Seriously though, I had no options but to ask them to leave because they woke me and I was kind enough to spare them my wrath. I told my friend, Sateigdra of "Fact, Fiction, and Faith! " this horror story in another blog post comment but it's good enough for us all. After all, we are brothers and sisters in Christ and Father says y'all gotta whine with me.....okay...He says, "bear ye one another's burdens," but it's the same thing.
So, if you're interested, the first blog post about their visits is down in the stack somewhere but not too far because the first visit was the beginning of this past spring and fall is setting in. Then on this page their last visit is chronicled before this one. So, this is an unfolding story. I'll try to make it quick.
I met Ben and his friends. He's very young. In retrospect I believe he was a trainee in the field when I met him with an elder on my porch. He came back many times bringing another young person with him, always lovely young women, and the last visit he brought an older woman...very robust and confident of her facts. Enough to debate me at every turn and tax my patience with it. The last time they visited, I gave Ben my phone number and in her presence asked him to use it to call ahead because their constant uninvited visits were becoming annoying and consuming my time. I was trying to be nice. But Mr. Ben gave my phone number to that woman at some juncture after they left here that day. She called me before her visit and asked when would be a good time to come and visit with me. I was in bed so I didn't answer that call. So guess what she did? Yep! She showed up anyway and woke me up. I am a student and I study into the wee hours. It's 4:30 a.m. right now and I have only just put my math book down. When I go to bed, I do not want to be woke.
Here's where the story ends, as I simply pulled the curtain back and found her...that woman. So, I simply told her to come back some other time because she had woke me up. I didn't even bother to open the door.
Do you know how embarrassing it is for me to have to do that to someone? I'm not that kind of person. As we see, the reason they return is because I'm cordial and hospitable. But now, they've blown it. Ben handing my number off without my consent is unacceptable. Her calling but getting no reply and showing up anyway is unacceptable. It's time that I act! Lord give me the strength to break their tiny little thread, thereby cutting them loose. And may You be with all of their victims.
Kelline,
ReplyDeleteI think that is simply all you have to do is tell them exactly what you have said in your post, the things each of them are doing that you do not feel are right. They will probably not see it your way unless you tell them, and if you don't want them to call at all just tell them not to.
I hope it's that easy. I'm non-combative and am very uncomfortable with confrontation. It probably dominates my reasons for letting them visit in the first place. But I feel now that I can no longer trust them if giving my number to one means they feel comfortable handing it to others. They also can't be trusted to respect personal boundaries so it's time I end their visits cordially. I think I'll give myself an "A" for effort.
DeleteHugs to you Kelline.
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks...I needed one...I really really did, and I hug you back JBR!
DeleteAy yi yi! I hate when people show up unannounced anyway, especially Jehovah Witness's. In their minds they probably think you're lost and they think they are doing you a favor or maybe boosting up their "good" works.
ReplyDeleteWow! 4am haha Kelline you know I could never do that,this last new years eve I finally gave up after dozing in and out of sleep at 11pm.
Well if they're going to be rude and overbearing you'll have to make your voice heard and put your foot down.
Especially when your time is precious in the first place.
I'm so glad my mother scares them away ahaha! :)
you wanna borrow her??:) :) hahaha
Hahahahahah, yes please...send mother right away! LOL.
DeleteAnd you are such the sleepy head sis. I can't imagine you making it past 9 p.m. I've gotten emails from you at 8:30 p.m. expressing how sleepy you are and how you can't make it any longer. I can't imagine going to bed that early. I would toss and turn for hours and hours.
As I read back over this post, I realize I was much sleepier than I thought because this is not my finest work. It's random, disconnected, a little testy, just not my best. I should talk of more important things anyway and I won't have this problem. They're just people but they stand on God's word as a reason for what they do and this stirs up questions for me. I am of the same belief as you, that they think they're giving themselves brownie points. We can easily see it by the fact that they don't believe in Jesus as a Savior, hence they don't have the anointing of the Holy Ghost which makes men free, hence they don't realize it's "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," that we do what we do in the world and we'll never be righteous of our own deeds but are only righteous by the blood.
