When God Breaks You to Remake You: Encountering God Through the Hard Times

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A great sermon by Tony Evans:  "Encountering God's Process," about how God breaks us of our self-sufficiency to remake us stronger in Him.  I've been there before.  I totally understand. 


And here are some more "Encountering God ..." sermons worth watching.  (Come on, now, I know you've got the time, stuck at home, "social distancing."  You've got plenty of time for a "God encounter"!):





 

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

How Would You Spend Your Last Day?

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Okay, so today (reposted from 9/23/17) is the beginning of the end of the world, according to a Christian numerologist.  As I went to bed last night, I was thinking, "What if the world really did 'end' tomorrow?  How would we choose to spend our last day?" As I laid in bed by myself last night watching Gilmore Girls for the 832nd time while my husband and kids watched a show together in the other room, I thought about how we all had eaten dinner together earlier (homemade BBQ chicken pizza) and how hubby and I had our "mommy and daddy" time and how we were all just chillin' now with each other, hanging out in our normal low-key way, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream.  And I thought, "This is exactly how I would want to spend my last day.  If the world ended tomorrow or if the rapture really happened and Jesus came back and took my family out of here, I would be happy to end my time on earth like this."  Actually, I can t...
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Guidance Comes Only When We Need It

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I feel so relieved this morning.  Relieved and nervous.  My oldest son has just graduated from homeschool high school this year.  And he is registering today at the community college. I strongly believe in homeschooling, but I am not my own best cheerleader or supporter.  I have had many doubts and fears (to the point of being stress-sick) about how well I am raising them, how prepared they'll be for the future, if I am going to fail them academically, etc.   And knowing that he's graduating and going on to college is scary, because now everyone else can see how I've done and judge me for it.  And now we'll find out if he has to pay a price for any inadequacies and failures of mine. Anyway, part of my fear came from not knowing how to direct him when it came to picking a major or classes or a plan for the future.  He hasn't been sure of what he wants to do.  He has a couple ideas, but he wasn't sure.  So at first, we told him to just ...
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Feminism Nonsense (repost)

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(Oh, how we love nonsense in our country!) We women are fighting so hard to be like men, to downplay femininity, to be perceived as more masculine, to overtake any "men's realm" we find.   Because it’s “cool” and “progressive” and “strong.” But do we not realize that we are not “leveling the playing field” so much as we are destroying ourselves , the things that make women special? Women can be strong, too.   And they don’t have to be like men to do it.   Trust me, I know.  I've had four children, one by c-section and three by natural, drug-free homebirth (with over 15 hours of labor for each one).  And then I work in the home every day, all day long.  No pay.  No vacation time.  No weekends off.  No bonuses.  No overtime pay. But I do it because my family and I value my position, my role.  Even if the world doesn't. W e women can be strong and capable and accomplished in our...
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Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

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It's so sad to hear about all the celebrities who have recently committed suicide (or about anyone who has committed suicide, for that matter).  My heart breaks for them, for the pain they went through, and for the ones who love them, for the pain they are now going through.  It is truly a tragedy. To anyone who is hurting really badly, who is struggling with overwhelming anxiety or depression, who is considering taking their own lives ... I dedicate this post.  Please, take some time to look through some of the links here.  This is a round-up of some on-line resources or posts about dealing with anxiety or depression, particularly as a Christian. But first: Quick tips for help: If you are desperate for some immediate help and don't want to look through the links I have below, try some of these (or if it's really bad and you think you might hurt yourself, call 911 or go to the emergency room): 1.   Put on a worship song right now.  Or sin...
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Yes! Jesus Did Talk About Hell!

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If someone says that Jesus never talked about hell or that He never talked about it being an eternal condition, they are not being true to the Bible. Jesus did indeed talk about hell.  And He talked about hell being an eternal place of punishment. But He didn't talk about hell to scare us or threaten us.  He talked about hell to warn us, to save us, to rescue us from the fire.   "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."   ( Matthew 10:28 ) "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them in the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  ( Matthew 13:40-42 ) "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, ...
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A Defining Moment

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(This was written months ago and reposted from one of my other blogs.  It's the point that I came to after all the pain of 2016.  And if this is where all that pain led me to, then I don't regret it.  You'll see what I mean.) Have you ever been smacked upside the head by the heaviest questions you could ever ask yourself, knowing that the answers would define your future and determine the direction of your faith thereafter? ... During the worst summer I ever had - the summer of 2016, the year that broke me  (written about  here )  - I was in such despair that I could barely get out of bed.  I was afraid of everything - afraid of having another panic attack, afraid that moving around would make me throw up, afraid that I would lose my mind and end up in the hospital, afraid that I wouldn't get help from the hospital and that I would succumb to crippling anxiety, afraid of talking to others, afraid of not talking it out, afraid my mother would kill he...
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The Spiritual Loneliness of a Messy Faith

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             As I have walked this journey of faith, I learned something that I never read in any book on faith:               The deeper you go in your walk with the Lord, the lonelier it can get.               The higher you climb on the mountain of faith, the less people you’ll find climbing with you.               First off, other people can’t go with you into the hardest parts of your journey - when you are struggling the most with your faith, with the hardest trials, with the deepest truths and doubts and fears.   Those struggles are between you and yourself and the Lord.
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Releasing It All To God

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A quick flutter caught my eye.  I turned to look, but couldn't tell what I was looking at. I was in the garden checking for the first ripe snap peas when something rustled in the compost pile by the fence.  A little, messy ball of brown and tan and ... wings. A baby cardinal!  Trying to get through the chicken wire fence.  Trying to get back to the place he belonged.  I bent down and gently scooped him up, speaking soothing words of "You're okay.  I've got you."  He struggled and screamed, straining to get away.  But I had to help him because there's no way he could get out of the garden on his own.  He was barely old enough to fly or run or grip onto a branch.  (There was a big storm the day before.  I wonder if he fell out of the nest.) My 12-year old son loves wildlife.  He has a tender heart for creatures and loves showering care on anything that is in need.  So I called him out to look. We both got to hold h...
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Be Wary Of The Christian Post

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(Written 6/15/18)  Occasionally, I check in with the Christian Post to see what's going on in the world that specifically relates to Christians.  And generally, I've never really had any red flags go up about this website ... until now. A recent article by Stoyan Zaimov, with a title that starts "Christian Lesbian rock star ..." goes on to share this woman's story about being assaulted by a male priest when she was young.   However, I don't think the reason for this article is to talk about the abuse she suffered and her courage in speaking up.  I think this is a deliberate attempt to affirm Christian homosexuality.  The very fact that they put "Christian" and "lesbian" in the title makes it sound like it's indeed possible to be a Christian and a practicing homosexual who sees no need to change. And it seems to me that this article paints her in a heroic light, as though she is in the right and should be applauded and e...
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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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