshipped for immorality in the end. Not me!
Guess who died? Not me!
Guess who is still a JW - ME!
Why? - any reasonable person may ask of me!
The reason is that I am not a WTBTS's man nor the property of the elders of any congregation. I am not a kept man - that is detestable to Jehovah.
I am a free thinker and a very deep Bible student of Jehovah's making. However many mistakes they make or have the WTBTS provided the teaching materials, the time, and all the years of volunteer service that helped me learn to study the Bible so deeply.
While honoring the fact that I got the truth from this source - I remain a JW for association and organization of my ministerial services as a public minister of Jehovah's word.
I don't choose to go elsewhere because I am free already and never was a society man. I have always been and remain a free man of Christ Jesus true followers. As such I am first a Christian then through association a Jehovah's Witness.
That this necessitates being tolerant of errors while just continuing my own servitude is my own business.
What I have not done is rush ahead of Jehovah and Jesus to become an attacker of any fellow man or organization just because of their errors.
I know right from wrong and like a dear freind of mine often says - "I eat the meat but cut off and throw away the fat." Personally what I prefer to state is that "I thresh my grain so as to cast the chaff into the wind! Then I keep the leaven of the pharisee separate from my grain and my flour which the process of life continually grinds us in to becoming!"
We are to be the showbread alongside Christ and that, our true Christian behavior - 24 hours per day, is all that matters!
Least of these!