Thought for the week: Witness is a fundamental in conveying God's message
Preaching in public places, the rights to do it and the reactions to it manage to make the headlines from time to time. One such report recently in the press got me thinking.
The person deemed legally to have offended was undoubtedly totally convinced that he was doing the will of the Lord he served.
I could not but agree with him that witness is a fundamental in Christianity. Basic to the issue from a Christian point of view is the call from God to each believer to witness to others about the God of love who has attracted them into fellowship in Jesus Christ.
But this is not a licence to act without limits. There are basics to be considered. How do you proclaim a God of Love? By witnessing to Christ who loved each one of us to the point that He accepted a horrendous death in crucifixion. Yet hanging on the cross, Christ did not utter a word of condemnation of the soldiers who had been ordered to carry out His execution.
So we must preach with love inspired by God and witness alongside the God of love who is faithful to those who believe in Him and share his love with other people regardless of their colour, caste or creed.
This suggests to me that our utterances must be shaped by compassion. That we are faithful stewards of the fragile bounty of this earth so that we too may be entrusted with the riches of Heaven. We praise God for His abiding guidance in that He sent us Jesus, our Teacher and Messiah, to model for us the way of love for the whole universe.
How do we find those people whom we deem to be lost from the God of love? How do we co-operate with the God of mercy and healing, who hears the cries of those in need in order to bring them closer to God? The answer surely must begin with prayer.
Why not try and enrich with God’s grace those you know whose Christian witness needs tempered or enabled better to reflect the values of the God we seek to serve.