Slice of Laodicea

We would appreciate your prayers as Ingrid is now in the hospital and there is a good chance the baby may be delivered today. There are currently some concerns for the health of both Ingrid and the baby, so pray for God’s sustaining hand. I will post updates when possible. Thank you for all your support and intercession.

J.C. Ryle from here.

Jim Schneider will be interviewing Pastor Larry DeBruyn, Senior Pastor of Franklin Road Baptist Church in Indianapolis, on today’s Crosstalk Show. William Paul Young, author of the wildly successful novel, The Shack, is speaking at the supposedly conservative Elmbrook Church on July 12, here in Southeastern Wisconsin, despite his denial of one of the core doctrines of the Bible, the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ. His book, The Shack, further introduces a false view of the Holy Trinity. Pastor Debruyn will address these concerns and discuss why it is that increasingly, cardinal doctrine is viewed as disposable in evangelical churches.

Listen live at 2pm Central at our website or later with the podcast.

Yesterday afternoon, the Purpose-Driven Connection link to the “Michael Jackson, Jesus and Me” article disappeared from their online magazine without explanation. The cached version is still available here.

Israel National News reports on the leftist and currently influential Center for American Progress and their study which determined that Israel should hand over control of Jerusalem to a third party. Our anti-Israel President is on a roll with decisions that will have direct impact on Israel as these two other news stories point out.

Not a Single Jewish Home Without Obama’s OK

Anti-Israel Advisor to be Ambassador to Syria?

“A little plain-speaking would do a world of good just now. These gentlemen desire to be let alone. They want no noise raised. Of course thieves hate watch-dogs, and love darkness. It is time that somebody should spring his rattle, and call attention to the way in which God is being robbed of his glory, and man of his hope. For the present it behoves believers to be cautious, lest they lend their support and countenance to the betrayers of the Lord.”

–Charles Spurgeon, Another Word Concerning the Downgrade

“…Ingrid, Bin Laden & the abortionist-shooter all operate from the same frame of reference in terms of their willingness to use violence (in word or deed) to accomplish the ends their “god” directs them to.”

–Chris Lyons, from a ChristianResearchNetwork.info, a mockery blog dedicated to attacking Slice and other conservative online blogs because they are “judgmental.” (They took their name from ChristianResearchNetwork.com.) Libel of this kind is apparently more loving and merciful. (See comment #56)

“Our Lord’s strong language about the false teachers of the Jews ends here. Those who think that unsound ministers ought never to be exposed and held up to notice, and men ought never to be warned against them, would do well to study this passage. No class of character throughout our Lord’s ministry seems to call forth such severe denunciation as that of false pastors.”

–J.C. Ryle in his commentary on John 10

As you’ll see here, not surpringly, last week the very popular emerging church website The Ooze came out in favor of gay marriage. More evidence that there’s a same sex storm just slightly off the coast of the mainstream evangelical community, which is right now approaching hurricane force.

Does the transforming power of the gospel change not just the condition of our souls, but also the behavior of our bodies? That’s the question that Justin Barnard addresses in his article for Touchstone Magazine. While I think he misjudges the critics of Mark Driscoll,  he provides an interesting perspective on why Mark Driscoll’s teachings on marriage and sexuality are a problem. There aren’t just some things we shouldn’t talk about from a pulpit, contends Barnard, there are some things we shouldn’t even do. Or want to do.

From the Ron Paul Examiner, here is a piece that illustrates how dangerous to the First Amendment the Hate Crimes bill now in the Senate really is.

Additionally, the new cyberbullying legislation would render it a crime to cause emotional distress in other people online. That means that anyone, expressing their views on anything, could potentially be found a criminal if they make someone feel bad in a blog. So, in other words, the guy who called me, and I quote, Ingrid F-ing Schlueter, on his blog would be a criminal, along with all those who write commentary on just about anything. A music critic doesn’t like the singer at the concert and says she’s not ready for prime time? Call the police. It’s cyberbullying. This kind of ridiculous assault on the First Amendment is a threat to all Americans, not just Christians.

David Pack, member of Saddleback Church, has written the following on the Purpose Driven Connection:

“I know Michael loved Jesus with all his heart. Quincy had told me about his work sharing his faith with others.”