Whoop whoop! Thanks for the Shot out Kelline! Made me have a big smile :-DD
ReplyDeleteThis post was soooo funny. I was eating while I was reading and this had me crackin up. We should all share our JW experiences and call it "The Jehovah Witness Experience".
I think you did very well, that you actually answered her, honestly I wouldn't have done anything, just go back into bed.
The nerve they have, and your right calling the people they meet door to door victims, once we open our doors we become a statistic lol. Sad thing is when you try to be cordial they take that as an invite to return again and again. If you have already discussed how you feel about God with them, why on God's green earth are they continuously coming back.
I'm sure they have gotten the wrath of many, especially when they show up early in the morning expecting you to be up and ready to discuss something you have already went over with them from jump street lol. If somebody wakes me up and I hardly got any sleep it better be important. I think when your super tired and somebody wakes you up, it's almost like your drunk, no time to gather your thoughts all you know is you want to sleep, and that person is in the way of it. They say let sleeping dogs lie, the Jehovah Witnesses' never got that memo apparently.
Great post Kelline this was hilarious. I like the way you write, I can picture everything your saying.
P.S That pic made it even funnier.
DeleteI'm glad you had fun reading this. The way these folks are acting, I have to try to lighten the severity of it all with humor. If I couldn't laugh, I'd have to cry. I mean, it's not like their JWs from Russia. You would think that being American and visiting Americans would help them to relegate the correct etiquette with regards to what they choose to do....knock on stranger's doors for the purpose of Kingdom agenda. Even though they're misinformed.
DeleteI agree with you! We should all tell our JW stories and compare notes. Our other sister, Monica, one of the commenters you'll see in here alongside you, Brenda, Annmarie, and sometimes "Just Be Real", has some stories about her mom's experiences. You have some but nobody else seems to be having them like us. It is a Jehovah's Witness Experience!
May be my next post won't include them for once. I'll keep everyone posted on this "Never ending story".
lol. I can hardly imagine what he Russian JWs are like, lol with the language barrier I think it would be a more harrowing experience than your friend Ben and his crew lol.
DeleteThat's right Kelline,
ReplyDeletewe don't all have the same experiences with people. My experiences with Jehovah witnesses and mormons have been totally different. Only the one man who came with the two ladies was a little bit heavy, but the Lord showed him about going through the narrow gate. I have always enjoyed talking about the Bible with everyone and have had some very good discussions.I remember two lovely young American mormons visiting my friend and myself at her house, I don't know if I have told you this, there was a knock at the door and it was the pastor from a church we were attending at the time. He came in and got rather heavy with the two boys. I began to feel very uncomfortable and asked the Lord to help in the situation. I suddenly felt led to open my Bible and I opened it to 1 Corinthians ch.13, the section about 'love'. The pastor looked uncomfortable and said he had to go. We continued our discussion with the two young men.
Wow, Brenda, that story about the preacher sounds like a clear case of conviction. God even convicts our men of God! If by heavy you mean he may have been showing some discriminatory behaviors, I'm glad then that God stepped in. I'm also glad to hear that you can enjoy their visits.
DeleteThey are not coming here to discuss God with me as much as to convert me to their belief. You see, we're not seeing eye to eye on Jesus as the savior. I can't seem to get them to engage me in that dialog. That's the talk we need to be having considering they don't believe in Jesus as their Savior so essentially they are lost. But when I try to talk to them about Him, they want to turn the subject away. I realize that's no reason to quit or give up but, what is a reason to send them away is the reprobate mind that God has given them. The Bible says if the people of the city you've entered into do not want to hear your doctrine, then shake the dirt off your feet as a testimony against them and move on. That's what I'm doing, for I have tried and tried and they are deeply rooted in their belief and I will have no more of this. No more of them coming and telling me, in my Christian home, that Jesus was just a man and there's no Trinity. I will have no more false doctrine spoke into me. That's the stand I must take. Sometimes in life we have to turn some people away when they have been given over to a reprobate mind. God has released me from this but I firmly believe that Ben has taken truth with him. I don't know if it's one thing I've said or my energy and love and the fact that I pointed it to God and gave Him the glory for it, but I know Ben has been touched.
