Christmas in July #1

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This is one of the most beautiful Christmas songs out there.  And it deserves to be played all year.  It's so beautiful, it brings me to tears.  And I imagine that this is how heaven will sound ...

Christmas Canon by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. 

 (And for the equally-great, more rockin' version - Christmas Canon Rock. Oh my goodness, it makes my heart want to burst! Too much beauty!) 

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What Real Encouragement Looks Like Sometimes!

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Who would've thought that "encouraging each other in the Lord" would take the form of two hours of telling each other, "Yep, that crap's hard!"? - A text I got from a friend after a long conversation about the trials we've been through, the heartaches we've known, and how difficult life can be sometimes.  It made me smile!
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When clowns run the circus

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So get this:  An Arizona elementary school should not hire teachers with Christian values because it doesn't feel "safe"... so says the self-proclaimed "queer" schoolboard member  wearing cat ears .  ( See here .)  
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Updated: Alana L. 5L (misunderstood sovereignty)

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[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]  Point #5 still :   L : "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."   Misunderstood "sovereignty" You see, the thing is (and what most people fail to realize is) that Calvinists  incorrectly  make sovereignty about how God must  use  His authority and power, believing that He  must   always  be  using  His all-powerful authority  all the time  to  preplan ,  cause ,  contro l   everything , even sin and evil and unbelief,  "or else He's not a sovereign, omnipotent, in-control God." As  John MacArthur  says :  "... [God]  makes every decision that’s ever been made,   essentially, about everything....  He is the decider and ...
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White horses and a cup of tea (part 3)

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[I'm working my way through this slowly.  Click here for part 1 and part 2 of this series.]  First, here's The White Horse Parable again (my version): A man and his son owned a field that they farmed for a living.  And one day, they found a white horse in the field. "Oh, what a blessing," said the farmer.  "A free horse." But then the horse started tearing up their plants.   "Oh, this is terrible.  What a curse!" cried the farmer.   But then they caught the horse and tamed it and were able to use it to farm the field. "Oh, what a blessing," said the farmer. But then the son was thrown off the horse, broke both arms, and couldn't farm for months, reducing their sales and income. "Oh, what a curse," said the farmer. "I wish this horse never came to us.  Why, God?  Why!?!" But then a war started, and the army issued a draft.  But because the son had broken arms, he was excused from the draft and didn't have to f...
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More Gender Nonsense

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Okay, so about 40% of Americans in a recent survey say that gender isn’t determined at birth.   Hmm? Hmm? … Let me think about that a minute … If I say that a horse isn’t a horse, that it’s really born as an unspecified species and that, if it wants to, it can grow up to be a squirrel or a dog or a cow … does it really change its “horseness”?   If I say that my chromosomes are not human chromosomes but eagle chromosomes, does it make me an eagle?      Does denial or wishful thinking change reality? We can live in denial of reality, but our beliefs don’t change reality. (It’s funny … but living in denial of reality used to be called “crazy.”   Delusional.   Now it’s considered hip and progressive and celebratory.) The thing is … our X or Y chromosomes are not just in our reproductive organs.   They are in every cell of our being, along with the rest of our chromosomes.   And that’s just...
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Where I'm Coming From ...

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            (Repost of "How I Broke" from my other blog.  FYI - this is a long post!   A really long post.   Did I mention it will be a long post?)               I had the pleasure of talking briefly with a friend the other day about her journey through depression/anxiety and about mine.   It was so refreshing to be able to talk a bit about my struggles, to not feel like I had to answer “I’m fine.   How are you?”   She actually brought up her struggles first, and it gave me permission to talk about mine.               For the past year and more, I have only been able to be honest with and share my struggles with one friend.   (Thank God for her!   What a blessing!).   And with everyone else, it’s always been “I’m fine.   How are you?”      ...
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"Bring me pain, Lord, if it brings You glory!"

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(Reposted from my other blog.)  I’ve always found the statements of “I want the Lord to do whatever He wants in my life to bring Him the most glory possible, even if it means bringing me pain” to be inspirational … and a bit “off.” Wh en I was 21 (half my lifetime ago), I went to Papua New Guinea for a summer on a mission trip.    And I told my mom that I picked PNG over any other place because it was so remote and primitive.    I said that I wanted to have everything taken away to really challenge me, to grow my faith in new ways.    And I meant it.    I really did.    My heart was in the right place. But my mom said something wise, something that stuck.    She said, “Don’t ask for that!    Never ask for that!    Because He could take away everything – your legs, your eyesight, your health, your home, etc.” Wow!    So true. As I thought about it, I realized that I didn’t really want God to do...
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Is God Drawing Lines in the Sand?

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(reposted again, from another blog of mine) It’s amazing and disturbing how brazen our society is in attacking everything about God and everything He created:   marriage, monogamy, sex, family, sexuality, the scientific reality of gender, morality, modesty, the value of a person, the right to life, the existence of "right and wrong," the Bible, Jesus, and Absolute Truth.   Not to mention God Himself, His very existence.   We are destroying everything associated with Him (except nature – we worship that), and then we call ourselves "progressive." But you know what I think about it all? I think that God is letting it happen because He is drawing lines in the sand.   Through all these divisive issues and all the immorality, God is saying “Pick a side!   I am forcing you to decide which side you want to be on ... because I am coming back soon to take My people out of here.  So I need you all to decide:  Me or the world?...
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Why is Calvinism so dangerous? #9 (Love and justice)

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  [In this series, I'm breaking the long post   "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?"   into bite-sized pieces.] 9. The Bible says ...  God shows H is love and His j ustice by sending Jesus to the cross to pay for our sins. But Calvinism says ...  God shows His love by saving the elect (and by caring for the non-elect on earth)  and He shows His justice by damning  the non-elect to hell for their sins/unbelief. Calvinists know the Bible says "For God so loved the world ...", and so to appear biblical they say "Of course, God loves everyone."  But secretly, they believe in  two different kinds  of love: a "salvation" kind of love for the elect and a mere "kindness" kind of love for the non-elect.   He shows His l ove to the elect  by predestining  them to heaven, but He shows His "love" to the   non-elect merely by providing  for their needs while t hey're on earth (before sending them to eternal hell for being th...
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