This Week With Jesus

The essence of free speech (I think) is not in delivering a judgement but in inducing thought. We have been given guidelines for our actions yet we have the freedom to follow them or not. We have a choice. Free speech is available to us as soon as we have learnt to talk. We can use it to abuse or build or break. We can use it to gossip, to judge to pull down or we can use it to create goodwill. We can also use it to vent anger. Negative speech leads nowhere accept to bad feelings, as well as distance us from God, but positive speech can induce positive behaviors and thoughts in us and people around us. Free speech is a gift from God, hence should not the primary goal be to glorify Him? Author Gales has written that on average a person speaks 860,341,500 words in his entire life. For some perspective, 860.3 million words are equivalent to 14 times the entire text of the complete 20-volume Oxford English! If we measure how many words of this average, we have used to glorify God, and how

It is in the heart of man to rebel against authority. It started with Adam and Eve, continued during Moses's time continues today in offices, commercial organizations and even religious organizations including the Church. The story of the rebellion of Korah is recorded in Numbers 16. The rebellion of Korah demonstrates the grim consequences of trying to challenge authority thereby challenging God and of those whom He has chosen to be leaders of His people. Korah was the oldest son of Izhar, who was the son of Kothath of the tribe of Levi. Korah, then, was of the same tribe as Moses and Aaron. He led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, accusing them of exalting themselves above the congregation of the Lord (Numbers 16:1-3). Korah was not alone in his charge. He gathered 250 other men to challenge Moses’ authority as well: “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?” (Num