The phrase "be a witness for Christ" has always baffled me.
For one, when I think of witness, I think of a courtroom. I think of a witness stand. I think of evidence. I think of a defense attorney standing in front of a judge with a gun in a ziploc bag, showing the jury the actual gun that was used at the murder scene.
Being a witness means being a spokesperson for a firsthand account of something.
Yet, when we read in the scriptures about Jesus telling his disciples that they're to be his witnesses, we can easily observe that
he's telling them
and
they're listening to him
and
they're watching him
and
they've been with him.
We're reading something that someone wrote about people witnessing the words and the works of Jesus. The stories are set in real time and real space with real people.
Fast forward to now.
How does one be a witness for someone who isn't here, right now, in real time and real space?
Baffling, isn't it?
I'll be the first to admit that using logic to make sense of this phrase "be my witnesses" will not go far. In fact, it'll lead you right down a rabbit trail if you try to understand it through logic.
And that's where faith comes in. And, when I say faith, I'm lumping this word into the same grouping as belief and trust. The common ground that all these words share is the characteristic of intangiblility.
What do I mean by this?
You can't touch or see faith. You can't taste belief. You can't measure trust.
Which means,
being a witness for Jesus requires having faith and/or belief and/or trust in what Jesus represents.
How do we know what Jesus represents?
The Bible - which happens to be pretty accessible to everyone.
Now, back to faith and the results of its application, and how it's connected to being a witness.
If faith and belief and trust are all intangible actions, then we have to expect that the results are intangible as well, right?
So, when you hear the phrase "be my witness," we're saying that to be a witness in this context isn't like a courtroom drama where all the evidence is laid out in front of the judge.
This kind of witness is different because we don't actually have empirical evidence. The benefits we receive from this kind of witnessing are inward. And here is where phrases like "peace beyond all understanding" come in.
While I'm not convinced that Jesus is here in person, I'm convinced that believing in the Jesus I read about in the scriptures, and believing in what he says and does, and then trying to do it, catapults me into an intangible reality of peace, joy, and freedom that can't be explained or shown or put on a slideshow.
I can't show anybody how my faith led to another person's healing or how my faith led to my getting a job after being unemployed for four years or how my faith led to my friend getting sober.
What my faith in Jesus does is this:
It gives me peace and tolerance and patience and love (all intangible realities that only I experience)
so that
I'm able to step into action. I can visit the hospital to see the person who's sick and I can not lose my mind in the job hunting process and I can help my friend get sober.
So, being a witness for Jesus starts with personally realized, intangible, divine realities and leads to very human, practical, and tangible action.
If I were to tell you that Jesus saved me from something, you'd probably be pretty confused right? You'd probably wonder, "Where is this Jesus?" or "Can you prove that" or "You're out of your mind!"
And honestly, I wouldn't have a logical rebuttal. It would all be based on the intangibles of my faith.
You would win the argument because I don't have the empirical evidence that you're looking for.
Now, if I told you that I have an unbelievable amount of peace as a result of my belief in Jesus, it may hold a little more weight. Because now we're talking about a belief system, something of which everyone has access to.
And here's how it works.
Right now, I have no car and no savings. My car was totaled. I don't save money because I give a lot of it away because it's one of the little ways that I'm convinced that believing in Jesus leads to peace and joy.
In spite of no car and no savings, I'm not worried. At all. I have this inner thing inside of me that says everything is gonna work out. And, although I should be saving money for a car right now I'm most likely going to keep giving it away because that's another one of the ways I'm convinced that believing in Jesus leads to peace and joy.
So, when I do get a car (or a truck, or a bike, or a scooter), I'm probably not going to say something like "Jesus gave me a car." I will say that I believe in what I read about Jesus, and what I read about is always being on the lookout for giving to people who need it, in spite of what my circumstances are at any given time.
So, it's not my faith that gets me a car.
It's my faith that allows me to believe that everything's going to work out so I can continue to not save but give and receive the intangible realities of peace, joy, and freedom in the middle of otherwise chaotic and lifechanging circumstances.
