WHY I BLOG

When a friend of mine told me I needed to have a blog, I pretty much ignored him. When he told me he had set up a site for me and even put an e-mail of mine on it to “prime the pump,” I still ignored his urgings.

Then I realized that I have a lot that I want to say, and that I believe needs to be said. I’ve been around for a long time, have had a teaching and preaching ministry for a long time. Much of this stuff I have said already, yet there are many things that I have wanted to say and haven’t said. In fact, often the very things I’ve felt needed to be said are the ones left unsaid. I didn’t want to offend people; used the “carrot” instead of the “stick” to speak to people; I was afraid I’d lose friends, or my job, or my ministry, or whatever. I’m not going to worry about that any more. My convictions should be more important than that. “nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house” (Matthew 5:15).

So perhaps I’ve written things, or will write things, that offend people. I don’t intend to offend anyone personally, but it can happen. I pray that I won’t offend the truth of God’s Word (please let me know if I do), but if I offend someone’s opinions or prejudices, that’s another matter.

I feel that we are living in an age of “dumbing down.” That American Christians are right there with, if not ahead of, the rest of the people in this country, and sometimes it seems, the most prone to dumbing down. We seem to be afraid to think on our own, unable to analyze our situations, or ethics, or politics, or world events, or whatever, from a biblical and theological worldview.

Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s there was a filter cigarette which was advertised as “the thinking man’s filter.” I’m afraid that many of us are looking for just that today – not a cigarette, but a filter. There are many on radio and TV and elsewhere, who want to tell us what and how to think. And there are all too many of us who are inclined, even eager, to let others do our thinking for us.

I don’t want to be anyone’s filter, but I do hope and pray that I will say some things that will jar my readers’ thinking (if there are any readers out there), and force them into reexamining their opinions and prejudices.

I may appear to be a curmudgeon. I suppose I meet the requirements. If so, I want to be a Curmudgeon for Christ. “ ... whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Bill Ball
4/12/2006