A Question for Atheists

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Atheists often ask "How could you believe in a God that would allow so many bad things and so much suffering?"
My answer:  "How could you not believe in God when this life is so full of bad things and suffering?  If you don't believe in God, then all you have are the bad things and the suffering, with an ending of nothingness.  You have no hope that Someone is watching over everything, that He will help you through it all, that He will eventually fix all the broken things, dish out ultimate justice, wipe away all the tears, and make all bad things good again?"  
I'd rather have a hard life with God by my side and with hope that 'the best is yet to come' ... than have a hard life without God and with no hope of things ever being better.
(And they call Christians "crazy" for believing.  I think it's more insane - and discouraging and hopeless and irrational - to not believe.)
[Click here for Why We All Want There To Be A God.]

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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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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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Big Shocker: Liberal Elites Trying to Stop Those Who Oppose The Covid Vaccine!

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See this link: "Liberal Elites Trying To Stop Organic Covid-19 Opposition Groups From Growing As Distrust Of The American Media Reaching All-Time High" . And also read the comments to Bill Gates' Tweet here .  (Click on "view more replies" to see them all.)  Interesting stuff!  (And I love the sentence about how the guy who wants to reduce the human population - Bill Gates - is the same one who wants to "save" us with a vaccine.  Very insightful!  And it should make everyone pause and think!) I have distrusted the mainstream media for a long, long time, seeing as how biased they are politically, and who they are "in bed" with, and which information they allow us to see, and how they spin their articles, and which news stories they choose to report and which to hide, etc..  But it's only been recently, since Trump was elected, that their phony "unbiased, just reporting the news" mask has come off.  And now they don't ev...
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Turn it up even LOUDER!

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(Just for fun, slipped in between the spiritual warfare posts, and a week earlier than normal.)  You know those songs that you always have to play as loud as possible, and even louder if you could? I've got some of those.  [To name only five, there's  Numb from U2 and  Chlorine,   Downstairs,   Choker , and Jumpsuit from Twenty One Pilots, my newest musical addiction.]    And the only place I can play them as loud as I want is when I'm driving alone in the car.  That's MY time.  An introvert's dream vacation.  I can play my music as loud as I want and sing along... and there's no one to interrupt or complain. Which reminds me: You parents know what we're supposed to do when kids complain about our music, right? Yeah, that's right: TURN IT UP EVEN LOUDER! The ironic part is that they used to complain about me singing "Ice, Ice, Baby" which I know every word of, but now my 3rd son knows every word and sings along too...  ... an...
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Beautiful Failure

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There’s another big thing that helped me through that “four-month funk.”   Another lesson that I remember every time I walk down our stairs.   And I smile.  (Also reposted from around 2014.)   When we first moved into this house over two years ago, the first purchase we made was new paint.   I had never owned a home before, never been able to pick out wall colors and make a place “my own.”   And I was really looking forward to this project.   But unexpected repairs came up that meant I had to put it off.   And so, two-and-a-half years later, I was thrilled to finally be able to engage in this wonderful right and joy of home-ownership.
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An Overview of World Religions

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            I want to briefly present what some of the major religions of the world believe.   (I am not covering all of them, of course.   And I am skipping things like Wicca, New Age, and Humanism.)   I studied all the major religions once when I was considering if Christianity was really the only way.   And I came out of the study believing in Jesus all the more.               It is important to know what other religions teach so that we can know what they are really about, have real reasons for why we don’t believe them, and understand what makes Jesus and Christianity different.               (This is mainly written for believers, taken from my Bible study over at https://ironsharpensironbiblestudy.blogspot.com .)           ...
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How Would You Spend Your Last Day?

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Okay, so today (reposted from 9/23/17) is the beginning of the end of the world, according to a Christian numerologist.  As I went to bed last night, I was thinking, "What if the world really did 'end' tomorrow?  How would we choose to spend our last day?" As I laid in bed by myself last night watching Gilmore Girls for the 832nd time while my husband and kids watched a show together in the other room, I thought about how we all had eaten dinner together earlier (homemade BBQ chicken pizza) and how hubby and I had our "mommy and daddy" time and how we were all just chillin' now with each other, hanging out in our normal low-key way, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream.  And I thought, "This is exactly how I would want to spend my last day.  If the world ended tomorrow or if the rapture really happened and Jesus came back and took my family out of here, I would be happy to end my time on earth like this."  Actually, I can t...
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Sleeping On My Sword

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“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.   After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.   The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’’ Then the devil took him to the holy city . . . ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down.   For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up . . .’’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’’ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.   ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan!   For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him onl...
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I'd Rather Have Manna

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Many of us struggle at times with trying to make God answer our prayers our way.   We try to get the life we want or make things happen as we want them to happen.   I know I have over the years.   And while He has been very good to us and answered many prayers as I hoped He would, there are still many that He hasn’t.   For His own reasons.   And for many of us, it’s hard to learn to accept “less” than we want, to learn to go without, and to have to live with long-term problems or issues that we wish we didn’t have.   And this can mess with our faith and our self-image.   There have been times when I desperately wanted an answer from Him that wasn’t coming and when I wanted to feel His presence yet I felt nothing.   And it brought up doubts and fears inside of me.   And in frustration with His silence and in exhaustion with the long wait, I found myself wanting to give up on God.   To take matters into my own hands or walk...
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Matherhood 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 that love, 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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