In the Midst of Unanswered Prayer ...

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A beautiful post about how even if the midst of unanswered prayer, of heartbreak, of turmoil, God is still there:

"Hard Times?  How To Hear God's Song Louder Than Any Hard Times"

Even if He doesn't fix our problems or do what we thought He "should" do, He's still with us, walking with us through the pain.  

(And if you can't find Him or feel His presence anywhere else, remember that He's always in His Word, waiting to meet you there.)

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

Prayer, Faith, and God's Will

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(repost, summary of “Understanding God’s Will,” Question 9, Q9a -Q9i)             “‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered.   ‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.   Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’” ( Mark 11:22-24 )                    I have to be honest.   I struggle with this verse more than any other.   I really do.   I mean, it sounds pretty straightforward to me: believe that you’ll get what you ask for and you’ll get it.   Name it and claim it!   Sounds great!               But there’s a problem.            ...
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The Early Church and God's Gender

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I said in the last post that there was one article on a Christian News website that bothered me enough to remove the link to that website.  But then I re-added the link, and decided to simply write about the bothersome article here. The article is entitled "What The Early Church Thought About God's Gender."   In this article, the author is trying to make a case for God/Jesus being feminine, more feminine than the Word really portrays them.   I have no problem with saying that God/Jesus has a feminine side - a gentle, loving, nurturing side, like all people do to some degree.  Or with saying that since God created man and woman in His image then it must mean that feminine and masculine characteristics come from Him and are evident in His nature.  It's just that men got the more masculine traits and women got the more feminine, and that men and women together in marriage give us a more complete picture of the total nature of God. That's all fine.  But w...
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Spiritual Warfare: Satan's Schemes #9 (bitterness, unforgiveness)

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This is the next-to-last of the "Satan's Schemes" posts in the Spiritual Warfare series (and it's a repost from something I wrote elsewhere)... and then I'll  move on. John 10:10 :  "Jesus said, ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...'" To steal our peace, joy, and contentment.  To kill our hopes, passion, and Christian witness.  And to destroy our friendships, family, faith, and futures.  Among many other things.   And I think one of Satan's biggest tools for this is the snare of unforgiveness and bitterness.  If he can get us to focus on - and constantly ruminate on -  all our hurts, all the ways we’ve been cheated in life, the ways people let us down or treated us poorly, the ways God let us down, the ways we let ourselves down, all the things that've gone wrong, etc., then we'll grow more and more  bitter, discouraged, defeated, and closed-off... and farther and farther from God, His truth, other people, and any hope f...
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#1 Wrestling With God, 2015 (repost)

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[ I wrote this post in August of 2015.  But I am reposting it because I need to read it again.  I guess I need to read it again because life sometimes feels like one big "wrestling with God" match.  Wrestling with faith.  With life.   As I look back on these past several years, I am kinda amazed at how things turn out.  Or ... how they don't, I should say.  How real and raw and messy life can be sometimes.  These next numbered posts are taken from over these last few years, showing the progression of life, of the unexpected, of the "wrestling with God, faith, and life" moments.  This one goes up to August 2015, how beaten up I've felt over the years up till then.  And then comes the post about the hope I had that 2016 would be better.  And then comes 2016 - the worst summer of my life.  A life-changer for me.  And then, well, I'm not sure yet what I am putting after that.  But I'm reposting these because it's fasci...
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Why is Calvinism so dangerous? #2 (God wants whom to perish?)

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  [In this series, I'm breaking the long post   "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?"   into bite-sized pieces.] 2. The Bible says ...  God is not willing that any man should perish, He wants all to be saved, His saving grace is available to all. But Calvinism says ...  God predestined most people to hell for His pleasure and glory, His saving grace was never for the non-elect . 2 Peter 3:9 :   "... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."   [However, Calvi-god predestines most people to perish, but then he says here that he doesn't really want anyone to perish.  Deceptive!  And if he gets glory for predestining people to perish, then isn't he denying himself glory by saying he doesn't want anyone to perish?  If predestining people to hell truly was glorifying to him, then shouldn't he - and Calvinists - celebrate people going to hell because it brings Calvi-god more glory?  If Calvi...
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Quoting from the POP Translation of the Bible, I Presume?

