Mother's Day & Chocolate Cake

Posted by Christine Pack

I was pregnant with my firstborn son at the same time that my twin sister (who helps write this blog) was pregnant with her second-born child (a girl, as it turned out). My sister and I have always been close, and sharing our pregnancies together was almost unbearably sweet to me, and knitted our hearts together even more, if it were possible, than they already were. Here are some fun Sola Sisters pregnancy facts:

◆ Our due dates were about a week apart 

◆ We each found out that we were pregnant just before a large scheduled family vacation together during which we both tried to hide the fact of our pregnancies from each other because both she and her husband, and I and my husband, wanted to do a big surprise announcement one night over dinner to everyone gathered 

◆ We both had intense morning sickness which, looking back on this, should have made the whole hiding-it-from-each-other thing impossible to do, but somehow we managed 

◆ We still call her daughter and my son "the twins" in light of the fact that they were born to twins, and their birthdays ended up being so close together 

◆ My sister had the most adorable labor and delivery....during which she reported to me on the phone (after having just given birth) that she had her new baby girl cradled in her arms, and a friend had just brought her Starbucks blueberry scones and a latte 

◆ I did not have an adorable labor and delivery. My labor started on a Thursday and finally ended Sunday morning. 

◆ My sister had her daughter on Mother's Day 2001 

◆ I was obsessed with chocolate cake during my pregnancy with my son. And when I say obsessed, I mean that in the pursuit of perfecting my chocolate cake recipe, I averaged making about two cakes per month. That's right folks, if you have done the math, you've come up with about 18 chocolate cakes, give or take, over the course of my pregnancy.

In addition to my first son, almost two years later to the day, God gave me another son. And next to my husband, my children truly are the light and joy of my life. I love being a mother, and I love watching these little guys grow toward manhood. And of course, I desire for them to love and cherish God above all other things.

In honor of Mother's Day 2011, I am sharing the chocolate cake recipe I finally landed on during that first pregnancy. And before you think to yourself, oh, it's just another cake recipe, please consider this: a pregnant woman (think intense food cravings) made eighteen cakes (give or take) in the pursuit of coming up with this recipe. And please also consider this: this cake became known in our church as "the cake." As in, "Jim, are you and Christine coming to the covered dish supper? Oh really? Well, is Christine going to bring the cake?"

It's not me, folks, I promise, it was just the crazy hormones at work that made me do it. But let me just say in advance.....you're welcome.

Chocolate Cake
3/4 cup cocoa
1-1/2 cups strong coffee, boiling hot
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs (must be room temperature, trust me on this!!)
2 tsp vanilla
1-3/4 flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Combine cocoa with boiling coffee and whisk till dissolved. Whisk in cold half and half and set aside to cool to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9" round cake pans, and line with a circle of waxed paper or parchment paper. Grease again and dust liberally with cocoa.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, sugar and vanilla, and beat till fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Alternately add dry ingredients and room temperature cocoa/coffee/cream mixture to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  When just combined (do not overbeat), scrape down sides and beat about 15-30 seconds more.

Pour into prepared pans and bake till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached (30-35 mins).  Cool in pans completely before removing. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick butter, room temp
2 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temp
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 boxes powdered sugar

Mix together till smooth. Enough for one heavily frosted cake or 2 cakes frosted with a common sense amount of frosting (guess which kind of family we are?)

Happy Mother's Day!!

photo credit: LexnGer via photopin cc

Bear Fruit To Stand At The Last Day

by J.C. Ryle

"Let us always remember, that baptism, church-membership, reception of the Lord's Supper, and a diligent use of the outward forms of Christianity, are not sufficient to save our souls. They are leaves, nothing but leaves, and without fruit will add to our condemnation. Like the fig leaves of which Adam and Eve made themselves garments, they will not hide the nakedness of our souls from the eye of an all-seeing God, or give us boldness when we stand before Him at the last day. No! we must bear fruit, or be lost forever. There must be fruit in our hearts and fruit in our lives, the fruit of repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and true holiness in our conversation. Without such fruits as these a profession of Christianity will only sink us lower into hell."

Prince Charles and "Eco Hypocrisy"

Irish filmmaker Phelim McAleer has just released the video below which details the sharp contrast between what Prince Charles of Great Britain professes to believe and his own personal lifestyle.

Yes, I recognize that royals, as public figures and leaders, must maintain a certain amount of protected space around them, but if Prince Charles truly did believe that we only have six years to save the planet, as he has stated, then wouldn't it be incumbent upon him to lead the way by actually living out his beliefs? Oh the rich, rich irony of a man who splits his time between palaces but urges his subjects to "live with less." Reminds me of another royal who was hopelessly out of touch with the plight of the working man:

Courtier: "Majesty, the villagers are starving! They have no bread to eat!"

Marie Antoinette: "Then let them eat cake!"

photo credit: University Hospitals Birmingham via photopin cc

 Additional Resources 

Not Evil, Just Wrong

Earth Day, The High Holy Day of Paganism

Contact Information

You may contact Sola Sisters at this email address:

chrissypack@gmail.com

An Interview About Rob Bell's Book "Love Wins"

Thank you to my friend Andy Olson of Echo Zoe Radio for having me on his show again recently.  We did this program as something of a follow-up to our first talk, which was about my background as a New Ager, and how, as a born again believer in Christ, I had slowly come to realize that many of the same New Age practices and beliefs that I had once held to as a Universalist New Ager were now flowing into the church, of all places.

