Well it happened. The jehovahs witnesses came and knocked on my door. Part of me feels quite disappointed in myself because Ive been trying to prepare something for when they arrive at my door, but when I sat down to do it I had a hard time getting info on paper.
It is true, they are quite pushy. But as they opened their bible to read verses, I grabbed my bible and read the same verses. Its hard because apart from a word or two the verses are almost exactly the same. BUT the english language is very complex and a word or two can change a sentence in a huge way! I kept coming back to one verse in John that Ive learned is very different but couldnt remember where it was! Sure enough it is in John. This is the verse.
John 1:1 in the NWT reads, "and the Word [Jesus] was a god." All other legitimate Bible translations say, "and the Word [Jesus] was God."
What a difference in a verse, but only a few words of a change!
But today I was honest. Let me tell you as I ran into the kitchen to grab our bible off the kitchen table I prayed for God to give me wisdom. I felt like He gave me the strenght I needed. She referred me to a website (the offical watchtower website) so I can get the facts and information on JW belief, and I told her that Im going to be completely honest that I have no intentions that looking at the website, and the magazines they give us I do not look at and can no longer accept. It sounds hard, but I needed to be honest.
She asked me about the Lord's prayer in Matthew 28 (I believe!) and what God means when it says "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." I told her that I dont believe that everyone is supposed to go door to door. Some people may be called by God to go door to door, but in Christianity not everyone is. You may be called to go overseas to do work (like my little and big sister!!) or you may be called to start a bible study at your workplace, or moms group, etc... but I dont believe that doing good works and going door to door will get you to Heaven. God even says that there will be people in heaven we never expected, and He is the final judge. I also told her that I believe God wants a personal relationship with us. Not just reading the bible, and going door to door but he wants an open lifeline, and wants us to need him and talk to him. I told her the number of times that I feel God has spoken to me and provided for us is too many to count. They agreed, but if I remember correctly JW's dont have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They dont believe in the Trinity as Christians do, and the list of differences go on.
We'll see if they return, I told her she could if she wanted to talk, but Im not sure if they will after Ive told them I wont be accepting their magazines. The other thing is, I didnt ask them in. I feel that spiritually I need to protect my home and family. It was cold and raining out, (dont worry they werent getting rained on the whole time!!) but I didnt invite them in and I stepped out onto the front porch.
I know some people may disagree with my feelings and actions as well, however I feel that God has placed these people at my door for a reason. They are persistant about what they believe and are firm in what they believe, but I also need to be firm and persistant in what I believe. Often times I feel as though people expect Christians to allow other people to walk all over them, or not stand up for themselves. However, Jesus was the opposite of that! He hung out with "ungodly" people, he hung out with prostitues, tax collectors, homeless people atc... I heard a sermon a few weeks ago that called Jesus "socially promiscuous" because he loved and hung out with people that were not "holy" or "pure".
Until next time, we'll see what happens. I found a great chart that has the differences between JW and Christianity that Im going to print out and have ready to discuss some of these things. Now lets hope they return.
8 comments:
Love your website and the message it conveys. But please change the text color to white so it can be read more easily. It will also enhance the background color. If you can enlarge the size of the font as well by 2 or 3px, it will also make the text more readable to more people. This is not a criticism of your message, but only of its delivery.
Thanks for the address, Ill check it out. Nick, how did you come across my blog?
Jessie, I havent had anyone mention that the color of the font is difficult to read. Is your page maybe not loading properly? Also, do I know you?
No, we've never met. I just found your web page because you mentioned your encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses and I follow those posts.
My computer and all its browsers are working fine. The problem is that your small black text is harder for some older folks to read against a 65% dark background. Like trying to read pen script on a dark envelope. Try using white text (change color: from #000000 to #FFFFFF in your CSS settings) and test both ways. If not better, simply change the color: back to #000000.
I share your sentiments and likely would have done the same (if I was smart enough to prepare in advance). I also quoted the "socially promiscuous" phrase on my blog! Loved it a lot. Great word picture.
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