"Bear Witness"

 "Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me." (John 10:25 KJV) 

  "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun. And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NLT)

 Just to be clear, God's promises are sure; that we can be absolutely sure about! It is our hearts that get changed and hardened, more easily than we realize. When our hearts change, for the worse, then there are promises regarding that, which bear witness of our Father's love. These promises that get our hearts right take priority over the promises of provisions. 

 More than anything else, God is working in and through us to reconcile others to Himself! You don't need to be ordained or even trained for this, because the Spirit of God within you knows what to do. We just need to yield our lives to God's Spirit, letting Him work through us. That's what it means to be a vessel, because vessels make things, they hold things; and the Thing we hold is the most important of all! 

 As far as these Jews that are giving Jesus a hard time, they are not going to listen, because they are set upon not lifting Him up. Little do they know, they will be lifting Him up, in the not-so-distant future. Just as Moses, who represented the Law, lifted up that bronze serpent on a pole in the wilderness, so too, these Jews that represent the Law, will be lifting Jesus up upon a cross. 

 This is where we see Jesus knowing full well how He was going to be put to death, did not really care about any other threats, because His death was to be crucified upon a cross. That was absolutely sure, so any other type of death was not of concern, because His time will not come until He has been placed upon the cross, period!  

 Not that it really matters, but it does! We are here on this earth as long as God will have us here, not a minute more or a minute less; when it our time to go, then it's our time to go home. If anyone is there listening, and you know that your time has come, now is your time to bear witness to what you know is the Truth! 

 You are more of a witness knowing you are going, then you are knowing you are staying...

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2 NLT)