It Is Written ...

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Do you ever feel like Satan is beating you down ... with negative thoughts, temptations, trials, struggles, fears?

 Do you know that there is a weapon available to help you fight against him and his schemes?

 It is the Word of God!

 The Sword of the Spirit!

 But I just learned something about this Sword of the Spirit from Tony Evans.  According to the concordance, the actual meaning of the "Word of God" in this verse (Ephesians 6:17) doesn't have to do with the whole Bible, the written Word of God.  It's about the spoken word, about speaking the Word of God, about using Scripture out-loud to battle the lies of the enemy.

 The power of this weapon is in speaking it, not just knowing about it or reading it or having a Bible on your shelf.  It's vocalizing specific verses about your particular struggle or temptation or fear or whatever ... to defeat the enemy and make him flee.

 Jesus did this when Satan was trying to tempt Him in the wilderness.  

 Three times Satan tried to offer Jesus something, to get Jesus to do things Satan's way.  

 And three times Jesus answered with "It is written ..." followed by Scripture that spoke to that temptation.

 If Jesus needed to do this, what makes us think we don't have to?

 Jesus knew the power of knowing God's Word and speaking God's Word.  If we did to, I think we'd have a lot more success when battling the enemy.

 It's time to start memorizing Scripture - the verses that speak to your particular struggles and trials and temptations and fears.  And then when the attacks come, don't just try to talk yourself out of temptation or into a better attitude.  Don't turn to temporary distractions.  Don't try worldly methods.

 Start with "It is written ..."

 And watch the Sword of the Spirit do what no other weapon can!

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

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Calvinism doesn’t rescue any sinner from hell.  Because the elect were never on their way to hell, never at risk of going to hell at any point in time ... and the non-elect can never be rescued from hell because Calvi-Jesus never died for them and because Calvi-god made it impossible for them to believe. All Calvinism does is convince some people that they’ve always been saved without ever having to do anything about it, not even choosing to believe in Jesus (because in Calvinism, we  can't  choose to believe), while convincing others that they can never be saved, that God doesn’t love them, that Jesus didn’t die for them, and that there’s no hope for them. A lie from the pit of hell.  Destroying the evangelical church from the inside out.  And it will cost people their souls. [A comment I left on the Soteriology 101 post  "(Re)Thinking through Romans 9" , with a few small alterations.  And of course, not all Calvinists will word things this way.  They will try to soften
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As I was listening to a Christian radio station, they interviewed a random woman on the street who said, “I think the writers of the Bible just made it up to get people to follow them.” And I laughed out loud at the thought of that.  I wanted to ask her if she ever really read the Bible, if she knew what it teaches.  Because if she did, she would have to wonder why anyone would make up some of the things we find in the Bible and think it would cause people to go, "Oh yeah, that sounds great to me!" If you were going to make up a religion and try to get followers, you certainly wouldn’t tell us that ... 1.   We are sinful and cannot rescue ourselves. (How judgmental, discouraging and helpless sounding is that?) 2.   We need a Savior to rescue us. (How humbling!) 3.   Some of the early leaders of the faith were persecuted and killed for it, and we also should expect to be persecuted and hated by the world. ( Who in their right mind would want that?  Stephen wa
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