“Peter! John!” … “Christ is alive … I                   saved by grace. In fact, He has no other
             thought He was the gardener but He         plan.
             called me by my name! He really IS
             alive!” The words gushed out as Mary       THE CALL TO WITNESS
 Magdalene told the disciples of her encounter
 with the risen Lord. The first witness of the resur-       Am I really called to be a witness? The
 rection could hardly contain her excitement and        Lord’s mandate to His disciples was clear.
 amazement.                                             “You shall receive power … and you
     Sometimes, we too are excited as we tell others    SHALL be (not should be) witnesses unto
 about Christ, but sadly, other times our attempts      Me.” (Acts 1:8, NJKV) as empowered by
 at witnessing hardly match the joy and spontane-       the Holy Spirit. A witness is “one that
 ity of Mary. Too often we miss the obvious open        personally sees or perceives a thing and
 doors as we timidly wonder what we should say.         gives testimony to its truth.” It should
 Sometimes, we take the plunge but somehow              come as no surprise that the God of the
 manage to back ourselves into a corner as we en-       Bible is a “witnessing God.” The Father
 counter unexpected responses. There are times          gave witness of His delight in His Son
 that we come on too strong and turn the person         when the heavens were opened (Matt
 away. We alternate between wishing we had spo-         3:17). As He stood before Pilate, the Lord
 ken up and wishing we had remained quiet. Why          Himself stated, “To this end was I born,
 is witnessing so difficult?                            and for this cause came I into the world
     There are many factors in seeking to witness       that I should bear witness unto the truth”
 for the Lord Jesus in these times. At the very core,   (John 18:37). The Holy Spirit is also a
 we are living in a spiritually unfriendly world that   witness, as His work is to “reprove the
 still rejects the Savior and His Word. A Christian     world of sin and of righteousness and of
 is out of step with the current of the age as he is a  judgment” as well as to testify of Christ
 “twice-born” traveler living in the world run by       (John 15:26, 16:8). What marked the
 the “once-born.”                                       Godhead now marks every believer. No
     The Bible is under heavy attack, and faith is      believer is exempt from the commission
 ridiculed as being simplistic and irrelevant. The      to speak of Christ and to declare His glo-
 “hard, difficult, perilous times” that Paul wrote      ries. It’s not optional. One writer said,
 about are here. Despite the difficulties of the age,   “We should never treat the Great Co­
 God is still placing the privilege and responsibility  mmission like it’s the Great Suggestion.”
 of gospel witnessing into the hands of sinners         A sinking, lost world desperately needs to
                                                        hear of heaven’s amazing grace, but we are
                                                        often tuned in to other things and fail to