Witness

I'm a big proponent of living in such a way that others see the difference in your life. That seems to be the way the earlier church worked..."they'll know we are Christians by our love." Our words can have an impact, yes. But it's the way we live that really is our witness. The draw of Christianity is supposed to be the way we live differently (I preached a couple weeks ago on from the text of the stoning of Stephen and touched on this witness lifestyle).

Right now there are about 30 women sitting in our yard. They're having a baby shower for a couple of the new babies in our church. I'm sure it will be the talk of the neighborhood for a while. I think a couple guys have already walked by trying to shock the ladies with their "hood" talk (I think an ice cream truck was also hoping for some extra business as it drove by).

We've often got people over at our house. A couple families were over last night for supper. Our neighbor boys who are frequently (and I mean frequently) over sometimes get frustrated that they can't play all the time because we've got people coming over. But I think they also want to be a part of it (and sometimes they get to be).

I hope that how we live--with an open home, by reaching out to friends and neighbors, by keeping our yard and street clean--is a witness to those around us. It's not enough that our neighbors know we go to church. That isn't much of a witness. We must live differently and in such a way that people desire to have what we've got. And not because we "have to" or we're "supposed to" but because God has changed and transformed us. Because He has. And He does. And when we live through His Spirit, we do live differently.