Posts tagged as:

witness

Offense

February 3, 2010

written by Stephan Joubert

“We must be witnesses for the Lord.” How many times have you heard that? Indeed, but for some people it means that they have the right to give a monologue about their faith whenever it suits them. But what if such “testimonies” mostly do more harm than good? Can believers continually get away with excuses that one has to suffer for the Lord when others take them on about their rude and insensitive “testimonies”? If, on one side, it is true that we have to give testimony of our faith, then it is also true on the other side that we have to give testimony of all the wrong ways in which we are witnesses to the Lord. Jesus taught us to be careful and wise. We don’t automatically occupy the moral high-ground in every conversation. We need to earn the right to be heard through our discerning way of life before God and others.

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Keep quiet

December 10, 2009

written by Stephan Joubert

One of the strangest practices of Jesus was to instruct some of those he cured not to tell anybody about their healing. Many different theological explanations are offered for this phenomenon. Personally, I think that Jesus didn’t want people to talk about Him if they didn’t clearly understand his identity and his mission. Their good intentions to talk about Him after He changed their lives weren’t a good enough reason for them to “witness about Him”. Jesus expects more than good intentions because those with only good intentions are often bad witnesses (they spread the message wrongfully without realizing it). To be a good witness, a thorough knowledge of the Bible and the right way to live is necessary (essential?). It’s more important than all our good intentions!

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