General Chat

David, some things are not to be taken literally.

It's a shame but this thread is spoilt for me by you David.
Why put it on this thread when you have already written
on the other?

Minxy, I apologise. I'd no intention of offending any one, but apologies again.

Hello all

Goodness me, in all the years that I have contributed to this Christian thread, I don't ever recall a post being RRd...... I could be wrong and somebody may correct me.

I really don't think that David would ever upset anybody intentionally. I'm off now to see if I can find the other thread that Emma is referring to.

Sharing a prayer for today:.............................

As the sun shines, may your hope shine in me,
As the birds sing, may your love flow out of me,
As your light shines throughout today, may your joy shine in me.
I come before you Oh Lord and and drink in this moment of peace,
That I might carry something of your hope, love and joy today in my heart.
Amen.

Have a good and blessed weekend everyone.

I too am sure that David's doesn't mean to upset anybody and he is always most apologetic. Perhaps, David, you just need to think things through fully before posting and you might then decide that some items might be better put on a different thread. I would however hate to think that a Christian thread like this was not welcoming to all.

A lovely prayer today Kandj. Thank you.

I feel I am going slowly round the bend (nothing new there lol). I have had the hymn Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine going round and round my head for days and I cannot get rid of it. It's not even a favourite of mine but it set me wondering what is my favourite hymn. I've come to the conclusion I don't have one favourite but lots depending on my mood and what is on my mind at the time. One that seems to have been a part of my life in many ways is Praise My Soul the King of Heaven. It was sung on special occasions, such as Founder's Day, at my school, my daughter had it at her wedding, and my brother and I chose it for our father's funeral. What about you? Do you have a favourite hymn?

I do Vera, it's "Abide with me". :-)

Thank you Vera, I hope I may be permitted to continue posting.

How does the reader of the OT & NT KNOW which texts are not literal ?

Also Abide with me and Nearer my God to Thee.

I don't have a favourite Vera but my daughter likes Abide with Me, Rose.

I remember being between her and friends at a funeral, one side gave a little groan when Abide with Me was announced but my daughter said what a lovely hymn with wonderful words it was.

There was one hymn, sung at my uncle's RC funeral in Liverpool several years ago that my OH really liked. Neither of us can remember its name but it was sung very softly and quietly and the gist was that the body would be made whole again, without any of the illness or injury that was there. To both of us it seemed to create an atmosphere of complete calm.

Although I know a lot of hymns, that is one I had not heard before and I'd really like to pin it down so if anyone knows, please tell me.

David, really?

A baby at 80?

In general anything written that long ago will lose something in the many translations since and the meaning of the original words not fully comprehended and may be symbolic rather than factual?

There are sites where you can find interpretations of the Greek or Latin or Hebrew of the original texts, which can be enlightening.

Imho, (which is def' not orthodox and speaking only for myself) it is sometimes better to go with the spirit of the thing rather than the word. ie seven days to create the world? whose "days"? God's, or some limiting time frame humans invented to explain the sun rising and setting and the darkness in between and the word we apply to 24 hours?

Regarding "Abide with me" I know it tends to be used as a funeral hymn, but I find it very comforting and uplifting.

"....when other helpers fail and comforts flee,
help of the helpless, O abide with me."

My daughters favourite is The Old Rugged Cross but
she cannot sing or hear it without crying.

Mine is I vow to thee my country when it is sung on Remembrance Day it makes me very tearful

Mine is Jerusalem ........ one apparently not in favour these days, but we sang it often at school.

David .....................

as a scientist, I cannot believe the Bible, especially the OT, as "true" as written.

However, there are ways of understanding what is being said if you think about it and realise that everything in those days was passed on by story tellers with very little written down.

Thus someone living 2000 years ago would not truly understand a time line of anything longer than a year ............... the passing of seasons was what they understand. So to try to explain something that happened over 1,000 or 1 billion years was just beyond comprehension.

Therefore a story teller simplified matters. People really understood what a day was, so they used 1 day as the time period that God took for each event.

BUT that time line is only a story, and not true.

Similarly, most people did not know how old they were because they could not count. Therefore, the story tellers again simplified things OR made things more dramatic. If a normal life span was 20 or 30 years, then someone having a baby at 20 was probably seen as being old ................ but drama is more effective when one say "80 years". That makes it beyond all comprehension.


I hope that I haven't offended anyone with my scientists' view. If so, I am very sorry.

Hello all (again)

Very difficult for me to choose a favourite hymn, I also like Abide with Me (had goosebumps singing this in the old Wembley Stadium for an FA Cup Final many years ago)...... Praise My Soul the King of Heaven is special as this was sung at our wedding, but When I Survey the Wondrous Cross is one that has me in tears at Lent..... the last verse.....

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all........ the words get me every time.

A hymn that I have never really liked is Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, although the words are so beautiful and yet I groan inwardly when this is sung, like last Sunday in church.

JoyLouise,
Sarah was 90 or 91 when Isaac was born, and she died at the age of 127. Sarah was 90 when Isaac was conceived, but there are some disparate records of her age at his birth. Still, it is only a matter of a very small amount of time, and she was either 90 or 91 when Isaac was born

David ..........

please leave it alone

The Rosary was a mystery to me with its repeated Hail Mary quoting the

Gospel of Luke, blessed art thou among women.,

Those using

the Rosary (I was told) are praying to Mary, not Jesus.

Apparently Mary, daughter of Anne was herself a mirical birth.

The Rosary "During recitation of each set, thought is given to one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which recall events in the lives of Jesus and Mary. ... The rosary also represents the Catholic emphasis on "participation in the life of Mary, whose focus was Christ", and the Mariological theme "to Christ through Mary."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception

"In Christian theology, the Immaculate Conception is the conception of the Virgin Mary free from original sin by virtue of the merits of her son Jesus. The Catholic Church teaches that God acted upon Mary in the first moment of her conception, keeping her "immaculate".[1][2]

The Immaculate Conception is commonly confused with the virgin birth of Jesus, the latter being, rather, the doctrine of the Incarnation. While many Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, it is principally Roman Catholics, along with various other Christian denominations, who believe in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Although the belief that Mary was sinless, or conceived without original sin, has been widely held since Late Antiquity, the doctrine was not dogmatically defined in the Catholic Church until 1854 when Pope Pius IX, declared ex cathedra, i.e., using papal infallibility, in his papal bull Ineffabilis Deus,[3] the Immaculate Conception to be doctrine"