Disruption of a Witness!

Good afternoon world. I pray that your life is being blessed by the One who wishes to bless all.

Did you know that if you are a Christian, you’re a witness? It is not that you will become a witness but you are a witness! In other words, what you say and do is being seen or listened to. What ever you say or what ever you do or even what you don’t say, someone has their eye on you. How do you look to other Christians or the unsaved world?

In Acts 1:4-5, Jesus tells His disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Right now I want to make this point about a witness. So often we are in such a big hurry, and so much in a hurry to do some worldly thing, until we can’t sit still long enough for the Holy Spirit to christen us.

On Sunday, if the preacher starts to go a little over twelve, some of those “in a hurry people” start to give him the eye, and if they don’t give the eye, there is most often some sly comment made afterwards by some pious soul. If you look at other churches, you will, more often than not, notice that the ones that are striving are the ones that are not in a hurry to leave.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This verse just reinforces what I said earlier about being a witness.

What Disrupts a Witness?

A lot of Christians stay somewhat silent about their faith when in a group of those who don’t know Christ. There are probably lots of reasons for this, but the one I hear most often is the feeling of not being good enough. They might say, “Who am I to tell someone about Jesus, when my own life is in such a mess?”

There is an out of place idea, that goes along with this wrong kind of thinking, that in order to witness for Christ you have to have a close to spotless life. There’s a certain standard one has to live up to prior to being in a position to tell someone about Jesus. If not, people will point the finger at you and spot your own faults. Show me someone who has no faults and I will bow to Him in worship!

The lack of common sense in this kind of thinking is the fact that no one, not even Christians, will ever have it all together in this life. Instead of being an excuse not to witness, the fact that we aren’t good enough should be the whole point. We tell people about Jesus because we know, better than anyone, how much we need him. When people throw our own shortcomings up in our faces that is just another opportunity to tell our own story of how Christ has forgiven us on the cross and how much we need his salvation every day. So instead of being a threat to our witness, our faults and shortcomings are the very things which our witness hangs. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t need Jesus.

When I think of the truth of our statement as Christians to those who don’t know Christ, I always think of the blind man that Jesus healed by covering his eyes with mud and telling him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. (John 9:1-34)
When the Jewish religious leaders heard what had taken place, they started to question the man at length wanting to know who healed him, how it happened, where the man who healed him was now, and even asking his parents to confirm whether their son was really born blind.

When they came back to the man and opened fire on him with questions a second time, accusing Jesus of being a sinner for doing work on the Sabbath, the man replied, "I don’t know whether he is a sinner but I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!" (John 9:25)

Here is the message for the witness:

I was blind, and now I can see; I was lost, and now I am found; I was guilty, and now I’m forgiven; I was alone, and now I have a friend.

It doesn’t take a perfect life to spread that message just a saved one.

So what’s keeping you from telling your story?

Notice that the religious leader questioned the former blind man at length? It means they were not in a hurry. They took their time in asking the man about Jesus. Now knowing that they took their time should be all the more reason that we should take even more time in being a witness for Jesus.

To God be the glory.

If you are a real witness, just tell your story and Christ will do the rest!

Want you please tell someone about Jesus because He is coming sooner than you think!

Someone somewhere needs to hear just what you have to say!

Robert N. Graves. Sr.
Fisherman for Christ