Our dress and grooming - 2 reasons why it's important

Welcome to my office, you beautiful readers! It is good to talk with you again. I am enjoying the questions and the feedback... keep 'em coming!

Do me a favor, please. Look at the pics below and tell me what they portray, what they represent, and how you come by this information.

1) What do they represent?

2) What do they represent?

3) What do they represent?

4) What do they represent?

The reason I ask is because, when we perceive things with our eyes, it helps us to get an idea of what we are dealing with, or what we are looking at, or someone's profession, does it not? We see 'identity' every where we look. Take for instance, if I were to say the word 'potato' you would see an image of a potato. Our brain sees with pictures, images.

Now imagine this. You are in the examination room to get your eyes checked. After a short time, a man walks in, he is wearing a T-shirt, he has wild curly hair, a fairly long beard, faded jeans, and tennis shoes on. Got the image in your head yet? Good. Would you think he is the doctor, or just another patient who walked into the wrong room? Well, guess what, he's the doctor! But you didn't guess that when he first walked in based on his appearance. So... now... he's getting ready for the exam, and you're looking at him, and he just doesn't look like the doctor, so you ask “Are you the doctor?”

The above is a true story, of a friend of mine, from Indiana, who has a successful practice. When I first met Brian, at a tire store in Indianapolis, I was looking for a used tire for my Suburban. I'm at the counter and tell the employee that I need a used tire. They have one. "Do you want to pre-pay?" he asked me. "No I do not, what if I don't like it?" So I was put on the list. I headed back out to my Suburban when I notice this red convertible, sportster looking car parked beside me. I notice that the keys are in the ignition. 'Well that's just stupid' I think... 'someone could steal this car.' I turn around, and here comes Brian, the owner of the car, he was just some Hippy looking dude, I kid you not. I says to him "You're awful brave, leaving your keys in the car", in return he says "Yeah, and I prepaid for my tires too" and just like that, I liked him, and we became good friends. We remain friends to this day. A few years ago, when Brian came down to Kentucky for a visit, he was clean shaved, hair short. (Cleans up good.) I asked him why the whack job, and he told me that he got tired of people asking “Are you the doctor?”

All of this is leading up to my point. Does appearance matter? Yes, it does! It certainly mattered to Brian's patients. And while we should not judge people on their appearance, appearance is still important, because in some areas of life, and some professions, and some occupations, it is important.

I had a reader ask me this question:

“Jehovah's W, if you believe Jehovah isn't concerned w/outward appearance, why it short hair and a suit so important?”

I love this question! It is such a good, and important question! The question was asked in response to my posting of this article:

Give Me Just One Year of Peace and Happiness

After
from article: Give me just one
year of Peace and Happiness

Before
from article: Give me just one
year of Peace and Happiness

These two photos were in the article... 

I feel that this article below answers the question:

“Jehovah's W, if you believe Jehovah isn't concerned w/outward appearance, why it short hair and a suit so important?”

The following information is taken in part from: Why Do We Dress Up for Our Meetings? 

This article answers... From The Bible... the following 2 questions:

The Governing Body

1) How important is the way we dress when we worship God?

2) What principles guide our choices in dress and grooming? 

(From the article) To show respect for our God.  It is true that God looks beyond our outward appearance. (1 Samuel 16:7) However, when we gather to worship him, our heartfelt desire is to show respect both for him and for our fellow worshippers.

(From the article) To reflect the values that we live by.  The Bible encourages Christians to dress “with modesty and soundness of mind.” (1 Timothy 2:9, 10) Dressing “with modesty” means avoiding clothing that might draw attention to us by being showy, provocative, or revealing. Also, having “soundness of mind” helps us to choose attractive clothing that is not sloppy or extreme.

