Greeting Card Headaches

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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.)

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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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Christian Testimony: Elizabeth - "How I Came to Jesus (depression and anxiety), Part 1"

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Here is Elizabeth's 13-minute-long testimony: "How I Came To Jesus (depression and anxiety), Part 1" . Of all the ones I've seen so far, hers is probably the most touching, deep, heartfelt one.  My heart breaks for her.  But it's a great testimony about how n o matter how hopeless life feels and how lonely you are, God is always there for you.   As she says, no matter what hard trials life throws at you, “God is real.   And He has me…. God cares.” She says that she feels like she's lived 30 lives already, and yet she's only 22.  Wow!  So much wisdom, heart, and goodness ... and in someone so young, too! And she not only has a beautiful, touching story to share, but she's also got a beautiful, touching voice too!   Beautiful worship songs. God bless you and your ministry, Elizabeth!  Thank you for opening your heart and life up to us!
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Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps (tiny version)

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Here is the tiniest-I-could-make-it version of "Fending Off Calvinism (a.k.a. Destroying Calvinism in 28 Easy Steps)"  (from my other blog) - which itself is the second half of a post called "Calvinism's Systematic Theology (and how to fend it off)" - about the fundamental errors of Calvinism that trap well-meaning Christians into a very bad, very deceptive, very tricksy theology.  I cut out as much as I could here, so check out the longer posts in the links above if you want a fuller picture and more information.   [Despite the title of this post, I know there's nothing easy about defeating or debating Calvinism.  It's such a tangled web of errors, with a cult-like vice-grip on people's minds, that it can't be defeated with just a few verses or rebuttals.  Its errors are so complex, interconnected, and deep-rooted that it needs to be completely dismantled idea by idea, wrong definition by wrong definition, misinterpreted verse by misinterpreted...
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What Real Encouragement Looks Like Sometimes!

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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!
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The Hobbit

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(Reposted from my other blog, from 2014, but edited quite a bit.  My sons and I have been obsessively watching the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies lately.  Okay, mostly me.  But I can't get enough of them!  I'm starting on the books now too.  A great way to spend lockdown.) I was driving to the flower shop today to pick up some onion transplants when I heard a line from a song that really stuck with me.    It was something about ‘not knowing how the journey will end.’    And it hit me that that’s exactly what has always scared me about life ... not knowing where things are headed.  To me, everything feels doomed, like tragedy and heartache are always right around the corner.    And so I guess I live with a constant, deep sense of anxiety and discouragement.    Always waiting for the next bad thing.                And I began to think, " Why do I always have to thi...
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Giggle Translate #17: Oh What Great Serenity

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This "giggle translate" is about my relationship with one of my brothers (I did two translations, just for fun). You know what, I'm gonna put the translated versions first and then the original paragraph of what really happened.  This way, you can read the translations first and try to figure out what really happened, and then see how right or wrong you are. Here goes: Translated version #1   ( After running my original paragraph through several languages with Google Translate) : Why hasn't one of my relatives loved me so much when we had so much fun and children?  We ate our table very quickly, and we got a reply within five seconds, but I did or ate so much that we ate less than half an hour later while watching.  Oh how beautiful!  The time has come when he may exchange fivepence when he asks, because he was more than fivepence.  And I extend it to meenie-miney-moe, so it always has to be "he" (so he has the power of blaming me but "I told him he alw...
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A Pre-Trib Rapture is the Most Merciful Option (repost)

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(Repost, with some additions) Some people have a lot of trouble accepting the idea that God would rapture the church out but leave everyone else to go through the tribulation.    They think it is heartless and cruel of Him.    I, however, think that a pre-trib rapture is the most merciful thing God could do. In the movie   Left Behind   (with Nicolas Cage), a young woman who missed the rapture looks around at all the pain and heartbreak and devastation ... and she screams out about how the loving God her mother worshipped would never cause something as tragic as that to happen.    He would never take people away and let others be left behind to face the troubles of the tribulation. Or would He? The thing is, I think a pre-trib rapture shows just how loving and merciful and patient He is, how much He wants everyone to come to Him. [And I have to ask ...  If God created a way for us to be saved ... ... if He Himself, out of ...
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Alana L.: 5k ("soveriegn")

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This series is  loosely   based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.:   5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist   Point #5 :   (Update: I totally redid Points #5 and #6 on my other blog, but instead of changing the already-published posts on this blog, I am adding them after this series as it is.  Look under the "Alana L." label for the "updated" versions of these posts, numbered 5K-6Y, plus Z/Conclusion.   They'll be published between December 2025 and Summer 2026. ) 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  [Bingo!!! She hit the bulls-eye!]   - sovereign is not just a word that means 'supreme ruler' in Calvinism  [as ...
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Using Scripture in Spiritual Battles

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If there is one thing I have been learning as I have faced the spiritual battles of depression and anxiety, it’s this:   I NEED GOD’S WORD. I used to see God’s Word as a good guidebook for life.   And, yes, it is that.   And, yes, it is a history lesson and a prophecy of things to come and God’s message of love, redemption, and salvation.   But it is still more than all that.   Ephesians 6:17 identifies the Word as the “sword of the Spirit.”   Along with prayer, it is the only offensive weapon we have in the spiritual battle.   The other pieces of “armor” (read Ephesians 6) are defensive, meant to help us resist the attacks of Satan.   But prayer and the Word (and the Holy Spirit) are meant to help us advance against him, to strike back.   The Word is a sword . . . and yet so often I treat it like a pillow.   Like a nice soft, comforting, cushy thing to lay my head down on at night to help me sleep better.   I read...
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Anti-Calvinism Links

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This is the last half of the post "What's The Best Way To Make People Agree With Your Calvinist Views."   But I put it here in its own post so that it's easier to find. These are some links to posts which are against Calvinism, the belief that the Bible teaches God has predetermined from the beginning of time who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  It's no secret from my writing that I strongly disagree with this view.  I believe the Bible clearly teaches that God offers us all salvation, that Jesus's death paid for everyone's sins, and that we have to decide if we will accept Him or reject Him.  And here is some of what others have to say about Calvinism: (FYI, I haven't read everything in all of these yet and I don't necessarily agree with every point they make, but I needed to link to them before I lost them online.  And for the record, I came to my belief about what the Bible says by reading the Bible, not extra-biblical books or articles...
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