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It sounds like someone's been reading the POP translation of the Bible - the "Pile Of Poopies" version: A Gay Writer Who Forgot Almost Everything Jesus Said . This would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetically sad and desperate! And it's very interesting how his Bible included the "love one another" commandment, but forgot to include the actual greatest commandment ( Matthew 22:36-39 ): "'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment." And then comes the second commandment: "And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Avoid the Pile Of Poopies Translation!  Unfortunately, people love it because it comes with a permanent marker to black out anything you don't like, a highlighter to highlight only the things yo...
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A Foolproof Plan for Bitterness and Discouragement

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(A repost.  This is satire.  Kind of.  Snarky and sarcastic.) We all want to be bitter and discouraged, don’t we?   But how do we get there? Well, don’t worry, I can help you with that!   Because I have put together a simple guide to help us succeed in becoming better bitter people.   It's for those of us who enjoy wallowing in misery but don't know how to get there.  (For those who don't like wallowing in misery and who are seriously struggling with depression and discouragement, don't read this.  Instead read "Is Depression a Sin?" ) But I can just about guarantee that if you carefully follow each of these steps, you too will be bitter in no time. So if you want to discover the delicious power, delightful self-abuse, and ultra-fun finger-pointing that come with bitterness, this is the guide you've been looking for: “A Foolproof Plan for Bitterness and Discouragement: Thirty Simple Steps to Finding the Miserable Life You're Searching For.”...
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God's Greatest Priority (and why there's a hell)

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Calvinists believe that God's greatest priority - His primary reason for making people - is to get more glory for Himself, and that He gets it through ordaining sin and predestining people to hell (among other things).  They think that this is why people are in hell: for God's glory, that He gets glory when He shows off His justice by punishing sin and evil.  And so He needed sin and evil and non-elect people to punish or else He couldn't fully display all His attributes to get praise and glory for them.   [But remember that - in Calvinism - people don't actually get to choose whether or not they want to believe in Jesus.  God decides for them.  He decides who won't believe and prevents them from being able to believe, and then He punishes them for not believing, even though they never had the chance or ability to believe, by God's decree.  This is a  far different  kind of "justice" than punishing people who actually deserve it, who had a ch...
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Is God Drawing Lines in the Sand (repost)

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(R eposted from a few years ago, updated slightly.  Part of the "End Times" series.) It’s amazing and disturbing how brazen our society is in attacking everything about God and everything He created:  marriage, monogamy, sex, family, sexuality, the scientific reality of gender, morality, modesty, the value of a person, the right to life, the existence of "right and wrong," the Bible, Jesus, and Absolute Truth.  Not to mention God Himself, His very existence. We are destroying everything associated with Him (except nature – we worship that), and then we call ourselves "progressive." But you know what I think about it all?   I think that God is letting it happen because He is drawing lines in the sand.  Through all these divisive issues and all the immorality, God is saying “Pick a side!  I am forcing you to decide which side you want to be on ... because I am coming back soon to take My people out of here.  So I need you all to decide: ...
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An Angel and a Wink

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I try not to think too much about the death of my 30-year-old sister-in-law last week (she left behind 3 kids under age 6 for my brother to raise alone now).  I'm afraid if I think about it too much, I'll start crying.  And if I start crying, I might not stop.   In fact, I couldn't even go into the room where her body was during the funeral because there were so many pictures around of her and my brother and their happy, smiling children.  My goodness, to see the happy family in the pictures - the children who have no mother now - absolutely breaks my heart.  So I watched the children in the kitchen while the funeral happened. Thankfully, the children seem too young to really understand.  When I first got there, my 5-year-old nephew told me, "Come on and see my mom.  Come see my mom."  And he dragged me up to the casket.  And as he said, "There's my mom," his voice cracked ever-so-slightly with sadness.  But then he skipped out ...
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