Tag: Witness

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Tattooed Faith

Daily Reading

1Peter 1-5

Daily Thought

Peter puts a spotlight on those who follow Jesus, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1Peter 1:14-16). Holy means to be set apart, to be something other, for all to see, to live on earth and display heaven. 

“Dad, I’m getting a tattoo.”

Adam is a college sophomore; ‘No you are not,’ is no longer an option.

“A cross with 1Peter 1:16 written under it,” Adam described the design, “You shall be holy, for I am holy”

“How big?” asked Dad. Adam stretched his fingers out. “Big. Right here on my arm.”

“Okay, Adam, but you are in college with a lot of people who don’t know Jesus. That tattoo will let everyone know what you believe.”

“Dad, I’m getting the tattoo.”

“That’s great, Son. Just remember, everyone who sees it on your arm will be watching your life to see what it means.”

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” ~1Peter 2:9

Daily Prayer

Father God, You Son came into this world to be a light in a dark place. Thank You for shining that light on me because I was a dark place! I love Your Son.

Now I am a light shining in a dark place. I will not hide the light, but I will hold it up so that people can see. So that they can see Your Son. So that they can receive Your Son and be light, too. So that the world may know that You are God. My God. The only God.

Amen

Daily Question

What would people think it means to be a Christian if they hung around you for a day?

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Let There Be Light

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 1-4

Daily Thought

Light remedies darkness, and in the beginning, “darkness was over the face of the deep, and God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:2-3). But there is another kind of darkness, a darkness in the heart of humanity, for “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). Our world is veiled in darkness, explains Paul, because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2Corinthians 4:4).

The Apostle Paul recalls how the face of Moses shone when he descended from Mt. Sinai, “because he had been talking with God” (Exodus 34:29). Moses had been on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and so bright was the glory on his face that he wore a veil to dim the glow. “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed,” writes Paul, “and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2Corinthians 3:16, 18). 

When I was a kid, my brother and I would shut our bedroom door, turn off the light, and play catch with a rubber, glow-in-the-dark ball. But first you had to get the ball to glow. The longer and closer we held the ball near the light, the longer and brighter it would shine in the darkness.

“You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” ~Matthew 5:14, 16

Stay close to the light because God’s answer is still, “Let there be light.”

Daily Prayer

My God, Your light shines in this dark world and reveals what is good and pure and right. May my life be a reflection of Your glory. The more time I spend in Your light, the brighter I glow. May my life shine in such a way that people know I have been in Your presence. May Your church do Your works in this world so that You are known and loved and followed.

Amen

Daily Question

In what ways can the world see Jesus in the way you “glow”?

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Free to Choose

Daily Reading

1Corinthians 5-8

Daily Thought

Once a Muslim, now a Christian, he was attending the men’s breakfast, and we were inviting him to enjoy the bacon. “You know, as a Christian, you are freed from all those food restrictions and you can eat bacon or ham or whatever you like?”

He understood, “Yes, I know. I know I am free to eat, but I am also free not to eat it. I go home to my family in Egypt once a year, and when I come up to my father’s door, the first question he will ask me is, ‘Have those infidels taught you to eat the filthy hog meat yet?’ If I say to him, ‘Yes, father,’ I will be banished from that home and have no further witness in it. But if I say, as I have always said, ‘No, father, no pork has ever passed my lips,’ then I have admittance to the family circle and I am free to tell them of the joy I have found in Jesus Christ. Therefore I am free to eat, and I am free not to eat. I choose no bacon”

There are some things more important than knowledge. “’Knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up” (1Corinthians 8:1). He knows he is free to eat whatever he wants, and what he wants is for his family to know Jesus.

Daily Thought

My God, You saved me. Not because I was good. Not because I was worth saving. You saved me because You loved me. What an amazing love, too, because I did not love You. I was not good, nor was I godly, and yet You went to death for my life. Now, because of Your goodness, I am becoming like You. 

May I love others, as well, sacrificing my wants for their needs. Make my deepest desire be to do what is good for others. May the choices I make help others choose Jesus.

Amen

Daily Question

What are some things you are free to do, but you choose not to, for the sake of your witness to others?

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Do What You Can’t

Daily Reading

Acts 14-15

Daily Thought

Paul and Barnabas arrived at Iconium and spoke of Jesus in the synagogue and many believed, both Jew and Gentile, “but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds” (Acts 14:2) and the city became divided. Those against threatened to stone Paul and Barnabas, so the disciples fled to Lystra, where they spoke again of Jesus, and did miracles, too. The people began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes and worshiped them rather than the Savior they spoke of and the gospel of Jesus was drowned out by the people’s passion for their own Greek gods. The Iconium Jews, who had chased them out of their own city, caught up with them here and persuaded the crowd to stone Paul and so they did and dragged him out of the city and left him for dead, but he got right back up and went right back into the city. Like the Energizer Bunny, these disciples kept going and going, traveling from Derbe to Pisidia to Pamphylia to Attalia, finally to Antioch, where they ignored what the cities had done to them and “declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27).

Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, is the Savior of the world, and the disciples took the message out of Israel to city and nation, one after another. Like David against Goliath, it never dawned on the disciples they were too small to win the world, so they kept going and people kept believing and the good news of Jesus Christ spread “from Jerusalem to all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). If you decide you cannot do something, you will be right every time, so leave those decisions to God and do whatever he says. You will be amazed what gets done. 

Daily Prayer

My God, may I go as long and as far as You lead, and keep going because You keep leading. Give me the passion and boldness to enter open doors and knock on closed ones. May I burn with the memory of what Your salvation did to my life and fan that flame so Your fire for this world never dies within me.

Keep me encouraged and enthusiastic, faithfully living and speaking grace and truth, and trusting You for changed lives. God, I will stop listening to what I think I cannot do; rather I will listen to what You say I can!

Amen

Daily Question

What should you be doing right now that you don’t think you can?

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Audience of One

Daily Reading

Acts 7-8

Daily Thought

Stephen was dragged into the council room, placed before the court, and interrogated about Jesus. He answered by opening the Scriptures and teaching the chief priest and elders a lesson from their own history, from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to David. He then accused these “stiff-necked people” of following in the footsteps of their forefathers: “As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” (Acts 7:51-52). Their fathers killed the prophets, the council killed the Son of God, and now for his insolence, they would put Stephen to death.

As they picked up stones to throw at him, Stephen looked up, and heaven was opened; and “full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).

Travel back a couple months to the night before the cross. Jesus was on trial in the same council room before the same court, and the high priest asked if he was the Christ, the Messiah. For an answer, Jesus announced, “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God” (Luke 22:69). 

But he wasn’t sitting now; he was standing. 

Stephen endured the wrath of the council to stand faithful before his Savior. Stephen stood before an audience of one and now his Savior stood for him. You can picture Jesus applauding.

Daily Prayer

My Lord and my God, You have my allegiance. I am Your ambassador, and will stand on earth and represent You with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. I love You that much. At least I want to. My love fails at times, but You never fail, so strengthen me. I will stand, but please pick me up when I fall, hold me when I weaken.

You began a good work in me, and I trust You to complete it. May I cast aside anything that slows or stops the progress. I long to see You standing, to hear You say, “Well done.”

Amen

Daily Question

When have you stood for Jesus when it was not a popular stance?

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Great Things

Daily Reading

Acts 1-3

Daily Thought

You would think seeing Jesus alive would fire up the disciples, empower them to take the good news of Jesus to the world, but it didn’t happen that way. After Jesus rose from the tomb, the disciples locked themselves in a room “for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). Jesus appeared to them and showed them the nail holes in his hands and his side where the spear had pierced him. One week later, the disciples were in the same room, doors locked again. Jesus showed up again, same routine. What happened after that? “Simon Peter said to them, ‘I’m going fishing’” (John 21:3), and off they went.

We are made in God’s image, but we are dead in our sin and we must be awakened. We, too, must rise from the dead and we don’t summon that life because we experienced an event, no matter how dramatic. Our batteries are not drained, they are dead; they cannot hold a charge. God must reach inside us and renew our life. 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ~Acts 1:8 

A short time later, the disciples were gathered together in a room “and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:2-4), and it was then that a bunch of faint-hearted followers transformed into world-changing warriors.

Daily Prayer

Jesus, You said that we, Your followers, Your church, will do greater things than You did. I mean, You are the salvation of the world. Yours is the Name above all names. What could be greater? It is a wonderful humility to know it is not in our power to do great things for You, but through Your power in us great things will be done. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, we carry the message, the Good News of salvation to the world. Through Your power, lives are changed. That’s pretty great!

Father God, may I be faithful to follow Your Word, going to the world, in the power of Your Spirit, in the Name of Your Son, with the gospel of grace. I will be faithful to plant the seeds and water the soil and leave it to You, God, to make it grow.

Amen

Daily Question

What is it like to have the power of the Holy Spirit filling you?

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Carry That Weight

Daily Reading

Numbers 7

Daily Thought

The Tabernacle was portable and was packed up, pieced out, and carted along whenever Israel moved camp. The Gershonites were responsible for the curtains, and Moses gave them two carts to carry them. The Merarites, tent poles, got four carts. The Kohathites carried the most holy things, like the ark of the Covenant. They received no carts. God said, “I want you to carry the holy things on your shoulders.”

The Hebrew word for “glory” literally means “weight.” Like the “weight of glory.” Several tons, in this case. That’s how much the ark and the holy things weighed. A cart and a couple oxen would have been nice, “but to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because they were charged with the service of the holy things that had to be carried on the shoulder” (Numbers 7:9). Wonder why?

The wonders of God surround us. The elegance of creation, the beauty of sunsets, the majesty of mountains. “The whole earth is full of his glory,” more than one Hebrew poet exclaimed. But that is not where the world will see the full glory of God. God’s intent was that now, “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10-11). The church–that’s you and me, followers of Jesus Christ, carrying God’s glory to the world, his goodness, his grace, his gospel–it’s on us, on our shoulders. God says, “I want you to carry my glory.”

