My new friend, Laura sent me links to these recent news articles about some Gideons in Florida who were arrested after distributing Bibles on a public sidewalk near a high school and the additional charges that have come up in connection with the case.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54150 (posted February 8, 2007)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55304 (posted April 20, 2007)

What would it be like to live in a nation where the Bible was not readily available, where people are so hungry for God's Word that they share pages of a Bible and meticulously hand write each word on pieces of paper then secretly smuggle the pages to the next hungry heart?  They get their "Bibles" piece by piece, line by line, here a little, there a little.  My parents smuggled Bibles in to China a couple of years ago and said that is what they saw: people so hungry for what we take for granted, so intently set on knowing God through His Word, they risk arrest for it, bowing to a higher authority than their government.  They know the importance of hiding God's Word - not just on little pieces of paper, but in their hearts.  They risk much for what is surplus to us.

At the last Get the Word Out! Alumni Intensive (go to www.getthewordout.cc ), Mary Jean Powers spoke to us about the importance of preaching and speaking out the Word of God.  She said something like this: 

• Speak the Word, expose people to it, because when you do, you are speaking about Jesus, He is the Word ("And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us"). 
• When people are exposed to Jesus, they are exposed to Truth because Jesus is the Truth.
• Truth brings freedom.  "You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free"

So to have real liberty, real freedom - we have to speak and teach and know the Word of God.  We have to live it, walk it, declare it, pour it into our kids, get it into mainstream media (see the new video release "Thr3e."). 

Speak it out.  No man or government can take away what is written on your heart.  Future generations are depending on us! Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Increase the place of the Word of God in my life.  Memorize more - now.  Pray for my Christian brothers and sisters around the world, who withstand so much more persecution than I ever will, and for the furtherance of the gospel through their sacrifices.