Anyone Worn Out?

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Can anyone relate to the idea of being exhausted from the energy it takes to just keep breathing (first song link below)?  I've been there, too.  It's probably why I long so much for eternity.  I long for the day when we can finally rest from our troubles.  But until then, I cling to the Lord and take each day as it comes, with His grace, help, strength, and wisdom to get me through. 


 Worn by Tenth Avenue North

 Healing Begins by Tenth Avenue North

 By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North

 Hold My Heart by Tenth Avenue North

 Love, Heal Me by City Harmonic

 Fell Apart by City Harmonic

 Praise the Lord by City Harmonic

 Honestly by City Harmonic

 Oh, What Love by City Harmonic  

 I AM by Crowder

Lord, for those struggling to hang in there, to keep their faith, to keep on living ... surround them with Your heavenly angels to protect them from evil.  Comfort them and guard them while they are weak and vulnerable.  Open their eyes to the depth of Your love for them and show them how much You care for them and are watching out for them.  

 Help them realize that they don't always have to try so hard, that sometimes the best thing they can do is to just fall exhausted into Your arms and to let You hold them.  

 Lord, help them to release their concerns into Your capable hands.  Help them to trust You to pick up the pieces they drop, to mend the broken things they can't fix, to forgive them for the things they can't forgive themselves for, to help them forgive others when they can't do it themselves, and to handle the things they can't handle, the things they shouldn't be worried about anyway.  Help them learn to trust You and to rest in Your arms.    

 Help them understand which steps You want them to take and which ones You don't, which jobs are theirs and which are Yours, so that they don't waste energy focusing on things they shouldn't be concerned about.  

 Give them the strength to hang in there, to wait on You, to be concerned only with what You are asking them to do, and to give You everything else.  Give them the peace that comes from trusting You and knowing that You will handle what we cannot.  Give them the joy that comes with knowing that You are for us and that You are always watching over us and that You will work all things together for good for those who love You.  

 Thank You for Your goodness and faithfulness to us, Lord.  Please help those who are hurting to feel Your presence strongly.  Encourage them.  Guide them.  Cover them in Your grace and mercy and power while they rest in Your arms.  Hold them while they fall apart for a little while, until they have the strength to stand up again.  Thank You for hearing our prayers and for being a God who cares for us and who loves us immensely.  Thank You for promising to come back again and to make all things right in the end.  Amen
For more encouragement:

 Falling Apart at the Feet of God

 Getting Through the "Broken" Times

 My "When Anxiety Strikes" Playlist

 Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

 Genuine Faith is Messy!

 Broken

 Praying Scripture:  For the Brokenhearted and Exhausted

 Praying Scripture: For Peace When Afraid

 Praying Scripture: When You Feel Like You're Failing

 Praying Scripture: When Anxiety Strikes

 Praying Scripture: Resting in the Lord

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Scariest Halloween decoration ever?

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More "American Noise"

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A Skillet CD (yes, I still listen to and prefer Cd's.  I'm that old!) is in the player of our van right now.  And because I hate switching CD's if I don't have to, sorting through dozens of them, trying to find one I'm in the mood for... I leave the Skillet one in the player and just keep listening to the same song over and over again (with a few other songs thrown in too): American Noise.   I really like this song. Anyway, it made me think of the post I wrote about it 5 1/2 years ago now (wow, time flies!).  And after re-reading that post, I decided to print it again, because it stills fits.  In fact, there's even more noise in America now - in the world - than there was then.  (Anyone else getting sick of it all too?) So here it is, the previous post on it: I was driving the other day, and this song began playing from a CD my husband had in the CD player.  I had never heard it before, but for some reason, it struck me.  I don't know why, but it did.  It s
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How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist (simplified version)

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(For the extended version of this post, which I recommend, click here .  It is loaded with lots more information.  This simplified one is just the highlights.  And feel free to copy this and share it with others, to help them learn to identify Calvinism when they see it.  Just make sure to share the link to this post so that they can find the original one if they want it.  Thank you.   New :  For the super-short version,   click here .   And FYI:  I found a couple times when the Calvinist author of an article I linked to changed the article after I linked to it.  So if an article doesn't seem to match what I said about it, it may be because they altered it. ) We just left our church of almost 20 years because of the dogmatic Calvinist pastor who recently came on board.  ( Read my "Letter to Our Elders Regarding Calvinism Growing in Our Church" here.)   And I was thinking about what precautions I might take to make sure we didn't end up in another Calvinist church
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In "Honor" of Halloween: My Story of Demonic Harassment (repost)

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(Reposted from last year and retold in various other posts.  I may just repost this one yearly at this time of year.) In “honor” of Halloween (a day that deserves no honor), I’m gonna share with you why we don’t celebrate Halloween.   (We take our kids to a movie instead, or buy a movie they’ve been wanting and have a “family movie night” with candy and popcorn.   So no need to feel sorry for them; they are not deprived.)   I don’t expect anyone to believe me, but I’m going to share my story.    (And for the longer version of this story on my other blog, click here .)  It’s my story about how I came to fully trust in Jesus’s name and to passionately cling to Him, to never be able to doubt the existence of a spirit world, to place such a high priority on prayer and God’s Word, and to always remember my need for spiritual armor.   And once again, you don’t have to believe me.   (But don’t say I never warned you.   And if you are a skeptic and get nothing from this whole section, jus
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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.  They will try to soften
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"The Last Goodbye" - A song for us Hobbits

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The Bible vs. Calvinism: An Overview by Patrick Myers (a great resource)

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 A friend of mine recently sent me a link to an article that she says is one of the best overviews of Calvinism and its errors that she's read.  And after reading it, I agree.  I think it's a great one to share with others because it's got all the basics in one place: The Bible vs. Calvinism: An Overview by Patrick Myers There are some great rebuttals to Calvinist proof-texts in here, and some eye-opening quotes from Calvinists.  Something like this might help Calvinists understand what their theology  really  teaches and what the Bible  really  teaches - and that these aren't saying the same thing.   FYI: If you click on the "about/contact" link at the bottom of the article, you can send him an email to request a PDF copy of his article.   And after I contacted him by email to tell him how much I appreciated his article, he graciously put a link to my anti-Calvinism blog at the bottom.  Thank you, Patrick, that was very kind of you. 😊
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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 as a Calvinist, I
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I vote for ...

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Here in America, it's election day again.  And I think we can all agree that it's a super-emotional, super-heated, super-critical election this time around.  Everyone's fighting over it.  Everyone's demonizing the other side.  Everyone's absolutely certain that their candidate must get in or else the country's going to go to hell-in-a-handbasket.  (Actually, I bet we're all thinking it's going to hell-in-a-handbasket anyway, no matter who gets into office.) And as I walk around the neighborhood every day on my prayer-walks, I see all the political signs in people's yards:  Harris!  Trump!  Vote for love and truth!  Don't vote for hate!  Make America great again!  Take back America!  Blah, blah, blah. But in all the political noise, I saw one sign that I could totally get behind, just one : Jesus 2024 - Our only hope!     Can I get an "Amen"!?!   Of course, I have an opinion of who I'd like to see in office, and I say my prayers abou
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"I have no clue what you're talking about."

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The other day, I told my sons that if they can't find the official "doggie bags," they can use plastic grocery-store bags (we have an over-abundance of them) to clean up after our dog on walks.   In response, my 13-year-old son delighted to inform me that "Mom, if you use a Walmart bag to clean up dog poop on the side of the road, you'll look like a crazy lady.  Especially with the kind of hair you have." Me:
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