Witnessing Jesus

https://odb.org/2026/08/13/of-all-people

Acts 22:12–16 (NIV): 12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

I’ve heard it said, “We can’t make our children believe. We can only give our children reason to believe what we believe.” That’s a wise observation—but how do we do it? Saul had been on his way to persecute Christians when Christ intervened. This man fell to the ground, blinded (Acts 9:1-9). Soon he was visited by Ananias, who restored his sight and explained his mission: “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard” (22:14-15). Saul, later called Paul, did witness, and God gave him a quiverful of spiritual offspring. His “parenting approach” was to share what he’d seen, and to pray.

Whether parenting our own children or interacting with others, we can’t make them believe. Rather, we witness with our words and lives as to what we’ve seen and heard. And we pray. Our God, who sent Paul to the gentiles, sends us with the same instruction: Witness so they may believe. Then entrust them to our Father, who loves them. (John Blase, Our Daily Bread 13th August 2026)

One trivial fact we all should know is that Saul didn’t become Paul after his road to Damascus experience in Acts 22 when Christ turned him from a persecutor of believers to a crusader for Christ, the most fervent of all especially his ground breaking contribution to Christian thought and theology. Saul was his Hebrew name, while Paul was his Roman name in Greek. Unlike Simon (in Hebrew) who was given the name Cephas (Aramiac) or Peter (in Greek) by Jesus and became known as Simon Peter, Saul was Paul all the time. It’s just that after that experience with Christ, Saul began to use his Roman name Paul more as the mission Christ gave him was to reach out to the Gentiles.

I think most of us would know by now that we can’t make our children believe but we can give them a good reason to believe and that is our own personal testimony of Christ in our family life. We may bring them to Sunday school when they were young and to church every Sunday when they were growing up, but whether they become fervent believers and serve God in church and live a life glorifying His name, it’s really up to them. Faith can’t be forced. Faith has to come from within, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

In the end, salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit. As believers, our role is to speak of His goodness and live out Christ. That is why if we are a vindictive, manipulative, selfish and nasty person at work, it is incompatible with our faith as a believer of Jesus Christ. We cannot seperate how we behave with what we believe because what’s in our hearts is what comes out of us. Christianity is not make believe. It is neither mask wearing. We are real and genuine inside out, living lives that are rightside up, or upside down to the world. We are non-conformists as far as the world is concerned. We have values that pursue righteousness before God. Yes, we have weaknesses and are essentially work in progress in a broken world. But we must increasingly be transformed into Christ’s image each day so that we will decrease and He will increase. Our old self must remain crucified so that our new born-again self is in control always.

Although witnessing Christ requires us to share the Gospel as part of our verbal testinony of the power of salvation, we must always remember to present a single and consistent picture of who we are and who we are in Christ. Allow the Holy Spirit to work in us to take away all the hatred, resentment and bitterness we may still habour from our past experiences and be healed and renewed in our spirit, soul and body each day as we seek Him out in prayer. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. It is new every morning like dew. Great indeed is His faithfulness! Amen!