Witnessing

Christ witnessed in every moment of his life.  His every conversation, his every touch, his every response was a witness to how Awesome God is and how much God loves his people.  It sounds like it should be easier than I make it out to be, huh?  I think that's a trick that the devil and our culture play on us.  The devil, the great accuser, points out our flaws and sin and attempts to convince us that our life is inadequate and incapable of pointing someone to Christ.  He tries to shame us into silence. If he doesn't win, then the culture will definitely try to intimidate us.  The PC-ites will tell us that we can talk about Christ because He's "offensive" and "intolerant" so if we want to be liked and not make waves, "we should just keep our religion to ourselves."

Unfortunately, between the two, most of us are nullified.  I read a bible study today that had a great quote in it: "Too often we are more afraid of men than we are of God.  Most men (and women) dread being ridiculed by others."

I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment of our Christian culture.  We lied to by the devil and the world and we back down.  We're content to "let our actions tell our testimony."  While that is true, we should live with integrity, if we truly get who Jesus is (the greatest treasure ever.  Period), then there's no way to be silent about Him.  I'm not saying that we have to wear a sandwich board on the sidewalk and hurl insults at people.  Nor am I saying we have to follow some kind of step-by-step program to "sell" Jesus.  I'm saying it's more simple than that.

I have the ability to share my story in every conversation, every touch, and every response today.  I don't have to hand people a track and read them the Romans road in order to witness to them.  I just have to offer them love and verbalize my gratitude to God for all that He has done for me in my life.  Think about it like this:  If I was on trial as a key witness, I would not be responsible to convincing the jury of anything.  I just have to tell them what I saw.  I just have to tell them my story.  It's up to them to interpret my story.

My point?  Live a life of integrity where your actions line up with your values by all means.  But don't neglect vocalizing all that Jesus has done for you, especially the little stuff, to those you come in contact with.  Our joy in Christ should be spilling out all over people.  If they hate us for it, so be it.  Someone hating us for loving God does not nullify God in our lives.  In fact, I think Jesus said that it magnifies it.

Be blessed today!

The Struggle for Peace

Peace must be pursued.  It doesn't just come to you.  There is nothing passive about a life of peace.  You can't gain peace by osmosis.  You can't inherit peace.  You have to reach for it, chase after it, and hold on tight to it as you live your day-to-day life.
It isn't because the peace itself is fleeting or untamable.  On the contrary.  Peace is readily available for us through the Holy Spirit.  However, it's our own nature and disposition that will try to rip peace away from us.  Our attitude will do anything it can to distract us and keep us from trusting in Christ to be our peace.  Our self will scream for control and constantly tempt us to grab the reigns of our lives.  The problem is, unfortunately, you can't hold onto the reigns and to peace (that is Jesus).  Hence the struggle.
Peace is there, ready for the taking as a result of the Holy Spirit in our lives provided through our relationship with Jesus.  But, we have to be willing to step over the "dead man" (our former selves) to reach it.  Every day, we have to make the choice, do we hang on to us or do we grab on to peace.  Do we consistently and repeatedly drink from the well of life-- the scriptures--and bask in the presence of the author of life--Jesus?  Or do we rely on ourselves from situation to situation?  The choice seems obvious to me.