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Topic: Witnessing
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Everyone there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes.
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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Carol Swenson
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TB125, thank you. God bless you. And, thank You Lord! Amen!
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When Christ came into my life, I came about like a well-handled ship.
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (1850–1894)
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TB125
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Member # 2450
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posted
Carol,
That is an excellent testimony. I would add this comment to this thread.
We Christians commonly say that "God is love", but we often say this without realizing how radical a statement that really is. The amazing thing about God's love is that He loves me! I'm not a saint, never have been and never will be, but I'm a forgiven sinner through the love of God in Jesus who died for me.
In His love, God lets me suffer the consequences of my sinful and selfish decisions, but He hasn't given up on me so He reminds me over and over again that His way is better than mine. I think that I'm learning to trust Him more and more with the details of my daily life as each day I learn more and more about His love! Thank you LORD!
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Bob
Posts: 449 | From: Rockford Illinois | Registered: Nov 2003
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
If we could gather together wisdom, and love, and beauty, and strength, and every quality we know of as being good,
and if we could imagine all of these qualities raised to their maximum goodness,
and put them all together in one Man,
then we would begin to understand who Jesus is. The perfection of all that is good.
And God. The Creator of all that is good.
If anyone were to ask me, “What has Jesus done for you?”, my most honest testimony would be:
Everything.
Carol
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Carol Swenson
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If my testimony makes anyone wish to emulate me, it is a mistaken testimony; it is not a witness to Jesus.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
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Carol Swenson
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Jesus is the foundation of my whole life. He is my strength. If you have Jesus in your life, you know it, you feel it. He’s the solid rock you can stand on every day. There’s no problem you can’t face if you have the love of Jesus to strengthen you.
Johnny Cash (1932– )
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Carol Swenson
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The Handbook of Bible Application
WITNESSING (Sharing, Preaching, Telling)
What are the key principles in witnessing?
BIBLE READING: 2 Kings 7:3-20
KEY BIBLE VERSE: Finally they said to each other, “This isn’t right. This is wonderful news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! Even if we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us; come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.” (2 Kings 7:9, TLB)
If we have experienced the gospel as real Good News, we will not be able to keep it to ourself. The lepers discovered the deserted camp and realized their lives had been spared. At first they kept the good news to themselves, forgetting their fellow citizens who were starving in the city. The Good News about Jesus Christ must be shared too, for no news is more important. We must not forget those who are dying without it. We must not become so preoccupied with our own faith that we neglect sharing it with those around us. Our “wonderful news,” like that of the lepers, will not “wait until morning.”
BIBLE READING: Jonah 3:1-10
KEY BIBLE VERSE: On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. (Jonah 3:4-5, NIV)
Our responsibility is to witness; we can’t determine who will respond. God’s word is for everyone. Despite the wickedness of the Ninevite people, they were open to God’s message and repented immediately. If we simply proclaim what we know about God, we may be surprised at how many people will listen. In Jonah’s case, the witnessing was done grudgingly, but it was still effective. We cannot predict who will respond. We should never prevent someone from having the opportunity.
BIBLE READING: Matthew 28:16-20
KEY BIBLE VERSE: He told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; and be sure of this—that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:18-20, TLB)
Our witness is based on the authority of Jesus Christ. God gave Jesus authority over heaven and earth. On the basis of that authority, Jesus told his disciples to make more disciples as they preached, baptized, and taught. With this same authority, Jesus still commands us to tell others the Good News and make disciples for the kingdom.
Jesus’ command compels us to witness. When someone is dying or leaving us, his or her last words are very important. Promising them that he would be with them always, Jesus left the disciples with these last words of instruction: by his authority to make more disciples, to baptize them, and to teach them to obey Christ. Whereas in previous missions Jesus had sent his disciples only to the Jews (10:5-6), their mission from now on would be worldwide. Jesus is Lord of the earth, and he died for the sins of people from all nations.
Therefore we are to go—whether it is next door or to another country—and make disciples. It is not an option, but a command to all who call Jesus “Lord.” We are not all evangelists in the formal sense, but we have all received gifts that we can use to help fulfill the Great Commission. As we obey, we have comfort in the knowledge that Jesus is always with us.
BIBLE READING: Acts 1:1-11
KEY BIBLE VERSE: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8, NIV)
Christians today may not be eyewitnesses, but we are faith witnesses to Christ’s power in our life. Luke says that the disciples were eyewitnesses to all that had happened to Jesus Christ—his life before his crucifixion (“suffering”), and the forty days after his resurrection, when he taught them more about the kingdom of God. Today there are still people who doubt Jesus’ resurrection. But Jesus appeared to the disciples on many occasions after his resurrection, proving that he was alive. Look at the change the resurrection made in the disciples’ lives. At Jesus’ death, they scattered—they were disillusioned, and they feared for their life. After seeing the resurrected Christ, they were fearless and risked everything to spread the Good News about him around the world. They faced imprisonment, beatings, rejection, and martyrdom, yet they never compromised their mission. These men would not have risked their life for something they knew was a fraud. They knew Jesus was raised from the dead, and the early church was fired with their enthusiasm to tell others. It is important to know this so we can have confidence in their testimony. Twenty centuries later we can still be confident that our faith is based on fact.
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