China Sees Red: Christian Protest Puts Hundreds of Crosses Back in Public

- Chrisianity today -

Several churches held a prayer service outside a government office yesterday, holding up crosses and banners that read, "Can't remove the cross in our hearts," reports the Union of Catholic Asian News.

The cross dispute is "destined to become one of the 'pain points' in the history of the [Chinese] church’s development," wrote Lude Wang in a Pushi Institute for Social Science analysis highlighted by ChinaSource.

"At its core, the Zhejiang Cross Dispute has revealed that in light of the backdrop of a new society, neither the church nor the state has sufficiently prepared to enter into a mature and constructive dialogue; nor have they shown a readiness to settle their differences and conflicts on the basis if the rule of law," she wrote. "How the church will coexist within a community holding different values to itself is an urgent question."

The government of "China's Jerusalem" has torn down hundreds of giant red crosses from church buildings over the past two years. Now Chinese Protestants and Catholics are joining together to put red crosses—albeit much smaller ones—back in the public eye.

Read more HERE.

Here’s Why The Strange Practice Of Body Hacking Is Taking Off

-  Cadie Thompson in Prophesy News Watch -

Sticking a syringe in your hand and injecting a microchip into your flesh might sound slightly unnerving. But there’s a growing number of people doing just that.

Biohackers, people who modify their body with technology like chip implants, are going to tattoo parlors, conferences, and “implant parties” to get these kinds of devices implanted.

While meshing machine with human flesh sounds outlandish to some, biohackers consider themselves pioneers and argue the practice is actually the natural progression of how we will interact with technology.

“The human body is the next big platform. The connected body is already a phenomena. And this implant is just a part of it,” Hannes Sjöblad, founder of the Swedish biohacking group Bionyfiken, told Tech Insider in an interview.

About a year and a half ago, Sjöblad started organizing implant parties where groups of people attend and get near-field communication (NFC) chips embedded into their hands. The chips are about the size of a grain of rice and enable users to send and receive data wirelessly using radio frequencies.

Sjöblad has helped host these gatherings in Mexico, France, Greece, Germany, England, Denmark, and even in the United States.

A lot of times these parties are hosted as part of a larger conference related to tech or body modification. But Sjöblad said a growing number of companies are also beginning to request these parties so that their employees can get implanted.

Bionyfiken has already helped one Swedish company called Epicenter fit some of its employees with NFC tags.

Read more HERE.

It´sThursday - word from Genesis Number 34

'So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved  and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh,' Genesis 41:14.

We know that Joseph had been in prison quite some time before Pharaoh's baker and cup-bearer had their dreams, (40:1). Following the positive news that he gave the cup-bearer it wasn't long before he realised that the man he had so helped had completely forgotten him. Months turned into years. Poor Joseph probably could not think of any way that things could ever change whereby he might get out of gaol.

It is easy to feel that some things will never change and that we are permanently condemned to the situation we find ourselves in, especially as time passes by and we are unable to even imagine a scenario whereby change could come. That is to reckon without this wonderful God of Surprises we have. In no way could Joseph have imagined what dreams Pharaoh would have, nor what lay ahead for the mighty nation of Egypt, or indeed his part in the nation's salvation!

Note how Pharaoh sought answers from his own wise men and magicians before his cup bearer remembered Joseph and referred Pharaoh to him. Like Pharaoh, we too can seek our answers in conventional human wisdom rather than God. Conversely, in Joseph's situation, we Christians might wonder why we have been disregarded and forgotten despite our faithfulness. But we must never lose sight of the fact that God has plans for each and everyone of us. Whilst we might not know what they are, God tells us, 'I know the plans I have for you....', (Jeremiah 29:11). Whether he can trust us with the responsibility for what he has in store might well depend on how faithful we continue to be in dark times when all hope seems to be gone. Remember Abraham? 'Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping,' (Romans 4:18). Is God testing you to see if he can depend on you before he reveals his plans for you?

God can turn things around in an unbelievably rapid and miraculous way as he did for Joseph.  On a visit to Limerick John Wesley wrote these words, 'A few years ago, if we heard of one notorious sinner truly converted to God, it was a matter of solemn joy to all that loved or feared him; and now that multitudes of every kind and degree are daily turned from the power of darkness to God, we pass it over as a common thing! O God give us thankful hearts!' God bless you all.

Holy Ground - The Only Way to Become Holy

- David Wilkerson (jan 1998) -

The Old Testament is full of types and shadows of New Testament truth. Whenever I have a difficult time trying to understand a truth from the New Testament, I turn back to its foreshadowing in the Old. In fact, I believe there isn't a single episode or story in the Old Testament that is not full of ripe truth for New Testament believers.

My preacher grandfather once told me, "David, if you're going to teach about character, you have to go to the Old Testament. That's where all the character teaching is." I believe he was right.

One such example is the passage concerning Moses at the burning bush. I'd like to explore that particular story in some depth - because I see it as being full of profound New Testament truth on the subject of holiness.

First, we need to ask - how are we made holy in the sight of God? The New Testament tells us we are called to be holy "even as God is holy"

Read more HERE.

William Booth and Caistor

- Major Howard Webber in JAC online - 

Flags and bunting and a festive air greeted General William Booth as he entered Caistor, north Lincolnshire, on Saturday 2nd September 1905. Huge crowds greeted him. Traps, (two wheeled carriages), had come from all over the neighbourhood to this little town of less than 2,300 souls, and a civic reception was prepared for him. Nothing unusual about this. In his later years Booth was greeted in similar fashion wherever he went.

What made his visit to Caistor different to any other was what he said there. He spoke of coming to Caistor over 50 years ago, a young man with few friends, and the lasting impressions that it made, 'It was at Caistor that he first commenced the work that was to become so dear to him,' he said.

Read more HERE.

Sex slaves in ISIS

- TheReligionofPeace.com -

Islamic State, IS, has written an article about sex slaves in their magazine Dibiq. Now apologists for Islam say that IS has nothing to do with Islam. But IS makes it very clear that when they capture Kafir women and rape them they are only doing what Mohammed did. They quote four verses in the Koran about how Kafir women can be captured and used for sex. Mohammed had sex slaves and his closest companions had sex slaves.

Islamic State reminds Muslims that one of the benefits of sex slavery is that they convert to Islam to gain their freedom and produce Muslim children.

The Blight of Liberal Theology

- Lieutenant Matt Kean in JAC online -

I have no doubt that some of my words will meet a degree of discomfort and perhaps reproof from within our organisation, but I am convinced it is important to say them.  Besides that, they burn from a deep conviction and even if I kept quiet I’m inclined to think the stones might cry out.   

The subject I want to address is a theological one, but I want to emphasize that it worries me most because I see its negative influence within The Salvation Army.  I’m speaking of the very liberal theology which has been permitted to slither into the ranks of the army over the last few decades.  It has allowed a succession of compromises to degrade the necessary black and white nature of Christ’s gospel.   

I use the word liberal intentionally without a capital ‘L’ simply because I only want to show how such a theology, by definition alone, has no place within a movement whose focal point is the salvation of souls.   This kind of theology as it stands does not allow for the hard object lines of orthodox doctrine or any conservative interpretation of the Bible and has the strange ability to vilify the militant holiness ideology of our movement.  I will leave its definition here, but I will go on to describe its character and substance.  Again, please understand that I do not wish to single out any particular group, ministry, or method. My aim is to expose a specific theology (the liberal one) because of its direct contrast to Salvationism, that is all.

Read more HERE.