You will be my witness...

I posted earlier that God is doing some amazing things in our house.  And one of them, is the transforming of our little family to a family that serves God and shares the name of Jesus.  My next few posts, will be based on one of my favorite verses, Acts 1:8, and the mission that God has given us to carry his light across the world.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth." Acts 1:8 NIV, 2011

Every time I have ever heard that verse disected by a Sunday School teacher or a preacher I remember them explaining that we are to witness in our home town (Jerusalem), our state and country (Judea) and to our enemies (Samaria) and to other countries (the ends of the Earth).  While that is important and we'll talk about it later, today I read it and I noticed something different for probably the first time.  I noticed that Jesus didn't say, "I need you to be my witness," or "Some of you will be called to witness,"  or even, "Don't forget to be my witness."  Jesus said, "You will be my witness..."

At first I wondered why I had never noticed it before.  I was always focused on where to witness.  Then I thought about the words, "you will be."  It dawned on me that the words aren't leading up to a commandment, but a statement of fact.  I was taken aback, so I did what any normal person would do when they are faced with a serious conviction and I looked up several different versions of the verse just in case the NIV got it wrong (I know, self serving...but I am human).  The King James Version says, "you shall be,"  the ESV says, "you will be," the ASV says, "you shall be," and only The Message said it differently, "You will be able to be."  The next thing that happened, is I vowed to only read The Message ever again and put my NIV, KJV, ESV and ASV versions in the shredder...ok I'm kidding.  I actually looked up the definition of will.  "The expression of inevitable events," was the definition that best fit the use of the word when Jesus said, "You will be my witnesses..." he wasn't commanding us or he would have said, "You, go be my witnesses."  He was stating that for believers being His witness is an inevitible event, and for me that was eye opening and terrifying. 

"What if I don't feel like it today?"

"You will be my witness!" 

"What if I don't even leave the house?" 

"You will be my witness!"

"What if I don't feel called?"

"You will be my witness!"

You get the idea, I was arguing with the Holy Spirit, and no matter how many times I read this verse looking for a different answer it still says, "You will be my witnesses."  The Bible is crystal clear and left no question, no matter what I'm doing, what I feel like, or what I've been called to do, because I have given Jesus my life I will be his witness!

I guess there is only one question left.

"What kind of witness will I be?"

Will I send people running to, or running from Jesus?