I went to bed but had to get up again as I was too excited that “randomly” 2 friends came to my house this afternoon and left (after 2.5 hours talking) as hopeful universalists (as far as I can tell)!! They both took TEUs to read too. Praise God, if that wasn’t the Holy Spirit’s work, I don’t know what is 
To top the day off, I got to meet RevDrew on a Skype video call 
What a week! Thanks for your prayers!
9.32pm and you’d already gone to bed? 
That’s great news, Alex.
That’s fantastic, Alex!
Sonia
Yayity! 
Hallelujah! It was great to “meet” you too Alex and a fantastic encouragement to hear your news. We have the wind behind us and the gates of hell will not prevail.
Get out, that’s super exciting and encouraging news!!! 
More details please! Tell me everything, what did they say!!! What, you got to meet the highly acclaimed RevDrew?! Super Cool!!! 
Yesterday, a friend on fb wrote a comment about people beliving God eventually saves all have to throw out free will. I was hooked and ended up in a pretty lengthy conversation. First, about why many of us do believe in free will, what the differences are, and why we believe it. Recently she asked if I believe in wrath and so I explained what kind of wrath. They were trying to say that some children just don’t respond to discipline anymore so you have to release them. I agreed that you release them to the consequences, but so that they learn. What good parent allows their child to do themselves irreparable harm, commit suicide (clearly they’re not thinking straight) when they have the power to stop it? Similary, do we ever, as parents that love our children, stop waiting for their return or close the door on them once they have repented? I summarized that this is what people are saying about God that he closes the door on us, stops hoping for our return, could care less if we eventually repent, and then, to top it off, that some children are saved just because they are better, can repent whereas others cannot. I made the point that some children are not beyond hope and Paul, as the worst of sinners, makes himself the prime example of what God can do by his grace. These were people that aren’t Calvinists. I imagine, if they understood more how Calvinists think it might be a wake up call for them, as it was for me. Well, I think it was at least informative for them because many of her friends didn’t even know we existed. So our friend threw out the name Rob Bell. One said she doesn’t listen to popular speakers. I suggested then maybe she might not want to listen to several Calvary Chapel speakers because they are pretty popular! 
That’s great to hear Will be praying that Father will water the seeds that have been planted.
That’s cool. A friend of mine is reading Talbott’s Inescapable Love. Like RevDrew said, we do have the wind at our backs and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against us!
As great as it is to hear this, I can’t help but wonder (maybe a bit morbidly 
) how this relates to a recent prayer request of yours, Alex.
Alex your example inspired me to order some extra copies of TEU and LW to give away. I don’t know who they are for yet, but I guess God does.
Great, Alex! Thanks for sharing! 
I also had a good conversation with some new friends Saturday night after someone made a snide allusion to a temporary hell. At least we got thinking about it, and we all agreed that somehow someway (because the Bible says it) God reconciles all things to himself, and Death and Hades get thrown into the lake of fire, and our God is a consuming fire. 
Although I have no good reason to think they vary much from standard pentecostal/Arminian theology, at least they seemed to see where the dots need to get connected…
[Sorry for hijacking your thread, Alex]
I have a friend who is an elder at my church (reformed calvinistic) who has long struggled with the idea of love. He says it amazes him that he’s never heard a decent sermon on the love of God. Anyway, this was me for a long time as well. When I told him a while back what I was thinking about, he was not remotely “shocked” or thinking I’d gone off the deep end. He said he’d been thinking about those sort of things for a while. He frequents Brian Maclaren and Richard Beck’s blogs.
Anyway, he emailed me the other day making some comment about a post from Robin Parry’s blog (he obviously frequents that one, too!) which was on a comment John Piper had made about his kids and their salvation etc. My friend liked what Robin said and basically commented that views like Pipers were what caused a lot of Christians to think something was not quite right about calvinism.
I told him about my own experiences with understanding and knowing God’s love, and how coming to accept UR really had helped me to finally “relax” in the love of God and see God as truly loving and worship-worthy. I told him about TEU and TILOG and he’s borrowed TEU to read while he’s on a holiday now.
[As an update, my pastor also reiterated that that song I wrote was going to be the theme for his series coming up. Which pleased me.]
I would be so grateful if he was convinced by what he reads. It would be wonderful for him, obviously, but also (selfishly) for me to have a good friend who I can talk to about these things.
Thanks for the encouragement and it’s great to hear others are having some success too!
I think I’ve given away 18 of my 20 TEU now, and bought then lent 2 ASBW & 2 TILOG, and I have 3 LWs on the way. Like you, I bought most of them trusting God had people who would want to read them
That’s totally fine
That’s very awesome! Maybe I should move to your church
I really hope he is right about this.
Cool Btw, who is the pastor?
I know that feeling!!