Monday, January 4, 2010

Four Steps to Being In Christ: Introduction

Lalith Pereira, an international preacher from Sri Lanka was in Dubai a couple of weeks before Christmas to conduct his flagship 4-Step Retreat in one of the city parishes. I had heard an abbreviated version of the program on CD and, quite taken in with it, I looked forward to listening to the full version with much anticipation. I was not disappointed.


Lalith Pereira preaching in Dubai
Lalith, whom I met during my first visit to Sri Lanka a few years ago—he had invited me to speak to his group—is a warm, wise, simple and funny man, and they are traits that he carries forth to the podium, making for some very enjoyable and edifying preaching.

Much of his content is mirrored in the steps I suggest in my own Discipleship Program, but his approach is so vastly different, I felt I should share it with my readers as another way up the mountain of the Lord. There is more than one route up and preachers should realize that, rather than believe their way is the only way and insist everybody follow it (and get mad if they don't!). Lalith's is a particularly good route, and involves moving from being with Christ to being in him.

Reading the New Testament we discover that these are the two ways to experience Jesus: to be with Him, and to be in Him. The apostles were with Christ for about three years, and though they lived with Him and learned from Him and loved Him, they were pretty much the same people at the end of the three years as they were at the start of it. A little wiser, perhaps, but fundamentally unchanged.

We see this very evident in their desertion of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. After promising Jesus that they would never leave His side, no matter what, they all ran away the moment danger threatened. (One of them was in such a hurry he left his clothes behind (cf. Mark 14:51), perhaps starting the trend currently known as streaking!) They had wanted to be with their Lord, but when push came to shove, they simply didn't have what it took to stay firm.

Yet, just a few weeks later, all of them were preaching boldly, not fearing prison, persecution, or death! How did this change take place? Because they had gone from being with Christ to being in Christ. And how did this happen?

We will discover this in the next four days, and it is important that we do, because many Christians are with Christ, not in Him. Consequently, like the apostles we make grand promises to Christ—like the resolutions we made at the start of this year—fully meaning to keep them, but unable to do so, because merely being with Him doesn't do the trick. We need to be in Him as well. Stay tuned.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much, its trully enlightening. Am eagerly looking forward to the next step to being in Christ.

    In Christ
    Juliana

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