Our Message

There is a reason witnesses are called into court, it is because they have firsthand knowledge of an event. They have seen it with their own eyes, done it with their own hands, or have been a material part of something that allows them to offer firsthand testimony on the subject. Christian Witnessing then, by definition should be a personal testimony of the effects of Christ in YOUR life. I don’t really care to hear testimony about what Christ did in someone else’s life, for that I would talk to them. I can read about what Christ has done in scripture for myself. What I need you for, is something only you are qualified to talk about – what Christ has done to save YOU.

So then what is the message of a Christian Witness? What is it we offer to the world? How is living the life of a Christian comparatively better than living an agnostic life, an atheistic life, the life of Buddhist, Muslim, or other theist. Forgiveness is a start. Our God offer the chance to start over, to begin again, no matter how many times we fail, no matter what the reason for our failure, He is always willing to forgive us and help us start over. But then so is the Muslim God of Allah. What distinguishes Christianity on the value scale against its other competitors?

You can begin to see why the personal part of your message becomes the key part people are interested in. What Christ has done for you has a substantial impact on you, and as such you can describe the before, during, and after effects of His victories won in your life. If you have experienced no victories yet, then I submit you are doing it wrong. Every religion promises self-fulfillment if you discipline yourself and achieve certain milestones of the belief system. Unfortunately Christianity adopted this kind of thinking. The problem with it is that it is based on the idea that YOU do the work, YOU make the achievement, in effect YOU earn your reward. Even within Christianity, those who struggle with sin have traditionally been taught to pray more, read more, study more, worship more, and make better decisions. But the responsibility for removing the sin was left with the sinner. This is mistaken. Salvation itself is being made free from sin. And it is a gift.

You simply cannot earn a gift, not only are you incapable (literally in this case), by definition a gift is something you may not deserve but get anyway. Christ is responsible for removing the sin in your life. It is His gift to you. To receive it, you need only allow Him to do the work He needs to do. Release your will, your decisions, your desires, everything to Him, and He will make you over a new. He remakes what you are, and who you are from inside out. He changes what you want, and how you want it. He leads you where you need to be, to truth you need to hear, and in ways you cannot imagine. But then you were not supposed to imagine, you were simply supposed to be led. When Christ takes that sin from you, that you have simply been unable to defeat, you experience His freedom. You experience His Salvation. His gift is opened and realized in YOUR life. And FINALLY you have something to talk about.

Prior to this, Christians would be better off keeping the mouth closed, and the will submitted. Until you have one of His victories to celebrate you have nothing more to offer the world than it can find somewhere else. But once the SAVIOR of YOUR life, removes sin from you, and changes even your desires for that old bad habit, you have something to praise God for, and now have something the world will envy. People look for quick easy answers. They do not wish to hear that submitting the will to Christ is not easy. It turns out the guy in the mirror is a survivor who does not wish to die. He will fight hard to maintain control, and keep Christ at a distance. The devil will not simply allow you a clear pathway to bliss. He is bound to keep your focus on the demands of the day, until you feel as though you have no time to pray the prayer of submission. Safely distracted from the daily prayer to our Savior, Satan is free to intervene and rekindle old bad habits. Success without submission has already been demonstrated as impossible.

Christians have traditionally adopted the idea that our witness should be a fight against the prevailing evils we see around us, and particularly in others we wish to save. This is mistaken. It is NOT our job to identify sin, point out the obvious, and condemn it as it deserves. If this were to be our role, we would have done well never to focus on anyone outside of the mirror. Our focus as witnesses should not be centered on our failures, or on the shortcomings of others, but on the victories Christ has worked within US. This is the only thing we are qualified to discuss. Christ made the analogy of trying to remove a splinter from your brother’s eye while having an entire log in your own. It is NOT our job to fight sin, even in our own lives, it is Christ’s job alone. Only He can defeat it. Only He can bring victory to you, and in you, YOU cannot. It leaves you with discussing WHAT Christ does for you, often without even knowing how He did it, as He was the one who did the actual work. You just were given the victory.

A witness should never attempt to be the judge, the prosecutor, or the defense attorney – these roles have already been taken in the heavenly courts. God is our Judge. Christ our advocate. Satan our prosecutor. And we are guilty as charged. But then a funny thing happens, our defense lawyer takes on our sentence Himself in our place. Thus there is no fear of a coming judgment, our sentence has already been given and carried out on Calvary. We don’t die because He did for us. We get His life, and His reward as a complete gift. We are only qualified to focus on what we have witnessed, our defense lawyer taking our place, and doing the work needed to save us Himself. This is the difference between Christianity and its other contemporary competitors. Our religion is based on a Savior. Mankind needs a savior in order to stop sinning. We simply cannot beat evil ourselves. It takes a Messiah, to end the bondage we suffer from to serve ourselves at the expense of others. We must be reborn to see the wisdom in serving others ahead of self.

And what does Christ put in the place of the sin He removes – LOVE. The Author of love, teaches us daily how to love like He does it. We begin to see others through His eyes. We begin to see scripture and truth through His prism of redemptive love. Stories that used to focus on failure and violence are now re-examined and the gentle love is revealed throughout them. God did not begin our redemption in Matthew, He started in Genesis. There were times when evil was extinguished in the Old Testament as a foretelling that someday all evil will cease to exist. But even in this, the traces of love can be found. For it is more merciful to enter non-existence than to perpetuate extraordinary pain into infinity.

Lives lived with the submission of the will to Christ, cannot help but bare the hallmarks of that process steeped in love. And love draws everything to itself. Love is more infectious than evil, and even more powerful. As Christ adds victory over victory to the submitted heart, the level of love the person has increases geometrically. And the world cannot help but take notice. They begin to want to know how this is possible, how this is so. And thus a witness is created by His victories, and His love reflected through us.

We were not meant to boast about any of this process. We are to be humbled by the realization that our failures are only resolved through His death, resurrection, and strength. It is humbling to admit you are an addict to sin and evil, a helpless slave bound to repeat bad decisions, and embrace self-inflicted pain until you finally die. You would be without hope, were it not for the Savior of your life. In YOUR salvation is your testimony. It is personal to each of us, as we are all unique, created for a unique purpose in all of time and space. The song of Moses will sound just a bit different from soul to soul, as each gives testimony of the victory Christ worked in them.

Our message then is one of hope, found in our own experience. It is one of grace, witnessed in our own lives. It is one of victory that ONLY He can bring. And it is one of love that has no equal, no parallel in the world. To live this way is to finally live the Christian life. To have testimony of this life is the only message the world waits desperately to hear. Let us not cower back into a corner of desperate forgiveness, but boldly put our salvation on the line and trust in Him to actually save us from us once and for all time. This is the only life worth living. It is the only existence worth preserving forever. And it is the only message we can give testimony about.