I'm on the Tebow bandwagon. Part of the greatness of his witness is that it is who he is! He's Tim Tebow, an over-the-top, extravert football player who inspires teammates and is a Christ-follower. He's not trying to be someone else or build a platform for his witness. He's who he is, where he is, displaying his love for the Lord. He'll be Tim Tebow the Christian if he has a career-ending injury this Sunday against the Patriots.
I respect him and wish I had a little more of his expressive flair in my witness.
Last week we began a series as Legacy Church called, "A Dying for Christ Life." The phrase describes what we call a maturing, growing follower of Jesus. If you follow the Way to spiritual growth as described in Scripture, we believe you could come to the place you are willing to trust Jesus to the point of giving up your life for him.
We took our description from Jesus' clear but neglected teaching about what it takes to be a Christ-follower:
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23 If those first three steps on the way of discipleship are not enough to unsettle your heart, Jesus concluded his teaching with these words:
If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26
I have to admit that if Jesus showed up today, I'm sure he would not be ashamed of Tim Tebow. My fear is that Jesus would be ashamed of my lack of PDA (public display of adoration). Have I risked criticism with my PDA?
One of my favorite tweets on the subject read:
Christ is more embarrassed by Christians who are embarrassed by Tim Tebow, than anything Tebow will ever do. Carlos Whittaker
Go Broncos! Go Tim Tebow! Let the PDA increase!
If you want to hear the foundational message about what Dying-for-Christ life may look like, you can hear it here.