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!) 

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

Calvi-god's Will: Children Deserve What!?!

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(FYI: There will be lots of posts on Calvinism coming up in the next months, with some non-Calvinism ones sprinkled in between.)   I updated my comment on the R.C. Sproul Jr. quote in my post  "But Calvinists don't say God causes sin and evil!"   (which, incidentally, was featured in a  "reddit reformed" post ) .   And as usual, I made it much longer, adding more quotes (quotes I've posted in other places, so feel free to skip them if you've read them before).  But it's important stuff, the bottom-line of Calvinism (which is why I want them all together in one place and why I re-quote them often, as needed - because Calvinists' own words make the best case against them).    And I figured I'd repost my new comment here, too, because it's a whole post all on its own.  (Also  see my post  Thank you, reddit/reformed. I'm honored! ) 1. R.C. Sproul Jr.  (Almighty Over All) :   “God  wills  all things tha...
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An Open Letter to Christian Churches Doing Yoga

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We haven't set foot in a church for a Sunday service since we left ours in 2019.  We were just so burned out on churches after dealing with the Calvinism that took over ours (and discouraged about how much it's spreading to many churches) that we simply stayed home and watched Tony Evans' sermons online (and we met with another family for Bible study for over a year, until they found a church to attend).   But recently, we decided to check out a church, just to see.  And it was good.  Not perfect, but good.  We're not necessarily looking to make a church home out of it, but we just need a little something right now.  And this was good enough.  But on the way out, I saw a flyer for upcoming events at their church, and one thing they offered was a "Christian Yoga" class.  That, to me, is a huge no-no, something Christians should not engage in.  But they do.  All over the place.  With no sense of it being wrong.   In f...
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Be Wary Of The Christian Post

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(Written 6/15/18)  Occasionally, I check in with the Christian Post to see what's going on in the world that specifically relates to Christians.  And generally, I've never really had any red flags go up about this website ... until now. A recent article by Stoyan Zaimov, with a title that starts "Christian Lesbian rock star ..." goes on to share this woman's story about being assaulted by a male priest when she was young.   However, I don't think the reason for this article is to talk about the abuse she suffered and her courage in speaking up.  I think this is a deliberate attempt to affirm Christian homosexuality.  The very fact that they put "Christian" and "lesbian" in the title makes it sound like it's indeed possible to be a Christian and a practicing homosexual who sees no need to change. And it seems to me that this article paints her in a heroic light, as though she is in the right and should be applauded and e...
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Pause, breathe, smile

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(Happy New Year!)  Please, allow me to vent and to listen to myself rant.  And come along, if you want, on a trip through m y mind  (I apologize in advance for how the messy it is😉) : Are you exhausted?  I am.  I am sick and tired of all the craziness out there, all the chaos, fighting, hate, lies, fear-mongering, violence, increasing prices (for less product or services), natural disasters, wars, rumors of wars, AI this-and-that, Big Pharma, social deviance/immorality, efforts to force people to tolerate social deviance/immorality, political posturing and mudslinging and nonsense, etc.  ("You can stop the world now, God.  We wanna get off.")   I am sick of both social media and the news - because everyone just wants to fight, scream their opinions, demand their way, calls names, make accusations, and force everyone else to agree with them and do things their way.  E verything's an "us vs them" thing, and "if you don't agree with 'us' ...
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"The Last Goodbye" - A song for us Hobbits

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(a post from my other blog , from March 28, 2022) There's a song at the end of  The Battle of the Five Armies  (from the Hobbit trilogy) that's become one of my favorite songs.  I feel this song, especially the line about "Many places I have been, many sorrows I have seen..."  That's kinda been my last several years: many sorrows I have seen.   Many trials.  Many heartbreaks.  (Everyone who lives long enough will have many of these.) Most recently, I had the awful experience of being on the witness stand for three hours, giving testimony against my mom.  And after nearly a week of trial, she was found guilty of ... well, of something really bad.  (She insists she didn't do it, but we think otherwise.  It's not exactly like the prosecution says, but close enough.)  And now she will spend her life in prison.   Many sorrows I have seen. I don't know if I'll ever see her again.  The last memory I have of her cou...
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Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

