"Walking in God's Plan"

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I just found this sermon by Charles Stanley, Walking in God's Plan.  It's a good look at the different types of "wills" God has, of the things we are responsible for and the things God is responsible for.  

Such as God has a "predetermined Will" - events that God has predetermined that we cannot change, such as His plan to send Jesus to the cross.  

But then there are things that God desires - His "desired Will" for our lives - such as His desire that all men to be saved, His desire that we obey and trust Him, etc.  And we have a choice about following God in those kinds of things or not.  God has given us the right and responsibility to make certain decisions in our lives, about certain things He desires for us.  And our choices will have a real effect on whatever happens, on whether God's desired Will for our lives happens or not!  

This is a good balance between God's sovereignty and our free-will, our responsibility to make choices.

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When The Volcano Blows

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I was listening to Jimmy Buffet's Volcano earlier as I was driving, and I was thinking, "Wow, this kinda feels like life right now.  The grounds are shaking, the waters are churning, smoke's starting to rise ... and I know that one of these days the 'volcano' is gonna blow.  And when it does, I don't know how I'll handle it." I can't explain yet what the "volcano" is, but maybe someday.  
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Updated: Alana L. 5L (misunderstood sovereignty)

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[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 :   L : "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."   Misunderstood "sovereignty" You see, the thing is (and what most people fail to realize is) that Calvinists  incorrectly  make sovereignty about how God must  use  His authority and power, believing that He  must   always  be  using  His all-powerful authority  all the time  to  preplan ,  cause ,  contro l   everything , even sin and evil and unbelief,  "or else He's not a sovereign, omnipotent, in-control God." As  John MacArthur  says :  "... [God]  makes every decision that’s ever been made,   essentially, about everything....  He is the decider and ...
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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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In "Honor" of Halloween: My Story of Demonic Harassment (repost)

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(Reposted from last year and retold in various other posts.  I may just repost this one yearly at this time of year.) In “honor” of Halloween (a day that deserves no honor), I’m gonna share with you why we don’t celebrate Halloween.   (We take our kids to a movie instead, or buy a movie they’ve been wanting and have a “family movie night” with candy and popcorn.   So no need to feel sorry for them; they are not deprived.)   I don’t expect anyone to believe me, but I’m going to share my story.    (And for the longer version of this story on my other blog, click here .)  It’s my story about how I came to fully trust in Jesus’s name and to passionately cling to Him, to never be able to doubt the existence of a spirit world, to place such a high priority on prayer and God’s Word, and to always remember my need for spiritual armor.   And once again, you don’t have to believe me.   (But don’t say I never warned you.   And if you are ...
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UGW #4: Taking Our Responsibility Seriously

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Understanding God's Will #4:   (And sorry about the highlighting.  I can't undo it.) Is  there danger in believing that God will always work His plan in our lives, regardless of what we do or any responsibility we have?   Definitely.  And I think this is a big pitfall for Calvinists.   Because if we think that everything that happens is God's Will, that He'll always work His Will out regardless of what we do or don't do (because in Calvinism, God essentially preplans and controls everything we do, so everything we do  is  His Will, even our sins), then we don’t think so much about what we do and about our responsibilities.   We won’t take seeking righteousness, wisdom, His kingdom, prayer, and obedience, etc., as seriously as we should, because we don’t see the effect it has over our lives.    If He’s just going to do whatever He’s going to do anyway, then it doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, think or don't...
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Spiritual Warfare: Sword of the Spirit 2 (the bedrock)

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It was hard to watch my family member struggle through her deep emotional pain (see previous post ), and I couldn't really do anything to stop her difficult trial or make it all better for her, especially since the battle was mostly in her head.  And I know what that's like: Anxiety is a bully who doesn't play by the rules.  Unfair, unruly, and aggressive.  Running roughshod over you, your mind, your life. I couldn't fix it for her because she was in a battle she was forced to fight herself.  But I could at least try to encourage her by letting her know that I understood, that I got through something similar and that I know she can too... but that she has to want to get through it, to fight it and not give in.  She has to refuse to succumb to the Enemy's lies and destructive tactics. And to help her do this, I shared with her one of the things that helped me get through my hardest times: My "sword of the Spirit," my own personal list of favorite verses tha...
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"The Last Goodbye" - A song for us Hobbits

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(a post from my other blog , from March 28, 2022) There's a song at the end of  The Battle of the Five Armies  (from the Hobbit trilogy) that's become one of my favorite songs.  I feel this song, especially the line about "Many places I have been, many sorrows I have seen..."  That's kinda been my last several years: many sorrows I have seen.   Many trials.  Many heartbreaks.  (Everyone who lives long enough will have many of these.) Most recently, I had the awful experience of being on the witness stand for three hours, giving testimony against my mom.  And after nearly a week of trial, she was found guilty of ... well, of something really bad.  (She insists she didn't do it, but we think otherwise.  It's not exactly like the prosecution says, but close enough.)  And now she will spend her life in prison.   Many sorrows I have seen. I don't know if I'll ever see her again.  The last memory I have of her cou...
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Updated: Alana L. 5K "sovereign"

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[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."  Some of this stuff is in the already-published posts on this blog, but a lot is new and/or changed.  FYI: I've already got the posts in this series preset to be published every other week up into late 2026.  So there will be a long series of posts about Calvinism coming up, but with some non-series/non-Calvinism posts thrown in now and then for variety or fun.]   Point #5:  K : "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     Hahaha, Alana nailed this one!   And as she said,  "What many new Calvinists don't understand, and what they'll learn little by little by little - because if they were told this in the beginning they probably would catch on a little too quick and not follow the path  [Bi...
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God's Greatest Priority (and why there's a hell)

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Calvinists believe that God's greatest priority - His primary reason for making people - is to get more glory for Himself, and that He gets it through ordaining sin and predestining people to hell (among other things).  They think that this is why people are in hell: for God's glory, that He gets glory when He shows off His justice by punishing sin and evil.  And so He needed sin and evil and non-elect people to punish or else He couldn't fully display all His attributes to get praise and glory for them.   [But remember that - in Calvinism - people don't actually get to choose whether or not they want to believe in Jesus.  God decides for them.  He decides who won't believe and prevents them from being able to believe, and then He punishes them for not believing, even though they never had the chance or ability to believe, by God's decree.  This is a  far different  kind of "justice" than punishing people who actually deserve it, who had a ch...
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