Skip to main content

Not Intimidated

I am always sobered when I remember the actual meaning of the Greek word that underlies the word we translate as witness. The word in Greek, the language of the New Testament, is marturion, from which we get the English word "martyr." This puts an entirely different spin on being a faithful witness doesn't it, a sort of faithful unto death feel. I want to be a faithful witness. Of course I do not mean that I want to be a martyr, but I do want this truth about being faithful unto death to speak to me and shape me.

I don't want to be intimidated. I have learned that a pushy sort of " turn or burn" witness usually does more harm than good, but sensitivity must never mutate into being intimidated by the mild tyranny against the gospel that exists all around us. Instead of intimidation, I want to be transparent, openly displaying what I learn about life from Jesus. That life is breathtakingly hopeful, inspiring and free. Whether my life speaks to one or many does not matter. A faithful witness knows how to live well and does so in the presence of the world. I have nothing to prove to people. I am not on a self absorbed mission to save the world, but I have surrendered my life to Jesus. He obeyed his Father in the presence of mankind, and he served mankind in the presence of his Father. He was a faithful witness.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Outside In

" You too were included in Christ." This small phrase was written by an old man to a group of young people who were whole hearted yet recent believers in Jesus. The old man had lived through times of disorienting religious and cultural change. These changes had made it possible for someone like him to connect to this group of new believers. He eventually accepted the changes and was transformed by them, becoming a master of his time whose teaching became the basis of mentoring the new generation. Old men almost never talk like this. The sincere faith of these new believers meant that they were no longer outsiders to the Jesus movement because faith in Jesus is what created and sustained it, but they were very different than just about everybody else who was already inside the new Church. The older more established churches within the movement weren't quite sure what to make of these newcomers. The insiders stood back from them, watching, waiting, judging. As a ...
2 comments
Read more

Conversion or Devotion?

Can you imagine Jesus telling his disciples to get a divorce or abandon their children so they can can follow him?   Can you imagine your pastor preaching a sermon like that in an attempt to convince lukewarm Christians to surrender their lives to Jesus?   Of course not; that would immediately qualify Christianity as a cult wouldn’t it?   Every Christian understands that Jesus would never affirm that Christian conversion or discipleship implies abandoning your spouse and children, destroying your family, to follow him.   Why, then, do we Christians sometimes expect non-Christians to risk destroying their family to convert to Christianity or serve Christ faithfully?   Usually, we quote this scripture from Matthew 10: 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — 36 a...
3 comments
Read more

Success

Success is important to us Americans isn’t it? It captures our minds and beats in our hearts. Success is the context of our culture; it is the essence of being and doing American. If a person is known to be successful, he or she strides through life with that unique American swagger. If the opposite is apparently true, we enviously limp along behind the swaggering crowd in bitterness and sadness. Obviously, we believe in our right to pursue success, and we will nearly kill ourselves to become successful. We may even insist that the ones we love make significant sacrifices for us as we pursue our success. I mean, who wants to sadly limp through the mall? Malls are built with the American swagger in mind. So are mega churches. Jesus does not think like this. Jesus teaches us that faithfulness is the measure of success and participation is the measure of faithfulness. In the part of the Bible written by the disciple of Jesus named Matthew, Jesus teaches us about life from his ...
1 comment
Read more