Dc Talk - Jesus Freak 25Sample

What If I Stumble? 

This honest song shares a struggle and a theme that should deeply concern every single Christian.

Brennan Manning summarizes it well when he writes, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

If we wonder at the rise of atheism, anarchy, and indifference in our world, we should—we must—first look at ourselves as the people of God. Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, lays out the problem in stark terms: “this people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” (Matt. 15:8 and Isa. 29:13)

The problem for them wasn’t ignorance—they knew God, they had His word, and as a people and nation, they had been the recipients of His extravagant kindness. Nor was the problem a lack of worship, for they were frequently proclaiming many right truths about God. Yet, Jesus saw into the interior life and spoke what He saw: “their hearts are far from me.” 

For those in Isaiah’s day, and those in Jesus’ day, as well as for us in this day, “compromise is [always] calling.” This compromise is one of Satan’s frequently ensnaring baits: You can have God on your own terms, he hisses. To compromise is to make concessions, to give up one thing for something else. Satan want us to make concessions—to give up spiritual health and life in exchange for spiritual disease and death. Of course, the compromise is never that clear in the moment. In the moment, compromise seems reasonable and natural, even enjoyable. And yet this way of concession, of pushing away intimacy with God in order to consume that which the devil offers (like forbidden fruit), is utterly destructive. As an ancient writer of wisdom wrote: In the moment, the way a person chooses for themselves seems like life, “but its end is the way to death.” (Prov. 14:12, ESV)

Yet compromise and its deadening end is not the believer’s lot! God’s whispering of “my love for you will never change” provides an unshakable security more definite and real than the very ground beneath our feet. As we are “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3:17), we grow in the knowledge of God which transcends emotions— troughs one moment and zeniths the next—as He moors us to Himself amidst the storms of life.

As we truly believe in our loving Father and rest in His strength, we can’t help but live a life that gives the atheist reason to reconsider.