Showing respect with their
dress and grooming

One more quick story... My mom's neighbor in the apartment building died some years ago. My husband was going to represent our family at the funeral. He dressed as he would if he was going to our Sunday meeting, or out in the ministry. He wondered if he should, figuring no one else would be dressed up. But he did put on a suit, why? He was representing the God of the Universe, Jehovah, and his appearance needed to reflect that respect and the values that Jehovah's people live by. When he returned home, he says, “We were right, not even the preacher was dressed up.” Now, I felt that disrespectful, not only to the grieving family, but to the God he was claiming to represent. But hey, that's just me... it's my thought, and I shared it with you...

Learn 2 of the Important reasons for the Preaching Work

Welcome once again, my beautiful readers.

Today, we answer a Question from a reader:

“Hi! I was wondering, is one of the reasons for preaching also to ensure your own salvation? Tnx!”

I don't care who you are, witness or not
that's funny! And I am a witness. :-)

This is a valid question. After all, what are Jehovah's Witnesses most know for? Yep, their door to door ministry. How many times have I myself chuckled when I see a show on TV and in one way or another, they are poking fun of 'who's knocking on the other side of the door', and I always most remember the references to Jehovah's Witnesses. Once, I saw a Face Book post of a very large Alligator kinda standing up against the outside of a front door of a house with the caption being about the Witnesses... (As a side note, I think it's cool when Jehovah's name is mentioned in movies and TV shows. I remember it way back when in an Indiana Jones movie, not so way back in a Monk episode, and House even said YHWH.)

It's ok to laugh... it's funny.

There are reasons the we, as Jehovah's people, do the preaching work. 1) Love of God and 2) love of neighbor. Yep, it's that simple. We follow the instruction giving from Jehovah God, found in his word, the Bible. Lets look into the pages of God's word to see what I am saying.

Jehovah raised up prophets who served as figurative watchmen to the nation of Israel (Jer 6:17), and they, in turn, sometimes spoke of watchmen in a symbolic way. (Isa 21:6, 8; 52:8; 62:6; Ho 9:8) These prophet-watchmen had the responsibility to warn the wicked of impending destruction, and if they failed to do so, they were held accountable. Of course, if the people were unresponsive and failed to heed the warning, their blood was upon themselves. (Eze 3:17-21; 33:1-9) And unfaithful prophet was about as worthless as a blind watchman or a voiceless dog. - Isa 56:10

Ezekiel 3:17-21 was always a very powerful statement to me of the seriousness... yes, the seriousness, of being a watchman appointed by Jehovah God himself. Jehovah makes it clear that he is giving a warning, and it is up to the listener to act, but the warning must be given. And as you can see, there are dire consequences to those who don't listen and for those who choose not to follow the instruction from God to do the warning. Verse18 gets it for me: “When I say to someone wicked, 'You will surely die,' but you do not warn him, and you fail to speak in order to warn the wicked one to turn from his wicked course so that he may stay alive, he will die for his error because he is wicked, but I will ask his blood back from you.'”

“Yes, but, that was back in the Hebrew scriptures (The Old Testament)” you say. And you would be correct, that was an old command. However, let us now jump forward in time, to the Greek scriptures (The New Testament) to Jesus' time.

WHY DO JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PREACH FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE?

Jesus foretold for our day this work: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) As followers of Christ, we have been instructed to do this preaching work, to all the nations. Currently Jehovah's Witness can be found in 240 lands around the world.

He also instructed his followers: “Go... and make disciples of people of all the nations.” (Matt. 28:19) As a result, 9,708,968 free home Bible course are conducted with those who are interested.

When Jesus sent out his early disciples, he directed them to go to the homes of the people. (Matt. 10:7, 11-13) The apostle Paul said regarding his ministry: “I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.” - Acts 20:20, 21; see also Acts 5:42. The Message that the Witnesses proclaim involves the lives of people; they want to be careful to miss no one. (Zeph. 2:2, 3) Their calls are motivated by - 1) Love of God and 2) love of neighbor..