As providence would have it, shortly after this first interview, Rob Bell, who is a very popular author, pastor and leader in the rapidly growing Emergent Church Movement, released a controversial new book entitled "Love Wins." In one interview about this book, Bell made the claim that his book was the beginning of a new reformation "of thought" that is coming into today's church. But the "Reformation" that Rob Bell wants to bring into the church is away from biblical truth, and toward an easygoing all inclusiveness, with nothing of the biblical concepts of the narrow path (Matthew 7:13) and the exclusivity of Christ (John 14:6). In fact, my view is that Rob Bell, either knowingly or unknowingly, is working as a kind of "change agent" from within the church to bring his beliefs about Universal Salvation (which is the core theology of the New Age Movement) into the church.

My interview with Andy was very in-depth, and we covered a lot of ground in just an hour, including the following:

➤ The origins of Universalism and a brief history of both Universalism and a very popular new movement among churchgoing youth today that is known as "Christian Universalism." 

➤ The rise of Universalism in the 19th Century, influenced heavily by the German philosophers of the day. 

➤ The Five Fundamentals, developed as a response to early 20th Century Liberalism:

● The Deity of Christ
● The Virgin Birth
● The Blood Atonement
● The Bodily Resurrection
● The Inerrancy of Scripture 

➤ The rise of the “Seeker Sensitive” movement as a reaction to the perceived problems with “fundamentalism” and Conservative Christianity. 

➤ The influence of Rob Bell on today’s Church, especially among youth. 

➤ The promotional video released by Rob Bell for his new book, and how it provocatively hinted at his belief in Universal Salvation for all......even though he and his supporters loudly protested to the contrary.

➤ The influence of mysticism, the monastic “Desert Fathers” and “Contemplative Prayer” on Rob Bell. 

➤ Rob Bell’s response to his critics. We played the audio of Rob Bell giving an orthodox sounding pseudo-creed that uses Christian terms, but which carries redefined meaning.

We concluded our discussion of Rob Bell by emphasizing the importance of good teaching, and listed several good ministries that we can recommend.

The Echo Zoe interview can be listened to in its entirety here.


 Additional Resources 

Echo Zoe Radio

Love Wins? A Critique of Rob Bell's New Book

What Is "Christian Universalism" (Besides an Oxymoron)?

What Is the "Wider Mercy" Doctrine?

Heads Up, Christian Parents: Rob Bell Is Teaching Your Kids Universalism

Rob Bell Answers His Critics....But Don't Be Fooled

Who Exactly Has Got Some 'Splainin' To Do?

What Is The Emerging Church Movement and Why Is It Dangerous?

What Is Fundamentalism?

Rob Bell In His Own Words On The Inerrancy of Scripture

"Love Wins" the Smoking Gun That Proves Rob Bell is a "Christian Universalist"

Is Rob Bell A Universalist?  Yes and No.

Rob Bell: Don't Call It Universalism

Meeting at Mars Hill Bible Church Over Rob Bell's New Book

Jesus Gave Us Almost All We Know About The Doctrine of Hell

Rob Bell Praises New Age Author Huston Smith

Quantum Science Proves 'Everything Is Spiritual?' Not So Fast, Says Quantum Physicist Dr. Frank Stootman

The Greatest Royal Wedding To Come

Posted by Christine Pack

I have nothing at all against the beautiful Royal Wedding we saw today between the future King of England (Prince William) and the young woman who has come to be known as "the commoner" (Kate Middleton).

In fact, I love weddings because I think one of the reasons that God gave us the institution of marriage is that even in this depraved day and age we live in, we can still look at a wedding as something lovely and pure and sacred.  But all of the weddings of today and centuries past are but mere shadows of the Greatest Royal Wedding to come, when the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace, will wed his Bride and his Beloved, the Church.

We think there is a discrepancy between the Royal Prince William and "the commoner" Kate Middleton? That is nothing compared to the vast difference between the Prince of all Princes (Jesus) and his "commoner" Bride (the Church). And yet, God in his mercy deigned to reach down into this sin sick world and take a Bride for himself.

Glory to God!

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: 

“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.” 

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 

Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” 

(Revelation 19:6-9) 

photo credit: Defence Images via photopin cc

Why We Worry

"Do not be anxious about your life." (Matthew 6:25)

"Why do we worry? Because we don't believe. We're not really convinced the same Jesus who can keep a sparrow in the air knows where our lost luggage is, or how we'll pay that car repair bill. Or if we believe he can deliver us through our difficulties, we doubt if he will. We let Satan sow seeds of doubt in our minds about God's love and care for us.

The great antidote to anxiety is to come to God in prayer about everything. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). Nothing's too big for him to handle or too small to escape his attention. Paul said we're to come to God "with thanksgiving." We should thank him for his past faithfulness in delivering us from troubles. We should thank him for the fact that he's in control of every circumstance of our lives and that nothing can touch us that he doesn't allow. We should thank him that in his infinite wisdom he's able to work in this circumstance for our good. We can thank him that he won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The promised result is not deliverance, but the peace of God. One of the reasons we don't find this peace is that all too often we won't settle for anything other than deliverance from the trouble. But God, through Paul, promises us peace, a peace that is unexplainable. It will guard our hearts and minds against the anxiety to which you and I are so prone."

- Jerry Bridges, Holiness Day By Day