Sunday, October 25, 2015

Proof

“Being God’s witness means being proof of His love on the earth.”

I got to sit next to one of my grandsons this morning in church. I loved it! Just being around my grandchildren infuses me with happiness. Do they wear me out sometimes? Of course, let’s face it – I’m old. But - the energy and life they pour into me far outweighs anything they get from me; they drain off the negative energy!

So, as we sat there trying to pay attention while making paper airplanes, I wrote out a line from the sermon that snagged in the web of my brain. If it’s not exactly what he said, it’s what I heard and processed.

When our children were younger, sometimes after a church service I’d ask them what they brought away from the message. Presuming that Joe’s parents might do the same thing to make sure I wasn’t distracting him with my verbosity and antics (yes, I’ve been known to perform antics during sermons… like the time I squeezed eye drops from my bottle into the ears of the man in front of me. Yes. I have adhd and sometimes it shows, but I digress…), I also wrote on my notebook page, “In case your parents ask what you learned in church, learn this.”

Wow. Bad grandma! Was that cheating?
(reddit.com)
I have to give the boy credit, though. He can multi-task like nobody’s business. He was totally paying attention to pastor and the videos we watched, interjecting his thoughts from time to time, while producing better paper airplanes than I could. Truth be told, he may have taken away more from the sermon than I did! And yes, he memorized my note, having glanced at it just once.

Yesterday, I attended a teaching on how to effectively share the love God pours into you, with others in a very brief moment. It’s a method that may or may not create lifelong friends, but, it’s a way to open the door for dialog with someone you know, or with a stranger. If you’d like, you can check it out here, it’s called the One Minute Witness .


Witnessing about God’s love isn’t something we do, it’s something we are.

We are His witnesses, because we are the proof of His love in the earth.

Okay, so some of us don’t show it as well as others. But, it’s not because we don’t have God’s love within us, it’s because we’re weary or fearful or just too busy. We need to do something about that.

(encourageyourspouse.com)
In Christ, we can surrender our fears.
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear….” – 1 John 4:18 (NIV)

In Christ, we can surrender our busyness and the stressors that wear us out. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

In Christ we can surrender anything that holds us back or fights within us to keep us down: our past, our job, our friends, our families, our anxieties – anything.

The things we surrender don’t vanish into thin air. This isn’t a magic show of lights and mirrors. The power of love that lives within us inspires us in the midst of those things.

Today, consider allowing the life you’re living in Christ to yield proof of God’s love to those around you, everyone around you.

(layman.org)