President’s Update message, June 2006
According to scripture the early New Testament church was a witnessing body. In Acts 1:8 we find the last words of Jesus Christ to His disciples while on earth, and they are very significant. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is cone upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto the both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Did it ever occur to you as you read through the New Testament that there are amazingly few texts that ask to share your faith? I don’t think it occurred to the Early Church not to share their faith. And by the end of the Book of Acts the Christians were further toward reaching their world for Christ than we are after these many hundreds of years with all our technological advantages.
Why? Because the rank and file Christians were going everywhere witnessing. Make no mistake: the greatest curse on the Church in North America today is that to a large degree we are expecting a small corps of paid professionals to get God’s work done.
Bud Wilkinson, former football coach at the University of Oklahoma, was in Dallas for a series of lectures on physical fitness. A TV reporter asked him what he thought the contribution of modern football to physical fitness is. The reporter expected a lengthy speech. Wilkinson replied, “absolutely nothing.” The young reporter was taken back and finally stammered, “Would you care to elaborate on that?”
Wilkinson said, “Certainly, I define football as 22 men on the field who desperately need rest and 50,000 people in the grandstand who desperately need exercise.”
I thought to myself: What a definition of a church. A few compulsively active people run around the field while the majority of the people rest in the pews.
But not according to the Word of God. Are you really a born-again Christian? If you are really born-again by the Spirit of God, don’t make the tragic mistake of being a secret-service Christian.
So how do you communicate the message “God loves you?” How can you get that truth across to another person? No words about love will be heard unless the listener gets the feeling that the speaker loves him. The man who bears witness to the truth that God loves must show the evidence of that love through all that he is, or his words are empty sounds in silent space. As we tell of the love of God to others, we must be the love of God to them. There dare be no distance between our words and our deeds.
Christ, the outshining of the Fathers glory, came to the world as its light. In the synagogue at Nazareth He said, Luke 4:18, 19. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” This was the work He commissioned His disciples to do.
“Ye are the light of the world, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14, 16
Jesus gave us the example of how to share faith—how to be faithful witnesses. No words can match bread for five thousand hungry people, sight for the blind, forgiveness for the guilty adulteress, or acceptance for the fraudulent taxman and out cast prostitute. Do we learn a lesson from that? Christ’s Object Lessons, page 417,418. “Practical work will have a far more effect than mere sermonizing. We are to give food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and shelter to the homeless. And we are called to do more than this…. God calls not only for our gifts for the needy, but for our cheerful countenance, our hopeful words, our kindly handclasp. When Christ healed the sick, He laid His hands upon them. So should we come in close touch with those whom we seek to benefit.
There are many from whom hope has departed. Bring back the sunshine to them. Many have lost their courage. Speak to them words of cheer. Pray for them. There are whose who need the bread of life. Read to them from the word of God. Upon many is a soul sickness which no earthly balm can reach nor physician heal. Pray for these souls, bring them to Jesus. Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead and a Physician there.”
Why not share it today? Share it the Jesus way! Share it with genuine love and concern and enthusiasm.
