Darkness, light, burning fire, Truth and people in it

Dan Gaitanis wrote:

I'm on a train headed home from the best Bibleschool I've ever been to. Eastern was absolutely wonderful.

All three speakers said something that I can take away from it:
John Bilello said in his exhortation, "Don't confuse the truth with the people in it."
 I thought that was a great quote--quite often we follow certain people who we think have it all right, when in reality, they could very well be wrong. Not everything said in every Christadelphian class is exactly right on everything, whether the speaker is from the USA, Australia, England, or wherever.

Mark O'Grady made an object lesson--he said "Say we were in a complete eclipse and it was midnight and it was pitch black in here and someone came in the room and lit a candle/light. That light would shine, you'd be able to see it from all over the room. If they lit a bright light it would dispel all the darkness that's in the room. Say someone walked in here and they had a box, and you say 'well, what's in your box? (imagine Mark saying this like a really excited person)' and they said 'oh I've got a box full of darkness!' And you take it to the center of the room and...you take the lid off! What happens to the darkness, does it fill the room? So what's that telling us? Light overcomes darkness. Be not overcome with evil, says Paul, but overcome evil with good."

And Jonathan Bowen told us a sad story about one of his friends from high school, who he got in a debate with about heaven/hell-going. And Jonathan won the debate, but his friend thus left Christianity because he was no longer worried about burning in hell, so basically, even though Jon won the battle, he lost the "war", saying that we shouldn't be out to "win", but rather to "win someone over to Christ". How often do we do that?
 We have these stupid divisions and such and people leave because of them. So we might win the battle of being right, but we still lose in the long run because we lost a member of the body, or a potential member of the body.

I can't say enough about how wonderful it was to be with those brothers and sisters. It was my first time and I was welcomed with open arms and felt right at home, almost as if I'd known those people for many years. Those New England people are pretty cool. And I've known that xD

Je leven de som van al je keuzes

   "Je leven is de som van al je keuzes
tot op deze huidige minuut. "
- Brian Tracy

Kies voor het juiste leven,
 op dat gij en uw nageslacht,
door de liefde voor de Allerhoogste, Jehovah uw God,
moogt leven
door te gehoorzamen aan Zijn stem,
en door vast te houden aan Hem. 

“19 Ik neem heden de hemel en de aarde tot getuigen tegen u. Leven en dood houd ik u voor, zegen en vloek. Kies dan het leven, dan zult gij met uw nakomelingen het leven bezitten, 20 door Jahwe uw God te beminnen, naar Hem te luisteren en aan Hem gehecht te blijven. Want daarvan hangt het af, of gij zult leven en of gij lang zult wonen op de grond, die Jahwe aan uw vaderen, aan Abraham, Isaak en Jakob onder ede heeft toegezegd.” (Deuteronomium 30:19-20 WV78)

English version / Engelse versie >

Your life the sum total of all your choices

English: Abraham embraces his son Isaac after receiving him back from God (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Tevreden zijn met Gods keuze

"Ik ben altijd tevreden met wat er gebeurt;
want ik weet dat wat God kiest is beter dan wat ik wil. "
- Epicetus
"Niet dat ik spreek uit verlangen,
want ik heb geleerd vergenoegd te zijn in welke omstandigheden ik ook ben. "
Filippenzen 4:11

Holland emblemata - Hercules at the crossroads (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English version:

Being content in whatever circumstances

Died climbing

Alan Hermann wrote: 3 augustus 6:59 I read recently of the epitaph of a Swiss mountain climbing guide. All it said was ‘died climbing’. After considering this I realised that this is a perfect epitaph for every Christian. The Christian life is well described as a race, a journey or a climb. The good news is that we have a guide and support on the climb who has descended from the highest peak to take our hand and help and encourage us. We never climb alone. It doesn’t matter if we are near the top or still making our way through the foothills. The important thing is that we are still moving upward, still climbing. A rock climber with a collection of climbing nuts preparing to climb. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)  It has been said that the Christian life is ‘three steps forward and two steps backward’ and I believe that there is some truth in this but again it is not how fast we are ascending but the fact that we are still climbing. We must put aside doubts about our distance from the peak or rate of progress and ask His continual help to climb on. It is his strength, not ours, that makes the difference. In the worst bits he carries us.  The greatest praise we can receive while alive is, ‘still climbing’. May our epitaphs read, ‘died climbing’.

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Jehovah's Witnesses convention won't return to Tri-Cities in 2014

It seems to be a hard time also for the JW 's Organisation. They seem to be cutting down in expenses. The decision has been made nationally to downsize the number of conventions from 400 to 100.

                                       For years the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses has held a regional convention in the Tri-Cities, attracting about 16,000 of the faithful who spend an estimated $8.6 million while in town.
But they won't be coming in 2014.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/08/01/2500842/jehovahs-witnesses-convention.html#storylink=cpy

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