Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

May 28
Thursday

WITNESSES

READ:
Acts 1:1-11
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You shall receive
power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me... to
the end of the earth.
__Acts 1:8
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In a criminal court case, witnesses provide vital information about a possible crime. Being a witness means telling the court the truth about what you know.

Just as the criminal justice system relies heavily on witnesses, Jesus uses bold, faithful, and credible witnesses to spread his Word and build His church.

Before Jesus ascended to His Father, He gave His disciples a final command--to launch a worldwide witnessing campaign. The Holy Spirit would come upon them and give them supernatural power to be His witnesses throughout the world (Acts 1:8).

Jesus called these early apostles to go into a world where people did not know about Him and to give a truthful account of what they had seen heard, and experienced (Acts 4:19-20). Since they had witnessed His perfect life, teachings, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection (Luke 24:48; Acts 1-5), they were to go out and give a truthful testimony about Him.

In taking the gospel to the ends of the world, we are called to testify to the truth about Jesus and how He has changed our lives. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" (Rom. 10:14). What are you doing to tell others? __Marvin Williams
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````````````````````Lord and Savior, Christ divine,````````````````
````````````````````Reign within this heart of mine;```````````````
```````````````````````May my witness ever be``````````````````
`````````````````Always, only, Lord, for Thee. __Brandt```````````
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God has left us in the world to witness to the world.

***************Today's Bible Reading __ Acts 1:1-11**************

1 The former account I
made, O Theophilus, of all
that Jesus began both to do
and teach, 2 until the day in
which He was taken up,
after He through the Holy
Spirit had given
commandments to the
apostles whom He had
chosen, 3 to whom He also
presented Himself alive after
His suffering by many
infallible proofs, being seen
by them during forty days
and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of
God. 4 And being assembled
together with them, He
commanded them not to
depart from Jerusalem, but
to wait for the Promise of
the Father, "Which," He said,
"you have heard from Me;

5 for John truly baptized with water,
but you sahll be
baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days from
now." 6 Therefore, when
they had come together, they
asked Him saying, "Lord,
will You at this time restore
the kingdom to Israel?"

7 And He said to them, "It is
not for you to know times or
seasons which the Father
has put in His own authority.

8 But you shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you
shall be witnesses to me in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end
of the earth."

9 Now when He had
spoken these things, while
they watched, He was taken
up, and a cloud received
Him out of their sight.

10 And while they looked
steadfastly toward heaven as
He went up, behold, two
men stood by them in white
apparel, 11 who also said,
"Men of Galilee, why do
you stand gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus,
who was taken up from you
into heaven, will so come in
like manner as you saw Him
go into heaven."