Our sermon today was about Christian liberty. I find it is easy to take Christian liberty for the things that I am not convicted about, but difficult to extend that same liberty to others about the things which are important to me.
The pastor used a challenging example. He said that we would never allow our next door neighbors to come into our living room and put on an exhibitionist act, yet many of us think nothing of watching that same act if it is performed behind a piece of glass on the television. Ouch! I was convicted that there are times when I allow myself the liberty of watching programs which show people in sin for entertainment value.
On the other hand, he made a point of saying that education does fall within the realm of Christian liberty. Those of us who homeschool, as virtually my entire church does, should not judge those who don’t. Ouch again! I felt concerned that perhaps my last post was less gracious than it should have been toward those who don’t share my convictons about homeschooling.
This is what should be happening at church. We should be regularly convicted of our sin as we are confronted by God’s holy standard and our inability to keep it. If we aren’t being convicted of sin as we sit in the pew, we should ask ourselves whether our hearts are hard, or if we are in a church where the Word isn’t being preached the way it should be.
It’s interesting that your pastor (of a mostly homeschool church) says education choice is a liberty. Good for him. Here in Illinois I would say most of our state homeschool organization leadership would disagree that it’s a liberty. They would cite Deut. 6:6 saying you can’t obey that and have the children away from you all day.
Jennifer