Heart Tracks 0 Eyewitnesses

"We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." 2 Peter 1:16

I believe the desperate need of a dead world is to have a generation of "eyewitnesses" of His resurrection life. Not those who can tell stories from the Bible, or quote Scripture, or who've never missed a Sunday worship service. What is needed are those, who like the disciples "have seen, touched, and handled the risen Christ." I'm being too "mystical" here? I don't think so. I remember hearing some singers and musicians of the Jesus Movement say that in their songs, they didn't have any deep theology or teaching. They said that the common thread to all of them was the message, "Once we were blind, but now we see." They said that message opened up countless doors for sharing the reality of Jesus Christ. They were just young people who'd had a transformational encounter with Him, and all things were new. They'd moved from darkness to light and from death to life. They were eyewitnesses as well as partakers of the heart changing work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus and His Words were not verses held in a leather bound book. They were living words, and those words now lived in and through them. The world they were living in, the late 1960's, was desperate for such eyewitnesses. They were used of the Father to confront that desperation. The culture of today is even more desperate. Can you and I be His witnesses to it?

When Mary saw the risen Christ in the Garden, she ran to the disciples with the simple words, "I have seen the Lord." There were likely a number of different responses to her words, from doubt, to unbelief. What they couldn't deny was the fervor with which she spoke. She'd certainly seem someone, and their hearts were quickened to see them as well. Who and what have we seen? Do we know a Jesus who is bigger, greater, than our words can describe? Have we seen and experienced the One who is Savior, Healer, Source, Strength, Peace, Joy, Life? Do we know Him as such because we've "seen" and experienced Him as all of them? Unbelievers, including some in my family, have scoffed when I tell them that I know beyond doubt that He is real. Where's my proof? They can't understand or grasp that my "proof" lies not in anything human reason can lay hold of, but in the work He has done in my heart, my mind, and my soul. I have encountered Jesus in every one of the names I list above. All of them and more. That's how I know that He's real. That's what makes me an eyewitness. That's why I can say with those singers, "Once I was blind, but now I see." Can you say it too?

Again, a world trapped in darkness needs a generation of eyewitnesses like Mary, who run to it with the simple words, "I have seen the Lord." They may laugh, scoff, sneer, reject. They may also be moved to want to see what we have. And if they have that desire, then they too will become His eyewitnesses. It all begins with being just that...an eyewitness. Are you one?

Blessings,
Pastor O