Praise The Lord

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How I'm feeling today:  Praise The Lord by City Harmonic and Blessed Be Your Name by Newsboys.

A hard lesson to learn  - learning to praise in the pain.  I still stink at it sometimes.

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

Cindy's Comment on Theistic Evolution vs. A Literal Genesis

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(Happy 4th, America!  I'm sorry for what's being done to you.) There's a comment from someone named Cindy in the comment section of a post on theistic evolution vs. a literal Genesis.   (Actually, the post is really just a nasty attack on Ken Ham.)  Since the author of that blog stopped allowing comments on that post - it appears she didn't want any more opposing voices - I wanted to post the comment I like and agree with here, since I couldn't agree with it there.   [Note: I have linked to this blog before when it comes to Calvinism, but I don't like the tone the author is taking in the post I linked to above, her attacks on Ken Ham and those who believe in a young earth, that God created the universe in 6 days.  (For the record, I really like and respect Ken Ham, and I agree with him.)  I'm not sure what her deal is, but it bothers me.  And I find it a little concerning that after her strong stances against Calvinism, she would affirm a Calvinis...
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#6: When You Don't Feel Like You're Enough, August 2017 (repost)

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[Reposted from August 5, 2017.  I had my panic attack the summer of 2016.  I remember it took me about six months to not feel absolute panic every morning, to be able to wake up without feeling terror at the thought that I had to face another day, another chance for something bad to happen.  And it took me even longer to be able to really smile again, to feel a little lightness in my spirit, to be able to breathe again.  I mean, of course, I smiled before that.  I acted like I was okay.  But I didn't feel like smiling or being happy for the longest time.  I was just too afraid of life - too discouraged by life - to be able to smile.  This post was written as I was still working towards being "normal," as I worked on protecting my faith after the previous summer.  The way I see it, my life has been marked by that panic attack.  It's now "BPA" (Before Panic Attack) or "APA" (After Panic Attack).  That summer was just such a life- and...
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More Creation Videos We Watched

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A couple good videos my kids and I just watched as part of our homeschooling day: Did Dinosaurs Walk With Man  - a 45-minute seminar from Genesis Apologetics God of Wonders - an hour and a half "documentary" on the wonders of the God's creation (Also see this other post of mine for more creation videos we watched: Starting the new school year with Creation vs Evolution .)
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Things My Calvinist Pastor Said #5: God Ordains Wickedness

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(This "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" series is a breakdown on this much longer post:  "We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism,"  which was written last year but updated July 2020.  They are almost exact quotes.  All memes were created with  imgflip .) 5.   "God ordains  (note: Calvinism means "causes," but they won't see it or admit it)  the wickedness that wicked people do, for His purposes and His glory."               To Calvinists, it's absolutely  not possible  that God could have simply  allowed  mankind to choose to be wicked and to do evil things, and then in His wisdom and sovereignty, He figured out how to work their self-chosen evilness into His plans.               No!  Calvi-god doesn't just allow people to sin; he has to  pre-plan  and  cause  all the evil that happens ... or else He's not God. ...
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No Masks Allowed!

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           I’ve talked before about the need to get real with God.   But I think that we Christians also need to do better at being real with each other.   Why can’t we Christians just admit that we are broken, hurting people too, that we are sinful and need help?               Why do we act like we can do it all on our own and like we can handle everything with grace and style and a smile on our faces?   Why do we spend so much time and energy polishing up our outsides?   Is it t o earn approval?   To make God happy and proud of us?   To impress others?   To feel better about ourselves?   To look better than others?             Honestly, all we are doing is hurting everyone.   When we are not real, we miss out on a genuine relationship with God and others. ...
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When Sunday Comes

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First: The last scene of the Passion of the Christ (7 minutes long)  Today, let's remember why Jesus came to earth, died, and rose again: “… ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the whole world.”  ( John 1:29 ) "For what I received I passed onto you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures,"  ( 1 Cor. 15:3-4 ) “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”  ( Romans 5:18 ) "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies,"  ( John 11:25 ) “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”  ( Ephesians 1:7 ) “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the t...
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War Rooms, Praying Scripture, and Spiritual Warfare (repost)

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I strongly believe that there are angels and demons.  That prayer matters.  That there is a spiritual battle going on around us all the time ... and that we need to get involved in it, actively and consciously.  (Something I haven't been doing lately.)   Regardless of if we want it or not, we are constantly facing spiritual battles.  But if we don't acknowledge it - if we stick our heads in the sand, refuse to get involved, fail to put on our spiritual armor or to use the spiritual weapons available to us - we open ourselves up to deceptions, to defeat, to being very vulnerable to the strategies and attacks of the evil one.  You can't win a battle you don't even know you're in.  You can't defeat an enemy you pretend isn't there. What I have done here is compile a list of posts on spiritual warfare, on praying Scripture, and on creating a War Room (or War Journal). Have you ever seen  War Room ? You should.  It's a great movie.  And it is...
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Don't answer Calvinist questions. Dismantle them.

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  A snippet (edited a bit) from my post (on my other blog)  "When Calvinists say, 'But Sovereignty!' :  Many people often get suckered into Calvinism because of a Calvinist's strategic use of  false dichotomies , often starting with "Is God sovereign, or are you? "  We are  given two options: a ridiculous one that no good Christian would pick and the one that is designed to lead us deeper into Calvinism.   And it's a very effective method for a simple reason: We never question their definition of "sovereign."  We go "Oh, well, of course God is sovereign," and then we let the Calvinist implant their definition of sovereign into our minds, their idea of how a sovereign God must act... and before we know it, we're viewing the Bible through that lens. There are also other false dichotomies like " Is God all-powerful, or are you?   Does God control everything, or do you?  Did God save you, or did you save yourself?  Either God ...
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I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!

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So, I'm just wondering, are anyone else's children playing the song "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas" at unexpected, random times throughout the day for the past week, simply so that it gets stuck in your head and you can't stop singing it the rest of the day? No? I didn't think so. (Go ahead and take the challenge: Listen to this song once and see if you don't sing it the rest of the day, too.  That little, warbly, chipmunk voice rattling around in your brain.  And yeah, I know, this is a cruel and inhumane challenge.  I'm sorry!  But if I gotta suffer, I'm takin' you all down with me!😏)
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