Lighthouse Keeper

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord , “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. (Isaiah 43:10).

It sounds a bit old-fashioned to talk about “witnessing” nowadays. Everyone tries to lure people into their churches with good music, free meals, motivational preaching, and other lively programmes. 

Being a witness for God is a simple business:

“You are my witnesses”, declares the Lord, “that I am God”. (Isaiah 43:12)

Tell people that God is real in your life. Tell people what God has done for you. Tell people that you go to church. No fancy church programme required just a simple “He’s real and let me tell you why I know that”. 

The Oxford dictionary says that a witness “has knowledge of, or observation or experience”. 

I used to work in the head office for a big supermarket chain. Standard water cooler chat on a Monday morning was always “What did you do over the weekend?”. 

I would always say “Yeah nothing special just beach on Saturday and then church on Sunday”. 

It would always be followed by an awkward silence and then “You go to church?! Did you get hit by lightning when you walked in?” Later in the week that same person would come back to my desk and say “Which church do you go to? I used to go to church…I haven’t been in years…I still sort of believe though…”

A very easy, non-in-your face witness. 

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6-9)

Planting little seeds around in your daily life is all that co-labouring with Christ requires. (I Corinthians 3:9).

In the New Testament, Jesus himself commissions believers to go out and witness to the ends of the earth:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NLT).

We can make very hard work of it and think we need to do some sort of CS Lewis apologetics on everyone we meet. It’s not necessary- and if Jesus is in your heart, He will naturally overflow in your conversations. You’ll be surprised where the little seeds of hope take you and others.