Be. My. Witnesses.

Acts 1:8
"but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

At church our pastor is preaching through Acts... I can't seem to get his message from a few weeks ago out of my mind.  He preached on Acts 1:3-11.

 My heart wants to share my "take aways"...  sometimes it is good to get things down on paper... or rather on a computer screen.

In Acts 1:8 we see 2 things.  We see POWER... and we see PURPOSE...

We are empowered by the Holy Spirit.  That power is given for a purpose, that purpose is so that we shall be His witnesses.

Be.  (not do)

Being involves the totality of our lives.  It is not about doing but about being - the rule of Christ is to BE over everything.  Being a follower of Christ should change everything in our lives, it is not something that we add to our to do list or check off our bucket list.  It is not something that we turn on or off.  Once we have a personal, real, private relationship with Christ He begins to change every area of our life.  He infiltrates everything that we are... and we start to BE different.  We become His witnesses...

Our pastor shared quite a list of things that he can personally bear witness to.  His list prompted me to think about what things I can bear witness to, so I decided to come up with my own list...

What can I bear witness to??

I can bear witness to:

• The power of Christ to redeem me from a life of sin.
• The love of Christ which meets the deepest needs of my heart.
• The comfort of God which brings peace and hope to a broken and hurting heart.
• The healing power of God to physically heal me completely from debilitating pain and sickness.
• The power of God to safely bring twin boys into this world, 8 weeks early and with a battle with pre-term labor for 2 1/2 weeks prior.
• The joy that Christ can give, even in the hardest and darkest of times.
• The strength that Christ provides when I am so very weak.
• The wisdom that can come only from God that enables me to be a wife, mom, and homeschool teacher.
• My Lord's faithfulness that all seasons and times.
• The power of forgiveness to wash a heart clean.
• The mighty power of the hand of God, which has provided protection and provision for our family.
• The shelter to be found in Christ in the midst of a raging storm.
• The help that God provides when I lift my eyes up to Him.

If you would like to listen to his sermon, you can find it here (click on the word here and it will take you there.)   If you do not have time to listen to the entire sermon, yet want to hear what he can bear witness to, which I would encourage as I found it very moving and very heartfelt, go to about 29 minutes in...


What about you?  What can you bear witness to?  Will you??  He gives us the power, for that very purpose.