A Couple Songs Dedicated To The Upcoming Election

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 Here are a couple of Tim Hawkins songs.  Just fur fun.  I dedicate them to the upcoming election:

Jimmy Buffet for President

The Government Can

If you can't do anything about it, may as well have some fun with it!

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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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Updated: Alana L.: 5O (author vs author)

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[I redid Point #5 and #6 in the Alana L. series on my other blog (and re-lettered the posts).  But instead of going back and changing the already-posted points on this blog, I'll just add the posts in their own little "series."]   Point #5 still :   O:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."       This is not technically a conflation (or maybe it is), but it's a sidenote triggered by this sentence in the last post: "[Calvinism]  truly makes God the author*/cause of all sin and evil, despite a Calvinist's insistence that it doesn't." *Bonus Note: Author vs Author When confronted by the fact that their theology makes God the author of all evil, the cause of all sin, Calvinists will inevitably refer to the Westminster Confession:  " God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass:  yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin ." [...
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When Calvinists say "But predestination!" (shorter, basic version)

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[I'm interrupting the Alana L. series for the much-shorter version - I said shorter, not short😉 - of my "But predestination!" series.   The longer version - full of many more Calvinist comments, my Calvinist ex-pastor's sermons, and my replies to them - can be found by  starting here .  But in this simplified version, I'm simply sharing the basics.  And I'll do a tiny version soon too, cutting out many quotes and memes.  But, oh, they add so much that it's hard to cut them out. ] 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 and evil and all our decisions, and so He pre-picks who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  He causes the 'elect' to believe in Him and be saved, but He made sure the 'non-elect' have no chance or ability to believe and be saved bec...
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#6 Forgiveness (shortened)

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(For full version of this Bible study "lesson," click here .)             As humans, we all hurt others and are hurt by others.   And the world’s way to deal with this is to hold grudges or to punish others.   But God has a lot to say about forgiveness – His forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others.   And these have major impacts on our relationship with Him and our standing before Him.               Mark 11:25 :   “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”               Matthew 6:14-15 :   “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.   But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”               Psalm 66:18 :   “. ...
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My Response To A "Predestination" Post I Recently Read

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(Part of the "Predestination vs. Free-Will" series) I want to share my response to a post I read from our church.   The person who wrote the post (I believe it was our pastor) quoted Acts 2:23 : “This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to a cross.”   The writer’s point is that God pre-planned Jesus’ death and chose to use wicked men to accomplish this.   I can agree with this.   However, the underlying point of his post is that God basically caused the men to be wicked (that He planned their evilness), to accomplish His purposes.   And yet God – even though He planned for and caused these men to be wicked – cannot be accused of doing evil or wrong.  This is a typical Calvinist view.     He also goes on to say that God also planned for Adam and Eve to rebel, to fall.   That it is for His glory that they fell.   The i...
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Giggle Translate #4: My Garden (My Favorite)

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This has got to be my favorite Giggle Translates for one reason only.  You'll see why later.  I was actually nervous copying and pasting it, because I was so afraid I would accidentally delete it or alter it.  But, phew, it's all good.  Anyway, I am not going to repost the original post but you can read it if you click on it.  It's called  "My Garden." Here is the post when it's been  translated through a bunch of languages with Google Translate  (honestly, it's really kinda poetic, almost better than the original) : We are still in the freezer this season.  Now is the time to think and design your garden.  And then there are a lot of articles about me.  I try to do it for myself, but not for myself.  And during the lessons, my soul embraces me and teaches me to live with God.              Gardening for me is an accent, a time of choice, a time to learn to lose weight ...
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Unearnable Love

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One of the hardest lessons I have had to learn in my spiritual life (and in my earthly life) is to let myself be loved by someone . . . by Someone.   I come from a very dysfunctional home.   A biological-dad and two step-dads by the time I was 8.   And then another step-dad (after a very messy divorce) when I was in my late-20’s/early-30's.   I didn’t grow up with my bio-dad or his family.   I didn’t even really meet them until my teens.   And then after that, I’d see my grandparents, uncles, and cousins about once or twice a year, sometimes less.   And I’d see my dad and half-siblings once every several years or so.   I never really felt like I belonged to a dad or had a place in my extended families.   And this feeling carried over to my relationship with God. I didn’t know it earlier in my Christian life, but my relationship with Him was based on fear, not on love.   I desperately wanted to please Him ... not because I loved Hi...
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Why do Christians make such a big deal out of certain issues?

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I've run across quite a lot of Christian blogs where the writer asks questions like this: "Why do some Christians focus so much on the issues of abortion and homosexuality and evolution?  Why do they focus on these over other ones, such as spreading Jesus's love and extending grace and taking care of the poor?  Why do they make such a big deal out of these issues when it only causes division and makes people feel worse and tears churches apart?" Well, here is my thought on this topic: The reason some of us take such strong stands on these issues is because too many Christians take such weak, flimsy stands on them.   Too many Christians nowadays are trying to spread the idea that the Bible doesn't talk about these things or that it isn't clear about them.   But that's absolutely not true!   The Bible is very clear on them - on the value of life and God being the creator of life, on the shedding of innocent blood (God doesn't have to specify ...
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Valuable Depression

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I used to think I was a happy-go-lucky, glass-half-full kind of person.   But then I grew up and realized that life is much harder and more unpleasant than I thought it would be.   The drone of every-day housework doesn’t make you feel like you accomplish anything worthwhile.   The lack of friendships makes you feel like you don’t matter.   The constant struggle to pay your bills makes you feel like you can never really rest and simply enjoy life.   It’s always work, and failure, and struggle, and exhaustion, and loneliness.
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