9-5-2017

Good Morning All,

         Acts 1:8; “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

     This is one of the “biggies” in the Bible.  This is one of those verses that have a great impact on what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  “You will be my witnesses”; that is a powerful statement.  It can be a statement that brings out fear in many a person’s heart.  It beings fear because often times we have visions of traveling to some far off distant land and becoming a missionary.  That thought can terrify most of us.  I cannot count the number of people who have asked me, “How do you stand up in front of people and talk the way you do?  I could never do that in a million years.”  Yet Jesus tells us to be his witnesses; how?

    That is a question that has been around for a long time.  Many people have always felt inadequate in being witnesses.  They look at the lack of education, their fear of speaking in public, their lack of understanding or of insight and many other reasons for shying away.  It was common for the “common” man to feel completely unable to be a witness and therefore, someone who falls far short of what Jesus desires from us.  Yet Luther saw it differently and saw within the Scriptures a different truth than what was being expressed at the time.

    Yet Luther saw that the Bible spoke to all people.  It speaks to the clergy, to the farmer, to the slave, to the slave owner to the widow and to the married and the unmarried and to everyone.  In fact, Scripture not only speaks to the person but it actually speaks to the situation that the person finds himself in.  Luther called this idea “vocations.”  It is where we are at any given point in time.  For example, I am a son, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a father-in-law, a brother, a pastor, a neighbor and so on.  But I can also find myself as a customer in line, a driver in heavy traffic, someone who has been put on hold or any one of a hundred different situations.  In each and every one, I can witness to my faith in Jesus.

    A few weeks ago, I was in the checkout line at our local Walmart.  The person ahead of me was incredibly rude to the poor young clerk and berated her the whole time she was there.  This person took an inordinate amount of time to check out and left verbally assaulting the young lady.  When it was my turn to check out, the young clerk apologized to the delay.  Now I could have picked up where the other one left off or I could witness to my faith and tell her that I understood it wasn’t her fault and that I was sorry she had to endure that from the other person.  Fortunately, the Spirit moved the second choice and a young lady’s heart was lifted.  Did she get a huge testimonial?  No, but she did receive compassion and those behind me in line did as well and all who commented said the same thing and a little mercy was shared by all.

Lord Jesus, you call us to be witnesses.  Move us by your Spirit to see that every event in our life is an opportunity to share your love and to have compassion.  The world knows neither; let your light shine through us as we spread the kingdom of God to all who we meet this day.  Move us to have compassion on all.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret