Okay, One More ...

Dedicated to all my brothers and sisters in Christ, the faithful few, in these crazy, uncertain times:  

Eyes on the Prize  

Listen to the words.  Hear the message.  And hang in there.  It's gonna be okay.

And Lastly, A Great Ending

 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!

Merry Christmas, Y'All!

 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. 

Two songs that I love: Hallelujah Christmas and Little Drummer Boy


"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

(And this ends the posts that I had already put on the schedule to be posted on certain dates.  If I don't post after this, it's because I'm tired and need a break from writing.  Merry Christmas, y'all!)

But before I leave, here are a few of my posts I want to provide links for, for easy reference:

Why I Could Never Be An Atheist!

A Little Girl's Nonsensical Sign

An Overview of World Religions

Support for Jesus and the Bible

Starting Your Own Relationship With Jesus 

Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

War Rooms, Praying Scripture, and Spiritual Warfare

The Importance of Brokenness

Such a great sermon, one we can all learn a lot from and be encouraged by:

Encountering God's Process by Tony Evans

(And here's a great 10-minute video from his daughter, Priscilla Shirer: "We're Desensitized to our Blessings."  It just seemed to speak so well to the crazy world we're living in right now, maybe because now seems like the perfect time to dig through all the distractions around us to find Jesus.) 

And it's funny because just the other day, I was updating and typing up a "Bible Study/workbook" thing I wrote years ago, called "Through the Refining Fire: Your 'Sweetly Broken' Journey," and the stuff Dr. Evans was saying in the beginning was almost exactly the stuff I had just typed up, about how God usually has to break us to rebuild us, how it's part of the process of spiritual growth.  

I am sending this "Through the Refining Fire" workbook to my relative who's in jail because she shares the Bible things I send her with other people on her floor.  I figure it's one way I can try to help turn this whole bad situation (her arrest) around for good, at least for someone.  She might not want what I send her, but maybe a fellow prisoner will get something out of it.  Who knows?  But it helps me to know that I'm not just wallowing in despair, but that maybe I can help some eternal good come out of this bad situation for someone, even if it's not her. 

"We Believe" by Newsboys

 A favorite song of mine from Newsboys: We Believe

"He's coming back again!"

This song also plays at the end of my all-time favorite Christian movie, "Do You Believe?"  Watch it, with tissues nearby.

Links to the Posts in "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" Series

 To make it easier to find, I compiled the links to all the posts in the "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said: We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism" series.  (That's right ... I'm not letting him or Calvinism off easy, not with the damage they do to God's Truth!) 

What Happened After Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer?

Okay, so we all know that Grandma got run over by a reindeer ... but guess what happened next?

Grandpa's gonna sue the pants off of Santa

Who knew!?!  I sure didn't, not till just a few years ago.

(I'm warning you now: This one will get stuck in your head.)

The Carpenters: "Sing a Song"

 This song pops into my mind a lot (which drives my son nuts because then I'm always singing it out loud).  But how could I not?  In fact, I've found that singing, even when - especially when - I don't want to, uplifts my spirit and my mood like nothing else can.

So go ahead ... Sing a Song!  Sing it out loud and sing it out strong.

Not for anyone else, but just for you.  Just because it's fun!

(And what a cute video to go with it.  Totally made me smile!)  

"Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" Conclusion: Our Resignation From Our Church

(This "Things My Calvinist Pastor Said" series is a breakdown on this much longer post: "We Left Our Church Because of Calvinism," which was written last year but updated July 2020.  All memes were created with imgflip.)

Conclusion:

Anyway, it's finally final.  We sent our resignation letter in yesterday, simply stating that "due to strong doctrinal disagreements with the head pastor, we are resigning from our membership here."  

We've been at that church for almost 20 years.  We've found some good friends there, raised our kids together, loved inviting people to visit our church with us, been part of some great programs, etc.  It's really been a great church.  One of the best and most biblical in the area.  

And then this pastor came in with his Calvinism.  And after several years of being angry with his manipulative tactics and his twisted-Gospel which turns God into an illogical, contradictory liar, we can no longer stand to be there.  We can no longer support that pastor and his twisted view of God and the Gospel.  We don't even want our names on the membership list, giving the appearance that we support him.  

"Have The Globalists Overplayed Their Hand?"

Just putting this out there for you all to read and consider and make your own mind up about:  Have The Globalists Overplayed Their Hand?

[Update from February 15, 2021: I am adding this note here because I don't know where else to put it.  I just wanted to share this story which I believe confirms my idea that our online devices are indeed listening to us all the time, even when we don't know it.  Our online service is used for our few tablets, phones, and laptops, but we don't have smart TV's or one of those always-on units that listens and responds when you ask it questions.  Well, yesterday we had some friends over, and we got to talking about the movie "Return to Oz" from 1985, about how creepy it was.  We talked about it for just a couple minutes, maybe 2-3.  Well, a couple hours after they left, I turned on a tablet, looked at the home "news page" (through the search engine that starts with "goo" and ends with "gle") and - lo an behold! - there was an article about why Return to Oz wasn't a bad movie.  I think there's NO WAY on earth that could be a coincidence, not when that's such an old, obscure movie.  I think "they" are listening.  Always listening.  Even when we don't know it and didn't set it up that way.  Creepy and disturbing!]