CYC Blog: Are You An AYC? - Living As A Witness For Jesus Christ
Posted by: Josh Fairbanks
on Aug 9, 2009 
Tagged in: Untagged
An Absolute Young Christian:
Lives As A Witness For Jesus Christ
Lives As A Witness For Jesus Christ
Now this is the most profound challenge yet for an Absolute Young Christian.
In Acts 22:15 those who have seen Jesus, have heard his voice, and observed his divinity are told to bear witness.
15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.
Absolute Young Christians have the same calling. An Absolute Young Christian lives for Jesus every day of their lives. And they know and feel the difference that it makes, in their lives, in their relationships, and in their hearts. They feel Him in their spirit. They see His blessings every day of their lives. So it is their calling to bear witness to all men what they feel and see, to let the world know the power of their Lord, Jesus Christ.
But not only do Absolute Young Christians live as witness for Jesus through their words. They do it through their lives. They live as Christ would.
They Bible tells us that faith without deeds are empty.
James 2:26 (NIV)
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
It is the same for
WORDS WITHOUT ACTION
It's one thing to profess Jesus as your savior. To call to others to accept him.
It's a TRUE CHALLENGE to actually back those words up with action.
You can preach for hours at a time to a friend of yours. But then if you turn around and through actions fail to live as Christ would, you are rebuking all of yours words to that person.
How can a non believer believe the words of a Christian who refuses to live Christlike?
This brings me to one of my favorite quotes of all time:
Brennan Manning -
“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
Profound. True words that stand as a challenge in the face of all of today's Christians.
Christians who judge. Who condemn. Who look down upon others. Who refuse to associate with those that aren't "religious." Those who want nothing to do with people who have tattoos, piercings, or listen to music that may just be a little to loud.
Christians who bomb abortion clinics. Christians who hate. Christian who fail to love.
Absolute Young Christians live AS CHRIST WOULD.
Christ lived with love for all. Christ told us not to judge, not to condemn. Christ told us to love our fellow man, regardless of who they were.
He went even over the top of that. You had these old school church members, the Pharisees. They challenged Jesus when he was hanging out with sinners.
What did Jesus have to say about that?
Luke 5:30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
31 Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Now, this isn't Jesus serving as an example for us to go hang out with sinners and get drunk or high or sin. Jesus was spending time with these people in order to reach out to them. He was with them in order to try and bring the Word to them. He was trying to help save them.
We are called the do the same.
How else do Absolute Young Christians live like Christ?
(All from Luke Chapter 5)
- Loving your enemies. Doing good to those who hate you. Praying for those who mistreat you.
- Giving to those in need. Furthermore, giving to those who ask of you. Don't expect anything in return. As Jesus said, even sinners lend to sinner expecting to be paid back in full. We have to forget the materials of this Earth. We can't worry about money. It's paper. It decays and fades away. Our Lord calls on us to give to those who ask and in return we will be rewarded on high. Being kind to the wicked and ungrateful will earn us the greatest rewards in heaven (35 You will be the sons of the Most High)
- Always forgiving others as we want to be forgiven by God.
Jesus tells us why it is most important for us to live this way.
39 He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?
We must live as Christ does in order to help bring souls to Christ.
If we do not live as a witness to Christ, in both words and action, we are simply a blind man leading the blind. We will get no where as will those who follow us.
So let's bring it all together.
Absolute Young Christians live as a witness for Jesus Christ.
They do so in both words and in action.
For the third time, we make the call, we lay the line in the sand, we shout the challenge from the mountain tops, most importantly HE wants to know:
ARE YOU READY TO BE AN ABSOLUTE YOUNG CHRISTIAN?
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