Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear

Seventeen-year-old Rebekah Richardson was a high school cheerleader in her small hometown of Kountze, Texas. Hoping to bring a positive approach to football games, she joined her fellow cheerleaders in putting Bible verses on their banners instead of words that put down the other team.

Someone in the crowd one night noted the banners and contacted the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The foundation contacted the school district superintendent, who announced that no one could display banners with Bible verses on them.

The cheerleaders didn’t think this was right. Didn’t the Constitution protect their right of free speech?

Amid overwhelming media attention, the girls took their case to court. The legal battle continues today. But Rebekah and her friends never backed down. They displayed God’s Word on their hand-painted banners every Friday night for the rest of the football season.

Over twenty-five hundred years ago, another cheering squad received a lot of heat for not cheering. Three Hebrew young men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been taken captive as children and lived in the capital of the Chaldean empire, Babylon.

Like Rebekah and her companions, the three Hebrew men faced a test of whether or not, when the heat was on, they would have faith in God. When they were told to worship a golden idol, they refused, knowing that those who did not fall down in worship would be cast into a fiery furnace.

But these young men had already prepared for this day of testing. They were confident that they would triumph—whether through miracle or martyrdom—because they had placed their trust in the Lord. Not only did God deliver the three from the furnace, but He also walked with them through the fire. This is the power of faith over fear.

Refusing to bow to the “idols” and “gods” of our age might bring you into conflict with the rulers of this age. If you wait until the conflict is upon you to decide how you will respond, it’s too late. Like Rebekah, and like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you need to make your choice now.

To whom are you going to bow? The “gods” of this age or the God of the ages?

Ask God to give you the courage and wisdom to make the right choice.