Slice of Laodicea

Last evening I put up a post on the blessings of Christian radio for those who are ill, suffering, lonely and unable to get Christian encouragement anywhere else. I discussed the rich blessing it is to read from those who have been touched by an overnight program we air on the network called “Music ‘Til Dawn”, and I cited a letter from an individual who is disabled, living in a crime-infested area of our city. The only job he could find was wrapping flowers in a church basement for the Unification Church in the night hours. He stumbled on VCY’s overnight program that features hymns that are interspersed with Scripture from the radio host. His modest hopes of obtaining a full-time job some time and his love for Jesus came through in the letter that I shared. I ended the post with two stanzas from a hymn that has been a great comfort to me in times of great sadness or stress in my life. Those are the kinds of hymns we play in the overnight hours on our network.

Then this morning I was sent a link to a post from a hate website that was established a couple of years ago in mockery of Slice of Laodicea. When I created the Christian Research Net site and handed it over to Rev. Ken Silva, they changed their name to mock that. I don’t read these sites any longer, but a friend sent a link to a piece written by Chris Lyons, one of their contributors today because it deserves a response. I want to ask you who the real haters are in the blog world today after you read the post. Ask yourself how this vicious attack comports with the stated purpose of this group. This is from their “Mission Statement” after they formed their mockery blog that was originally titled, “SlicedLaodicea.com”. The authors clearly have a double standard despite their claims of superiority in the love department.

With the second greatest command, “love your neighbor as yourself”. In seeking a definition of love, we view Paul’s writing to the Corinthians:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Also, we see guidance in our loving treatment of brothers in Christ in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.

Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

The sentence I wrote about the disabled listener, wrapping flowers for a cult to make a living, was this one. I have emboldened the four words of significance:

“Those like this person who labors alone in a basement, getting paid to wrap flowers in night hours for the Unification Church, are being pointed to the truth of the Bible through the airwaves.”

I am thankful that we at VCY America are able to send out the truth to all who need it, no matter where someone is in their life, no matter how little they have or what their needs are. The group at the mockery blog is so blinded by hatred that they aren’t even reading my posts fully before posting their bile. There is no love there. Their mission statement claims that they, unlike the “ODM’s”, are interested in caring for the least of these. This is again from their “mission statement”.

“…Jesus also taught us, through the thread of all scripture, to care for “the least of these” – the sick, the poor, the hungry, the prisoner, the widow, the orphan, the stranger among us – and that when we do so, we are doing it for him, as well. However, our words cannot fill stomachs. Our sentences cannot heal the sick. Our graphics cannot bring the poor out of poverty. Again, as with evangelism, we can, through God’s help, equip individual believers to care for the ‘least of these’ and encourage all of us to be more “missional” in our outlook to the world around us.”

Yet they fill their time with mockery for those who actually are doing those things in Jesus name through the airwaves at VCY America.

So who are the true haters in the blog world? Don’t those wrapping flowers for the Unification Church need the Gospel of Jesus Christ as well? I look forward to sending the letter writer some material on the Unification Church and also finding out if there is some way we can help him find a different job. The Lord is far from the haughty, the arrogant, and the self-sufficient and He is near those who humbly love Him, with child-like faith, and who look to Him for their next need, hour by hour. Blessed be the name of Jesus who does not forget these “little ones”.