Napoleon's view of Jesus

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I love this quote from Napoleon about Jesus:

 "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires.  But on what did we rest the creations of our genius?  Upon force.  Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him."  (link)

 Sadly, I think many Christians are more willing to die for Him than to really live for Him.  Dying for Him is usually theoretical, but living for Him would require a lot of actual, real-life changes.

 Will you be counted among the faithful ones?  The ones willing to die for Him and live for Him?

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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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Jill 4 Today: Around the world in 80 breads

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While researching bread-baking around the world, I stumbled on this YouTube channel -  Jill 4 Today  - and I just have to say that I'm really enjoying her.  A lot of fun to watch.  And I love when older women do videos like these because it feels very homey, very grandmotherly.    I'm especially interested in her new series "Around the world in 80 breads."  And I love it that she makes some of these breads for the first time on camera, leaving in the doubts and mistakes and all.  Amusing and charming. Anyway, I'd love for her to actually do all 80 breads, but she doesn't think she'll get to them all.  So if anyone else is interested in this too, support her channel and send her some comments to encourage her to actually do all 80.  It'd be fun to see. Here are the three breads she's done so far: #1 No-knead French bread #2 Icelandic Rye Bread  (just listening to their reactions as they eat it makes me want to try it too) #3 German B...
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Though they have eyes, they will not see

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[I originally posted this on one of my other blogs , Oct. 2021] So   according to this article , it appears that scientists have found evidence of the type of biblical destruction that happened to Sodom.  They say they found a town that was destroyed by a blast of heat so hot that it pretty much melted everything.  They say that there's no earthly natural heat source that could do this, so they speculate that it must have been an asteroid that exploded over the town, melting everything.  Oh, and they speculate that the reason no one lived there afterward was that the asteroid impact might have brought over so much salt from the nearby Dead Sea that nothing could grow.  This, they say, must be what inspired people to make up the story of Sodom in the Bible. But I say that here's your "asteroid," scientists: "The Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah - from the Lord out of the heavens.  Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, incl...
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Thank you, reddit/reformed. I'm honored!

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[I'm sneaking this post in between the regular bi-weekly (every other week) posts on both this blog and my Anti-Calvinist Rant blog.  (Did you know that bi-weekly can mean both "every other week" and "twice a week"?  What the heck, those are like total opposites!)] Commenter Senior-Emergency-944   started a thread  on Reddit/Reformed   called  Part of me wants to affirm it. But how do you refute this?!  which linked to my post  "But Calvinists don't say God causes sin and evil!" , asking for advice on how to refute the Calvinist quotes I shared about God causing evil.  If I was able to reply to Senior (I don't have a reddit account), I would've said this... That's awesome!  Thank you.  I'm honored that you brought up this post for discussion among reformed Christians.  And I think it's great that you're willing to examine this issue and think deeper about it, to face the dark, uncomfortable truth of what Calvinists really be...
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#10: I Just Want To Finish Well, August 2017 (repost)

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(Actually written in 2014, but reposted in August 2017 because it still totally applied.  And since it fit how I was feeling in 2017, I am including it in this numbered "after my panic attack" series.  This is one of the last posts in that series.  Maybe one or two more to go.) Once again, I found myself in an emotional funk (this is a repost from 2014, yet it still seems to be where I’m at in 2017), feeling like I can’t accomplish anything.   Can’t give any one thing the effort and time it needs.   I am so stretched-thin in places.   The housework never gets done.   This house will never be "finished."   My cooking has seen better days.   There’s not enough time to do everything I want when it comes to homeschooling … so, of course, my boys are going to grow up to be great big drains on society.   I was feeling a little panicked that things were slipping away from me too fast, that I couldn’t get a grip on anything. ...
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Things My Calvinist Pastor Said #13: God Doesn't Love Everyone

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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 last year but updated July 2020.  They are almost exact quotes.  All memes were created with  imgflip .) 13.   "The Bible says God loves people.  But the Bible is clear that God does not love  all  people and He doesn't love everyone  equally .  He elected some sinners to salvation, and He predestined some for eternal damnation."             Find me the verse that says God does not love everyone the same way!  Or a verse about how God's love is shown by whether or not He elects you to heaven.  Find me an  actual verse  that  clearly  says something like that, not just a mish-mash of verses, taken-out-of-context, about how God loved Jacob and hated Esau (the passage my pastor was using).       ...
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"Walking in God's Plan"

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I just found this sermon by Charles Stanley, Walking in God's Plan .  It's a good look at the different types of "wills" God has, of the things we are responsible for and the things God is responsible for.   S uch as God has a "predetermined Will" - events that God has predetermined that we cannot change, such as His plan to send Jesus to the cross.   But then there are things that God desires - His "desired Will" for our lives - such as His desire that all men to be saved, His desire that we obey and trust Him, etc.  And we have a choice about following God in those kinds of things or not.  God has given us the right and responsibility to make certain decisions in our lives, about certain things He desires for us.  And our choices will have a real effect on whatever happens, on whether God's desired Will for our lives happens or not!   This is a good balance between God's sovereignty and our free-will, our responsibility to ma...
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Things My Calvinist Pastor Said #4: God's Love Saves Some But Not Others

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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 last year but updated July 2020.  They are almost exact quotes.  All memes were created with  imgflip .) 4.   "God didn't have to save any of us.  But in His love and sovereignty, He chose to elect some to salvation, even though we are depraved and wicked and in rebellion against Him.  But none of us deserve to be saved; we all deserve hell.  So the real question isn't 'Why would God predestine some people to hell.'  It's 'Why did God elect any of us for heaven when no one deserves it?'"               That's right, make people feel like they can't ask the hard questions.  And deflect away from the bad stuff.  It's much easier to sell your poison when you hide the skull-and-crossbones!             [Skille...
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Spiritual Warfare: Satan's Schemes #3 (vulnerable in good times)

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Today we're going to look at a general time we're vulnerable to Satan's attacks, when we need to be alert, discerning, and careful.  And we'll look at a few more in the next posts.   ( I looked at fear, specifically, in  the last post .  So I won't cover it here.)    T he more aware we are of his schemes, the more we can recognize and resist them.   And notice it's "schemes" -  Ephesians 6:11 :  "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes"  - not willy-nilly, shot-in-the-dark attacks.  These are strategically-planned attacks, tailored to you. Satan (demons) knows each of us, our weaknesses, desires, hang-ups, etc.  He's been watching us our whole lives (and watching humankind for millennia).  He hears what we say, what we mumble under our breath.  He knows what we read and watch and listen to and gaze at.  He knows when we discreetly peek at something, when ...
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When Things Don't Turn Out The Way You Wanted (repost)

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(A repost from my other blog, Love, Heal Me , one of the last posts I wrote there, dated August 2017.  Updated slightly.) What happens when you’ve poured your heart and soul into something you thought God wanted you to do … and yet it doesn’t work out, maybe it even made things worse?   What do you do then? Throughout the past 5 years (up till August 2017), I have been posting things on-line on my blogs.   In the beginning, I felt like God wanted me to do it.   I believed that I had words of wisdom and truth and encouragement to share.   I really wanted to use my story to help others, to bring people closer together and closer to God, to make people feel less alone in their struggles and pain, and to bring glory to God’s name. But I can probably count on one, maybe two, hands how many page-views my blogs get in any given week.   (Thank you to anyone who has visited.   I noticed every time you did.   And it meant a lot to me.)   But...
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