"Leaving Without You"

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After watching this, I can never quite hear U2's With or Without You the same way again.  

He does a pretty good Bono, I gotta say.

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Juni Desiree's beautiful art and heart

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This is a section from a future post, which shows this painting I once did: This was my favorite one, the first one I painted like this.   And it graced my wall for a few years... until I gave it away to a dear online friend from Australia,  Juni Desiree  (we met online in the comment section of a blog she used to have).  It was the only way to say "thank you" for something amazing she did for me: dedicating to me a book she published of pictures she drew about her mental health journey.   Here's a YouTube video on it:  The Art of Mental Health: Book Launch!!!!  (at 5:04 you can see the "Dedication: For Heather" page"😊), and here's where you can buy it:  The Art of Mental Health Ebook - Etsy Australia .   Ironically, she never knew how very much it meant to me that she did this for me.  Because when she surprised me with a copy of the book and the dedication, I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was going through th...
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Letter To Our Elders Regarding Calvinism Growing In Our Church

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Below is the letter my husband and I wrote to our elders regarding the Calvinism that's growing in our church .  I am including it here (omitting any identifying details) in case I need to share it with anyone in our church.  And I am posting it to help anyone else who might be disturbed about Calvinism growing in their church.   (Update: We have recently  left our Evangelical Free church , May 2019.  And the more I studied this issue, the more I think it  is  a HUGE issue.  One worth leaving your church over!)     [And if the elders and pastor get upset about this and start wondering "How could she do this!?!  And what should we do about her and the stuff she's writing?", I would suggest this:   The first thing you should really be asking yourself is "What if she's right?  What if Calvinism is wrong?  What is the Truth?"  And then take off the Calvinist glasses and spend a lot of time with the Bi...
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Spiritual Warfare: Sword of the Spirit 1

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[I intended to do a post like this later in a Spiritual Warfare series, but since it's relevant right now to someone I know ... and since it's been so long since I've added to this series... I'll publish it now.   Previous posts in this series are "My Story" ...  "Be strong in the Lord" ...  Spiritual Warfare sermons by Tony Evans ... "Stay on the Path" ... "Underestimating ourselves/overestimating Satan" ... "Overestimating ourselves/underestimating Satan" ...  #1 Satan's Schemes (unbelief, sin, fear) ... #2 (fear, psychics, prayer) ... #3 (vulnerable in good times) ... Spiritual Warfare: Resources ... #4 (vulnerable in bad times )... #5 (innocence, naivete) ... #6 (half-truths) ... #7 (bad theology) ... #8 (deserts) ... #9 (bitterness, unforgiveness) ... and (for fun)  "Scariest Halloween decoration ever?" I'll break this post up into several parts over the next several weeks.  Much of these posts wil...
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List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

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I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various  "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist"  posts).  But instead of adding this huge list to all those posts, I am going to put it here, and I'll just provide a link on those posts to this one.  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.] So here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinist," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify ...
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Calvinist (Bad Logic) Comment #5: We Can Trust A Controlling God

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5.   A Calvinist says:   “That being said why would anyone trust in God who isn’t in control of all things that come to pass, the only way to have unreserved faith without doubt is to pray, hope and believe in God who is on the throne.” [My note:  Of course, all Christians believe that God is on the throne.  But what he means - what Calvinists mean - is "Why would anyone trust a God who isn't actively controlling all things?"  Like Calvinist James White basically says in this clip , we can supposedly trust and have faith only if we know that God is controlling ("causing") all those evil things, such as child rape.  But if they happen without God causing them, then they are supposedly meaningless evils and we would be left in despair knowing that meaningless evils can happen outside of God's "control." Umm ... yeah ... so instead it's SO MUCH BETTER to believe that we have a God who actively causes us to sin in ways He for...
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Spiritual Warfare: Satan's Schemes #8 (Deserts)

