A "Dangerous" Christian

Jim Elliot is one of the most well known martyrs of our time. One of my professors from SEBTS recently had a blog post of many of Elliot's most famous quotes. A couple really stuck out to me.

“We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are “harmless,” and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. We are “sideliners” — coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!”


Did you catch that? Far too many of us are content to stand on the sidelines of this war. We are mostly unharmed because we are harmless. We don't do anything that would make our enemy harm us because we are pacifists, not wanting to engage.

This makes me think about a few years ago when I was the leader of our group of kids at children's camp. We were playing paintball and had made a plan that on go, we were all going to go to different bunkers. When the horn sounded I ran for my bunker only to realize none of the children had run for theirs! They were afraid to engage and therefore harmless to the other team. Far too many Christians are this same way. We want to sit back in our Christianity and let others be in the line of fire.

I pray that we would become "dangerous" Christians. That we would be in the line of fire. This means that our lives will not be easy. This means that we may have some casualties. But we have been on the sidelines long enough when we have been given clear orders to engage the enemy and win souls to Christ. I close with one more quote from Jim Elliot that I offer as a prayer for myself and all who read this:

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another after facing Christ in me.”  Amen.