t-shirts don't witness. people do.

been a long while since the last day I've posted my devo. and I have a bunch of stories I really wanna share but still no internet. so t...

been a long while since the last day I've posted my devo.
and I have a bunch of stories I really wanna share but still no internet.
so there.. the reason of not being able to respond to all the mails and whatnot...

I meant to post this last Friday but wasn't able to..
so here I am.. taking time to let you know that my devotional stories still exist.
I'm not ashamed to tell you how amazed I am and how wonderful it is to serve Jesus in any possible way.

"I'll tell the world how He saved me & how He gave me a life brand new." #randomstoriesaboutme

I'm inspired with everything and everyone surrounding me.
The people.. the work.. the ministry.. arts..
images.. brands.. music.. places.. everything.
I know there are lots of interesting stuff around us..
but still I don't wanna conform to the pattern of this world..
I'm here to observe and keep my eyes open to everything that interests me.
I want to be an instrument where I can transform anything to be able to please God.
I know whatever we do, wherever we are.. we can absolutely worship Him in any way.
We shouldn't just be somebody who goes to church on Sunday and forget about putting God our top priority for the rest of the days.

But how can we really please God and at the same time, how can we tell others about His amazing love?
A lot of Christians stay relatively quiet about the faith when in the company of those who don't know Christ.
There are probably lots of reasons for this, but the one I hear most frequently is the feeling of not being good enough.
"Who am I to tell someone about Jesus," the rationale goes, "when my own life is in such a mess?"

There is an improper assumption that goes along with this kind of thinking,
that in order to witness for Christ you have to have a close to impeccable life.
There's a certain standard one has to live up to before being in a position to tell someone about Jesus.
Otherwise, people will point the finger at you and spot your own inconsistencies.
The absurdity in this kind of thinking is the fact that no one not even Christians,
will ever have it all together in this life. Instead of being an excuse not to witness,
the fact that we aren't good enough should be the whole point.
We tell people about Jesus because we know, better than anyone, how much we need him.
When people throw our own inconsistencies up in faces that is just another opportunity
to tell our own story of how Christ has forgiven us on the cross and how much we need
His salvation every day. If we are perfect, we shouldn't need Jesus.

I read a story once about a man who once purchased a witnessing T-shirt with
a blatant Christian message thinking that someone would notice his shirt and ask him about it.
(you might have read this story too, but let me share this one more time)

He wore that shirt a lot over the course of a couple of years, and all that time,
no one ever asked him anything about his Christian T-shirt.
Then he said one day after riding the bus to and from this town,
he suddenly realized his t-shirt had sparked three different conversations
with total strangers, and one of them had lead to an opportunity to share his faith in Christ.
The only thing was: he wasn't wearing his witnessing t-shirt that day;
he was wearing his fender guitar T-shirt.
The lesson here is pretty simple: T-shirts don't witness; people do.

It doesn't mean we couldn't wear one anymore,,
well in fact I also find making t-shirts with words from the scriptures interesting.

"LIVE AS IF YOU'RE GOING TO DIE TODAY."


In a time when people are a little leery of Christians,
given all the unfavorable media attention we have received in the last number of years,
it's no wonder that the Christian T-shirt didn't work out as planned.
But there is another powerful lesson in this story. The Fender guitar T-shirt did work,
because it put this gentleman in touch with some people over a common interest.

In the last photo shoot [the bread of life + bondage] brother and I did..
this is one thing we wanna stress here. We cannot judge someone who he is with just the way he looks.
People nowadays, especially the ones with religious labels..
the ones franchised by religion, are obsessed with making others feel that
they cannot be loved by Jesus if he doesn't go to church blah-blah or
Jesus is into someone who's rich.. who has a perfect everything..
or that Jesus has never loved a sinner. Well in fact, we are all sinners.
There's no one, not even one, without sin. We are all just filthy rags in front of Him.
but then He picked us up, cleansed and restored.
We have no rights to tell others how they should live their lives.
We have no rights to impose our beliefs to anybody.

Peter told us in first Peter three fifteen to always be ready to give an answer
to anyone who might ask us about our hope in Christ.
It has always amazed me that this passage assumes we will be in common relationships
with folks who don't have any hope. People don't come up to you cold and ask you
questions of a spiritual nature. The question itself assumes a relationship.

Our greatest opportunities to witness will come from having in common
to talk about other than Christianity. It will come from having a common pursuits
and common interests.

The man with the Fender guitar T-shirt found out he was a magnet to other
guitar players and that commonality gave relationship a chance, even if it was only for a bus ride.
You know, this could give new meaning to talent or an interest
you might have ─ whether it's about music, school, arts, photography, education, and whatnot.
The more things we are interested in, the more possibilities we will have to be in a relationship with those who share them.

Remember: it doesn't take a perfect life and we don't have to dress up like we're one
good angel to spread the word and get people to Christ ─ just a saved one.
So what's keeping us from telling our story?



I can worship God on how I design.. on how I [name what you do]
Redeem arts because everything belongs to God.




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