Merry Christmas To All!

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Merry Christmas, Everyone!  May God bless you today and this next year.  May He show Himself to you in new ways, to encourage you, to help you along the hard paths, to restore your faith in Him (or draw you to Him for the first time), to lift you up when your heart is broken.

A song that I love: Hallelujah Christmas (Cloverton)
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the LORD." Luke 2:11 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16

"... if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  Romans 10:9, 13

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (tiny, bare-bones version)

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[Here's the tiniest version of my "But predestination!" post.  The short version with more memes and quotes and information can be  found here , and t he longest version (a series of posts full of many more Calvinist comments, my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons, and my replies to them, written for my own amusement and for my ex-church) can be found by  starting here .  But this tiny version includes only the most basic parts you need to know, with a few memes and quotes thrown in to spice it up and prove my points.  (I know this could be much tinier, but Calvinism has so many bunny trails, so many interlocking ideas, that it's hard to address one part without addressing more.  So this is as comprehensively tiny as I dared to make it.) ] At the heart of Calvinism is predestination and God's sovereignty (among other things, like "total depravity"), which according to Calvinism essentially amounts to:  "God preplans and controls everything, even sin ...
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Another one bites the dust

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[Happy Easter, y'all!] I just found this (sad!) on Reddit Reformed:  What happened to my conviction and love for God? Reformedhabeshagirl  said: Hello brothers and sisters I have always been a Christian and grew up fearing the Lord. I remember being convicted about my sins as young as 7 or 8 years old. I became Reformed around age 17 and I am 23 now. I have always been a repentant believer. My heart used to break when I sinned, and I love the Lord. I studied my Bible a lot, prayed often, and was very interested in theology, sermons, and everything related to faith. The problem is that my heart has lost all desire for the things I used to love. I stopped listening to sermons and I don’t want to study my Bible anymore. Any interest I had in Bible study or discussions about the Lord only came when my ex-boyfriend shared things with me every day or when it came from my pastor every Sunday. Now my heart feels hard. I am not convicted about the things I used to mourn over. I distanc...
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Hardest Spiritual Lesson #8: Matthew 6:33

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The second to last "hardest lesson" that many of us will face on our spiritual journeys (though I know there's more I haven't covered): Seeking God’s Kingdom and Righteousness (This will be a long one because there is much to say about it.    And I am drawing in a lot that I wrote in other posts because I think it is all worth repeating again and again.) Matthew 6:33:   “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” We all know that we are supposed to be seeking righteousness and God’s Kingdom.    But are we actually doing it?    And do we really even know what that means?   The reason I ask is because our country is getting so lukewarm and relativistic about spiritual things.    Whole denominations are drifting away from Biblical Christianity and becoming social clubs where the speakers tickle the ears of the congregation and make them feel warm and cozy and comfortable.  ...
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White horses and a cup of tea (part 2)

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(picking up where we left off in part 1 ...) And that brings us to this year.   This year I wasn't going to make any New Year's resolutions.  I was like "meh, who cares?" But then, two things grew naturally in my mind, goals for this year.  (The first one will take three posts, and then I'll share the second one after that.) (Plus, I think I'll keep trying the "talk less, listen more" resolution, too.   I could always use more of that.   And I think I'll add "try to stop speaking negative things."  That won't be easy.  I do far too much of that.): A Theme:   This is going to be my "white horse" year.   "What's a 'white horse'?" you ask.   Well, I'm glad you asked.  I'll tell you.   Here's the thing: I'm an overthinker.  A massive overthinker.  And it causes me lots of anxiety.  Of course, I have some very real things to be concerned about, but I also overthink little things and not-eve...
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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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According to the Concordance ... It's NOT (Calvinist) Predestination!

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(Part of the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" series) As I have studied this issue of “predestination vs. free-will,” I have found it immensely helpful and clarifying to look up certain words in Strong’s Concordance.   The concordance lists each word of the Bible, what it means in the original Greek or Hebrew, and how the word is being used in that particular verse.   I used to be really scared of looking up words in the concordance.   I was afraid that I would learn that my “free-will” view was wrong all along.   But I was determined to learn the truth, even if I didn’t like it. But, thankfully, the more I have looked up words and their meanings, the more convinced I have become that the Calvinist view of "predestination" is not correct.  That salvation is a choice, that it’s not predetermined for us by God.   God has made salvation available to all.   We have the responsibility to choose whether to believe in God or to reject Him.   And we w...
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Just Gotta Say I Feel Good Today

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I just gotta say that I feel pretty good today.  It's been awhile since I've felt so ... relieved, I guess.   And I think it really helped to vent the other day .  To complain a bit.  To not have to try so hard to filter everything I say.  (And yet, I did filter.  I was careful.)  But it felt good to be honest.  As honest as I could be. And it helped that an eye visit for two of my sons (right after I wrote that post)went well.   Given all the "waiting for the next pummeling" that I tend to feel every day, I have a really hard time handling some of the most basic things that other people can easily handle.  Last minute changes in plans throw me for a loop.  Too many things scheduled in one week (say, 2-3 things) stresses me out.  Being asked "How are you doing?" makes me want to activate my cloaking device.  Allowing the kids to drive in a car with anyone other than me or my husband freaks me out.  (I used to be...
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How Christians Are Led Into Accepting Homosexuality

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Nowadays, "Christians" everywhere are falling away from sound doctrine, choosing instead to compromise Scripture to please society and gain popularity points.  And nowhere is this more apparent than in the homosexuality debate.  (It's also very much in the "do all roads lead to heaven" debate and the abortion debate.) This is a link to an article  which takes a good look at how Christians are led astray and how they lead others astray.  (Gospel Coalition is Calvinist, though, and I don't support Calvinism.)  It looks specifically at Jen Hatmaker's fall from biblically-sound Christianity to embracing culturally-pleasing views on homosexuality.  (The comments are especially interesting to read.  It's interesting to see the amazingly different views held by those who call themselves Christians.  How eager people are to embrace homosexuality and to deny the authority of Scripture.  Amazing and tragic!) There are a couple things I would add t...
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When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (sermons)

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[This series was written mainly for my ex-church, so they could see the Calvinist pastor's own words, and why I think he's wrong.  In the posts following this one, I will examine in more depth some of the things he preached. Here's the posts in the whole series:  the pastor's sermons  ("When Calvinists say 'But predestination!'"), and my comments  1-4 (election)  and  5-6 (Romans and sovereignty)  and  7-9 (depravity, Book of Life, predestine)  and  10-11 (shaming tactics, Feb. 2015)  and  12-14 (dead, regeneration, born again)  and  15 (total depravity, manipulation)   and  16A (God's Will, babies)  and  16B (sin, evil, suffering)  and  17 (double-speak and the gospel) . For the shorter "for everyone" version which has a lot less quotes and a lot less o f my thoughts, click here .   And click here for the  teeniest-tiniest version  of it. ] Calvinism centers around th...
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Do We Have An Effect On "God's Will"?

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(Part of the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" series) At some point, most Christians struggle with the idea of “God’s Will.”   What is it?   Can we know it?   And what do we mean when we say “God’s Will”?   Are we talking about what He wants for/from us (the path He wants us to take)?   Or are we saying that He has pre-determined and set-in-stone plans, things that will happen regardless of what we do?   Do we have to find His Will or do we have to do His Will?   Do we have an effect on His Will or does His Will always happen, regardless of us?   Can we miss out on His Will for our lives?     
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