Here’s an article about a husband and wife in Mission Viejo who’ve been ordered to cease & desist holding Bible study groups in their home by city officials.

I know that if you aren’t personally involved, you probably don’t know the whole story — but it doesn’t look good from where I sit. We’re ostensibly a nation that values religious freedom — heck, it’s even in the Constitution (the what? oh, yeah, that thing) so maybe it would be good if we could act like it. Free country, eh? What would they have done with Jesus or the apostles?

Part of why this irks me so much is because true faith in God’s Word is a work of God, not of people. It’s hard enough to get people interested in studying the Bible without running around slapping $500 fines on them. Your flesh naturally pulls you away from the Word. It makes you weary of listening to what God says and it would really rather do anything else. That’s a hard influence to fight, especially when someone is trying to take it away from you. Yet oftentimes, it’s exactly through opposition to His Word that God teaches us to value His Word most of all. It teaches us to cling to the Word until at last it’s all we have left — unless, of course, people throw away their confidence and become weary  in doing good long before then. This news story is just another example of how the world is becoming more secular & godless by the day, I guess. Oh well. Jesus still wins in the end and His Word still works. That’s all you or I need to care about.

(If you are curious how Jesus or the apostles did handle it when they were opposed, look here or here or here or here or here.)

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (i pe 1.24-25 kjv)