No matter what obeisance the state may demand, we who serve the King are free indeed.

Thinking that education is something different from discipling our children is a sure sign that we have been 'educated' by the state. Education is discipleship.

Imagine if you would, what would happen to your sorrows and fears if God Himself, the maker of heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord, the sovereign One, were to come to you, wrap you in His almighty arms and say to you, 'I love you with a perfect love, exactly as I love My Son. I will never stop loving you, no matter what. I am completely, utterly for you. I promise, on My own life, that I will do you good every day of your life. And because I control all things, that means My good is all you will ever experience from this time forward.'

Nostalgia is the aching realization that you can't go back again. The longing, no matter how intense, can never be met.

Every idol, if you scratch it, is a mirror. We worship ourselves.

Instead of seeing all of this as God's extraordinary grace, we come to expect the comfort and joys that God gives us as the baseline, the measure of what we believe to be our due. When our comfort level drops below our expectations, we are shocked and angered, and even foolishly express our outrage to God Himself.

As Christians continue to be vilified let us continue to rejoice and be exceedingly glad. It means we are salt, light and with Him.