Can I Get A Witness?

CAN I GET A WITNESS?

Do you suppose if Jesus came here now and asked this question, how many could He count on to answer the call?  We are the minority who believe in Him, and we don't always feel capable of answering the call, because there are situations in this world where we would lose our jobs, and there are some in other countries who would lose their life!  Some would surely get beaten up in the wrong place witnessing of Him, and do you know what He said about that?  "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." (Matt. 5:10 - 12)

David had no problem being a witness; "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.  I cried unto Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue." (Psa. 66:16 - 17)  As a matter of fact, his wife who loved him for the first part of their lives together, despised the manner in which he made witness of the true God as he danced and played in public, and as she reproved her husband the king for being witness of his good God, he dealt with her in this way; "And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.  And they brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.  And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.  And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine.  So all the people departed every one to his house.  Then David returned to bless his household.  And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, 'How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!'  And David said unto Michal, 'It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD.  And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.'  Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death." (2 Sam. 6:16 - 23)  This is not always so that the Christian has the upper hand between himself and in this case, a rebellious wife!

"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise." (Prov. 11:30)  "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.'  They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." (Psa. 14:1)  I have put these two together to show that the fool is not righteous with the latter Psalm, and that the witness is wise who can win souls from among them.  The fool here is described as to his belief and behavior; he is morally perverse.  His or her atheism is not theoretical, but rather practical in nature.

We who are a witness for God, we are as a bright shining light.  Not as a light that requires luminescence, mind you, but rather a spiritual light, one which the unsaved do not have.  The saved have such a light, and like many sticks in a bonfire, our light edifies the light of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  How do we shine?  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 5:16)  That's right!  Our good works, the fruit of the Spirit that is in us, by this people will see our witness that we are children of God, the family of Christ Jesus!  If we preach our faith, but do no works, our witness is an odd flame, a spark at best, and if our actions do not back up our witness, we are seen as faith without works, and faith without works does not save.  "Yea, a man may say, 'Thou hast faith, and I have works': shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" (James 2:18 - 20)  So have faith AND works, and your two-part ticket to heaven is punched by Christ Jesus!

When we are sent by Christ to be a witness, how great a witness for Him we shall be, being so that He Himself sends us?  "And when He was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed Him that he might be with Him.  Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, 'Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.'  And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel." (Mark 5:18 - 20)  What a terrific story of the man possessed with the many demons called Legion!  Once a very lost soul, saved by Jesus, he went to Decapolis to be the great witness Jesus instructed him to be!

After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus wanted His disciples to witness specific things of Him.  But what is true today is as it was after His resurrection, is that each generation need be preached to the same things He told His disciples to preach; "And said unto them, 'Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  And ye are witnesses of these things.  And, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.'" (Luke 24:46 - 49)  Just as it was preached salvation in Christ's resurrection by these disciples, so it need be done today!  "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

Now of all those who are believers as I am, if you have been His witness for some length of time, you know you will get the unbelievers talking about you.  They'll call you "Jesus freak", "nut case", "whack job", "crazy for God"; and those are the GOOD things they'll say of you!  Because they are unbelievers loving the darkness, oh, they will say worse of you, and want you shut up.  Foreknowing these things, yet, be not ashamed.  Christians have been so spoken of long before this generation who can read bible studies on a computer!  "So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Rom. 1:15 - 16)  Think not that you have to go to Greece or Israel to preach; Paul means here that Jew and Gentile (that's you and me who are not Jewish) alike are invited to salvation in Christ!  And here Paul instructs us that we should not be ashamed for being a witness, for you who witness, if you be ashamed, it will tell on you in your inflections of speech and in your behavior.  You will act anxious and nervous, and your speech may have a stammer or even a waiver in the tone.  New Christians may experience this, but seasoned Christians will orate as your pastor, minister, elder, or a priest does in churches.

Know now that as we witness of Christ and the salvation He offers all who would believe on Him, we must walk the walk as well as talk the talk; in short, we are now ambassadors for Christ!  People will be judging your "new man" or "new woman", and so we must always be on our guard, so that we don't ruin our witness!  I have had a sister in Christ "de-friend" me on Facebook because she obviously misinterpreted something I wrote to her.  I paid her a couple genuine compliments in total innocence, and in her mind the old nature apparently made its presence and her thoughts went the wrong way.  I actually had to have another Christian associate explain to me how she probably thought that way about me after the compliments.  So you see, we are even ambassadors to one another, and we tend to do poorly, because we don't know who among us is a sheep or wolf.  We don't always give each other enough time to test our fruits!  "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." (2 Cor. 5:18-20)

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ." (1 Pet. 3:15 - 16)  Now some might ask, "Exactly what does this mean?"  Set aside the Lord Jesus in your hearts.  Have an answer for those ready when they will ask you what makes your religion and beliefs right among all the others who believe so much other stuff.  For there are all kinds of religions and theologies of false gods, let alone false doctrines of the true God, and then there are the atheists and heathens!  Many times I have debated against false doctrines and religions, always citing chapter and verse of Scripture, and none could win against me, they simply refused to accept the bible as it is written, and so they incur from God whatever He deems for rejecting what is written.

When we speak, and the topic is of a religious nature, and we witness of God, in any or all forms of the Trinity, let us first be sure we have it right!  Let us read, read, and read some more, all of God's word, from cover to cover, and what we memorize, preach that.  The more we remember, the better our witness, but be sure; if we misspeak what Scripture has written, it ruins our witness.  But if we speak surely, our confidence edifies our family in Christ who hear it, and unbelievers may take interest, because even they can tell we believe what we say.  As we grow in our faith and prayers to God, and get many reading hours under our belts, God grants us ability.  Even the mute and deaf may demonstrate witness of God, because when we watch our brothers and sisters and children in Christ doing Scripitural works, we understand they are living what Scripture dictates we are to do amongst our neighbors.  "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." (1 Pet. 4:11)

Let us be not a witness only today, but every day.  When we get up every morning and pray, let us ask Him to open our eyes to every opportunity to witness for Christ, that we might successfullly witness of Him to every neighbor, whether for edification or unto the salvation of the unsaved, let us give Him a witness in me and you!