What do you stand for? What are you willing to die for? Where is the line in the sand in your life? In the book of Daniel three men of God were told that when the king’s musicians played a tune all of the people were to bow down to an image of the king or be burned alive. When the music played these three did not bow, they didn’t even crouch over a little to try to blend in and not be seen. They stood in faith and defiance. And had it not been for the miraculous deliverance of God, they would have surely burned. Instead, God used them to transform a nation.
All around us the world (and the enemy) plays its song calling us to compromise our values, conform to worldly standards, minimize our faith, and keep this whole ‘Christian thing’ quiet and to ourselves. Half-way Christianity has led us to believe that if we choose to stand firm we will be offensive, divisive and intolerant. What results is a half-way faith – not giving in fully to the world, but not willing to stand up for Christ in the midst of it. We become crouching Christians, trying to blend into a world we were called to transform. It is the anemic, mediocre and ineffectual half-way life.
Know that today you and I can be assured that we will hear the world’s music. When we hear it, let’s pray that together with God’s help we will not bow down in allegiance or crouch over so as not to stick out, but that we will stand in faith and defiance regardless of the cost. That’s what it means to be ‘all-in’ for Jesus.