Sometimes we get confused about the story.  And I’ll say that I’m guilty as well.  We make the sad mistake of believing that our witness about Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection is based on our faith and our faith alone.  And to some extent, that is true.  We each have a relationship with Christ that is based on our own personal experience and witness of his activity in our lives and Spirit.  But that’s only a part of the truth.  Our faithful witness doesn’t begin with our recognition of Christ and his life.  Our faithful witness is really our witness to God’s faithfulness in Jesus Christ.  It’s our affirmation that God has been faithful in fulfilling the promise made to people thousands of years ago, that now speaks of God’s faithfulness.  When we point at Jesus Christ as witnesses, we’re actually pointing to God’s act of faithfulness to the Jewish ancestors that becomes God’s promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

         Now, I don’t know if that takes the pressure off any of us.  Mostly, what we know is what we know of Jesus Christ.  But before Christ, there was a God who promised that Christ was coming.  That’s a part of our faithful witness, as well.  Our faithful witness is entrenched in the promises of God to God’s people.  And that promise included those of us not of the Jewish faith so the faithful witness of God concerning the risen Christ, our Savior, could stretch across people from every nation and tongue, from generation to generation for the salvation of our souls.  So, in reality, it’s our faithful witness about God’s faithfulness that we’re telling people about.  Yes, it includes Jesus Christ because Jesus is God’s proof positive of God’s faithfulness.  Our faithful witness just continues the message of good news.

• How does knowing that your faithful witness of Christ is actually testifying to God’s faithfulness affect your faith and your ability to tell the story of Christ’s resurrection?
• What would make your faithful witness easier for you to tell the story of God’s faithfulness?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, help me to merge the story of Your promise of salvation into my faithful witness of Jesus’s resurrection as evidence of Your faithfulness to the world.

         Times have not changed that dramatically since Jesus walked the earth physically.  Even in today’s world there are those who don’t believe.  There are those whose tolerance for hearing the gospel story is very low or they have none at all.  There are others who simply wish we would stop talking about it altogether.  And yet it is the nature (or the requirement) of those of us who are faithful witnesses to sing aloud the praises of our Christ even when we are surrounded by those who have no patience for hearing it. And if we don’t tell the story we don’t have a witness — or at the very least — we become like Luigi Tarisio.

         Luigi Tarisio Was found dead one morning with scarce of comfort in his home, but with 246 exquisite violins, which he had been collecting all his life, crammed into an attic, the best in the bottom drawer of an old rickety bureau.  In his very devotion to the violin, he had robbed the world of all their music all the time he treasured them; others before him had done the same, so that when the greatest of his collection, a Stradivarius, was first played it had been silent for 147 years.  Yet, how many of Christ's people are like old Tarisio?  In our very love of the church, we fail to give the glad tidings to the world; in our zeal for the truth, we forget to publish it.  When shall we all learn that the good news needs not just to be cherished, but needs to be told? All people need to hear it.[1]

         Maybe, one day we’ll realize that the witness of the faithful is not dependent upon whether someone else believes what we know and believe to be the truth or not.  The witness of the faithful is totally dependent upon whether or not we’re convinced that what we know and have experienced from God is a story worth telling.  People need to hear it — or do we allow God’s truth and God’s faithful witness to us to die in the silence of the voices of those who know the story and can tell the story.  Or in our silence, will we be left with nothing more than the stones, crying out?

• When have you missed an opportunity to be a faithful witness to God’s faithfulness and later regretted it?
• How can we become better at being faithful witnesses by telling the story of our faith?
• What steps will you take to become a more faithful witness of Christ and his resurrection?

[1] Source Unknown, Illustrations Unlimited, James S. Hewett, Tyndale House Publishing

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, help me to overcome any fears and anxieties I have about becoming a more faithful witness of my faith in Your life, death, and resurrection.

         We sometimes ask for and seek empirical evidence that the stories people have told us are true.  Sometimes after telling someone the truth, their remark may well be, “I don’t believe you!”  For some people there aren’t enough words to convince, not enough witnesses to confirm, not enough empirical evidence to make yourself a faithful and believable witness.  And yet, in most cases, all we have is our witness.  All we have is our experience of what we know, what we experienced, what we felt, or saw, or heard.  And our words, experiences, are easily impeached by the other person’s doubt — not by their counter experience — but by nothing more than their refusal to believe.

         Being a faithful witness perhaps begins by telling the story of God’s faithfulness and truth — how Christ was revealed to us; when Christ was revealed to us; where Christ was revealed to us, and how his revealing changed our doubt to belief.  It’s not easy (nor might it be simple) trying to tell someone else something as unbelievable as the dead being resurrected and speaking with you, walking with you, embracing you in tender and intimate moments filled with love and understanding.  But that is the risen Christ we serve.  He’s not a God of anger, resentment, bitterness and spite.  He’s a God of understanding and love — a God who comes to bring peace to those who have doubts and those who don’t believe, offering them the opportunity to experience for themselves the reality of the risen Christ in a way that removes all doubts and fears.

• Have you ever experienced a time of doubting when Christ came to remove your doubts and fears?
• In what ways did your experience strengthen your faithful witness about the risen Christ?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful Christ, let not my faithful witness about your resurrection be dissuaded by the doubts and fears of others. Enable my witness to remain a solid part of my faith.