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(Reposted from something else I wrote, but it describes a big way Satan might try to attack or tempt us.  T his is long, but oh well. ) We're all going to go through "desert" times at some points in our lives - long, discouraging, spiritually-dry times when we see nothing happening and feel like God is far away, when our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling and fall back down to us, unheard, unanswered.  And during these times, I think Satan would love nothing more than to get us to do two things: grumble and forget. When we read about the  Israelites wandering the desert after Moses rescued them from Egypt , i t seems that the two things they got in trouble for the most were grumbling about their circumstances (about God's care) and forgetting what God has done for them, what He's capable of doing for them, how He is big enough and faithful enough to handle their newest concerns. The Israelites had been through a time unlike any other in the history of mankind....
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A Calvinist pastor's 9-11 sermons (vs. C.S. Lewis)

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In "honor" of the anniversary of 9-11, I thought I'd share some quotes from my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons about 9-11 or around the anniversary of 9-11.  (I've shared all these before, so skip them in you want to.)   I'm so sorry to share thes e.  Please don't read them if you were greatly hurt by 9-11, or any other tragedy.  [ And speaking of tragedy: It's absolutely horrible and heartbreaking that Charlie Kirk was assassinated.  It's just so senseless.  It's not like he was a powerful political leader who made laws or rules that people didn't like or that affected their families or anything like that.  He was just a normal guy who debated views and shared his opinions - opinions that some people didn't like.  And for that someone killed him!?!  Something isn't right here.  May God expose what it is, and bring about justice, and protect and care for his family.  My heart goes out to them!  Heartbreaking!]    B...
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War Rooms, Praying Scripture, and Spiritual Warfare (repost)

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I strongly believe that there are angels and demons.  That prayer matters.  That there is a spiritual battle going on around us all the time ... and that we need to get involved in it, actively and consciously.  (Something I haven't been doing lately.)   Regardless of if we want it or not, we are constantly facing spiritual battles.  But if we don't acknowledge it - if we stick our heads in the sand, refuse to get involved, fail to put on our spiritual armor or to use the spiritual weapons available to us - we open ourselves up to deceptions, to defeat, to being very vulnerable to the strategies and attacks of the evil one.  You can't win a battle you don't even know you're in.  You can't defeat an enemy you pretend isn't there. What I have done here is compile a list of posts on spiritual warfare, on praying Scripture, and on creating a War Room (or War Journal). Have you ever seen  War Room ? You should.  It's a great movie.  And it is...
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This One's For You! (A Christmas Sermon)

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Did you ever listen to a sermon where you felt as if God was saying "This one's for you"?  I've never looked up Willow Creek sermons before, but for some reason I decided to watch one yesterday.  And you know what?  This one was meant for me.  It really hit me in the heart.  Watch it; it's good.  In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day and into the night.  (Skip to the 35-minute mark to start the sermon.) "Christmas at the movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (December 18, 2022)" (Willow Creek Huntley YouTube channel) Merry Christmas, Everyone! [FYI: I've written before about how I disagree with woman being head pastors.  And it seems that, at Willow, the head pastor is a man but there are several teaching pastors under him, including women.  To me, that's a gray area.  And I'm not sure yet what I think of it.  But  since it doesn't break my hardline, definitive "no woman head pastor" rule , I've decided to ...
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Some Days It Feels Like It's All About to Fall Apart

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I'll be honest, I'm struggling today.   The news headlines are so overwhelming that it feels like we'll never be okay again.  The weather is so dreary and rainy and cool that it feels like we'll never get a summer before winter comes again.  Friends are hurting from struggles in their lives, losses, heartaches, fears.  We left our church because of theological problems, and now (while I am enjoying the refreshment of staying home on Sundays, watching sermons online with my family) I am feeling the loss of my church home, of the people I used to see weekly, of fellowship.  And I struggle with not being able to talk about our theological concerns with those still at the church.  I want to shout from the rooftops our concerns about this pastor's preaching, but most people like him and agree with him and don't want to hear our concerns and warnings.  And so we keep quiet, aching to warn them but not wanting to hurt them.  And I fear that we are going ...
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