And Lastly, A Great Ending

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Every great story needs a great ending.  Here's one of the best end-of-movie songs from one of the greatest movies ever made: Storybook Love from The Princess Bride.  (You know it's true!)  The lyrics have nothing to do with my story or my blog, I just really, really love this song and movie.  (And I just watched it last night, so it's fresh in my mind.)  :) 

And now, it's time to say goodbye.

Seriously, let's not stretch it out.  It only makes it harder.  Let's just get it over with.  So ...

So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye!

Most Popular Posts of the Week:

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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My Most Trusted Pastor

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If you don't know which pastor you can trust because  so many of them are Calvinists , I recommend the one I listen to most and trust as the most biblically accurate: Tony Evans.  [And for one more: the late Charles Stanley ]  Back before we left our Calvinist church, when we were getting super fed-up listening to all the Calvinist sermons, I began listening to Dr. Evans every week, and I haven't yet heard anything that alarms me or that I disagree with (except for a few very minor points when it comes to prophecy).     I actually credit Dr. Evans with "restoring my faith" after I felt it crumbling under the Calvinist preaching we were getting at the time.   For quite awhile after we got our new pastor, I didn't know he was teaching Calvinism.  I just knew something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it yet.  But whatever it was, it was starting to affect my faith and my husband's faith as we heard these twisted, contradictory, u...
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Happy Valentine's Day! Love, God

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"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."   ( Ephesians 3:17-19 ) On this Valentine's Day, remember how much God cares for you and about you, how many blessings He's given you, how many hard times He's carried you through, and how many good things He's brought out of the bad. But above all, remember how much He loves you.   God loves you - us, all of us, each and every person, all sinners,  you personally  - so much that He sacrificed Himself for you so that He could spend eternity with you and give you the fullest, most meaningful life you could ever have, on earth and in heaven.  He'd rather nail Himself to the cross for the chance that you'd believe in Him and be saved than risk losing you forever. It wasn...
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Leaving Calvinism: Free To Decide

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Free to Decide: Confessions of a Former Calvinist   by Brandon Cox This pastor tells us honestly how he was influenced into Calvinism, how it affected his ministry and pride, and how he came out of Calvinism.   He also shows us how all the points of Calvinism hinge on each other, making it stable in itself but fragile if any one of those points should be disproven.  (Calvinism, I believe, hinges on Total Depravity and a wrong view of God's sovereignty.  And therefore, they will guard these doctrines with all they've got, which is what gives rise to all their word games, mind games, twisted verses, double meanings, etc..) I appreciate that he took the time to share his story of how Calvinism gets entrenched, as well as how people can come out of it.  (I still have hope for those at my ex-church.) I think this line says a lot:  "Formerly I had sought proof of Calvinism, now I simply wanted God's answers to my deepest questions." If more Calvinists a...
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Saying a prayer for Demi Lovato

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When I hear reports of celebrities who are hurting, who have hit rock bottom, who are desperately searching for healing from the demons that torment them, I say a prayer for them. The latest one is Demi Lovato .  I'm sure there are a lot of people who envy celebrities, who think they live a glamorous life. I don't envy them at all.  I think living in the public eye is a terrible burden to bear.  Being followed by the paparazzi, having pictures of everything you do published for the pleasure of a voyeuristic society.  Being picked apart by every trash magazine.  Having every detail of your life examined by people who think they have a right to comment on everything you do, to judge every outfit you wear, every choice you make, every thing you say, every pound you gain. I think it's a torturous way to live.  I don't think the fame and money they get makes up for the lack of privacy.  And my heart goes out to the celebrities who want more than what ...
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A Great Blog To Visit: Our Healing Moments (Testimony #1)

