Hello everyone new member here

[Ziggy]

Welcome to the Forum @Mancunian
I don't think any of us have ALL the answers,
But I believe that the God we call Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ does.
And sometimes in the darkest hours or when searching is sincere, He will make himself known to you.
With or without our help.
But we are here to help each other and to grow together in that knowledge and understanding.
Jesus told his disciples: whoever is not against us is for us.
That is in the Bible in the Book of Luke in the New Testament we call the Gospel.
Luk 9:50
And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

And is an Agnostic the same as an Atheist?
I thought they was different.
I am non-denominational. I don't fit in a particular mold according to whose teaching us what the Bible clearly teaches to each individual who reads it. But if I had to categorize myself I would say I lean mostly Baptist.
Everybody has questions, and I guess that's why we're all here.
To help each other grow and learn about the Goodness and Great Mercy of our Lord.

Even if we don't believe in Him, He still believes in us.

So, nice to meet you and if your wife and children would like join, that would be awesome too.


Hugs

 

[Marvelloustime]

{all i can say is praise GOD for JESUS CHRIST . cause beleive me i had earned the worst of damnation .
So i dont stand in line asking for what i deserve . I JUST THANK GOD ALL MIIGHTY
FOR HIS SON CHRIST JESUS , that did all that was necessary so i could have life eternal .
As far as what man deserves is death . And go ahead and look around cause you will find no man or woman
who has not sinned and fallen very and i do mean VERY short of THE RIGHTEOUSNESS of GOD .
ME , i cling TO CHRIST for my righteousness and thank Him daily for also the new heart he has given me .

@amigo de christo

 

[Mancunian]

The good news (Gospel) of Jesus Christ is really simple. Start reading the Gospel of John in the New Testament, and open your heart to Jesus. Try praying. Jesus came to save us by paying the price for our sins...He won't turn anyone away. All are welcome.

If you prefer to listen to the Gospel of John, this is a good YouTube channel for that.

I've read the gospels or at least the ones that made it into the Bible. I was brought up in the Christian faith, I went to church and attended a C of E primary school.
Sunday school was a regular thing for me, and when I say regular I mean every Sunday without fail.
I've sat and listened to endless sermons, I got married in church and have helped out with many church led charity events.

I never felt it in my heart or head though. I lost my faith completely when my sister died at the age of 50.... She was a lovely person, she had 5 children the youngest was just 13 when she died. She had faith, she talked about seeing our mother in the next life and was convinced that heaven existed.

People say that when you lose people that are close to you that they're happy and are looking down on you from a better place. I've spent sleepless nights wondering if that's true or whether they're lost forever.

It's easier for me to imagine them as gone forever rather than them being somewhere that may not exist.

I hope this makes some sense to you all.

 

[GodsGrace]

I've read the gospels or at least the ones that made it into the Bible. I was brought up in the Christian faith, I went to church and attended a C of E primary school.
Sunday school was a regular thing for me, and when I say regular I mean every Sunday without fail.
I've sat and listened to endless sermons, I got married in church and have helped out with many church led charity events.

I never felt it in my heart or head though. I lost my faith completely when my sister died at the age of 50.... She was a lovely person, she had 5 children the youngest was just 13 when she died. She had faith, she talked about seeing our mother in the next life and was convinced that heaven existed.

People say that when you lose people that are close to you that they're happy and are looking down on you from a better place. I've spent sleepless nights wondering if that's true or whether they're lost forever.

It's easier for me to imagine them as gone forever rather than them being somewhere that may not exist.

I hope this makes some sense to you all.

Jesus taught that there's heaven and hell.
Hell is where God is not...we're not sure what it would be like.

If Jesus was wrong then:
He was a liar
or He was crazy.

A crazy man that went to a horrible death because He THOUGHT He was some kind of god or something.

What we must ask ourselves is this:
WHO IS JESUS?

Everything depends on the reply.

If your sister was a believer,,,she's with God and is very happy to be there.
I don't if she could see you. Catholics say yes,,,I'm not sure and tend to doubt it.
But no matter...it's a different "dimension"...she's good.

Do you listen to YouTube?
Listen to John Lennox.
Listen to Stephen Meyer.
They're scientists.
They'll convince you.

 

[Debp]

I've read the gospels or at least the ones that made it into the Bible. I was brought up in the Christian faith, I went to church and attended a C of E primary school.
Sunday school was a regular thing for me, and when I say regular I mean every Sunday without fail.
I've sat and listened to endless sermons, I got married in church and have helped out with many church led charity events.