Here's something that I found to be of interest. Please allow me to share it with you... A conference of religious leaders in Spain noted this: “Perhaps (the churches) are excessively neglectful about that which precisely constitutes the greatest preoccupation of the Witnesses-the home visit, which comes within the apostolic methodology of the primitive church. While the churches, on not a few occasions, limit themselves to constructing their temples, ringing their bells to attract the people and to preaching inside their places of worship, (the Witnesses) follow the apostolic tactic of going from house to house and of taking advantage of every occasion to witness.” - El Catolicismo, Bogata, Colombis, September 14, 1975, page 14.

BUT WHY DO THE WITNESS CALL REPEATEDLY EVEN AT

HOMES OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT SHARE THEIR FAITH?

They do not force their message on others. But they know that people move to new residences and that the circumstances of people change. Today a person may be too busy to listen; another time he may gladly take the time. One member of a household may not be interested, but other may be. People themselves change; serious problems in life may stimulate an awareness of spiritual need. - See also Isaiah 6:8, 11, 12.

For me, I have a person I call on at her home, and have done so for years. When I first knocked on her door, she was not interested in anything I had to say. She would quickly close the door when she saw me standing there. Her health is very bad, and she looks so frail. I worried about her, so once a month, I would stop by to check on her. She had very little to say, but thanked my for checking on her. This went on for months. A couple of years later, yes... years, I knocked on her door, and there was a change. She looked at me and said, “You didn't hear? My daughter died.” Of course, I had not known about it until she told me. But that changed her, (death does that to people) and she let me into her home, shared her pain with me, and allowed me to comfort her from the scriptures. I still call on her to this day, and when her health allows it, we discuss a thought from the Bible. Jehovah has made me her Watchman, I have to go, I want to share with her from the Bible.

The Apostle Paul had also something interesting to say: “To the weak I became weak, in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to people of all sorts, so that I might by all possible means save some”. - 1 Corinthians 9:22

The final scripture that really hits home for me is found at: 1Timothy 4:16 – 'Pay constant attention to your self and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.'

Having said all that... back to the original question:
“Hi! I was wondering, is one of the reasons for preaching also to ensure your own salvation? Tnx!”

photo from: jw.org 

(The following is taken directly from the jw.org site.)

No. We engage regularly in our door-to-door ministry, but we don’t believe that we earn our salvation by doing such work. (Ephesians 2:8) Why not?

Think of this comparison: Imagine that a benevolent man promised an expensive gift to everyone who showed up at a certain location on a given date. If you really believed the man’s promise, would you follow his instructions? No doubt! Likely, you would also tell your friends and family about the opportunity, so that they too could benefit from it. Even so, you wouldn’t earn the gift by following the man’s instructions. The gift is still a gift.

Likewise, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe God’s promise of everlasting life for all who obey him. (Romans 6:23) We endeavor to share our faith with others, hoping that they will benefit from God’s promises. But we don’t believe that we earn our salvation by engaging in our ministry. (Romans 1:17; 3:28) Really, no human could ever do enough to merit such an astounding blessing from God. “

He saved us because of his mercy, and not because of any good things that we have done.”—Titus 3:5, Contemporary English Version.

Jehovah's Creation is Awesome!

Welcome welcome welcome back my beautiful readers.

I don't know if you had gotten the chance to catch my YouTube Video: Is God A Seahawks Fan? ... Of course, I was joking when I titled it, cuz I'm pretty sure Jehovah is not a Seattle Seahawks fan. But, I couldn't help but fall in love with the photos I had seen, of Jehovah's creation, from Twitter when I discovered and started following Scott Kelly's tweets from aboard the Space Station... I JUST ABSOLUTELY FELL IN LOVE WITH THE PHOTOS!!! I loved them so much that I put together the above mentioned slide show presentation. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL stuff!!!

Placed right where it needs to be.
This one I actually used to give as an Anniversary Message

However... there is something else... I just want to share some of my other fav's. Don't forget, theses photos are taken from the Space Station.

