God Speaking

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)

In our Home Group meeting one of our friends was sharing about a nasty road rage incident in which she had been involved. The incident eventually ended in a court case in which the perpetrators and those who had witnessed what had actually happened were brought to court to testify. My friend was one of the witnesses asked to give her version, (which varied from that of the main culprit), but the judge , after he had listened to her, chose to go with her version and these were the words he said to her, to justify his decision “You have been a credible witness”.

I looked up the word “credible” in the dictionary and read this; “worthy of belief, confidence in the truth, trustworthy”. I kept thinking of this phrase long after our study had finished and thought back to the last command our Lord Jesus gave to the disciples which is recorded in the first chapter of the book of Acts. Jesus asked them to be his witnesses throughout all the earth and as I reread these words I thought how wonderful it would be to hear our Heavenly Father whispering to us, “ You are being a credible witness for me”

A 19th century historian, James Froude, wrote these words,

“Christianity rests on the credibility of the gospel history”

This is the first big step we must all take if we want to be that credible witness. We have to believe that what scripture says is the truth. There can be no ifs or buts. We need to have confidence that what we read in scripture is God’s word.

What would it take for us to fulfill the wise words of Solomon in Proverbs 12:17?

“A truthful witness gives honest testimony…”

We can only give honest testimony about what we know is the truth. We can find this so easily in the words of Jesus. It is fascinating to check the gospels to see how many times Jesus uses this expression, “I tell you the truth…” I found nearly 80 (you may find more) in the gospels. He even tells us He IS the truth.

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life…”” (John 14:6)

When we believe this deep in our hearts we can become those credible witnesses, sharing the truth with all who come into our lives. We can also look back on our own lives and give thanks for all the inspiring examples of brave witnesses who exhibited the truth for us. We can search the scriptures for brave witnesses who have left their stories behind to give us the courage to be as brave as them. John the Baptist springs to mind.

“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe” (John 1:6-7)

John the Baptist became a forerunner of the truth, preparing the way for Jesus Christ, our Saviour. We can look back on history and remember the countless faithful witnesses who kept that faith alive for us. We can join hands with them and by our credible witness prepare the way for others to discover the TRUTH,

The book of Hebrews encourages us;

“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1)

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• Called to be Witnesses (Martyrs!) (frted.wordpress.com)
• Whatsoever Things Are …. Philippians 4:8 (bncouragedbylove.wordpress.com)