I never felt it in my heart or head though. I lost my faith completely when my sister died at the age of 50.... She was a lovely person, she had 5 children the youngest was just 13 when she died. She had faith, she talked about seeing our mother in the next life and was convinced that heaven existed.

People say that when you lose people that are close to you that they're happy and are looking down on you from a better place. I've spent sleepless nights wondering if that's true or whether they're lost forever.

It's easier for me to imagine them as gone forever rather than them being somewhere that may not exist.

I hope this makes some sense to you all.

@Mancunian I'm glad to see you came back.

You might like this UK Christian fellowship I'm with. It's led by Richard Inman and our group is very nice and understanding. (Livestreams with chat.) A lot of them are new Christians, some from an atheist or agnostic past. Richard also was away from the Lord in his past.

This is the livestream from today. Talking about Job. The first song is from Job 10...it ends about the five minute mark and Richard Inman then comes on to talk with us. We also have prayer and a few people have even been healed.

If you subscribe to the channel, Counter Media UK, you will get notifications about the livestreams. Here's the link to the livestream, now a video.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[Lambano]

I never felt it in my heart or head though. I lost my faith completely when my sister died at the age of 50.... She was a lovely person, she had 5 children the youngest was just 13 when she died. She had faith, she talked about seeing our mother in the next life and was convinced that heaven existed.

People say that when you lose people that are close to you that they're happy and are looking down on you from a better place. I've spent sleepless nights wondering if that's true or whether they're lost forever.

It's easier for me to imagine them as gone forever rather than them being somewhere that may not exist.

Mancunian, the Christian hope is not "going to a better place" per se, but rather that God will resurrect us in the World to Come. And we believe this hope is reasonable because the men who wrote our sacred writings report that God resurrected Jesus from the dead in this world sometime around 30 C.E. near Jerusalem in what is now Israel. You may or may not believe those reports. If you don't, I understand; dead men don't get up and walk. But if they are true, your sister's hope is quite reasonable indeed.

 

[Ziggy]

I've read the gospels or at least the ones that made it into the Bible. I was brought up in the Christian faith, I went to church and attended a C of E primary school.
Sunday school was a regular thing for me, and when I say regular I mean every Sunday without fail.
I've sat and listened to endless sermons, I got married in church and have helped out with many church led charity events.

I never felt it in my heart or head though. I lost my faith completely when my sister died at the age of 50.... She was a lovely person, she had 5 children the youngest was just 13 when she died. She had faith, she talked about seeing our mother in the next life and was convinced that heaven existed.

People say that when you lose people that are close to you that they're happy and are looking down on you from a better place. I've spent sleepless nights wondering if that's true or whether they're lost forever.

It's easier for me to imagine them as gone forever rather than them being somewhere that may not exist.

I hope this makes some sense to you all.

My family wasn't religious at all. But mom was Catholic and sent us to Sunday school, sometimes I went sometimes not. My dad is a protestant so he would take me on christmas ever to watch the nativity story put on by the school.
Neither one of them talked much about God, but dad had this record he would play all the time: Jesus Loves Me.
That was the first question, Who is Jesus and why does he love me?
Life went on. I was hanging at a friends house and they had one of those Big Catholic bibles with all the pictures and caligraphy.
I thought, ok, how does the story end?
I opened up to the book of Revelation and that's all it took to intrigue me. Dragons and Lake of fire and angels, sounded rather alarming but cool.
I didn't open another bible until I was 18 and went to a Southern Baptist Church with Hellfire and Damnation!
I got baptised that day in a pool instead of the sprinkle you get as a baby. I promised to dedicate my faith and my life to Jesus Christ. The one who came to die for my sins so I could be reconciled to God.
Well, it's been a long road, this life, but whenever things got hard or confused I would ust say a small prayer and ask for help and I felt better. The world got better until I wondered off again.

I'm 61 now, and since around 40 I took to prophecies. I loved good riddles and puzzles and what is it really saying.
I started doing word searches. Pick a word and chase that word through the whole bible and you find that every word in the bible has it's own story. It's really awesome.
The best part is putting all those words together and understanding what God is saying to your heart. How he is talking to you. How he expects you to behave. What kinds of principles and morals I should follow. What kind of person does God want me to be.

I believe the bible is a personal guide book and everyone that reads it comes away with how God spoke to them through those words.
I try not to use those words as weapons against other people because everyone has their own interpretation depending upon how those words touch their heart and their mind.

