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Are We Under Attack?


 It's that time of year again. Yes, it is time for trees, lights, and presents; but, it is also time for stories about why Christians should be on guard. We will soon hear about some other "war" on Christianity. We will be made to feel like we should be upset because people say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". We will be told to feel persecuted because the word "Christmas" is not found on holiday cups at our local coffee places. As American Christians, there seems to be a constant battle against the culture which seems to be heading into a post-Christian or sometimes anti-Christian worldview. Yet, are we really under attack?

Sometimes it is hard for me, from the comfort of America, with my freedom to follow Christ, to feel like I am under attack. I read how in China pastors are drowned in urine for the gospel. People in other countries must hide their Bibles for fear of being reported and jailed by their own families. Furthermore, in some countries, people come to Christ knowing that it will be a guaranteed death sentence. These seem much more serious than a person saying words to us we don't want to hear, or not letting us sit at the "cool kids table" because we believe in Jesus.

The truth is that we are under attack as believers. While we fight the world over cups, toys, books, TV shows, and politics; we are missing a subtle strategy of the enemy. While we are attacking people, we miss that Ephesians 6:12 states that we wrestle against spiritual hosts on a daily basis. We complain that people don't want our Jesus, but sometimes we fail to realize that they may not want the politics we wrap the gospel inside of. We need to focus on the gospel again. While we are distracted by cultural Christianity, we miss the opportunities to create disciples around us. While we try to force the world to behave biblically, we sometimes miss the grassroots changes we can make to help individuals know Jesus. Sometimes our own lack of fruit can cause people not to want to know our God, not just their fallen state. Let us focus on the real battle. We must fight a two-prong offensive; we must fight the sin within and show that Jesus is a better alternative to the world without. 

Instead of constantly being under attack by things that culturally have no real Christian significance, may we go on the offensive to make individual disciples for Christ. Then when we truly focus on disciple-making and godly living; we can see it duplicated until the world is affected by Jesus. 

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