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!?! 

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A cool LOTR channel

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I just found this YouTube channel that takes deep dives into The Lord of the Rings, and I'm really enjoying it: The Sundered Age I've only seen two videos so far, but they are insightful, profound, and quite touching.  If you are a massive LOTR fan like I am, check them out and see what you think. Here are the two I watched: Why Galadriel Was the Most Dangerous Person in Middle earth | LOTR Lore Gandalf Would Have Been Worse Than Sauron! | LOTR Lore These videos aren't from a Christian perspective or anything (at least I don't think so), but it still relates in my mind, illustrating how wise and good God is to create people with free-will, instead of dominating everyone with His sovereign control.  (And at the same time, it illustrates how wrong it is for the Calvinist god to deny people true free-will, to control our wills so that we can only think and do what he decrees us to do.)  
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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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Christian Testimony: Elizabeth - "How I Came to Jesus (depression and anxiety), Part 1"

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Here is Elizabeth's 13-minute-long testimony: "How I Came To Jesus (depression and anxiety), Part 1" . Of all the ones I've seen so far, hers is probably the most touching, deep, heartfelt one.  My heart breaks for her.  But it's a great testimony about how n o matter how hopeless life feels and how lonely you are, God is always there for you.   As she says, no matter what hard trials life throws at you, “God is real.   And He has me…. God cares.” She says that she feels like she's lived 30 lives already, and yet she's only 22.  Wow!  So much wisdom, heart, and goodness ... and in someone so young, too! And she not only has a beautiful, touching story to share, but she's also got a beautiful, touching voice too!   Beautiful worship songs. God bless you and your ministry, Elizabeth!  Thank you for opening your heart and life up to us!
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Motherhood Matters To The Ones Who Matter Most!

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Motherhood: It's not just something to do while you wait for a "real job" to come along. Motherhood IS the job - the job that matters most. Pour your heart into it.  Give it your all, your best.  "Just a mom" is an incredible privilege and a blessed responsibility.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Y ou might feel like you don't mean much to the world, but you can bet that you mean the world to your children! Make choices that honor their love for you, that show how much you value your children and your role as the only mother they have. I am proud to be a mother!
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A Pre-Trib Rapture is the Most Merciful Option (repost)

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(Repost, with some additions) Some people have a lot of trouble accepting the idea that God would rapture the church out but leave everyone else to go through the tribulation.    They think it is heartless and cruel of Him.    I, however, think that a pre-trib rapture is the most merciful thing God could do. In the movie   Left Behind   (with Nicolas Cage), a young woman who missed the rapture looks around at all the pain and heartbreak and devastation ... and she screams out about how the loving God her mother worshipped would never cause something as tragic as that to happen.    He would never take people away and let others be left behind to face the troubles of the tribulation. Or would He? The thing is, I think a pre-trib rapture shows just how loving and merciful and patient He is, how much He wants everyone to come to Him. [And I have to ask ...  If God created a way for us to be saved ... ... if He Himself, out of ...
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Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps (tiny version)

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Here is the tiniest-I-could-make-it version of "Fending Off Calvinism (a.k.a. Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps)"  (from my other blog) - which itself is the second half of a post called "Calvinism's Systematic Theology (and how to fend it off)" - about the fundamental errors of Calvinism that trap well-meaning Christians into a very bad, very deceptive, very tricksy theology.  I cut out as much as I could here, so check out the longer posts in the links above if you want a fuller picture and more information.   [Despite the title of this post, I know there's nothing easy about defeating or debating Calvinism.  It's such a tangled web of errors, with a cult-like vice-grip on people's minds, that it can't be defeated with just a few verses or rebuttals.  Its errors are so complex, interconnected, and deep-rooted that it needs to be completely dismantled idea by idea, wrong definition by wrong definition, misinterpreted verse by misinterpreted...
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"Toxic Femininity"

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Amen to this: Can We Talk About Toxic Femininity?    (If that link doesn't work, try this:   https://www.dailywire.com/news/mcallister-can-we-talk-about-toxic-femininity-denise-c-mcallister ) Fair is fair!  And it's about time people start talking about this. I am so sick of the "toxic feminism" that's out there, doing so much damage to our country, families, relationships, laws, etc.  And now it's seeking to destroy men and boys, to make them ashamed to be men, to feminize them. So I am happy to see more and more people calling out women - feminism - for the problems they're causing. In so many ways, feminists need to just sit down and shut up!  Before they tear our country apart! Instead of seeing men become more feminine, I'd rather see men "man up."   To all the good men out there:  I like and respect you for the men you are!  Don't let the girls bully you!   Sometimes satire says it best: Striking Blow Against To...
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Giggle Translate #17: Oh What Great Serenity

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This "giggle translate" is about my relationship with one of my brothers (I did two translations, just for fun). You know what, I'm gonna put the translated versions first and then the original paragraph of what really happened.  This way, you can read the translations first and try to figure out what really happened, and then see how right or wrong you are. Here goes: Translated version #1   ( After running my original paragraph through several languages with Google Translate) : Why hasn't one of my relatives loved me so much when we had so much fun and children?  We ate our table very quickly, and we got a reply within five seconds, but I did or ate so much that we ate less than half an hour later while watching.  Oh how beautiful!  The time has come when he may exchange fivepence when he asks, because he was more than fivepence.  And I extend it to meenie-miney-moe, so it always has to be "he" (so he has the power of blaming me but "I told him he alw...
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Using Scripture in Spiritual Battles

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If there is one thing I have been learning as I have faced the spiritual battles of depression and anxiety, it’s this:   I NEED GOD’S WORD. I used to see God’s Word as a good guidebook for life.   And, yes, it is that.   And, yes, it is a history lesson and a prophecy of things to come and God’s message of love, redemption, and salvation.   But it is still more than all that.   Ephesians 6:17 identifies the Word as the “sword of the Spirit.”   Along with prayer, it is the only offensive weapon we have in the spiritual battle.   The other pieces of “armor” (read Ephesians 6) are defensive, meant to help us resist the attacks of Satan.   But prayer and the Word (and the Holy Spirit) are meant to help us advance against him, to strike back.   The Word is a sword . . . and yet so often I treat it like a pillow.   Like a nice soft, comforting, cushy thing to lay my head down on at night to help me sleep better.   I read...
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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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