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.