Wednesday, April 24, 2013

BEARING WITNESS IN ALL THINGS

What is it about your life or mine that would make someone else want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a person of faith, a part of a congregation?

The purpose of inviting other people to follow Jesus is to help them rediscover love – God's love – and to provide a community that gives sustained focus, energy, and resources to developing the spiritual life.  No other community besides the church has as its purpose the deepening of such elements of the human soul as hope, forgiveness, generosity, service, joy, peace, justice, gentleness.  Love is the key to unlocking the door to ultimate reality, and in the community of Christ we intentionally practice receiving God's love, loving God in return, and loving others.  We invite people into a life of love, surround them with the everlasting arms of God, and encourage them to do the same for others.  We love because God first loved us.

To bear witness to Christ involves more than inviting people with words.  It means living with such grace and integrity that our lives themselves become appealing to others.  The second chapter of Acts reports that people were drawn into the way of life of the followers of Christ.  They found Christian practice utterly compelling and irresistible appealing. 

-- Robert Schnase in Five Practices of Fruitful Living


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