Pastor Matt

Last year I was diagnosed with Autism at 42, and I’ve also been suffering with Major depressive disorder and anxiety. I have been unable to hold a job and make a living for my entire life and am now awaiting a decision about Disability Insurance. God has always provided for me financially. I pray that my Disability decision is approved quickly that I may receive the finances I need for my living. IN Him, Amen.

Wow, good thing I don’t believe in the Calvinistic god!

I've NEVER been able to understand how people could fall for the tripe that is Calvinism.

Calvinists: God is a jealous God. In fact he is so jealous that he creates some people to be predestined to worship other gods. 

Calvinists: God is a jealous God. In fact he is so jealous that he creates some people to be predestined to worship other gods. 

I am sorry I forgot to post an update. He came home from the hospital last night, and is doing much better. I almost wrote "He went home last night" - but thought that might not be the best way to word it!

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
There, mystery solved.  Now go on about your business.  Oh, by the way, you can glorify Him now in how you live your life. 
Who is this talking about?  A lost person being "chosen" to be saved and being led to repentance?  Verse 12 sounds like Paul is talking about saved individuals.  If we are saved, yes, we have God Himself dwelling in us.  

The arguments given here against Calvinism are profound, and scripturally true. But I am a simple man and to me it all boils down to a very simple argument and verse.
If Calvinism is true, then God deliberately creates THIS person for Heaven and then He deliberately creates THAT person for hell. 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. I'm sure that person that the Calvinistic god deliberately created for hell sure sees the Calvinistic god as love.
I just cannot cross over that very simple hurdle. And no Calvinistic argument can change my mind. God is love. And He wants to share that love with whosever will. My loving God has NEVER created anyone for hell. If that is where you end up it was entirely your choice. 

Belief is not defined in the Bible as any kind of work (in fact it is the opposite). It is a response on our part to what God has done and said.

Belief was totally selfish, on my part. I don't see how Calvinists can say our belief is 'taking credit" for salvation; unless they have never really been saved themselves.

Poor Calvinist...they are forced to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ outside of their will.  However, I willingly do it. 

Poor Calvinist...they are forced to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ outside of their will.  However, I willingly do it. 

Poor Calvinist...they are forced to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ outside of their will.  However, I willingly do it. 

How arrogant to think that you - a Calvinist - have everything right and can come here and tell non-Calvinists how wrong they are.
Romans 9 is dealing with nations, not individuals.

Calvinists always seem to try this tripe trying to make "spiritual death", ie, spiritual separation from God, mean the same thing as physical death...not even comparable. Spiritual separation from God, or "spiritually dead" isn't anywhere near the same. Salvation, even in the Calvinist ideology, requires a decision...but, of course, through the 
In the Calvinist interpretation, we find that this decision has already been made for the participant "from before the foundation of the world." This isn't a "decision" but a forceful bringing into Christianity. It negates over 50% of Scripture concerning salvation. 

A bit earlier this morning, my pastor Randy Hoxie (Faith Baptist Church in Chilliwack, BC) had a heart attack and is undergoing surgery in a hospital in Vancouver right now. Please pray for the blockage to be removed and for the Lord to heal his heart (with no complications). Thank you in advance for any prayers.

A couple of months ago, I reunited with a childhood friend, Ron, who I became emotionally close to (no physical contact, which he respected).I began to share my faith in Christ with him, and he was open to it, but then suddenly after he admitted some skeletons from his past, he shut down and decided he couldn't live up to the man he wanted to be for me. He took off and I never heard from him again. I emailed him, but he ignored. I miss him very much.

Salvation being 100% of God doesn’t negate man’s response - and that’s where they get it wrong. The Holy Spirit enlightens us to the truth; convicts us of our sin, our unrighteousness, and our need for the Saviour, enables us to understand the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done to save us, and shows us that salvation is not something that can be earned through anything we can do. Man responds either positively or negatively to this. If we receive the truth by receiving the Saviour and His free gift of salvation, the Holy Spirit then regenerates and indwells us, we are adopted into the family of God, given an inheritance in Christ and a future home in Heaven. That’s all by His grace - but we need to receive it, and God doesn’t force man to believe or be saved. That is up to us - and yes, He even calls and compels us - but we still need to receive the Gospel to be saved.

Yes, As the passage stated He was 30 when He began His public ministry. By comparing all the feasts in the Gospel of John, most people believe His ministry was about 3 1/2 years long - that makes Him between 33-34 years old when He died (as has been stated by others here too).
As far as the exact years Jesus was born and died, they are still 33-34 years apart - regardless of what year some historian or Bible Critic has as the starting date. What is important is what the Bible gives as the chronology of His life.
The same difficulty comes about when you try to date the events in the book of Acts - many different writers have differing starting dates (of what year Jesus died) - but there is an internal timeline that you can still come up with that does not depend on these conflicting dates, and which will still give you an accurate timeline of overall events (within a few months to a year). 
If you make note of how long between each event, etc. you can still know this was 5 years after Pentecost, this was 3 years and six months after that, this was … and so on. (Making general time references as I do not have my Bible in front of me right now.)
Now I have my notes… For example, one passage says Paul was at a certain place teaching for three years, another says he was in jail for two years, and so on. Put all the references together and you can make a framework of dates within the book of Acts itself, regardless of the starting date. Paul got saved on the Damascus road two years after Pentecost, then he spent three years training with Jesus in the Arabian Desert… If your starting date was the year 32 (based on Robert Anderson’s conclusions in The Coming Prince), that makes it about 34 AD when Paul got saved in Acts 9, and about the year 37 when he finished his three years of discipleship with Jesus in Acts 9:23. It takes a bit of time, but the rest of Acts can be dated this way - and when you find an author/commentator that has a different starting date, you can just start counting from there - ie. +2 years to Paul’s salvation, +3 years until he cam back from Arabia (see Galatians 1:15-18), +10 more years when Barnabas and Saul/Paul came back from Jerusalem in Acts 12:25, then +3-4 more years till the Jerusalem counsel in Acts 15:1 - see also Galatians 2:1), and so on.
Sorry for the long comments, but this is something I have put some effort into and tried to figure out how to have a working framework for studying with.

Just returned from the New Manna Youth Rally '24. What a blessing. Ridgecrest was packed out and the worship and preaching did not disappoint. SO powerful. Kenny Baldwin on Friday night, Tony Shirley on Saturday morning and Brother "Chaalie" Clark on Saturday night and Sunday morning. You can find all the meetings on YouTube if interested. NMBCMedia - YouTube.
If you have a youth group and would like to see them spiritually moved this is the place. They say it is for the youth, but all ages are blessed. It's like a Summit light for those familiar with that (my wife's words). Can't wait for next year.

On a Friday night, we watched "Courageous" with our Youth. After the movie, we held a Bible Study session where we used Scripture to support the message conveyed in the film.

I must not be a good pastor, I only put in 20-30 hours a week into pastoring 

We're still the same. We're too contemporary for some, and too conservative for others. We're just going to try to please God.

What did Trump do on Jan 6th?

If Trump wins the GOP nomination and goes up against Biden, then yes, I'll vote for him