I was listening to a sermon by Chip Ingram the other day and he was talking about some early Christians and how they were killed by having animal skins tied to them then they were put in the coliseums and fed to wild animals. He talked about the records of such Christians going into the coliseums singing praises to God until they were killed. This kind of devotion is something almost unheard of here in western Christianity. The issue I believe is that there is no enemy to fight here. At that time it was a complete matter of life or death to become a Christian. Here was can say yeah I like Christianity and what it stands for or whatever and yay I’m a Christian now. There is no real cost or commitment needed for a “decision” to serve Christ.
Now I’m in now way saying that it’s better for it to be a matter of life and death, I’m merely stating that there is a problem with how shallow our commitment is. The hardest thing, the way I see it, is that we are not able to identify a clear enemy or struggle. It’s easy to prepare for a fight when you know your enemy. If I were an MMA fighter for instance, I’d be able to watch videos and learn his tactics and I’d be able to train accordingly. The way it is now… I can’t see an enemy; in fact there may not even be an enemy other than myself or my apathy. So I’m stuck fighting myself… that’s not nearly as clear or simple as seeing an enemy we can prepare a fight against. How do you go about defeating yourself? Can you overcome yourself if you are focused on yourself or can you remain focused on God when there is no clear fight and so much to distract or sidetrack? How do you take the battle to yourself?
