Oh, the ways this could go wrong!

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So apparently, China is starting a new program - a social scorecard , a rating system for all its citizens where your score determines what kind of things you have access to.  

 Yeah ... I don't see how this could go wrong at all, do you!?! 

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

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 pastor pulls back the curtain on Easter morning, ruining childhoods everywhere

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 (Spoiler alert) Besides Christmas, Easter Sunday is the one day that many people will take their families to church - their young children all shiny and happy, dressed up in their Sunday best - even if they don't go any other time all year.   It's the day that seekers might dare to show up, looking for truth and answers and hope, even if they're too scared or stubborn to set foot in a church any other day.   And it also happens to be the day that the Calvinist pastor at my ex-church decided to pull back the curtain on a beloved Easter tradition to a room full of visitors and seekers and their small children, taking it upon himself to ruin childhood innocence and Easter-morning-fun all over the place.   I mean, seriously, imagine that you're a non-believer, a seeker, who - after all the fun of watching your children hunt for their Easter baskets and Easter eggs, and everyone's happy and hopeful - decided that for the first time, you'd bring your kids t...
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Support for Jesus and the Bible

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Although almost every other major religion out there acknowledges that Jesus really did live, there are still people who insist He is a fairy tale, like a mythological legend from ancient history.  Or they believe that He was a real man but never claimed to be God, that His followers made it up after He died.  And many believe that the Bible, though a good book, was written just from men’s minds and wasn’t really God-inspired. When trying to reason with people like this, many Christians quote Bible verses to try to win the argument, thinking it should convince everyone of God’s Truth.  But since many people, including atheists, don’t believe the Bible is true, they don’t want to hear the Bible being used to try to prove the validity of the Bible.  That’s “circular reasoning,” using the Bible to validate the Bible.  This is why it’s important to have sources outside the Bible that confirm that Jesus really did live and that Scripture is really rel...
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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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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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Spiritual Warfare: Sword of the Spirit 5 (Scripture-based prayers)

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And finally, to end the "Sword of the Spirit" posts: When I was going through my worst, hardest times and was full  of anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and helplessness, there were a few things that helped give me some relief (herbal teas, herbal tinctures, homeopathic remedies, positive thinking, walks, mindless but relaxing TV shows, worship music, reading the Bible, saying verses out loud or writing them by hand, etc.).   But I could tell that my soul needed something more, something deeper, more powerful, more effective.   And so I decided to try something that I had always  been curious about: Praying Scripture back to God, turning verses into prayers, grabbing onto the truths and promises in Scripture that fit our need at the moment and praying them back to Him,  trusting Him to answer.   And when I did that, it calmed my anxious soul in a way that nothing else did or could.   Even just looking through God's Word for th...
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Spiritual Warfare: Sword of the Spirit 4 (the sword)

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Okay now, onto the list of verses I shared with my family member for her to use in spiritual battles, when Satan's got us down and cowering in fear.  These were specifically chosen for comfort, encouragement, and strength (and I added a few extra here for different kinds of temptations or trials).  I suggest p rinting them out, reading them over and over again, writing them out, mem orizing some, taking a list with you wherever you go, etc.  Whatever it takes to get through the hard times. And when the attacks, temptations, or hard times come, turn them into prayers  (I'll share my own personal Scripture-based prayers in the next post)  or simply s peak out loud the ones that fit your particular struggle, trial, temptation, or fear.   Declare to yourself, to the struggle/temptation, and to the spirit world/the Enemy that "It is written ..." and then quote a verse that fits.  A nd let God's Word comfort and still your soul as the sword of the Spiri...
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Giggle Translate #4: My Garden (My Favorite)

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This has got to be my favorite Giggle Translates for one reason only.  You'll see why later.  I was actually nervous copying and pasting it, because I was so afraid I would accidentally delete it or alter it.  But, phew, it's all good.  Anyway, I am not going to repost the original post but you can read it if you click on it.  It's called  "My Garden." Here is the post when it's been  translated through a bunch of languages with Google Translate  (honestly, it's really kinda poetic, almost better than the original) : We are still in the freezer this season.  Now is the time to think and design your garden.  And then there are a lot of articles about me.  I try to do it for myself, but not for myself.  And during the lessons, my soul embraces me and teaches me to live with God.              Gardening for me is an accent, a time of choice, a time to learn to lose weight ...
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Are Calvinists Really Saved? (repost)

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(I added some new notes to the end of this post, and so I am reposting it.  And the font size/color changes between paragraphs are not intentional.  It happens when I cut and paste.  I can't undo it.  Sorry.) Here's a video from  Beyond the Fundamentals  that's well-worth watching:   Are Calvinists Saved? The most thought-provoking part (for me) was when he asks (paraphrased) "How do Calvinists know they're saved, that Jesus died for them?" You see, I would say that I trust in the truths of the Bible.  I trust that when God says He loves all people and wants all people to be saved, He means He loves  all  people and wants  all  people to be saved.  I trust that when He says Jesus died for all people and all sins, He means that Jesus died for  all  people and  all  sins.  I trust that when He says that we will find Him if we seek Him with all our hearts, He means that we can seek Him and fi...
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