Rejecting God's Help?

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For all those people who are bashing prayer, saying things like "**** a National Day of Prayer" such as seen in this article, for those who don’t want God’s help, who want Him to get out of our country, who want to handle this crisis themselves, in their own strength and wisdom …



Be careful ... because you might just get what you want!

A very timely sermon from Tony Evans: Divine Disruption  (It's only 23 minutes long.  You can spare 23 minutes!)

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Giggle Translate #18: Yes, I am a Christian, but...

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Here's the original stuff I wrote on my blogs (and then I'll Giggle Translate it) : Yes, I am a rock-solid Christian, but sometimes I just want to do bad things.    I want to say bad words and watch bad movies and listen to bad music and drink bad things and be all mean and cranky toward annoying people. But what I usually end up doing is just watching my 80’s movies, listening to my 80’s music really loudly, drinking no more than an ounce-and-a-half of mildly-alcoholic hard cider (because I really don’t like alcohol ... honestly, I drink no more than one bottle of hard cider a year!), muttering bad words under my breath, and telling my husband all of the whip-smart, snarky things I wanted to tell others but didn’t think of till it was too late. And it’s a good thing that I don’t think of all the smart-mouthed things until it’s too late or else I might end up saying them out loud.    Because while I am a buttoned-up, walk-the-line, stoic, straight-arrow kind of...
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A Website Worth Visiting: Hoppers Crossing Christian Church

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I recently found a good website that has lots of information about the dangers and errors of Calvinism:  Hoppers Crossing Christian Church .  (Also try this link for blog post.) I decided to leave a comment for them, telling them a bit about my church's experience with Calvinism and thanking them for speaking against it.  It's always encouraging to find others who have come to the same conclusion about Calvinism that we did, simply by comparing it to what the Bible says.   And they replied with a long, well-written response which I think should be out there for people to read.  They gave me permission to post their response here.  And so here is our brief exchange on Calvinism.      My comment to them: Thank you for taking the time to research Calvinism so thoroughly and for being bold enough to speak against it.  I am currently trying to do the same thing ( https://mycrazyfaith.blogspot.com ).  I'm sure my story is ...
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Calvinist Comments: Hiding "God Causes" Under Other Phrases

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I can't remember which Soteriology 101 post these comments are from, but read this exchange between Calvinists and non-Calvinists.  (I added my own notes in between.)  Note how convoluted the Calvinist view is, how he tries to cover up Calvinism's view of "God preplanned and causes and controls everything " with various words and layers, such as "God understands ... gives freedom ... permitted ... helps ... enables, etc."   But underneath it all (underneath every Calvinist attempt to sound like they believe in free-will, in our ability to make choices) is "God preplanned everything and causes exactly what He preplanned, causing man to do what he does, and no one can choose to do anything differently" - a very essential, fundamental Calvinist belief that they disguise with all sorts of "free-will" words and phrases.   First, a non-Calvinist (anti-Calvinist), BR.D. made this comment:   ‘For example – where Calvin’s god DECR...
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Calvin's Contradictions (simplified)

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  In the comment section of a Soteriology 101 post -  Flowers Man Bad  - someone (Simon Peter) was defending John Calvin, quoting him as saying  "the gate of salvation is open to all," making it sound like he thought Calvin really taught that salvation is truly available for all and possible for all.   I replied that Calvin contradicts himself in his writing, and so I wouldn't believe what he said in one place because he would contradict it or qualify it or add another layer to it in another place, changing what he originally said.   Simon Peter replied: " A sign of being a great scholar is the ability to change one’s mind and improve one’s system of thought. Calvin had that ability, as did Luther and many other great theologians.  In this light I would ask you to demonstrate the alleged contradictions from Calvin’s writings?" I'm guessing he thought that I made a baseless, ignorant comment, that I didn't have anything to back me up. And so I...
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Christian Testimony: Evangeline - "My Testimony: Lust, Drugs, Depression, Heartbreak, New Age to Jesus Christ"

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This is Evangeline's 23-minute testimony .  This is her first YouTube video, posted October 27, 2020 ... so let's show her some encouragement! In this video, she shares honestly and openly about how she grew up in a Christian home but drifted from the Lord, getting involved with drugs and men, making mistakes along the way.  She shares how she realized that her self-worth was wrapped up in these relationships but that they were not truly fulfilling to her.  At least not in the way we need to be fulfilled deep in our souls.  Only God, only Jesus Christ, can do that! I think there's a lot of wisdom in what she says about "I surrender!... I can't do this; take it from me!"  That is a point I think God takes us all to eventually - the point of choosing to either let Him be God or not.   It's not always easy.  In fact, it seldom is.  Learning to die to self.  To let God be God. To let go of the things we hold onto dearly, the things we think ...
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A Few Good TobyMac Songs

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Get Back Up Again    (God allows U-Turns!  There's always hope, always forgiveness, always a new day.) Hold On (The pain won't last forever.  And His mercies are new every morning.)  Break Open The Sky (Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!)
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A Tale of Two Sermons: Calvinist vs Non-Calvinist

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The other day, I watched a Willow Creek sermon again, and it happened to be Megan preaching again.  (I talked about her once before, see at the end of this post).  It was about heaven.  And it was good.  Very good.   But after that sermon, I decided to watch the sermon at the Calvinist church we left (I won't identify the church, or link to it), just to see what they were preaching.  And I wanted to compare these two sermons, to give you a taste of what sermons are like at a non-Calvinist church versus a Calvinist church.  I'm going to paraphrase what each pastor said, for space and to sum it up quickly.  And interestingly, both of them gave their version of the gospel, the call to salvation.  Notice how different they are.   And I want you to imagine what it would be like to be in the audience listening to these different sermons, especially if you were a broken, hurting, lost person who was aching for help and healing and hop...
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Religion is not the same thing as Christianity

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Sorry, Chelsea , but being "deeply religious" is not the same thing as being "Christian." In fact, I think religion is the greatest enemy to Christianity.  Because it appears so similar to it in some ways that no one realizes just how far from the truth it is.  It makes you feel like you have enough of God to get to heaven, but not too much that it infringes on your life. Religion is about working your way to heaven, about following "the rules," earning your way, trying to be good enough that God lets you in.  It's about believing you have a right to eternal life because of what you do or think.   Religion is the enemy of grace!   But Christianity is about God making the way for us to get to heaven when we couldn't do it ourselves.  It's about Him reaching down to pull us up, instead of us trying to work our way to Him.  It's about Him giving us a gift we could never earn - undeserved grace, forgiveness, love, salvation.   Relig...
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