Mick70

"From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69

You're lucky, I usually get kicked out of non-christian religious forums after just a few days..:)

My own calling is to spread the gospel on the internet and it's great fun, I've been doing it for 20 years and get good feedback from people..:)

Nothing wrong with wine, Jesus called it "the fruit of the vine" and told his disciples at the last supper that the next time they drank it together would be in heaven. I don't drink myself so that's me out then (sniffle).

thanks, i'll try again and see if it works..:)

Yes, "We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is preaching, then preach in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully" (Romans 12:6-8) "..each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that" (1 Cor 7:7) However let's not forget that monks and some nuns live secluded lives without getting involved with the world in order to work at getting closer to God.

Kids get up in the morning and happily get on with their lives, not worrying about about the weightier matters of life like we adults tend to do, so perhaps we should be like them in that respect..:) Jesus used birds as another example of how we should just get on with our lives without worrying- "See the birds of the sky, they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet our heavenly Father feeds them." (Matt 6:26) And Bear Grylls (a christian) used the same mindset to get through his brutal SAS training, "just DO it" was the friendly advice he gave to a fellow recruit who was beginning to falter. Grylls in SAS- https://i.ibb.co/fpHXrrd/rel-grylls-sas.jpg PS- is the Grylls pic displaying okay? I've made 76 posts and still can't find out how to post pics

The answer to the question 'What would God have us do?' is easy..:)- Jesus said - "The work God requires is to believe in the one he has sent" (John 6:28 )

Speaking of voluntary contributions I've often wondered where Jesus and the disciples got their money from to pay for food and lodging on their travels? "Judas.....as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it." (John 12:6)

Yes, the "purgatory" idea has got satan's fingerprints all over it, he's basically saying "don't worry if you find yourself in hell, you'll be let out after a while, you can trust me, why would I lie?" Jesus said "..there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies"- (John 8:42-44)

Jesus said- "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37)

Okay then I think we're all agreed that when Jesus rejecters die, there's absolutely no chance for them to avoid going to hell..:) Can I digress slightly and ask about the 'purgatory' belief held by some people which claims hell has a "swing door" and that Jesus- rejecters will be let out after serving their "sentence". Personally I regard it as nonsense, or am I wrong?

So are you saying that when all nonchristians die and stand before God for judgement and he says-"Confess your sins or you'll go to hell", they'll be able to simply confess and save themselves, even though they lived their whole life on earth as Jesus-rejecters? If that's the case, won't hell will be completely empty if people can easily avoid it like that?

The holy spirit fills the universe- "Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the Lord, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jeremiah 23:24) In the same way, radio waves fill the air all around us, but we need a radio to tune into them, so when we buy a radio we need an instruction book to know which knobs and dials to tweak to tune in. Likewise Jesus is the "instructor" who shows us how to "dial in" to the holy spirit- "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you" (John 14:20) But sadly many people have difficulty dialling in.

Can I ask a simple question?- Will Jews (and all other Jesus-rejecters) go to heaven? Or did Paul get it wrong when he said- "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot,..it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:29-31)

As for no NATO country putting boots on the ground to help the Brits, I'm sure that fact wasn't lost on the Kremlin..;) PS- I hear the US made the Brits pay through the nose for the stuff they supplied.

Yes, Britain had to re-take the Falklands without any of her NATO allies sending troops to help..

Hey kids- "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12)

Food for thought- monks and nuns deon't get married and they seem happy enough..:)

When my mother became preggers with me out of wedlock 70 years ago it was such an embarrassing "social crime" in those days that many women in the same boat had abortions to save face and try to cover it up, and family and friends would usually say "oh well, it was for the best" and wouldn't have minded. But if my mother had aborted me I might have minded.:) PS- in the event, she and my dad had a shotgun wedding and they stayed married all their lives.

https://i.ibb.co/r73Vxbt/Muggeridge.jpg[/img] PS- is this pic displaying ok?

School's not important..:) "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13) All the Bible study in the world won't guarantee salvation- Jesus said to the snooty priests-"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (John 5:39/40) Paul said - "I'm worried lest you be led astray from the simplicity of Christ" (2 Cor 11:3) Jesus said-"You have one teacher, me" (Matt 23:10) "And the common people heard him gladly" (Mark 12:37)

I haven't been water-baptised because I honestly never felt the need, but if people want to be baptised to help them feel closer to God, good luck to them..:) The only danger there is that some of them might think "Well, that's me saved forever!" and drop their guard against satan.

Anyway I never ever wanted to be a family man or have kids because I'd have felt sort of 'confined'. Of course, some of the disciples were family men, but Paul said marriage or being single is fine, whatever floats your boat..:)

SCIENTISTS QUOTES "As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency - or, rather, Agency - must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?"- George Greenstein (astronomer),1988. The Symbiotic Universe. New York: William Morrow, p.27. "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."- Fred Hoyle (British astrophysicist): The Universe: Past and Present Reflections. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics: 20:16. "There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all....It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe....The impression of design is overwhelming"- Paul Davies (British astrophysicist), The Cosmic Blueprint: New Discoveries in Nature's Creative Ability To Order the Universe. New York: Simon and Schuster, p.203. "When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it's very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it."- Tony Rothman (physicist),Paradigms Lost. New York, Avon Books, p.482-483. "When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics."- Frank Tipler (Professor of Mathematical Physics), 1994 The Physics of Immortality. New York, Doubleday, preface. "Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God – the design argument of Paley – updated and refurbished. The fine tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one"- Ed Harrison (cosmologist),Harrison, E. 1985. Masks of the Universe. New York, Collier Books, Macmillan, pp. 252, 263.