Our Precious Lord and Savior

(I posted this one last month, but Easter is a great time to repost it, slightly edited.)

Our wonderful, amazing, gracious heavenly Father dearly loves all people and wants all people to be saved.  And Jesus - my beautiful, loving, precious Lord and Savior - died for everyone so that everyone has the opportunity to be saved.  No one is beyond the reach of God's amazing grace and love.  No one is unforgiveable.  No one is hopeless.  Eternal life can be yours, and all you have to do is believe. 

Titus 2:11: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men."

John 1:29: "Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!"

1 Timothy 2:4-6: "[God our Savior] wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men..."

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

2 Peter 3:9: "... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

Romans 10:9, 13: "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.... Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."


This Easter, watch some of these favorite songs of mine.  This is my Jesus.  It's why I love Him so much.  And He can be your Jesus, too.  If you want Him to be.

Oh, What Love by The City Harmonic

I Am by Crowder

Hallelujah Christmas by Cloverton

Sweetly Broken by Jeremy Riddle  (God draws everyone to Him.  He calls everyone to come out of death and into life!  Will we listen?  Will we respond?)

Secret Ambition by Michael W. Smith


And here's the Easter sermon my family sat down to watch today, after eating homemade cinnamon rolls: The Purpose of Pain by Tony Evans (it's several years old, but a good one).  All six of us piled around the TV and watched together.  I thought it was really delightful.  Even better than going to church and scattering off to our own classes.  

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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).  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.]    And 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 Calvinists," 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 as a Calvinist, I tried to figure it out based on the statements of faith of the groups/churches they belong to, the books they write, the things they say o
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Because it  appears  to teach biblical truth while actually teaching  the opposite  - while using  manipulation and cult-like tactics to suck you in!  And it's spreading.  Stealthily, fast, aggressively. (We watched it happen firsthand in our church, which is why I wrote this blog.  See  "What's the best way to make people agree with your Calvinist views?"    Sadly, we ended up  leaving that church , a place we attended almost 20 years.) [ I updated this November 2022 to try to shorten it.  I failed.  But I hope it's more readable and streamlined at least.   If you only read one anti-Calvinism post of mine, I think it should be this one.  But I'm warning you, this post is long.  Very long.  So pack a lunch and bring a sleeping bag.  But it has to be long because Calvinism is so deceptively convoluted that it takes time to peel off the layers so that you can see it for what it really is.  My hope is that with this one long post, I can show the deceptiveness of
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A Calvinist's best defense of their worst doctrine

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The following are parts of two sermons  given by the Calvinist pastor at my ex-church, about Romans 9 and predestination.   [I'd post a link to them, but if you know which church I attended then you'll know which town I live in, and I'm not ready to reveal that.  So you'll just have to trust me that this is what he said.  And for those who already know me or attend my ex-church, these sermons are from  June of 2016.  You  can look it up online if you want.] This was a little over 3 years after this new pastor was hired and brought in Calvinism, stealthy at first, then much more bold.  And by this point, I was done with him, really fed up and upset with his teaching, really alarmed.  Sadly, though, we stayed there listening to this garbage for 3 more years before we resigned our membership.  (But at least it gave me a lot of time to really hear and research what he was preaching.)   Notice that all these sermon sections contain are shaming, manipulation, deflection, bad
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On this Good Friday

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For my new friend who's struggling:

Thank you so much for talking with me yesterday.  For sharing your hurts, losses, and struggles honestly.  It was a real blessing for me.  Honest, real, vulnerable people are my kind of people, the kind I respect the most.  😊 To you (and anyone else who's hurting and struggling), I dedicate some of my favorite songs, ones that help me when I'm hurting and struggling.  And I've had many of those times myself.  (You might also like this post: Healing your soul from Calvinism's damage .): From my favorite band, The City Harmonic  - the band that got me through my hardest times.  Their words became my prayers when I was so broken that I didn't have my own words to pray anymore.: Honestly (I understand this) Fell Apart  (My favorite opening line in a song, ever) Oh, What Love  (One of my all-time favorites - grace, forgiveness, mercy, healing, hope, purpose, all wrapped up in His amazing love!) Praise the Lord  (This is the key to getting through painful trials with ou
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