First, Be

July/Holiness

27 July 2010

As long as a person is unrighteous, he cannot properly proclaim the truth.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses..."

- Acts 1.8

It's interesting to note that Jesus did not say, "and you will go witnessing..." First, He called us to be witnesses, and this gets at the kind of people we are. If we're going to have an effective and convincing verbal witness to the Lord, we must make sure that our lives are fit vessels to bear such glorious and eternal truth.

Peter understood the importance of this. He emphasized the need to add virtues to our faith as the way to make our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1.5-11). This is how we grow into the hope which is laid up for us in heaven in our Lord Jesus Christ, so that, as that hope grows stronger, it comes through in our lives in ways that others can see (1 Pet. 3.15).

When others see in us the hope of glory (Rom. 5.1, 2), radiating out from us in love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other fruit of the Spirit, they will know that something is different with us. And some of them will be moved to ask a reason for what they see - the hope that is within us.

Of course, we don't have to wait around for them to ask. We are called to be witnesses and to make disciples, and surely telling the Good News of Jesus is at the forefront of what making disciples requires. It's just that our spoken witness will be so much more convincing if we have a lived witness to back it up.

When it comes to our calling to bear witness to Jesus Christ, the lesson is clear: First, be. The doing will flow from that.

July Exercise Part 4: For the rest of this month let's work on developing a plan, following the free the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses and the My Personal Mission Field brochure, for pondering our paths more purposefully, and with greater Kingdom results.

Today in ReVision: On Being Still - Is this even possible?

Also at the website, we have begun our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought Captive Satan, Bound (soon to be a Waxed Tablet book!). features the next installment of

This Month's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.