Daily Prayer

Wonderful God, Maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that are in them, the land and all it’s creatures, the skies and the birds that soar, stars and planets, painted with all the colors of the rainbow, which you made, as well.

In all of creation, You place Your image in people. People like me.  Through the work of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am being transformed and Your image is becoming clear again. May I display Your glory, Your wonder, Your wisdom, You grace, Your love, to the world around me. May the glory of Your work in me brighten the world and bring You praise.

Amen

Daily Question

What can someone learn about God by watching you?

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Going Public

Daily Reading

Matthew 9-10

Daily Thought

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.” ~Matthew 10:32

The rancher wanted the farmers to pay for his drowned cattle. “Judge, you know we’ve been having a drought. The farmers had a prayer meeting and asked God to send rain. I don’t put much stock in prayer, but dad gum if it didn’t work. It rained the next three days and flooded my ranch. Their prayers drowned my cattle, Your Honor.” The farmers objected, “There is no proof that it was God who sent the rain.”

“Let me get this straight,” clarified the judge. “What we have here is a man who doesn’t pray, nevertheless believes God answers prayer. And you guys who do pray say God doesn’t.”

“But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” ~Matthew 10:33

Jesus charges his followers, “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops” (Matthew 10:27), and yet, with an opportunity to praise God publicly, the farmers opt out.

We miss opportunities and shy away from opposition, but Jesus grants no Christian claim to a right to privacy. Following Christ means going public in his Name, the Name of Jesus. 

“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ~Matthew 1:21

Daily Prayer

God, You are faithful and true. I desire to be one who trusts in You, walks in Your Word, and steps out in faith. Help me with my faith where it lacks. Test me and strengthen me where I lack. I believe in You in word, but may I also believe in You in action.

I know, God, that it is fear that keeps me from standing tall for You at times. Help me build upon the solid foundation of Your Son, Jesus Christ. May I be one whose life points to You at all times. May I be one who stands for, lives by, and speaks aloud your Name.

Amen

Daily Question

Do you find it easy to say the name Jesus aloud in public? Why or why not?

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A Good Man

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 1-4

Daily Thought

To follow Jesus is a personal faith, but not a private faith. It is meant to be public. 

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples! ~Psalm 105:1

The entertainer Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) does not believe he needs saving. He is an atheist; he believes there is no God. He believes there is no everlasting life. A man approached Penn Jillette with a gift, a Gideon’s Bible. The man believed Penn Jillette needs saving. I know what Penn Jillette thinks about the Bible. I know what he thinks about God. I know what he thinks about heaven and hell and salvation. I thought I knew what he would think about this man. 

“He was a very very very good man,” said Jillette. 

I was wrong. Penn Jillette respected this man who shared his faith. “I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize,” reasoned Jillette. “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them about it?” Good question. Whether or not Penn Jillette welcomed the word, he knew that a prophet had come close. He called him a good man.

The job of prophet is to tell the truth of God to the people, “and whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 2:5).

Daily Prayer

Everlasting God, out of love You created us. You created us in Your image and You created us good. I can only imagine what it was like to know You at creation, no sin, no separation, no need of a Savior. Adam and Eve could see You clearly and worship You fully.

Then they sinned and now I sin and I am separated and I truly need a Savior, and you delivered One. You gave Your Son and brought me back close to You with the certainty of eternity in Your presence. You sent Your Son for me, and He came. You now send me to others. I will go and I will tell the truth.

Amen

Daily Question

Are you vocal about your faith in Jesus Christ? Should you be? Why or why not?

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Talk Your Walk

Daily Reading

Psalm 66-69

Daily Thought

We are often challenged to walk our talk, and that’s important. It is hypocrisy if you say one thing and do another. The book of James asks, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:14, 18). What you do must match what you believe. You must walk your talk.

But the reverse is just as important. You must also talk your walk. What good is it if you live a godly life but never say a word about God? 

Carlos sat down to lunch with Jack. “I made a huge decision this weekend,” Carlos shared. “I am now a follower of Jesus Christ.”

Jack was thrilled. “Wow!” he cheered. “That’s fantastic, Carlos.”

“Really? I wasn’t sure what you’d think.”

“Why not?” Jack looked puzzled. “I’ve been praying for you for years.”

“You have? Jack, you’re a big reason it took me so long to seek God.”

“What? Why? I’ve always tried to live a good life and be an example,” Jack protested.

“That’s just it,” explained Carlos. “You are a really good man, but you never talk about God.  I always figured if you could be good without God, so could I.”

The apostle Peter put it this way, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1Peter 3:15). We must explain ourselves. We must talk our walk.

Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul. ~Psalm 66:5, 16

Daily Prayer

You entered this world and spoke to me, God. When I open Your Word, I hear Your voice. Your Son, also called the Word, shows me who You are. Your Spirit speaks to my Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God, teaming up for my salvation. Thank You.

Thank You, also, for those servants of yours, my friends and acquaintances, who knew You ahead of me. By their lives and their witness, they led me to You. God, use me to introduce others to You. I pray I will live godly and speak boldly and love fully, so that Your gospel will be seen and heard and received.

Amen

Daily Question

How do you know if someone is a follower of Jesus Christ?