When You're Discouraged By The Hard Days

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For an encouraging reminder that we don't always know why things happen or how they will work out, but we can trust that God is always working all things for good:  
The White Horse Maxim by Ann Voskamp.

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Updated: Alana L. 5R (no freedom needed)

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Point #5 still (updated) :   R:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     [A continuation of the last post on  "robots" , with more quotes to show what I mean.]   Not only do Calvinists believe that God - in His "sovereignty" - predetermines/orchestrates our sins but then punishes us for sinning, but they also believe (and this is downright crazy to me) that true human freedom is  not even a necessary condition  for accountability and responsibility.  They  don't think that  we need to have the real ability to make real free decisions among real options in order for God to hold us truly responsible for what we do.   But they think that we can be held accountable for sin simply because we had  the desire to disobey God, because we did what we "wanted" to do - even though, in Calvinism, God determined we'd want to do it.    Reformed commenter  Tiny-Development3598  said this in a...
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#2: Embracing Hope, Jan. 2016 (repost)

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[Reposted from my other blog, from January 2016.  This comes shortly after the "Wrestling With God" post, the summer when I found myself utterly discouraged by life, by gardening.  When it seemed like one thing after the next just kept going wrong.  This was my call to hope again.   Update:   I mentioned in the last post that my mom is currently trying to drink herself to death.  I got a call last night that she was found unconscious at a friend's house after drinking since 10 a.m. that morning and taking a bunch of Librium.  They called me last night to tell me that she was in the hospital with a blood alcohol level of 375, unconscious, and not breathing on her own.  (A couple days ago, she went in with level of 400.)  They had to put tubes in her lungs to keep her alive.  It's the fourth time, they said, that the ambulance was called on her in about a week.  I tell ya, it seems almost supernatural that she hasn't died yet....
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Anti-Calvinism Links

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This is the last half of the post "What's The Best Way To Make People Agree With Your Calvinist Views."   But I put it here in its own post so that it's easier to find. These are some links to posts which are against Calvinism, the belief that the Bible teaches God has predetermined from the beginning of time who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  It's no secret from my writing that I strongly disagree with this view.  I believe the Bible clearly teaches that God offers us all salvation, that Jesus's death paid for everyone's sins, and that we have to decide if we will accept Him or reject Him.  And here is some of what others have to say about Calvinism: (FYI, I haven't read everything in all of these yet and I don't necessarily agree with every point they make, but I needed to link to them before I lost them online.  And for the record, I came to my belief about what the Bible says by reading the Bible, not extra-biblical books or articles...
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A Crash Course in Calvinism (A Letter to Pastors)

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  We recently started attending a new church and are enjoying it enough.  But having come from a church that was hijacked by Calvinism, I am highly alert for any whiff of it in this one.  (It's kinda sad when words like "sovereign" and "grace" make you wince.)  We haven't really noticed any Calvinism in this one, but the pastors do quote from and praise Calvinist theologians.  Sure, they're good quotes, but it makes me nervous.  I doubt they know what Calvinism  really  teaches or how easily it traps people.  And so being someone who can't just ignore it, I decided to write them a letter, to make sure they realize what they're dabbling with.   (If I don't warn them, it's on me.  But if I do warn them and they ignore it, it's on them.)  And I figured I'd post that letter here, too, for anyone else who might want to know this stuff or who might want to copy it to share with their own pastors (or family or friends) who dabble...
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Calvinism: Abusing God's Sovereignty to Defend Its Heresy

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I believe that many - if not most - Calvinists are Calvinists simply because they think it means believing that God is sovereign.  They say "Well, I believe God is sovereign, so I guess I'm a Calvinist then."  (I think this is how many people get trapped in Calvinism.) And so they think that if you aren't a Calvinist or if you are an anti-Calvinist (as I am!), then you do not believe that God is sovereign, that you are rejecting God's authority and control, that you are elevating yourself above God. But this is not necessarily true.  Many of us anti-Calvinists are not anti-God's-sovereignty; we are simply against the Calvinist's misunderstanding of sovereignty. You see, Calvinism defines sovereignty as God must cause and control everything that happens, that nothing can happen that He doesn't actively cause.  And so therefore, there can be no free-will.  People cannot have the ability to make decisions because if there is one decision that God does...
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My Panic Attack (repost)

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(Reposted from my blog, https://myimpressionisticlife.blogspot.com , from 2016.   A really bad year for me.) I wrote this in the post called “Random Facts about Me.  Just for Fun!” on my other blog.  It’s #64 on the list.  But I think it deserves its own post.  So I am reposting it here, because it fits with the theme of this blog.   If you’ve ever had a panic attack, maybe you can relate.  I hope not, though.  Because panic attacks suck!             64.   I had a small panic attack three days ago (May 30, 2016).  It’s the first one I’ve ever had and I don’t plan on ever having another one.  [I also once had a minor nervous breakdown during my parents’ very messy divorce.  It was so bad that the only way I could start breathing and stop crying was to flee from everything, to jump in the car with my husband and two kids and run away to the middle of nowhere for a little while.]
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It is a dreadful thing ...

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"Then [Jesus] said to them: 'Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven."   Luke 21:10-11 Any of this sound familiar, kinda like newspaper headlines? I'm not sure how much time we have left, but I wouldn't wait too long. "Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near."  Isaiah 55:6 "But wait," you say, "isn't God all soft and squishy, all about making us happy and giving us what we want?" “I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord...  "I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away... People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord...  "Many times I struck your gardens a...
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My "When Anxiety Strikes" Playlist

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In the post "Getting through the 'broken' times," I said that I had made a CD to listen to when anxiety hits.  It has some of my favorite Christian songs on it.   Here are as many of the songs as I could find online, plus some extra.  Listen to some of them when anxiety threatens you.  It really does help to hear godly truths spoken out loud (and to speak them out loud yourself).  And personally, I think godly music helps repel evil, giving you some extra spiritual protection when you are most vulnerable.  They don't like to hear God being praised and Truth being sung! (FYI: Videos are constantly being removed from online.  So if the video is no longer available, type in the name and artist and see if you can find it.  I simply can't keep up with replacing links.) From The City Harmonic: Love, Heal Me  - The song that inspired the title of one of my blogs, Love, Heal Me - my heart's cry for the past year. Fell Apart  - One...
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Giggle Translate #19: Green Juice and Turkey Dust

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I pulled out something I wrote about a Thanksgiving many years ago and ran it through many different languages with Google Translate just to see what happened.  And then I did the same languages again but in reverse.  Enjoy! The Original Version: Wait!  I just thought of another shining moment.  One year, 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning, I dropped a twenty-pound slippery bird and the overnight brine it was soaking in all over the kitchen floor.  The bird never hit the floor.  Honestly, it really didn't.  (But in the name of all honesty, I probably would have served it anyway if it did.  After I rinsed it well, of course.)  But the kitchen table and floor were covered in raw turkey juice.  So gross! Nothing creeps me out more than raw poultry juice.  When I make chicken, I'm often heard yelling, "AHHH, RAW CHICKEN JUICE" if so much as one drop splashes on me.  And now here I was, spending all morning on my hands and knees cleaning t...
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