Witness

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)

I’ve been on a witness stand, testifying to what I had seen, what I had heard. During one testimony, I was stopped in mid-sentence, the jury was sent from the room while the judge and opposing attorneys clarified a point. Although I had sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, there was one portion of the truth that was agreed upon in advance would not be mentioned in the trial. The attorney questioning me referenced that and the trial stopped in mid-sentence.

In today’s America there is a great reticence about Christian witnessing, though witnessing about Christ began with John:

John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. (John 1:15)

The witness John gave was loud and clear:

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

To remove our sins, He had to die, and He knew it. He didn’t want to, but He would follow God’s will:

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39)

One of His titles is faithful witness:

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)

What He said and what He did are testimonies:

But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. (John 5:36)

Our witness of Christ’s work in our lives should not stop in mid-sentence. We should find within ourselves the faith to continue to testify, as Paul did:

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (Acts 20:27)

The verses before Hebrews 12:1 recount some of those in that great cloud of witnesses. They did not pick and choose what they wanted to say. They gave all the counsel that God gave them. They are our examples.  God’s words to Ezekiel resonate in my heart, too:

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. (Ezekiel 33:6)

That’s only a single verse from a much larger portrait – as are all of the references I use. Take a look at all the counsel of God, not just picking from a buffet, ignoring the items that do not suit our current lifestyles. You see, I believe a certain time has come:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (2 Timothy 4:3)

Read the Bible in prayer, then be the witness we’re told to be before stones have to cry out.

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40)