Jesus Revolution By Greg Laurie And Ellen VaughnSýnishorn

Day Two

Are You for Jesus or Against Him?

Scripture: Matthew 12:30

In March 1970, Lonnie Frisbee visited a public high school in Southern California to teach a Bible study during lunchtime. Lonnie read out loud from the Bible and talked about how Jesus wasn’t some faraway, dry historical figure. He was real, and human beings could actually have a relationship with Him.

Greg Laurie was in the audience that day. He believed Jesus was a good teacher who probably would have fit right in with all the peace-loving hippies of the day. 

But Lonnie talked about how Jesus was the Son of God, that He had died for everyone’s sins, and that He had risen from the dead. For the first time, Greg realized that Jesus was personal.

“There’s no middle ground with Jesus,” Lonnie went on. “You’re either for Him or against Him. So which side are you on?” 

Whoa, Greg thought. Jesus wasn’t just part of the nice hippie blur of peace and love and harmony. He was actually more radical. More revolutionary: you were either for Him or against Him.

Greg looked at the Jesus-freak kids sitting there with their Bibles on their laps. It was actually cool that they didn’t seem to care what other people thought. They were for Jesus.

I’m not part of them, Greg thought. So does that mean I’m against Jesus? 

Lonnie invited anyone who wanted to be for Jesus could come forward so he could pray with them.

Greg thought, What if it’s not real? What if I can’t do it right? What if it works for everybody else but me? But in the end, all he knew was he wanted to be for Jesus. His body somehow made its way up to the front with other students who’d decided the same thing. Then, after some earnest words of simple instruction from Lonnie, Greg prayed to tell Jesus that he was for Him, that he wanted to follow Him, and that he wanted Jesus to forgive his sins.

All the other kids erupted into tears and hugs. Greg just stood there. He felt nothing except the sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t done it right. But then he felt something else. It was the sense that a weight had been lifted, a burden he hadn’t even consciously known he had carried all his life.

How does your life express your decision to be for or against Jesus? Be specific. Are there changes you need to make?