Getting ready for Sunday - Witness: Crossing Barriers.

February is black history month.  Our students and our kids are focusing on some of the important figures throughout history who have impacted and changed the world as they crossed racial barriers that once impacted our country.  USA Today asks the question: Is it still relevant?  I'll leave you to answer that question from your own experience.

On my part, I can tell you about my experiences with this.  Just a little over ten years ago, I myself was witness to how ugly racial tensions can become in our country.  Angry words exchanged.  Fires started.  It was ugly. Racial tensions were hot and heated.  But I haven't just had negative experiences.  I've experienced and still do experience great joy in relationships with people of all kinds of different backgrounds, races, colors, even languages.

But here's the question for us as we wrap up our series on witnessing: What is the Christian church to do about the barriers that exist?  What is Abiding Faith to do about it?

Before we can look closely at those questions, we need to answer two other fundamental questions clearly in our own minds and hearts:

What has God done about it? Simple answer: He sent his Son to die for all people of every race, language, tribe and nation.  God's Son crossed every barrier between people's that every existed!

What is God doing about it? Simple answer: He is overcoming the barriers that exist with the love of Jesus and the power of his Word.

This Sunday we learn from God about these very things as he teaches Peter and the early Christian  to cross barriers. We're going to study Acts 10:34-48.

As you prepare for Sunday I want you to ask yourself this introspective question: What biases and barriers do I have in my mind? Are they cultural? Are they economic? Are they religious? Do I have "issues" with people because of their color, their language, their social status, the religion?  What are the "issues" that I have with other people?

Then come ready to let God help you get over those "issues."

Getting ready for Sunday - We are his witnesses.

Two weeks in a row as we leave church on Wednesday night my kids have asked: "Dad, what's a witness?"  As I do, I like to turn it around on them, "What do you think it means?"  It always leads into a great conversation about what a witness sees and what a witness does.

It starts with seeing something with their own eyes.  They've seen what happened.  They can speak from personal experience. This isn't something "they heard about" this is something they saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.  This was not their version of the telephone game.

It continues with saying what they have seen and heard.  It continues with their testimony.  And not as a "he said" or "she said," but as an I saw and I heard.

They see it.  They talk about it.  The apostles saw.  They heard.  And they talked about it as they said in their own words, "For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20.

As we get ready for Sunday, think about and meditate on those things that you've seen and heard.  How did God work before you were born to save you from your sins? How did God work and rule in your life to save you from your sins? Where did God put you? Whom did God put in your life so that you'd know him? Where has God put you now so that you'd be in him and know him? Where has God put you now so that you could witness and testify about him?

This Sunday we're looking at the early Christian church in Acts chapter 8 (v1-13) and we get to see our God at work, ruling the church, always for the good, always for the spread of the Gospel.  This Sunday we'll get to see how God rules; how he ruled in the past for the spread of the Gospel; yes, even how he rules today for the spread of the Gospel.

God has a plan and we get to be a part of it!

Beyond Sunday - "the bystander effect"

"What would you do?" I don't watch the show much but it is always interesting to see the scenarios they create and the way that total strangers react.  Sometimes the scenario is the need of an individual.  Sometimes the scenario is the outlandish and sometimes even offensive behavior of a person.  It's always interesting to see how people respond to a given situation.

Psychologytoday.com describes bystander effect like this: "The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others hinders an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. Social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley popularized the concept following the infamous 1964 Kitty Genovese murder in Kew Gardens, New York. Genovese was stabbed to death outside her apartment three times, while bystanders who reportedly observed the crime did not step in to assist or call the police. Latane and Darley attributed the bystander effect to the diffusion of responsibility (onlookers are more likely to intervene if there are few or no other witnesses) and social influence (individuals in a group monitor the behavior of those around them to determine how to act). In Genovese's case, each onlooker concluded from their neighbors' inaction that their own help was not needed."

Dear Christians - what will you do?

We live in a world that whether they know it or not, whether they agree with us or not, whether they feel like it or not, is largely on their way to the greatest disaster, ever. As horrendous the Genovese case was, it is an even greater tragedy when we see people walking toward the end of a cliff, an eternity in hell.  What will you do?

We have just the Savior for them.

We have just the message to share with them.

We have a message that speaks for itself.  Share it and let that message loose on 'em.  Charles Spurgeon once said that we didn't need to defend the Bible because it was like a lion.  Nobody has to do defend a lion.  We just let it loose to defend itself.  So let the message loose and it will do its work.

Don't just stand there.  Stand up and tell them.

Who will you tell? Pray for them. Pray for opportunities to tell them.  Pray for the words to tell them.

Then, get up and tell them as God gives you the opportunity.

Getting ready for Sunday: Witness - Cross Examined.

If you were put on a witness stand in a courtroom and had to testify to your faith, salvation, forgiveness, and who Jesus Christ is, what would you say? If you’re friend, your neighbor, your co-workers asked you to share your faith, what would you say?  How would you say it?  God will give us opportunities to share our faith - we want to be ready to witness and testify about him.  God urges us to take opportunities to share our faith - we want to be prepared to take advantage of those opportunities.

The amazing and gracious truth is this: We are a part of God’s plan of salvation to get his Gospel out to the ends of the earth.  We get to be his light in the world; we get to be the salt of the earth. We get to be God’s mouthpiece, God’s messengers, God’s fellow-workers!  We get to be part of the way in which God saves people!  How awesome!  How gracious!  God has shown us such grace!  He saved us by his Son.  He calls us to share that witness with all the world.

In this series, we will take a look at what the Bible says about being a witness for Jesus in our neighborhood, community, and world.

So, as you come to church this week, ask this: Why is witnessing hard for me? What is the thing that makes me most afraid to witness and share my faith?  This week, Jesus calms our fears even as he sends us out into battle.  We'll be studying Matthew 10:26-34