Tony Evans: A Challenge to Faithfulness

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This is the Tony Evans' sermon that we watched as a family this past Sunday:

 A Challenge to Faithfulness

 It may be an older one because he never mentions the virus and I see no masks on anyone, but it's still so relevant.  So inspiring for today's troubles.

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Two Timely Billy Graham Sermons: Will Our World End? And Who Is Jesus?

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This message was spoken decades ago, but it is so timely right now ... Billy Graham's  "Will Our World End?"  (36 min)  Anything here sound familiar? What have you put your faith in? We all have faith in something.   What's yours in?  What are you counting on to save you? Also, if you're interested, here's a second Billy Graham sermon:   "Who Is Jesus?"    (24 min)   (And s ee my posts  "Why I Could Never Be An Atheist" ,   "Support for Jesus and the Bible"  and, for comparison,  "An Overview of World Religions." ) Come on, you can spare an hour of your life to figure out where you're going in the end, which seems to be getting closer and closer every day!
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Three Guidelines For Christians Regarding Halloween (repost)

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Halloween is coming up.  And of course the question for Christians is "How much should we participate in Halloween, if at all"? Truthfully, I don't know. My personal choice would be to have nothing to do with Halloween, except for eating candy.  (Thankfully, my boys never wanted to dress up in costumes.)  I don't feel comfortable participating in anything that "celebrates" death, violence, demons, witches, the occult, etc.  Those kinds of things are very real in the world and shouldn't be encouraged, laughed at, or glorified at all . But I also don't think there's anything wrong with meeting with friends, having some good clean fun, eating candy, enjoying God's wonderful Autumn blessings, etc.  Even dressing up just for fun isn't inherently wrong.     But is that too close to "celebrating Halloween"?   (I will admit that I am uncomfortable with the idea of "dressing up" for Halloween.  To me that seems to be the ...
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"The Candid Calvinist"

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  My husband just found this "satirical" 6-minute video about what Calvinists say vs. what they hide.  It's called  "The Candid Calvinist"  and it's brilliant.  This guy does a great job covering some of the confusing contradictions and deceptive word-choices of Calvinism.  I hope he does more videos like this.  (And does he not remind you of a young Ben Shapiro?)
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Spiritual Warfare: Sword of the Spirit 4 (the sword)

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Okay now, onto the list of verses I shared with my family member for her to use in spiritual battles, when Satan's got us down and cowering in fear.  These were specifically chosen for comfort, encouragement, and strength (and I added a few extra here for different kinds of temptations or trials).  I suggest p rinting them out, reading them over and over again, writing them out, mem orizing some, taking a list with you wherever you go, etc.  Whatever it takes to get through the hard times. And when the attacks, temptations, or hard times come, turn them into prayers  (I'll share my own personal Scripture-based prayers in the next post)  or simply s peak out loud the ones that fit your particular struggle, trial, temptation, or fear.   Declare to yourself, to the struggle/temptation, and to the spirit world/the Enemy that "It is written ..." and then quote a verse that fits.  A nd let God's Word comfort and still your soul as the sword of the Spiri...
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9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult #2 (hidden agendas)

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[This series is  "The 9 Marks of a Calvinist Cult"  split up into smaller, individual posts.]   (Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!) 2.  Hidden Agendas Not only do Stealth Calvinist pastors get into churches using deception, but they come in with the hidden agenda to reform the church, to slowly drag it into Calvinism without the awareness of the people. A post called  "The Church Infected with Calvinism"  shares this:  " This third scenario [of how Calvinism infects a church] is all too common.  There are websites that instruct Calvinistic preachers who accept calls to non-Calvinistic churches on how to gradually 'acclimate' the church to Calvinism.  I saw one website with a two-year, month-by-month plan for the stealth Calvinist to take a non-Calvinistic church into 'Reformed Theology' land.  It's almost cult-like and certainly deceptive...  While the Calvinistic pastor is crafting pulpit content to fortify his philosophical argume...
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How to Make a Right Decision

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This weekend (FYI, this is a repost, written long ago), I was struggling with a decision I made, wondering if I made the right one.   I do this a lot.   I always doubt myself and then have to re-evaluate my choice before I can feel confident that I made the right one (unless, of course, God lets me know that I was wrong.)   In this post, I want to look at ways we can evaluate our decisions and do our best to figure out which one God wants us to pick.   How can we know that we are making the “right decision”?
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Spiritual Warfare Sermons by Tony Evans

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Some basics The Nature of the Battle part 1   (audio, 25 minutes long) The Nature of the Battle, part 2   (audio, 25 min.) The War Revealed and Strongholds Defined   (video, 29 min.) Finding victory over Satan's tricks and traps    (video, 44 min.) How the enemy tries to distract you from God's plan   (video, 50 min.) Armor of God The Belt of Truth   (video, 31 min.) Breastplate of Righteousness   (video, 31 min.) The Shoes of Peace   (video, 32 min.) The Shield of Faith   (audio, 25 min.) Helmet of Salvation, part 1   (audio, 25 min.) Helmet of Salvation, part 2   (audio, 25 min.) Sword of Spirit, part 1   (audio, 25 min.) Sword of Spirit, part 2   (audio, 25 min.) Igniting Kingdom Prayer Series (all are video, 28 minutes long each) Touching Heaven to Change Earth   The Prayer for Spiritual Power   Claiming Your Legal Rights   Understanding Spiritual Authority   Praying in Jesus's Name   Pigg...
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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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My Testimony

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I've scattered bits of my story all over my blogs, but I’m gonna pull it all together here, about how I became a believer and some things I’ve gone through and how my faith has been affected.  (I’ll include links to posts where I explain things more fully.) Starting the journey:    I became a believer when I was eleven years old.    (I am now getting close to 50.   I don't know how that happened. )    At a Christian camp, on one of the last nights, they gave an altar call.    I wanted to go up but was nervous about standing up in front of everyone.    But being more nervous about the window of opportunity closing, I felt myself stand up and walk to the front.    I knew exactly what I was doing, that I was making a commitment for life.    And I meant it.    I really meant it.    I knelt down, asked Jesus into my heart, and have never turned back.    It hasn’t been an easy, carefr...
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A Calvinist pastor's 9-11 sermons (vs. C.S. Lewis)

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In "honor" of the anniversary of 9-11, I thought I'd share some quotes from my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons about 9-11 or around the anniversary of 9-11.  (I've shared all these before, so skip them in you want to.)   I'm so sorry to share thes e.  Please don't read them if you were greatly hurt by 9-11, or any other tragedy.  [ And speaking of tragedy: It's absolutely horrible and heartbreaking that Charlie Kirk was assassinated.  It's just so senseless.  It's not like he was a powerful political leader who made laws or rules that people didn't like or that affected their families or anything like that.  He was just a normal guy who debated views and shared his opinions - opinions that some people didn't like.  And for that someone killed him!?!  Something isn't right here.  May God expose what it is, and bring about justice, and protect and care for his family.  My heart goes out to them!  Heartbreaking!]    B...
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