Totally cool!

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I just gotta share this one...

I have always LOVED watching baptisms (and even more so when people share their testimonies too).  It's a special once-in-a-lifetime moment when someone vulnerably stands up in public and declares their faith in Jesus.  And it's a moment we should all celebrate and feel honored to witness.

Well, today my neighbor - whom I've been doing Bible study with (along with her aunt) for the last few years after she became a believer in 2020 (see here) - decided (rather spontaneously) to get baptized during a church service at the beach.  

And not only did I, her aunt, my husband, and my son get to go with to support her, but I got to get in the water with her (in my jeans, because I didn't know this was going to happen), pray with her, and help submerse her in the water too.  

Totally cool!  And I am so honored and humbled to be a part of this amazing moment in her life!

(And now we keep praying for her husband.)

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White horses and a cup of tea (part 3)

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[I'm working my way through this slowly.  Click here for part 1 and part 2 of this series.]  First, here's The White Horse Parable again (my version): A man and his son owned a field that they farmed for a living.  And one day, they found a white horse in the field. "Oh, what a blessing," said the farmer.  "A free horse." But then the horse started tearing up their plants.   "Oh, this is terrible.  What a curse!" cried the farmer.   But then they caught the horse and tamed it and were able to use it to farm the field. "Oh, what a blessing," said the farmer. But then the son was thrown off the horse, broke both arms, and couldn't farm for months, reducing their sales and income. "Oh, what a curse," said the farmer. "I wish this horse never came to us.  Why, God?  Why!?!" But then a war started, and the army issued a draft.  But because the son had broken arms, he was excused from the draft and didn't have to f...
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Updated: Alana L. 5K "sovereign"

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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."  Some of this stuff is in the already-published posts on this blog, but a lot is new and/or changed.  FYI: I've already got the posts in this series preset to be published every other week up into late 2026.  So there will be a long series of posts about Calvinism coming up, but with some non-series/non-Calvinism posts thrown in now and then for variety or fun.]   Point #5:  K : "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     Hahaha, Alana nailed this one!   And as she said,  "What many new Calvinists don't understand, and what they'll learn little by little by little - because if they were told this in the beginning they probably would catch on a little too quick and not follow the path  [Bi...
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In "Honor" of Halloween: My Story of Demonic Harassment (repost)

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(Reposted from last year and retold in various other posts.  I may just repost this one yearly at this time of year.) In “honor” of Halloween (a day that deserves no honor), I’m gonna share with you why we don’t celebrate Halloween.   (We take our kids to a movie instead, or buy a movie they’ve been wanting and have a “family movie night” with candy and popcorn.   So no need to feel sorry for them; they are not deprived.)   I don’t expect anyone to believe me, but I’m going to share my story.    (And for the longer version of this story on my other blog, click here .)  It’s my story about how I came to fully trust in Jesus’s name and to passionately cling to Him, to never be able to doubt the existence of a spirit world, to place such a high priority on prayer and God’s Word, and to always remember my need for spiritual armor.   And once again, you don’t have to believe me.   (But don’t say I never warned you.   And if you are ...
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Giggle Translate #10: Whispers, Tired Cabbage, and North Korea

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Here is the original section I wrote for   my life story   over at my other blog: I am also a Licensed Professional Counselor with a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology.  But that sounds more impressive than it really is, because I actually have very little counseling experience. And my first “attempt” at it wasn’t very impressive, either.  My very first counseling job was, of course, as an intern.  I was supposed to sit in with my supervisor as he counseled a reluctant teen boy.  And I was hugely pregnant with my first child. Before going into the counseling room, I was passing through the office when a bowl of butterscotch candies called out to me,  “Heather, you want one of us!  We look good, don’t we?  Go ahead, take one!  The baby wants butterscotch!”   A little voice in my head said,  “Don’t do it.”   But did I listen?  No!  I grabbed a piece and popped it in my mouth.  After all, I was just ...
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Another Serving of Anti-Calvinism Memes

