Pious Lutheran

St Paul Preaching at Athens , Raphael, 1515 Do Not Be Ashamed Intro: We commonly keep our faith private because we’re afraid of the world’s ridicule.  Of the Word of God Therefore, follow the pattern of sound words and guard the good deposit entrusted to you Nor of other christians “ I remind you to rekindle the gift of God… for God gave us a Spirit not of timidity [or cowardice] but of power and love and self-control. ” I notice a lot of timidity among Christians. We tend to treat our faith as something which is private, tucked away in our lives like a secret embarrassing hobby we’d rather others not know about. Perhaps we try not to let others know some of the details of our church, for example that our church doesn’t have women pastors or gay marriage, or that we believe all life is sacred even before birth, because we don’t want to be seen as haters, and we’d rather not face that kind of ridicule from the world. Sometimes we go so far as to even criticize fellow Christians for ...