Hope this all makes sense to the person who needs to read this.
For one, when I think of witness, I think of a courtroom. I think of a witness stand. I think of evidence. I think of a defense attorney standing in front of a judge with a gun in a ziploc bag, showing the jury the actual gun that was used at the murder scene.
Being a witness means being a spokesperson for a firsthand account of something.
Yet, when we read in the scriptures about Jesus telling his disciples that they're to be his witnesses, we can easily observe that
he's telling them
and
they're listening to him
and
they're watching him
and
they've been with him.
We're reading something that someone wrote about people witnessing the words and the works of Jesus. The stories are set in real time and real space with real people.
Fast forward to now.
How does one be a witness for someone who isn't here, right now, in real time and real space?
Baffling, isn't it?
I'll be the first to admit that using logic to make sense of this phrase "be my witnesses" will not go far. In fact, it'll lead you right down a rabbit trail if you try to understand it through logic.
And that's where faith comes in. And, when I say faith, I'm lumping this word into the same grouping as belief and trust. The common ground that all these words share is the characteristic of intangiblility.
What do I mean by this?
You can't touch or see faith. You can't taste belief. You can't measure trust.
Which means,
being a witness for Jesus requires having faith and/or belief and/or trust in what Jesus represents.
How do we know what Jesus represents?
The Bible - which happens to be pretty accessible to everyone.
Now, back to faith and the results of its application, and how it's connected to being a witness.
If faith and belief and trust are all intangible actions, then we have to expect that the results are intangible as well, right?
So, when you hear the phrase "be my witness," we're saying that to be a witness in this context isn't like a courtroom drama where all the evidence is laid out in front of the judge.
This kind of witness is different because we don't actually have empirical evidence. The benefits we receive from this kind of witnessing are inward. And here is where phrases like "peace beyond all understanding" come in.
While I'm not convinced that Jesus is here in person, I'm convinced that believing in the Jesus I read about in the scriptures, and believing in what he says and does, and then trying to do it, catapults me into an intangible reality of peace, joy, and freedom that can't be explained or shown or put on a slideshow.
I can't show anybody how my faith led to another person's healing or how my faith led to my getting a job after being unemployed for four years or how my faith led to my friend getting sober.
What my faith in Jesus does is this:
It gives me peace and tolerance and patience and love (all intangible realities that only I experience)
so that
I'm able to step into action. I can visit the hospital to see the person who's sick and I can not lose my mind in the job hunting process and I can help my friend get sober.
So, being a witness for Jesus starts with personally realized, intangible, divine realities and leads to very human, practical, and tangible action.
If I were to tell you that Jesus saved me from something, you'd probably be pretty confused right? You'd probably wonder, "Where is this Jesus?" or "Can you prove that" or "You're out of your mind!"
And honestly, I wouldn't have a logical rebuttal. It would all be based on the intangibles of my faith.
You would win the argument because I don't have the empirical evidence that you're looking for.
Now, if I told you that I have an unbelievable amount of peace as a result of my belief in Jesus, it may hold a little more weight. Because now we're talking about a belief system, something of which everyone has access to.
And here's how it works.
Right now, I have no car and no savings. My car was totaled. I don't save money because I give a lot of it away because it's one of the little ways that I'm convinced that believing in Jesus leads to peace and joy.
In spite of no car and no savings, I'm not worried. At all. I have this inner thing inside of me that says everything is gonna work out. And, although I should be saving money for a car right now I'm most likely going to keep giving it away because that's another one of the ways I'm convinced that believing in Jesus leads to peace and joy.
So, when I do get a car (or a truck, or a bike, or a scooter), I'm probably not going to say something like "Jesus gave me a car." I will say that I believe in what I read about Jesus, and what I read about is always being on the lookout for giving to people who need it, in spite of what my circumstances are at any given time.
So, it's not my faith that gets me a car.
It's my faith that allows me to believe that everything's going to work out so I can continue to not save but give and receive the intangible realities of peace, joy, and freedom in the middle of otherwise chaotic and lifechanging circumstances.
Hope this all makes sense to the person who needs to read this.
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