How's this for a Sunrise?

Revelation 4:11 is the scripture that always comes to mind when I see Jehovah's creation.

"The Circle of the Earth"
This in it's self is a STUNNING view!

Let us not forget our luminaries... The Greater one, and the lesser one. Let's face it, who doesn't enjoy a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or gazed at the moon at night, admiring it's fullness, or lack there of?

When I see these beautiful creations, I can not imagine them just popping into existence... they are just to complex to have just happened. They were constructed.

Jehovah truly is a gifted artist... IJS

And of course, even though the Bible is not a science book, itself has been proven to be scientifically accurate.

A tropical Storm

Mountains

An Awesome pattern

 The blues and whites are stunning

I would have never guessed this is the African Plains

Additional information on creation can be found at: 

jw.org

Blogger 'House Cleaning'

FYI: To my dear beautiful readers, some news has come my way that I need to share with you. Below is the information I received.  My comments are in red... 

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs. (A Google Account to Sign in) 

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.(Sniff sniff) 

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.(So if you need, please be a gittin' yerself a Google Account.) 

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers. (If they say so... guess they know best)

So... yeah... ifin ya wanna continue to catch my blogs, a Google account is required. So if you haven't done so already, I am hoping y'all will get a Google account, then re-follow my blogs, that way, ya won't miss a beat. Thanks...Deb

What does Paradise mean to YOU?

Welcome back, my beautiful readers...

What does Paradise mean to YOU? That question means a lot of different things to different people, depending on your beliefs. Even Paradise means different things to different people. For some, they think of a heavenly hope, for others though, an earthly hope. Don't Freak out!! Don't Freak out!! The Bible does mention, in several places, of a paradise, right here on earth! Don't Freak out!! Don't Freak out!! After all, at the founding of the world, what was the assignment given to man from Jehovah God? Yep, to live on this earth, that God created, for us, to live forever on, to turn into a Paradise like that of the Garden in Eden, that God planted. And that is that 'Paradise' I think of when I asked the question: What does Paradise mean to YOU?

Now come on, I've got you picturing it in your mind right now... I know, because I am picturing it to. I see post of others on Social Media sites of that 'ideal' spot on this planet that they would like to be. Some are on a tropical beach with a hammock tied between two palm trees, the view of the ocean, or some at the lake either in a boat or a cabin beside it, in the mountains with a cabin nestled in some valley with smoke ascending the chimney, you name it, everyone has somewhere they would like to go...





Me, I am partial to the mountains, and snow... (even though I hate being cold.)

There is a beauty and cleanness that comes with fresh fallen snow. That pure, unblemished covering. It covers all that dead grass, and fallen leaves, covering over the grounds' imperfections and brightening it with a pure freshness. Makes ya wanna run out, or walk, and make a snowman, or lay down and make patterns, or get the sleds outta the shed and head for the hills. Such beauty in snow.

Our Driveway Gate

Another fun thing for this family; lock in the 4X4 and play in the snow. When we lived in Wyoming, we had lots of space to do that, not so much here in Kentucky, however, our driveway has a curve going up the hill, so leaving our property presents it's own challenges. (Got Four Wheel Drive?)

Our driveway heading
down into the valley and
up the other hill

And what makes me think there will be snow in Paradise? Glad you asked... Early on, in the Creation Account in the book of Genesis, I read this scripture, and it got me to thinking:

14  Then God said: “Let there be luminaries*+ in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night,+ and they will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years.+

Me, risking frostbite and hypothermia
to bring you these beautiful snow pics

Our Yet-to-be-Split
Firewood

So I was thinking,"Seasons? That means snow! Yeah... there's gunna be snow!" Well... that's what I was thinking. :-)


But don't let all this snow and talk of it fool ya, I like other seasons as well. I think, early summer is my fav.

So, again, I ask: What does Paradise mean to YOU?

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