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Closing the Gap 10.4.18

Week 39 Day 4

Pray:

Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

Acts 1:8-11 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.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Reflect:

A witness is someone who claims personal knowledge and experience of something.  You don’t have to have seen something with your physical eyes to qualify as a witness.  The disciples were eyewitnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. As followers of Christ, we are not eyewitnesses to Christ’s physical life on earth.  However, we are “ear witnesses” to the truth of the gospel, “heart witnesses” to the impact of the gospel, and eyewitnesses to the change the gospel brings in our lives.  It does not make you less of a qualified witness because you have not seen the Lord with your physical eyes. In fact, Jesus says it makes you more of a “blessed” witness that you have believed without seeing.  “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’ “(John 20:29). It is not irrational or unreasonable to give your life for a Savior you have not seen with your eyes.  Peter did see the Lord Jesus with his physical eyes, but he did not consider that to be a qualification for experiencing Jesus personally. He wrote, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).  Notice that Peter did not make salvation an entirely future tense experience. He said that salvation is ongoing, in this life, for those who believe and love the Lord. If you have put your confidence in Jesus and have surrendered your life to him, you are a qualified witness. This is not presumption; this is something he has given to you as both a privilege and a responsibility. You should not say “I believe” as in “I think” or “I believe but can’t prove or know for certain.”  Instead, you should say “I believe” as in I am certain and I am currently experiencing the reality of new life in Christ. I have not seen him, but I am a qualified and confident witness to his life.

Pray:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.

 

 

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