For Me or Against Me

"We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; . . . experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical; Are we still of any use? . . . Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves be remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?"

Powerful words written to a world flinching with each act of terrorism? Words penned to admit our sense of impotence in the battle between the haves and the have-nots, the citizens and the immigrants, the powerful and the power-less? Words of exhaustion over modern life out of our control?

Would you be shocked this quote is found in Letters and Papers from Prison, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of WW II's great Christian martyrs? From the depths of Nazi incarceration he frets that people of character, those who draw from the hidden life of Christ, may be in short supply.

Bonhoeffer wasn't thinking of nice people, of men and women who make no waves, cause their world no trouble. He was search for people who are defined by the character of Jesus Christ--Christ-followers whose impact on their troubled, often wicked, generation comes from being confident and centered in the person and power of Jesus Christ.

On my first trip to Russia, I brought back several matruskas, known to most Americans as nesting dolls. These round, wooden dolls stand about nine inches high, beautifully hand-painted, shaped like duckpins. If you remove the upper portion of the doll, you will find another inside, another inside that, another inside that, down to the smallest doll about two inches tall.

They are reminder of the many layers of me, each having to be transformed as I allow the person and power of Jesus to dominate my life. This helps me understand that, while there is an outer image I want to project to the world, there is a layer passionate to listening to God, another who is impatient with my family and coworkers, another arrogant about my interpretation of the Scripture, another weak-willed when certain temptations flaunt their vices, yet another rife with feelings of inadequacy and shame. My life task, often an intense struggle, is to bring them in line with what Jesus says about me, . . . Forgiven, free, mercy-filled, grace-filled, accepted, adequate in Him.

This is what defines me as Christ-follower, not necessarily what fellowship I attend or creed I aspire to . . . or even a pinpoint date I can claim as my "decision for Christ." Everyday has to be a NEW decision for Christ.

Now, I know I am treading on dangerous ground with some who claim to be "fundamental, evangelical." All my religious life I was told I should be able to "remember the day, place, and time I accepted Christ." The implication was if I COULD NOT, then I probably wasn't "saved."

If that is what you were taught, I want to challenge your thinking and perhaps your heart. (Hold off tossing the stones of doctrine a moment and let me walk you through it.) You may begin to understand the words of Jesus in a new way.

I'm not trying to discredit your moment of "receiving Christ as Savior," but challenging you look at where you are now in the process of becoming like Christ. More than providing fire insurance from Hell and a doorway to Heaven, Jesus is in the business of reinventing people for the here and now. Strip away all the beatitudes, parables, healing, and miracles, Jesus spoke very simply; "I am the way the truth and the life:" (John 14:6) His message could be reduced to a few simple words; repent (leave), follow, and I will make you into something new.

"Nowhere can I find in the Four Gospels any instance of our modern version of evangelism. No one who was asked to pray a prayer and then told he was 'in.' No one was asked to affirm a set of doctrines or propositions. All were judged on one simple basis: were they following Jesus or not. . . . It is clear the following spoke of the direction one was walking in. Either you were walking toward Him (no matter the distance from you to Him), or you were walking away from Him." ~ Gordon MacDonald, Mid-Course Correction

For more than two thousand years the organized church has viewed themselves as the world culture viewed itself. Imagine a circle that is defined by its outer circumference. One is either in or out of the circle. And those inside the circle define what it will take for those outside to get in. Be it social organizations, business or religion, we want to know the boundary line and what it takes to get in.

So we begin a well-intentioned transformation consisting of altering behavior, vocabulary, schedules, even priorities. We are celebrated and welcomed to the "in-circle" but something haunts us when the cheers fade and life gets hard. The layers, the hidden life, the heart remains untouched. We redouble our efforts to either change or surrender to despair.

But Jesus taught a second alternative for being "in" -- as "in the Kingdom." This alignment is not concerned about the rules of the circumference . . . The important thing is WHO is at the center. One is either moving toward the center point or away from the center.

When Jesus disciples confronted a man was casting out demons in Jesus name. They told him told him to stop because he wasn't one of their "in group" of Christ-followers (IE. not one of their denomination, gone through their process of discipleship, had "their experience," or worship like they do.) Jesus rebuked them: "Don't stop him; he who is not against Me is for Me (the center point)."

Like a surgeon's knife, Jesus' words slice through my intentions, reservations, and excuses. There is no middle ground, no room for stagnation. My decision to make Him my center point has launched me from the bow as an arrow bound for the target. If I claim Him as my Center, I am in motion toward Him or away from Him.

"If Jesus is the center point, and He bids us come closer and closer, then there is incentive each day to reengage an increasing transformation…Moving closer -- deliberately, strategically -- becomes one's personal mission over the course of a lifetime." ~ Gordon MacDonald, Mid-Course Correction