Highlights!

This passed weekend, my congregation had the privilege of having Brother Losche give two special talks. Living in a close proximity to Bethel, I seem to have taken for granted privileges such as this and realize many people around the world, as well as throughout this very country may never see or hear a governing body member give a talk in their presence. I thought I'd pass on just some of the many useful and insightful points that he mentioned on his Saturday talk themed, "Meeting Together For Jehovah's Praise". In this talk he gave us 13 reasons why we should go to meetings.

We should go to meetings to:

• Hear and learn. Ecclesiastes 12:9

• Gain encouragement. Even those with phobias or infirmities can be strengthened by the presence of Jehovah's holy spirit. Matthew 18:15-21

• Fulfill a part of our worship to Jehovah. Psalms 144:22

• Become trained to be efficient preachers and teachers. Luke Chapter 10.

• Gain an opportunity for fellowship with Jehovah and his son Jesus. Revelation 1:20

• Come under the influence of holy spirit that we all need. Revelation 2:2,3,7

• Prove Jesus is already ruling as king. If Jesus was not ruling as king then the separation and harvest would not have started yet. Therefore, we are visible proof of Jesus' invisible rule

• Strengthen our faith through study of Biblical prophecy.

• Prove our love for Jehovah. We should not just offer up lip service (Malachi 3:14) or care to see how Jehovah will benefit us (Job 21:15) by gaining personally. We need to consider how we will benefit Jehovah. Isaiah 1:11

• Praise Jehovah. Psalm 22:22-25, Psalm 26:12. Psalm 111:1

• Support vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty. Our obligation is to be witnesses to Jehovah and his word as well as defend his word and prove Satan a liar. Being almighty, Jehovah could easily force us to go to meetings but he does not. He rules by love and likewise, he wants us to go to the meetings out of our own personal love for him.

Brother Losche also gave many experiences of faithful Christians around the world who are regular in meeting attendance despite numerous obstacles. Here are some I found commendable:

A family in Nepal lives a great distance from the kingdom hall. They have to travel an entire day on foot to make it the kingdom hall. It takes them two days to travel to and from the meetings.

One man in Ecuador had to travel six hours on horseback to and from the kingdom hall. He'd have to cross a river four times due to a lack of a bridge; often his travel was made through the jungle in the middle of the night.

Another woman in Africa would have to cross a large river alone just to get to and from the meetings. The river not only had a very strong current but had many crocodiles. Before crossing she would have to carefully examine where the crocodiles were in the river so she could plan which route to take across.

After giving us these experiences Brother Losche asked us "Would you do the same?"