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It's so sad to hear about all the celebrities who have recently committed suicide (or about anyone who has committed suicide, for that matter).  My heart breaks for them, for the pain they went through, and for the ones who love them, for the pain they are now going through.  It is truly a tragedy. To anyone who is hurting really badly, who is struggling with overwhelming anxiety or depression, who is considering taking their own lives ... I dedicate this post.  Please, take some time to look through some of the links here.  This is a round-up of some on-line resources or posts about dealing with anxiety or depression, particularly as a Christian. But first: Quick tips for help: If you are desperate for some immediate help and don't want to look through the links I have below, try some of these (or if it's really bad and you think you might hurt yourself, call 911 or go to the emergency room): 1.   Put on a worship song right now.  Or sin...
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Spiritual Warfare: Satan's Schemes #7 (Bad Theology)

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Happy New Year, Everyone!  Here's the next post in my Spiritual Warfare series .  I plan on eventually finishing it, but my posts will be fewer and farther between in the new year.  I'd like to take some time off to focus more on reading than writing.   Satanic Deception: Bad Theology In the previous post  in this series, we looked at how we could fall victim to Satan's half-truths.  And in this post, I want to look specifically - and briefly - at the idea of bad theology. Through Satan's influence, Adam and Eve began to view God and themselves incorrectly, which led to them acting wrongly and sinfully, and then spreading error to their children. And he tries to do the same with us.  And so i f we don't have a correct, biblical view of God and His Word (by spending regular time with God in His Word), we could be easily led astray, creating our own ideas of what God says and what He's like and what He wants from us.  And then we'll make decisi...
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Things My Calvinist Pastor Said #1: We Can't Choose

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(This "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" series is a breakdown on this much longer post:  "We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism,"  which was written in 2019 but updated July 2020 and again in late 2025.  All memes were created with  imgflip .) The inevitable has finally happened, the day we hoped would never come: The day we officially resigned from our church because of our pastor's dogmatic Calvinist preaching (May 20, 2019).   (From now on, I will try to call him our "ex-pastor."  And for the record, it was an Evangelical Free Church, which are being  taken over by Calvinism  all over the place.  So be wary and educated.) It's been a long road.  He came on board about 6 years ago, and began introducing his Calvinist views here and there.  Just a little bit at a time, never really exposing the ugly parts of Calvinism.  Just subtle points that didn't really alarm us.  (If I had known then what I know now, I would'v...
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The Hobbit

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(Reposted from my other blog, from 2014, but edited quite a bit.  My sons and I have been obsessively watching the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies lately.  Okay, mostly me.  But I can't get enough of them!  I'm starting on the books now too.  A great way to spend lockdown.) I was driving to the flower shop today to pick up some onion transplants when I heard a line from a song that really stuck with me.    It was something about ‘not knowing how the journey will end.’    And it hit me that that’s exactly what has always scared me about life ... not knowing where things are headed.  To me, everything feels doomed, like tragedy and heartache are always right around the corner.    And so I guess I live with a constant, deep sense of anxiety and discouragement.    Always waiting for the next bad thing.                And I began to think, " Why do I always have to thi...
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Calvinism doesn't rescue anyone

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Calvinism doesn’t rescue any sinner from hell.  Because the elect were never on their way to hell, never at risk of going to hell at any point in time ... and the non-elect can never be rescued from hell because Calvi-Jesus never died for them and because Calvi-god made it impossible for them to believe. All Calvinism does is convince some people that they’ve always been saved without ever having to do anything about it, not even choosing to believe in Jesus (because in Calvinism, we  can't  choose to believe), while convincing others that they can never be saved, that God doesn’t love them, that Jesus didn’t die for them, and that there’s no hope for them. A lie from the pit of hell.  Destroying the evangelical church from the inside out.  And it will cost people their souls. [A comment I left on the Soteriology 101 post  "(Re)Thinking through Romans 9" , with a few small alterations.  And of course, not all Calvinists will word things this way. ...
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