Free Speech

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ;"

Within my Christian circle of friends, I share my understanding of Bible passages, Christianity and religion. Sometimes we agree and sometimes not. We challenge one another and hopefully grow in our faith. Iron sharpens iron.

Outside that circle, however, I not only hesitate to share my faith, but hesitate to express other convictions that I know are based in God's Word. I ask myself why this is so. I am not ashamed of my Lord.

I determined that my hesitations come from a strong aversion to being attacked and degraded. I look at what has taken place with Gov. Palin. I believe that the attacks she has endured have been because she is a person of faith who lives what she believes. Likewise, I believe the same thing happened to Gov. Huckabee. With that black mark of being a Baptist pastor in his past, liberals had a coronary and many conservatives skipped a beat. What is wrong with us? We should be so thankful that people of high integrity even want to serve us.

So, as I read Romans 1 today, I recognize my own failings by not sharing with more people the truth that will surely make them free. God speaks to us in His Word. We need to be faithful in spite of ridicule and press on to improve the spiritual and moral state of our country.

If I succomb to my fears, I have lost a precious freedom - the freedom to speech. Others do not have a right to make this difficult for me, but if I let them, they will. I have a responsibility to express myself in a godly manner, but express myself I will.

Stillness Before God

"Be still, and know that I am God;"

This is one of my favorite tidbits. In this busy, hurried world we race to and fro. Our children are in so many activities that our heads whirl as we try to make connections and deadlines.

In the midst of it, we do well to take a deep breath, recognize that God is still hanging in there with us and give Him the situation. We may not like the way our day/week/month/year is working out, but God can use any and all circumstances to work out His plan. He will direct and guide us - even when the sky is falling.

From Mini Math to Mini Truths

"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little;" Isaiah 28:10

Many years ago when we were homeschooling, we did Mini Math. It was devised by the school district in Racine. It consisted of a small piece of paper (1/4 the size of regular paper) with 4 math problems. These were just review problems from various concepts that had already been covered. Every day we did Mini Math in addition to the regular math lessons. Every day we reviewed 4 skills/concepts. By the end of the year we had not only learned all of our new material, but had also reviewed so much that it was second nature.

I believe learning the Bible and walking with God is the same. We do it bit by bit. The whole thing is overwhelming, but in small bites even an elephant can be eaten. Such is my inspiration for this blog. It will be tidbits of truth from my own Bible study. Not much. Here a verse, there an application. In the end I hope to grow into a closer walk with God and encourage any of my readers to do likewise.