Tuesday, January 19 Men spoke from God as they were moved by holy spirit. —2 Pet. 1:21. To benefit from the wind, a sailor must do two things. First, he has to put his boat in the path of the wind. After all, his boat will not move forward if the sailor remains in a harbor far away from where the wind is blowing. Second, he needs to raise and unfurl his sails as fully as possible. Obviously, even with the wind blowing, his boat will move forward only if the sails catch the wind. Similarly, we will endure in Jehovah’s service only if we have the help of holy spirit. To benefit from that spirit, we must take two steps. First, we must put ourselves squarely in the path of God’s spirit by sharing in activities that bring us under its influence. Second, we need to “raise our sails” as fully as possible by being fully engaged in these activities to the best of our ability. (Ps. 119:32) Holy spirit will then push us forward through waves of opposition and trials and will help us to endure faithfully. w19.11 9 ¶8; 10 ¶11
__________ Must be I've been away from Watchtower theology for too long, because I don't understand how they can take a snippet of a scripture and then misappropriate it to promote an unrelated point. Please don't misunderstand: I agree that apart from God and His holy spirit, we can accomplish or overcome nothing. But this has nothing to do with what the apostle Peter was trying to get across to the recipients of his epistle. Rather, Peter was establishing the surety of God's promises as conveyed through prophecy— not one's everyday activities! I'll quote the New World Translation here: For prophecy was at no time brought by man's will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit. —2 Peter 1:21, NWT It may be noteworthy to refer one to a statement the apostle Peter makes a few verses earlier, when he writes that "it was not by following artfully contrived false stories that we acquainted YOU with the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (2 Peter 1:16a, NWT) since Monday's and this day's Daily Texts could be described as "artfully contrived" and arguably "false stories" (read: misappropriated, misapplied use of scriptures) asserting an "acquainting" of us with "the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ..." But as I said at the outset, I've been away from Watchtower theology long enough that I may be speaking from ignorance. Submitted for perusal and consideration, Timothy
Be careful what you wish fore. It may come true! - Tsaphah Also, learn about languages; as “Few, however, achieve complete fluency in it, since knowledge of its rules and theory can only be developed through dedication to a lengthy course of study.” Go here for a short lesson: https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/dante's-peek I have addressed this language usage before. Go here: http://e-jw.org/index.php?threads/the-beasts-of-revelation.4035/#post-28625