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I've recommended this blog before, but I'll do it again: Our Healing Moments (UPDATE: This blog has been deleted, so I took down the link.) I haven't really been reading other people's blogs lately (or even my own).  I've been trying to stay away from the online world as much as possible.  But I decided to check out her blog again because I like her writing and her heart so much.  You can see her sweet, gentle, godly spirit shining through everything she writes, even though she suffers from chronic, debilitating illness.   And the new posts I read touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes.  It's so nice to read something uplifting in this difficult, chaotic world.  From someone who knows pain and suffering.  Someone who has had to struggle to cling to the Lord.  I appreciate people and testimonies like that.  I understand them.  I learn from them and am encouraged by them.   [In fact, I have been aching to hear some g...
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A Random Verse That Destroys Calvinism (And "Is The ESV a Calvinist Bible?")

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In my normal Bible reading today, I came across a verse about "singleness vs. marriage" that destroys Calvinism in a few short words: "But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but who has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin - this man also does the right thing."   ( 1 Corinthians 7:37, NIV ) When you get past all the layers Calvinism wraps itself in to disguise the bad parts, it ultimately teaches - at the heart of it all - that God causes/controls  everything , even controlling our wills and causing our sins.  (But He then punishes  us  for the things He caused us to do, which would make Him unjust, no matter how much Calvinists try to deny it and cover it up.  See  this post  for some links about that.)  Calvinism ultimately teaches that everything we do is because God preplanned it, ordained it, and compels us to do it.  That we have no abil...
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Broken

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(Another post from my other blog.  It fits nicely after the previous post, "Are Tragedies 'Gifts From God'?" )    It hurts to be broken. It’s being vulnerable, taking a risk with our hearts . . . sometimes winning, sometimes losing. It’s leaning on others and opening ourselves up to them, to trust, to hope - sometimes finding support and acceptance and help, being caught before we hit the ground, but sometimes being let down and battered, falling flat on our faces when others pull back and fail to catch us. Sometimes, it’s just a minor annoyance, a pain that we absorb with relative ease, realizing that we are better for it.  And sometimes, it’s more pain than we can bear, feeling like we’ll never be whole again, wanting to curl up in a ball in a dark, lonely corner and fall asleep forever. Being broken hurts! And it leaves us different, changed.  It leaves tear-stains on our cheeks.  Scars on our hearts.  Bruises on our souls.  A limp in our ...
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Scariest Halloween decoration ever?

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So it's Halloween time again, huh?  Is it just me, or has there been a big increase in the amount of Halloween decorations in people's yards? I don't decorate for Halloween, nothing more than maybe a few pumpkins.  But a neighbor and I were talking the other day, and she inadvertently stumbled on what I think would make the best Halloween decoration.  Something truly terrifying.  And if I had more guts, I'd maybe consider doing it someday. She was reading out loud some reported quotes from famous atheists just before their death, and I thought Now that would make a scary Halloween display in your yard, a collection of tombstones with atheist quotes on them!    Quotes such as these: David Strauss , who spread German rationalism to erase people's belief in God: "My philosophy leaves me utterly forlorn!  I feel like one caught in the merciless jaws of an automatic machine, not knowing at what time one of its great hammers may crush me!" Thomas Paine , at...
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"Neo-Calvinism vs. The Bible" - Andy Woods

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This is just a quick post to share a series from Andy Woods against Calvinism: Neo-Calvinism vs The Bible | Andy Woods Ministries I've only listened to the first three so far, but I found this one quite intriguing:   Neo-Calvinism vs. The Bible 003 | Andy Woods Ministries In that one, he gets a little into the Catholic roots of Calvinism and the errors of Calvinism related to prophecy.  As he says, Luther didn't believe Revelation was inspired by God (and he considered it satanic to take end-times' prophecy literally), and this explains why many Calvinist churches don't address prophecy much.   And he also says that Calvin believed in amillennialism.  And to me, this would explain why the EFCA - which I believe has been taken over by Calvinists - removed the belief in premillennialism from their statement of faith, allowing for pastors to preach things like amillennialism. He also gets into the damage that Lordship Salvation - with John MacArthur at the for...
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