Can We Talk? 

   If we are like minded culturally, yes. If not, probably not.

   For eight years living in South Carolina, we were accepted into the Gideons, an organization of businessmen. They raise funds to send small Bibles throughout the world to people groups who generally have none. They also place full Bibles in hotels/motels. If you're a Christian, especially in the South, your church might host Gideon speakers from time to time. 

   Gideons ask pastors for time to speak. We did some of that speaking, and our "camp" met Saturday mornings for breakfast and prayer. Gideon wives also have important roles. 

   There are camps in some 200 countries and territories.   

   Today, there is division in our land, once considered a "melding pot." Reason doesn't persuade. Words mean whatever someone pleases. Debate has decayed. 

   If someone hates X, we are free and in our right minds only if we agree. If they love X, we are free and in our right minds only if we agree.

   It's not just the U.S. The parliament in Australia passed The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021. 

   The title is maddening enough. The act says that people seeking Biblical counseling cannot possibly be doing so with sound judgment because "the pressures and imbalances of power involved mean that such 'consent' cannot be truly free or autonomously expressed." 

   Do we need to repeat that? I thought not.

   Christians are not going to persuade such people. But, God can talk ... the foolishness of what was preached, wrote Paul to the Corinthians. 

   Not philosophy or linguistic skills. It is the Word that is the power of God for salvation. - Romans 1:16. We have no power but the Word of God.

   Now I understand better than I did as an active Gideon, the organization's favorite verse: 

So is my word that goes out from my mouth: 

It will not return to me empty, 

but will accomplish what I desire and 

achieve the purpose for which I sent it. - Isaiah 55:11