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| Paul before King Agrippa |
TO CHEW ON: “Therefore having obtained help from God to this day I stand witnessing both to small and great.” Acts 26: 22
[Witness comes from the word martureo (mar-too-reh-oh). It means to give evidence, attest, confirm, confess, bear record, speak well of, give a good report, testify, affirm that one has seen, heard or experienced something. (Interestingly, the word martyr has the same root.)]
Witnessing is the part of our faith life where we speak of (or write about) who God is to us and what our experience with Him has been like. Each person’s witness is different because we all experience God in different ways.
I love the Samaritan woman’s witness, “Come see a Man who told me all things that I ever did” John 4:29. She experienced God, through Jesus, as someone who knew her completely.
Paul experienced God as the changer of his life mission. After his blinding introduction to Jesus, Paul realized that everything he had based his life on was wrong. In that instant he turned 180º and became a defender of Christians instead of a killer of them.
Whatever our experience with God – whether miracle-fraught or subtle and unspectacular, we can witness about it. And just as our stories are different, so will be the reaction to them. Some will discount what we say as Agrippa discounted Paul’s witness. Others will respond. When that response is immediate, our witness can lead to giving us the privilege of introducing someone to Jesus. Often the response will come later though. We may not be around to see or even know that our witness was a contributing factor in someone’s coming to faith.
PRAYER: Lord, how can I witness about You and what You’ve done for me today? Please open my mouth, and the ears of those who will hear. Amen
MORE:
“The primary means through which the Lord Jesus Christ transmits His life and love is through His people. There are probably few whose experience of finding Christ did not begin with an appetite created in their hearts through seeing the reality of Jesus Christ in other people. God will do it with you, however unwittingly on your part, for this is our privilege, this is our task, and this must be our confident expectation as we allow Christ to live His life in us and pour through us as “a river of living water.” – Charles Price in Our Journey – A daily walk in the Word, December 2009.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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