Pack “knows” this for sure and claims Michael is now moonwalking on the heavenly streets paved with gold. Pack even goes so far as to suggest that Jackson was considering giving up music for a full-time Christian ministry. So the three motherless children, conceived for his own selfish pleasure, the hundreds of millions of dollars in debt because of his foolish and greedy spending, the open admission of his proclivity for sleeping in bed with young boys, the ego, the bodily mutilation, the homosexual sex that was just written about as recently as his stay in Las Vegas, the prescription drug abuse, all of this must be the fruit of Michael’s Christian faith, eh, Mr. Pack?

Michael’s biographer, Ian Halperin, wrote the following:

“In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.”

Ian adds the waiter showed him evidence of his alleged affair with Michael, including photos of the pair together.

“When Jackson lived in Las Vegas, one of his closest aides told how he would sneak off to a ‘grungy, rat-infested’ motel – often dressed as a woman to disguise his identity – to meet a male construction worker he had fallen in love with.”

Ian has written a book about Michael titled ‘The Final Years Of Michael Jackson’, and claimed the singer had just six months to live last December.

–Mail Online (UK)

Maybe this is Christianity according to Saddleback, but in any event, Mr. Pack’s description of Michael Jackson as a vibrant Christian, sharing his faith, is laughable according to every report from those surrounding the poor man in his last days. Michael needed the Lord Jesus Christ to fill the enormous void in his life. Plastic surgery, hyperbolic chambers, hundreds of millions of dollars and world-wide acclaim was never enough to do it. Michael was in the process of trying to reclaim his “god” status with the public in one last, deluded attempt to find what he was seeking. Tragically, his prescription drug-fueled attempts came to a sudden halt when his life ended. Yes, it is a tragedy.

Here’s a good post on the subject: The King of Pop Meets the King of Glory.

Here’s a piece from Forbes that takes a look at some of America’s jumbo churches.

How is this for a quote from a supposed Bible-believing, Christian political leader, husband and father AFTER he has been publicly busted for cheating on his wife:

“This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” he said. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”

Those are the words of South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford, who has become a public embarrassment to his state after his illicit relationship with an Argentinian woman went public. No, Mr. Sanford, it was a tawdry story of adultery, not a love story. You betrayed your wife of 20 years who bore you four children, stood by you, got you elected through her hard work, and you betrayed your four young sons by behaving as the biblical definition of a fool. Adultery is not “having an affair”, it’s not a “tragic love story”, it’s a stinking, sinful mess.

Yesterday, apparently in a chatty mood, Governor Sanford also felt led to tell reporters that it wasn’t the first time he had “crossed the line” with other women. Is the man looking for some kind of award here? The irony of all of this is that Sanford had been preparing a speech on the sanctity of heterosexual marriage prior to this story hitting the news. Just save it, Sanford. And while you’re at it, resign from public office. Your cheatin’ heart is the last thing South Carolina needs.

Here’s an article from the Washington Times that underscores how moral and spiritual corruption has made a joke out of “social conservatism.” If you can’t keep your pants on, than you have no business braying about family values and “taking America back” from the liberals.

Details at Christian Research Net.

A short post showing how it appears that contemplative spirituality keeps showing up in all the wrong places.

In this excellent and convicting article from Boundless Webzine, Tim Sweetman gets to the heart of our addiction to sites like Facebook.

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I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking as he pulled out his iPhone and took advantage of a new Facebook application — right in the middle of the sermon.

It was then that I realized the narcissistic machine that is Facebook.

Shifting uncomfortably in my chair, I found myself desiring to do the same. I shuddered. Have I really come to this place where I’m more concerned about what’s taking place on Facebook than what’s going on in this church service? More concerned about a self-serving social networking site than this Bible on my lap?

Later on that evening, I thought more about my internal battle between Facebook and my Bible. I understand that one of my desires as a Christian should be to know God more deeply; the reality is that I spend very little time actually getting to know Him. Too often, my hours are spent pursuing other human beings through convenient electronic means like Facebook. My life can quickly become all about striving to know my buddies better than my Lord.

Continue reading

More on a steadily growing same-sex storm looming, being strengthened by the Emerging Church, and which is right now just off the horizon of the mainstream evangelical community.

“If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

-C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Troy Newman and Operation Rescue has led peaceful opposition to late-term abortionist Dr. Tiller for years in Wichita, providing help for pregnant moms in crisis and sharing Christ with them. This weekend, their offices were attacked. The police, however, don’t appear to be concerned. Read more here.

Providing more evidence that pro-lifer’s are viewed as second-class citizens by the Obama Administration, a pro-life group is requesting that the Justice Department investigate recent death threats they have received since Tiller’s murder. The “Justice” Department has refused.