Christian chat thread continued

[Dutchoma]

A place to share and chat about our funny (and not so funny experiences) in and out of church.
Did anyone say coffee? That would be good

Edd hope you enjoy greenbelt! And that dp is doing okay after her recent bereavement.

Hey all! Just found this thread and thought I'd say hello and grab myself a nice cup of tea and a church hall sandwich

I grew up an Anglican but now go to a new-fangled vineyard church, where I lead the communications & Media team.

I would like to believe but I can't. Is everyone who is not a Christian lost?

Hello ChristianDadOnline! You have sandwiches at your church?

randomer this is a chat thread rather than debate. You are welcome to stay and chat with us about the weird and wonderful things that happen at church and other Christian-related stuff. But we don't really do debate on here.

Having said that there are a range of views about whether non-Christians are lost. Personally I think not necessarily.

Hello Christian Dad and Randomer. I don't think that the God who I worship would cast aside aside anyone who would want to believe.

Not really Niminy we're more of a coffee and nice pastry type of set up

Welcome Randomer and ChristianDad. Sandwiches? You'd be so lucky, although our church from time to time does a very nice Baptist Men's lunch. Not that I ever got any nearer to that than the kitchen of course.
Randomer, you sound a bit 'lost' to me already. The good news is that God is very easy to find and sometimes it only takes someone to point you in the right direction for someone to suddenly 'get' it. We are bunch of people who, at one time or another, have 'got' it and would dearly love for others to have what we've got. So hang around, would you like tea or coffee, I'm afraid the chocolate digestives have all gone, there are some bourbon ones left, if you like a couple of those.

Welcome ChristianDad and randomer!

CD - I went to a mahoosive Vineyard church for a while when dh was training for ministry. The DC used to call it doughnut church and still remember that aspect if nothing else! So vineyard are definitely getting the refreshments angle right. Were lucky if we get custard creams

Randomer, like the others say you are so welcome to join in our chatter here, you're also welcome to start a thread. I'm with niminy and broomstick here. I think God is so much bigger, wider, deeper than we imagine, and I know God is just and therefore trust God that all those who want to will be with God. God is all about love, when I picture God I think of the father in the story of the prodigal son, arms open wide, welcoming his son home with a huge grin and a huge party. That's how God sees each and every one of us.

Day 5 of hospital. Getting tiresome... I thought I'd be able to do some writing and editing in here, bit turns out I'm just too drugged up and shattered to do anything but watch Netflix and MN. Sigh. Thankfully my editor is absolutely lovely and very understanding. I just want to get on with it, but I know if I tried to I wouldn't be doing it justice right now. Grrrrrr.

Hope Edd is having a wonderful time at GB.

Sorry if I am in the wrong place. I have been thinking about this for 42years.not constantly obviously!!!!

You're most welcome here Randomer. Just don't be put of by churchy injokes. Share as much or as little as you like.

randomer

Actually its 52 not 42 years!!!!

Hi Randomer and ChristianDad

We are more of a tea and chocolate biscuits set up but I like the sound of pastries and donuts. One time when I was on holiday I went to a church that handed out bacon rolls on the way in - I really liked that.

Nickel - I found your review, it was the references to the organ and GK that gave it away! Glad you enjoyed it.

Chocolate biscuits! Luxury! I was running an event for children/parents the other day and discovered at the end - which was the first time I'd had a chance to have a cup of tea and a biscuit - that all we'd been offering them was stale rich tea biscuits. The shame .

Randomer I thought about God for a lot of years before I believed.

Forgiveness is at the heart of Christianity Niminy, I'm sure you'll be forgiven.

There are rather nice Irish biscuits called Chocolate Kimberley.

I love Kimberley biscuits. Especially the dark chocolate ones.

Never even heard of Kimberley biscuits

My knowledge of Dutch biscuits is non existant Dutchoma although I think there are aniseed flavoured ones at Christmas, or am I very wrong?

randomer... I do not think you need to believe it all or even the majority of it... most of us struggle with bits/huge chunks. some people have a sudden realisation, some come to faith gradually.

What is it you want to believe? what is it you struggle to believe? have you asked god to help you believe? or told him you do not want to be lost anymore? [nosy]

There are spicy ones called speculaasjes and for St Nicholas there used to be aniseed ones in the shape of a doll, called taaipoppen. It makes me realise how out of touch I am, I have not celebated St Nicholas in Holland for more than forty years.

It's OK to nosey. I would like to believe in something bigger than me. Some of the Bible, particularly the parables, make a lot of sense. I cannot get my head round winning people for christ. Also the idea that come judgement day non Christians are well sort of stuffed.

Randomer - something bigger than you; will a thunderstorm do the trick? A really good one? 'winning people for Christ'? I quite often say: "If you had a ginormous box of chocolates, one that could not run out, with the most delicious chocolates, would you not want to share?" For me my faith is something incredibly precious, I want everyone to have that joy. But sometimes there are people who say: But I don't like chocolate", and that is ok, I would never want to press anybody into faith. That's impossible anyway, but there are people who go on trying and frighten people into faith. That I think is quite wrong and leads to your other question: is everybody who is not a Christian 'stuffed' at Judgment Day? Well, that surely depends on God, doesn't it? I am firmly comvinced that the relationship I have with God in this life will not get broken at my death, but that does not mean, not in my book anyway, that we can just turn the coin over and say: anybody who never made that decision FOR Christ is going to go to hell. There is a bit in the Bible, at the end of John's gospel where Peter asks Jesus about John and Jesus firmly says: "Never mind him; you follow Me". And I think that goes for everyone. So: if you want to believe in something bigger, if you think that Jesus (as in the parables) makes sense and if you can stop worrying about what happens to non-Christians at the end of time, then maybe you are quite a bit closer to having a relationship with the Lord than you think. It should feel good.

That's a wonderful description, Oma. Full of wisdom.

I like the sound of aniseed biscuits. One of my favourite cakes is seed cake, flavoured with caraway seeds. Soft rich tea definitely not a favourite.

I had a stale shortcake this morning which was just nasty. I may have to,raid the biscuit tin and throw all the nasties away and blame the church mice. Normous ones we have....

We had Danish pastries, they were quite good...