Brenda I see how your being loving by letting them into your house because their approach is different than the ones me and Kelline have necountered but we are given firm orders from God how to deal with mormoms and JWs.
DeleteIf there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. @ John 1:10-11
All of this scripture is important but the parts that jumps out to me are, we are not to even bid him God speed, we are not to even greet those persons. And if we welcome them God say's we are partakers of their evil deeds that part really strikes me. Sounds like we're not even suppose to even acknowledge them when they come to our homes, so ignoring them was the right way all along.
So Kelline we're pretty much free to not even welcome them because they come with a doctrine that contradicts the Gospel of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
That Pastor was wrong for starting a heated debate with them because he should know better.
For sure it's hard to know where to draw the line with them. On the one hand I feel like I need to try to show them the gospel and the truth therein. On the other hand, like I told Brenda, they seem to be given over to a reprobate mind, also in the Bible. I feel in my spirit that there's always a reason to talk with people like this, but I don't feel obligated by God to continue with them when they go beyond civil conversation and into the realm of twisting scripture into false belief, like telling me Jesus was just a man and there's no evidence of Him being a deity. Or telling me that there's no Trinity which naturally makes me wonder how they could operate in the spirit if they don't believe in the spirit. They can't. You can't understand the things of the spirit if you have not the spirit which gives understanding. If they had behaved themselves and continued being kind enough to keep their visits minimum, open-minded, and them be honest and true (not giving my phone # out to others) then they might not have left this impression on me. But my spirit man tells me there's all kinds of wrong with their thinking and their behaviors. Here in the U.S. they're pushy.
DeleteYes, when I have discussed the position of Jesus with them I have used the scripture that it is God who made Jesus Lord as in 'Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ', and the ones that I have spoken to have agreed. I also acknowledge that 'Then the end will come. Christ will hand over the kingdom to God the Father as he destroys every ruler, authority, and power. ...', which they have agreed to also. Nobody can argue against the scripture. Where you quote 'The Bible says if the people of the city you've entered into do not want to hear your doctrine, then shake the dirt off your feet as a testimony against them and move on' the Lord has used that scripture 'And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.' with me and my friend too, to move us on, but it was used in a church. That scripture is talking about the disciples going to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, they were not to go to the gentiles and we are told that the church is God's Israel. Whatever is said to anyone,the word of God cannot go out and come back void to God.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I think Ben has been touched. Some have a hardened heart to the truth but I think he's different in their organization, sect, denomination...whatsoever it is. I'm so grateful for the way God uses us in our own capacity to do His will. I get the spiritual sense that this whole thing has been about Ben. I get the feeling God just wanted me to sow a seed in Ben's heart before he left for North Carolina to be further schooled by the Witnesses. I can feel that. I can feel that the others were just present but spiritually they were cut off from the message. May be it will be for someone else to witness to them but my work was with Ben as God sent him into my presence for that purpose. It's so amazing how He works!!!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(Sorry,I deleted my first attemt at this comment, I put something down two or three times I think )
ReplyDeleteSateigdra,I do not know what a person holds in his heart until I speak with him or her. When I speak with him or her then I can identify what spirit is there by what comes out of their mouth, 'out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks'. God wants all to come to the knowledge of salvation through Jesus. Verse 11 of the scripture you quote ie: John 1 10 - 11 actually says 'He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.' that verse is very prophetic of what is happening now, some of His own do not receive Him. There are many who call themselves Christian but they do not allow the word of God to renew their minds and there are many false doctrines tollerated within the church, man made doctrines. Paul states this to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians ch.11. v.4 ie: 'For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.' He says a similar thing here to the Galatian church 'I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. But do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I could not be a servant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ,' (Gal. 1:6-12). These whom Paul spoke to were those who were in Christ, if anyone is not in Christ we must evangelize to them.
hi my dear friend, how are you? i missed you so much!..am back!
ReplyDeleteCARLO!!!!! Where have you been?!!! I've been worried sick about you!!! I'm going to your blog right now!!!
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