{"id":5035,"date":"2019-06-23T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5035"},"modified":"2019-02-27T20:59:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T02:59:11","slug":"choose-to-understand-what-witnessing-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5035","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Understand What Witnessing Means"},"content":{"rendered":"

Choices change our lives\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n

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Christ says that we will be witnesses for Him. \u201c<\/strong>You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.\u201d (Acts 1:8) Some of us balk at the idea of being witnesses for Christ. Perhaps it\u2019s because we have a false concept about what being a witness really means.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cwitness\u201d conjures up negative images of Christ being on trial in a court of law and we must testify that he is innocent. But Christ does not need us to defend Him. However, He does want us to attest to what He has done in our lives if someone asks. The Bible says to be ready to give an answer \u2013 to those who ask. (1 Peter 3:15) It doesn\u2019t say to go out and cram the gospel down everyone\u2019s throat. And, yes, people do that!<\/p>\n

Many think this passage in Acts commands us to go out and witness for Christ. But not every scripture written in the Bible is a command. Some state facts. Let\u2019s reread Acts 1:8. \u201c<\/strong>You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.\u201d Could it be that Jesus is stating a fact here? The gospel will spread to the ends of the earth and as it does, Christians will be witnesses for Christ \u2013 not by trying to persuade skeptics to follow Him, but by showing how the fruits of God\u2019s Spirit can be manifest in our lives so others will want to follow Him.<\/p>\n

If we call ourselves Christians, then our lives are a witness for God. Our lives are either good witnesses or bad witnesses \u2013 but they are witnesses just the same. Hopefully our lives are a living testimony for God\u2019s goodness, so others might say something like, \u201cWOW! That person has a peace that passes all understanding. I\u2019d like to have that kind of peace in my life.\u201d We don\u2019t need to beat people into submission to Christ. We just need to reflect the beauty of Christ living in us.<\/p>\n

Being a witness for Christ is not as difficult as we may think. We don\u2019t have to convince others to follow Christ. Christ does that. We don\u2019t even have to go out looking for people to \u201cwitness\u201d to. God will do that, too. God will make sure we come in contact with the people He wants us to know. He will put it in their hearts to ask us questions about Him that we can answer.<\/p>\n

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The early church knew this. They continued steadfastly doing what they had been taught. They met together, ate together, worshipped together, and prayed together. They were happy and got along with all the people. (Acts 2:42-47) \u201cAnd the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.\u201d The early church members devoted themselves to living a Christian life. That\u2019s how they witnessed for Christ. They didn\u2019t talk people into becoming Christians. They allowed the Holy Spirit to transform them into what Christ would have them be and then \u2013 God added to the church.<\/p>\n

Consider this\u2026 With this kind of witnessing, God gets all the glory. You see, it\u2019s all about Him \u2013 not about us. That\u2019s what witnessing for Christ is all about.<\/p>\n

One final thought\u2026<\/strong> When we do what we are supposed to do, God will do the rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Choices change our lives\u2026 By Barbara Dahlgren Christ says that we will be witnesses for Him. \u201cYou shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.\u201d (Acts 1:8) Some … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}