What Real Encouragement Looks Like Sometimes!

-
Who would've thought that "encouraging each other in the Lord" would take the form of two hours of telling each other, "Yep, that crap's hard!"?

- A text I got from a friend after a long conversation about the trials we've been through, the heartaches we've known, and how difficult life can be sometimes.  It made me smile!

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

The Very Most, by Renee A. Betancourt

-
This is a poem my friend wrote which she read to me over the phone the other day.  And it was so beautiful that I asked her if I could publish it on my blog.  Enjoy.  (I will publish it just as she sent it.)    The Very Most   Good morning, Father, Son and Holy Ghost I love you all the very most With my life layed down, I don’t want my own crown   Lead me, guide me, show me the way Thank you, Lord for this brand new day I Thank you Lord  for giving us your son  thank you Jesus for being the only one Who could save me  deliver me and raise me up Because you lifted your own cup.   Thank you, Jesus for the garden  For it led to my full pardon The road from there was fully destructive And from that walk my pain was abducted And at the end upon that cross You gave Your life so none would be lost   And when you rose on that third day With Your new life you made the way So on your journey with no thought for yourself you lived an...
Read more

"Are Calvinists Saved?"

-
(I added some new notes to the end of this post, August 23, 2020.) 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 find Him.  I trust that when He commands us to choose whom we will serve, He means that we have to choose whom we will serve.  I trust that when He ...
Read more

#2 IN the World, Not OF the World (shortened)

-
(This is a shortened version of my Bible study.  For full version, click here .)             Philippians 3:18-20 :   “. . . many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.   Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.   Their mind is on earthly things.   But our citizenship is in heaven. . . .”             As Christians, we are citizens of two different worlds – the world (including our own country and society) and God’s Kingdom.   And o ftentimes, these worlds are in conflict.  So ... how can we as Christians best live out this verse about being in the world but not of it?                   Let’s break down some of the challenges and differences we face.
Read more

Calvinist Hogwash #4 (hell and justice)

-
Image
I think that Calvinists who deny double predestination are fooling themselves.  To not choose someone for heaven is to choose them for hell, especially if those are the only two options and if God created them to be exactly who they are for certain reasons (which He didn't, except in Calvinism).   Instead of just admitting that Calvi-god predestines people for hell, Calvinists soften or obscure it as much as possible to make it seem less harsh, less deliberate, than it is: "God passes over people... He just lets them be the sinners they already are... He leaves them to themselves... He doesn't force them to reject Him, He just doesn't give them saving faith..."  (I wonder if they'd try so much to soften it if they thought themselves one of the non-elect.)   It's  really just haggling over terminology because it all amounts to the same thing: I n Calvinism, God predetermined that the non-elect would be who they are and do what they do, and He made sure ...
Read more

Updated: Alana L. 5P (conflations: natural vs moral)

-
Image
[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]  Point #5 still :   P:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."   Natural vs Moral On a slightly different track:  If you listen closely when Calvinists talk about God's "sovereign control" over things, they'll often emphasize His control over nature, even bringing up verses about it.  And since we agree that God caused/controlled something like a storm or famine or illness at some point in biblical history, Calvinists will then make us think that we must also agree that He causes/controls human decisions and moral evils too.  That if we accept one, we must accept the other. Vincent Cheung  ( The Problem of Evil ):  " God controls not only  natural events , but he also controls  all human aff...
Read more

The Unseen and The End

-
A couple of good videos I just watched: What is the Rapture?  -  a sermon by Greg Laurie (47 minutes) The Unseen Realm - a documentary by Michael Heiser about the spiritual powers, about how God organized them and allows them to operate (1 Hour, 11 minutes)
Read more

God would NEVER do that! Or would He?

-
God would never send a famine or economic distress to get our attention. God would never send disease to open our eyes to our bad choices and to call us to repentance. God would never use wars or violence to cause us to cry out to Him. God would never use a tornado, earthquake, or tsunami to draw our hearts back to Him. God is not like that.   He is a soft, squishy, feeble, always-lovey-dovey, ever-forgiving God who just wants us to be happy and who would never dream of punishing us or disciplining us or causing us any kind of discomfort or pain.   He’s all about giving us whatever we want and pouring out blessings and goodness on us and allowing us to live life on our own terms, because we are the center of the universe, r ight?  We are the lords of our own lives.   Aren’t we?    Surely, in this day and age of rampant sexual diseases, violent wars, economic recession, famines, natural disasters, devastating consequences of...
Read more

List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

-
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 ...
Read more

Truly Shameful - Protecting Sex Offenders Over Children!

-
Read this article by The Activist Mommy.  Go ahead; I'll wait. Wichita Library Board Debates Whether to Ban Sex Offender's from Children's Events So ... as taxpayers ... isn't it awesome to think that your local library would be unwilling to take the steps necessary to protect your children at public children's events from registered sex offenders, simply because it might offend some people in the LGBTQ-community!?!   And look at what that Thomas Witt said, shaming people for taking steps to protect kids, accusing them of having "offensive" ulterior motives, as if parents shouldn't be allowed to take steps to protect their children.   I don't care what someone's motive is or if they have some sort of secret ulterior motive ... We should all be taking steps to protect children.  Period! But apparently the library board would rather allow registered sex offenders to mingle, up close and personal, with your children than risk hurting ...
Read more

Greeting Card Headaches

-
Finding the right greeting card can be so frustrating.   Like, where is the "I'm sorry you got arrested and will probably spend the rest of your life in prison ... but even though this terribly affected our family and friends forever, I love you anyway and hope you have as merry of a Christmas as you can, under these circumstances" kind of card? Oh, the headaches of trying to find the perfect card! (And, no, I'm not joking.  I mean, yes I am, to a degree.  But in a "if I don't laugh about it, then I'll cry" kind of way.)
Read more