Lord, I Don't Know ... But Hallelujah Anyway!

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We don't often know why things happen the way they do or why God allows what He does, but that's okay.  We don't have to know, because God does.  ("Lord, I Don't Know" by the Newsboys)

And if we're going to be singing "Hallelujah" all eternity anyway, why not start now?  ("Hallelujah" by the Newsboys)


I've found that sometimes the only way to deal with feeling hopeless, downtrodden, and brokenhearted is to sing, even when you don't want to.  In fact, especially when you don't want to. 

Just sing anyway!

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

Thank you, reddit/reformed. I'm honored!

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[I'm sneaking this post in between the regular bi-weekly (every other week) posts on both this blog and my Anti-Calvinist Rant blog.  (Did you know that bi-weekly can mean both "every other week" and "twice a week"?  What the heck, those are like total opposites!)] Commenter Senior-Emergency-944   started a thread  on Reddit/Reformed   called  Part of me wants to affirm it. But how do you refute this?!  which linked to my post  "But Calvinists don't say God causes sin and evil!" , asking for advice on how to refute the Calvinist quotes I shared about God causing evil.  If I was able to reply to Senior (I don't have a reddit account), I would've said this... That's awesome!  Thank you.  I'm honored that you brought up this post for discussion among reformed Christians.  And I think it's great that you're willing to examine this issue and think deeper about it, to face the dark, uncomfortable truth of what Calvinists really be...
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Merry Christmas To All!

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Merry Christmas, Everyone!  May God bless you today and this next year.  May He show Himself to you in new ways, to encourage you, to help you along the hard paths, to restore your faith in Him (or draw you to Him for the first time), to lift you up when your heart is broken. A song that I love:  Hallelujah Christmas   (Cloverton) "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the LORD." Luke 2:11 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16 "... if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.... Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  Romans 10:9, 13
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Finally! Someone In Hollywood Stops Apologizing!

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So glad to see this finally happen: A celebrity has finally stood up and said that enough is enough, that they are not going to apologize to the mobs who constantly attack others to bend them to their twisted political agendas. Way to go, Kevin Hart!  Good to see that commonsense still lives and that some people still have a backbone! The more people apologize to these mobs and try to appease them, the more powerful and power-hunger they get.  There's a lot that we need to stop apologizing for, before we end up giving them total control over social customs and values and what's allowed and what's not allowed. The madness will only end when people do just what Kevin Hart did: stop apologizing, and stop letting them make you feel like you have something to apologize for!
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Calvinism's Heart-Breaking Destruction

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Wanna see some of the real-life destruction that Calvinism does to hearts, souls, and faith?   Here are some comments (warning: bad language ahead) from a Reddit post called  "Calvinism is disgusting" , showing how people - who don't realize that Calvinism is NOT biblical - have been hurt by Calvinism and have ended up rejecting God altogether instead of just rejecting Calvinism.  Sadly, it's because they don't know that there's a  big difference  between the God of the Bible and the god of Calvinism, between the Bible's hope-filled gospel and Calvinism's sick, hopeless, twisted half-gospel. The reddit post starts out with this comment (I added punctuation to make it easier to read):  "I had a discussion with a Calvinist last night and it's more gross than I thought.  After questioning him for over an hour, it basically boiled down to the dude admitting that god predestined innocent children to a life of suffering and then hell, and that same ...
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Spiritual Warfare: Satan's Schemes #6 (half-truths)

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(We're getting closer to the end of the "Satan's Schemes" section, I promise.  A few more to go, then we'll move on.)   Okay, so last post  in this series we saw that Satan "planted" thoughts in Eve's mind, enticing her with new ideas.   But it wasn't against her will, for she was a willing listener - willingly engaging in conversation with him, willingly contemplating what he said, willingly entertaining things that she knew contradicted what God said. “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’    For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.    Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”    ( James 1:13-15 ) [May I suggest praying right now that God shows you if there's something you're dabbling with that may lead you astray or if you're ente...
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Did Our Church Handle It Wrong When We Left?

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We  left our church  in May because of the  dogmatic Calvinist pastor  who seems to  shame and manipulate people  into Calvinism and who doesn’t seem to tolerate any other views but his. It's been over three months since we left.  And just recently, one of the elders (a long-time friend who is a Calvinist) apologized for how the whole situation was handled.  They even had us over for dinner with their family.  (They are truly wonderful people!)  Apparently, some people have gone to the elders with concerns about how our situation was handled, saying that it was handled wrong. Now you're probably wondering,  So just how was it all handled?  What exactly happened? Answer: Nothing.   That's what happened - nothing. After we sent our  letter to the elders  detailing our concerns about the pastor's dogmatic Calvinism, nothing changed.    In fact, the pastor only got more vocal about it.    And so a...
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Little Drummer Boy #1

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My all-time favorite classic Christmas song has got to be the Little Drummer Boy.   If I’m listening to this song and start to think too much about it, I start to well up with tears.  Every time. My sons occasionally ask me why this is my favorite Christmas song.   “It’s stupid and it doesn’t make sense,” they say. I answer like this: “This song is about a little boy who’s poor.  And he wants to bring Jesus a gift.  But he doesn’t have anything to give him.  And so he gives the baby Jesus the only gift he has to give – a song.  And this poor boy is drumming his little heart out for the Lord, because that’s all he has to give.  But it’s enough.  And the baby Jesus smiles.” Usually, I am trying to hold back tears as I share this with my sons.  But they simply reply that it's still stupid, before running off to play. But that’s okay. I don’t expect them to get it yet.   And in some ways, I almost hope...
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Would You Allow A Grown Man's Naked Crotch In Your Child's Face?

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Photo shows Drag Queen Story Hour performer in miniskirt exposing crotch as children sit close by If this doesn't wake people up to what's wrong in our society today, what's it gonna take!?!  An underwear-less Drag Queen grabbing a child's hand and running it up his skirt!?!  A half-naked Drag Queen "accidentally" touching children in inappropriate ways!?!   But if we can't trust adults to realize that the stuff that's already going on is totally inappropriate , if we can't trust them to stand up against it for the sake of the children, then WHY would we expect them to protect children from "inappropriate" touches?  Especially when the government is supporting and protecting this inappropriate stuff!   Apparently so-called "intelligent" adults have lost their brains and morals so badly that they can't even identify "inappropriate" anymore, even when its naked crotch stares them in the face during a children...
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#10: I Just Want To Finish Well, August 2017 (repost)

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(Actually written in 2014, but reposted in August 2017 because it still totally applied.  And since it fit how I was feeling in 2017, I am including it in this numbered "after my panic attack" series.  This is one of the last posts in that series.  Maybe one or two more to go.) Once again, I found myself in an emotional funk (this is a repost from 2014, yet it still seems to be where I’m at in 2017), feeling like I can’t accomplish anything.   Can’t give any one thing the effort and time it needs.   I am so stretched-thin in places.   The housework never gets done.   This house will never be "finished."   My cooking has seen better days.   There’s not enough time to do everything I want when it comes to homeschooling … so, of course, my boys are going to grow up to be great big drains on society.   I was feeling a little panicked that things were slipping away from me too fast, that I couldn’t get a grip on anything. ...
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