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Some more of the memes I made up, just for fun! "Sovereignty" ... Special code Working for salvation? "Total Inability" But guess what? And so I said ... I told you ... WRONG! Santa Claus Hard To Swallow Pills How you feel when ... The Pie Chart - Theological Influences The Pie Chart - Calvinist Theology Calvinist theology - dead men I Tell You This Every Time ... Definitely "elected" How do we get them to believe ... Where do you get your theology from? You're right, Calvinist A Calvinist's Amazing Grace What if ...?
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Spiritual Warfare: Sword of the Spirit 2 (the bedrock)

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It was hard to watch my family member struggle through her deep emotional pain (see previous post ), and I couldn't really do anything to stop her difficult trial or make it all better for her, especially since the battle was mostly in her head.  And I know what that's like: Anxiety is a bully who doesn't play by the rules.  Unfair, unruly, and aggressive.  Running roughshod over you, your mind, your life. I couldn't fix it for her because she was in a battle she was forced to fight herself.  But I could at least try to encourage her by letting her know that I understood, that I got through something similar and that I know she can too... but that she has to want to get through it, to fight it and not give in.  She has to refuse to succumb to the Enemy's lies and destructive tactics. And to help her do this, I shared with her one of the things that helped me get through my hardest times: My "sword of the Spirit," my own personal list of favorite verses tha...
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My Panic Attack (repost)

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(Reposted from my blog, https://myimpressionisticlife.blogspot.com , from 2016.   A really bad year for me.) I wrote this in the post called “Random Facts about Me.  Just for Fun!” on my other blog.  It’s #64 on the list.  But I think it deserves its own post.  So I am reposting it here, because it fits with the theme of this blog.   If you’ve ever had a panic attack, maybe you can relate.  I hope not, though.  Because panic attacks suck!             64.   I had a small panic attack three days ago (May 30, 2016).  It’s the first one I’ve ever had and I don’t plan on ever having another one.  [I also once had a minor nervous breakdown during my parents’ very messy divorce.  It was so bad that the only way I could start breathing and stop crying was to flee from everything, to jump in the car with my husband and two kids and run away to the middle of nowhere for a little while.]
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Anti-Calvinism Links

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This is the last half of the post "What's The Best Way To Make People Agree With Your Calvinist Views."   But I put it here in its own post so that it's easier to find. These are some links to posts which are against Calvinism, the belief that the Bible teaches God has predetermined from the beginning of time who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.  It's no secret from my writing that I strongly disagree with this view.  I believe the Bible clearly teaches that God offers us all salvation, that Jesus's death paid for everyone's sins, and that we have to decide if we will accept Him or reject Him.  And here is some of what others have to say about Calvinism: (FYI, I haven't read everything in all of these yet and I don't necessarily agree with every point they make, but I needed to link to them before I lost them online.  And for the record, I came to my belief about what the Bible says by reading the Bible, not extra-biblical books or articles...
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Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

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It's so sad to hear about all the celebrities who have recently committed suicide (or about anyone who has committed suicide, for that matter).  My heart breaks for them, for the pain they went through, and for the ones who love them, for the pain they are now going through.  It is truly a tragedy. To anyone who is hurting really badly, who is struggling with overwhelming anxiety or depression, who is considering taking their own lives ... I dedicate this post.  Please, take some time to look through some of the links here.  This is a round-up of some on-line resources or posts about dealing with anxiety or depression, particularly as a Christian. But first: Quick tips for help: If you are desperate for some immediate help and don't want to look through the links I have below, try some of these (or if it's really bad and you think you might hurt yourself, call 911 or go to the emergency room): 1.   Put on a worship song right now.  Or sin...
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Is Evolution True?

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You know, as I think about it, people who challenge the existence of God oftentimes use this as one of their arguments: "But how did God get here?  And how can you know He's real if we can't see Him?"  They act like if they can stump you with these questions then they have shown how irrational Christianity is. Okay, sure, so we Christians ultimately have two "unanswerable" questions - questions we will never be able to answer to the satisfaction of an evolutionist.  (Of course, the answers are that He was always here and that His creation proves His existence because you can't have a creation without a Creator.  But people don't accept these answers because they just don't want to.) But evolutionists have far more unanswerable questions than we do (and these are just a few): How do you grow something out of nothing? Where did the material for life come from if nothing existed in the beginning? Where did the energy for the Big Bang com...
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