A Welcome and Invitation

Hey everyone! It is a gorgeous day here in BC (well, at least on the southern end of Vancouver Island!), except for a bit of rain, which never hurt anyone, and the perfect day to start ANYTHING, really. So let's dive right in!!

In his second letter to the Christian congregation in Corinth, the Apostle Paul said this:
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?" (2 Cor. 13:5, New International Version [NIV])

Do you realize that if you are not in the true faith, you will not have Christ Jesus IN you? I didn't for a very long time, and it was a long, very painful process to admit that no, I was NOT in the true faith, because I knew Christ Jesus did not reside in me.

This scripture cannot be addressed only to the 144,000. Why? Well, that's because it is dealing with a matter of the correct FAITH, not a matter of your place of ultimate destiny.

Now, to those who immediately went to grab their New World Translation (NWT) to check it against the NIV, you will quickly realize that the NWT says that Christ would be in UNION WITH those in the true faith. Can I challenge you to dig out your copy of the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (KIT) and look that up?

The Greek is literally, "Selves be YOU testing if YOU are in the faith, selves be YOU proving; or not YOU are recognizing selves that Jesus Christ in YOU? if not what disapproved YOU are." (2 Cor. 13:5, KIT)

Look past that brutal English for a sec, and you will see that the phrase "in union with" cannot be found in the Greek, and is in no way implied.

Just chew on that for a bit, that's all I ask.

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Another thing I want to have for you all is one small task to complete during the week. I know how crazy busy you are (I am too!), so it will always be small.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:
And boy, will it be a challenge!! Find your KIT, make a cup of tea, coffee, whatever, get comfy, and read the first chapter of John from the Greek side of the page. Yes, it will be a little tough for those of us who speak English :)

I know from personal experience that when you read Jehovahs' word by itself, you will have LOADS of things racing through your brain. Just grab a pen and notebook, write them down, and keep reading. Worry about the doubts and questions later, and just enjoy the word of God--he gave it to us so we could read it!

I'd love it if you put some of your questions and concerns into the comments so that we can try and work through them together.

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ONE FINAL REQUEST
I am a real human being, with real feelings and emotions. If you're tempted to lash out at me for whatever reason, yeah, I can take it (c'mon, I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness! Trust me, I can take almost anything!), but I gotta say, it might hurt me, and I would challenge you to take the higher way, and look into yourself to see what's causing hatred to boil up inside like that, and deal with that.

Take issue with me, argue with me, disagree with me. But please keep your commens civil. I do not appreciate nor do I tolerate profanity and inappropriate comments or images, and such will be removed as soon as I find them. Jehovah wants his people to have PURE language.

HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK!!!! I HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!