But we are cautioned to refrain from hanging with people that are of opposite beliefs. And I mean opposite.
God is Love. vs. God hates you and will watch you burn in hell forever.
I have trouble reconciling the two. So I chase down the word search plan for lake of fire.
Well, many roads that can go. God is a consuming fire. Fire is a refiner of silver and gold and what doesn't remain is the dross or sin that gets burned away.

None of this challenges my belief in God, it just makes me want to dig deeper and learn more and be a better person.

I figure if Jesus was willing to die for me so I could be reconciled to my creator, then the least I can do, which is the only thing truly required is that I believe in Him and he want me to be happy and healthy in whatever circumstance the world throws at me. And if I get down and insecure I have someone to talk to who hears me. And I guess that's what we all really want. someone to Listen.


Ok enough about me,
Glad you are here @Mancunian
Hugs

 

[Mancunian]

I'd like to expand a little bit on my opening post and tell you all a little more about myself and my family if I may.

I have a lovely family, my children mean the world to me and I wouldn't change them for all of the tea in China.
What I'm about to say may upset or even shock some of you but I want to be honest here and have no secrets.

My eldest child is gay, plain and simple.... I don't think that I was very nice to him when he came out as being gay, in fact I'm ashamed to say that I was disappointed.
My behaviour towards him wasn't great, let's just say that I didn't cover myself in glory for a few months after his announcement.
Looking back now twelve or so years later I wish that I had treated him with the love and understanding that he deserved. It drove a wedge between us, a wedge that has been really difficult to remove but over the years we have become close again, I'm convinced.now that homosexuality's not a life choice and I've completely changed my opinion on it, I feel like I'm a better person now than I was back then.

This part of my post may shock you and apologies if it does.

A few years after her older brother came out my eldest daughter told me and her mother that she felt uncomfortable in her body. She'd had lots of problems in school with bullying and had began to pull her own hair out. She told us that having female parts repulsed her and that she wanted to transition.


As you can imagine my wife and I were devastated. It was almost like a bereavement as we knew that our daughter was lost.

I cried for weeks trying to come to terms with it and finally she made the decision to have a double mastectomy.
My wife and I were powerless to stop her as she was an adult and didn't need parental consent.
At this point we had no choice but to accept it and the operation went ahead in London at a considerable financial cost I must add.
There was no way that we as her parents would turn our back on her, we've learned to live with the situation and my now son is happy and getting on with life just fine.

I believe that the experience with my eldest child helped me to be a better father in accepting the situation with my then daughter and I am proud of both them regardless of what anybody else may think.

I think that I'm a better person than I was. I hope that I'm a better person than I was.

 

[Mancunian]

Just to add.
I know that the vast majority of Christians don't agree that homosexuality's natural and IS an abomination/ sinful and I've come across a lot of derogatory comments about the likes of my son both online and sometimes face to face.
As for my other son who is transgender, can I just tell you that the discrimination that he has faced it quite frankly disgusting.

These people are human beings with feelings and deserve not to have their self-esteem destroyed by people who think that they are somehow superior.
I'm sad to say that I had some pretty stupid opinions on the subjects but I'm glad that admitting that I was wrong has helped to not rip my family apart.

 

[Debp]

Just to add.
I know that the vast majority of Christians don't agree that homosexuality's natural and IS an abomination/ sinful and I've come across a lot of derogatory comments about the likes of my son both online and sometimes face to face.
As for my other son who is transgender, can I just tell you that the discrimination that he has faced it quite frankly disgusting.

These people are human beings with feelings and deserve not to have their self-esteem destroyed by people who think that they are somehow superior.
I'm sad to say that I had some pretty stupid opinions on the subjects but I'm glad that admitting that I was wrong has helped to not rip my family apart.

While I don't agree with the practice of homosexuality or transitioning to another sex, I would never be unkind to others. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And to treat others as we would like to be treated.

Did you see my post where I invited you to our Christian fellowship at Counter Media UK on YouTube? Everyone is welcoming. I hope you will check it out.

 

[Mancunian]

While I don't agree with the practice of homosexuality or transitioning to another sex, I would never be unkind to others. Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves. And to treat others as we would like to be treated.

Did you see my post where I invited you to our Christian fellowship at Counter Media UK on YouTube? Everyone is welcoming. I hope you will check it out.

I'll certainly check it out at some point, thank you for clarifying your position and I respect your position.
Treating people with kindness goes a long way.