Christian Resistance

Resistance takes many forms such as that from the political realm when people resist policies or legislation or even standing in resistance against nominees. We can also see resistance within crime when individuals resist arrest. However, in the realm of biblical Christianity there's another type of resistance we need to address. In this case it's a kind of resistance that knows how to resist the world while following Christ.

Joining Jim to look at this issue was James Spencer. James is the president of D.L. Moody Center, an independent non-profit organization inspired by the life and ministry of Dwight Moody. He's author of the book: Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ.

The challenge for Christians is this: How do we go about navigating the expectations and social conventions that we experience as those things attempt to shape and form us into something other than Christ? At some point we need to begin resisting those things because our goal is to be conformed to the image of Christ.

To begin, James defined the term, "resistance." At one time he was a personal trainer so he used to work people out with resistance in the form of weights. He explained how those weights are the pressure that you push or pull. This is a positive kind of resistance because as you resist, your muscles break down and eventually become stronger.

The other kind of resistance he was thinking of as he wrote his book was that of a dam. On one side you have what appears to be tranquil water that is sitting against a huge concrete wall. Because the water is tranquil you can be fooled into thinking there's no great pressure.