“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise." (Prov 11:30; KJV). Jesus says something very similar in Luke 5:10: “And Jesus said to Simon, have no fear; from now on you will be catching men”. Simon was a fisherman but Jesus made him a fisher of men.  These two scripture passages show us how important it is to be witnessing, but just in case you aren’t convinced, in Daniel 12:3 we are taught that we should shine brightly like the stars turning people to righteousness.

We are ministers of reconciliation, ambassadors for God (2 Cor 11:19-20). We are his hands, his feet and voice on this earth. God has empowered us to represent him (Matt 28:18-20). I know witnessing comes easier to some people than others; speaking personally, it really takes me out of my comfort zone. However, Jesus did say we should go (Mark 16:15), so it is something we need to be doing.

If we ask God for opportunities or divine appointments to share the Gospel with people, he will provide them. A good example of a divine witnessing opportunity is when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar. Through that interaction she and many in Sychar came to believe in Jesus (John 4:1-42). When you tell others about Jesus, he will even give you the words to say (Luke 21:15). Go Fish!

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Jesus met a woman by a well in Sychar, a town in Samaria and during their very interesting conversation he said: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24; KJV).

Food for thought indeed! The verse implies that there can be true and false worshipers. So, what is worship? Worship is to humble ourselves before our God and offer the reverence, respect, honor and love that his awesome and mighty presence and self, demand of us; to be lost in adoration in his presence.

God wants our worship; he knows that it draws us close into his presence; into fellowship with him (Ps 22:3). It is possible to just go through the motions but God wants those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

Worship is not a head thing but something of sincerity and great integrity that wells up from deep inside us, from our spirit, prompted by the Holy Spirit (Phil 3:3). Get alone with God, let that worship well up within you and experience his approval, his love, his healing and his peace; you can experience all of God in that intimacy with him.

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“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). It doesn’t get any stronger than that; we are commanded to love one another and not only love but to love as Christ loves us! The apostle James taught us that: “If ye really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well” (James 2:8). Loving our neighbor is a royal law, a cardinal command! This love of God is an unconditional love.

Although we received the love nature of God when we were born again (Rom 5:5) unconditional love does not come naturally to us. This means that we must develop or grow this love nature that we have; we need to be intentional about love and make decisions to put love into practice. Time spent with God who is love (1 John 4:8) and reading, studying and meditating on love scriptures will help us to do that.

Immediately after Jesus gave the command to love, in the gospel according to John, he also said that it was in this love for our neighbor that others would recognize us as Christians (John 13:34-35).

When we put love into practice then we will draw others to Christ. If the church universal started truly acting in love there would be a mighty revival. Love is a powerful force and in 1 Corinthians 13:2 we are told that without it we are nothing.

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Have you ever noticed that there is no prize for starting, the only reward is for the one that finishes the race (1 Cor 9:24)? At the end of his life for Christ Paul could say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7; KJV) and he eagerly looked forward to his heavenly reward.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:1-2; KJV). Paul paints a picture for us of the heavenly hosts cheering us on. As we look back at all the amazing men and women of God who have gone before us, we should be encouraged to focus on Jesus and put aside all the distractions and sins to serve him on this earth.

We need the same heavenly focus that Jesus had and need to know that we don’t run in our own strength but his (Phil 2:13; Phil 4:13). Paul exhorted us to press on, lay hold of all God has for us and be disciplined (Phil 3:12-14; 1 Cor 9:25). We are God’s salt and lights in this world (Matt 5:13-14), he so wants to work through us, to bless us in our earthly journey (Eph 3:20) and to bring us to that eternal reward in heaven. Let's cooperate and press in; the rewards are great and the journey amazing.

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The biggest cause of division in the church is strife which is often caused by pride. In the prayer of Jesus in John 17 he asked 4 times for unity in the believers. In the book of Acts, we read many times of how the apostles met together in one accord. The result of this was that their prayers were powerfully answered; they saw many miracles and exponential growth in the church.

There are many times in the epistles where Paul encouraged the church to live harmoniously and he told them how to do this. An example is found Phillipians 2:1-5. Paul asked them to live in harmony with the same mind purpose and love. He then told them to avoid strife and selfishness and: "in the true spirit of humility let each regard others as better than and superior to himself”. He then encouraged them to have the same attitude of humility that Jesus did.

I believe this spirit of humility is crucial for unity in the church, along with love, which enables reconciliation and also causes us to forget our petty differences and focus on Jesus and all those things which unite us.

When this happens there is no room for criticality and discord and the devil will have no way of causing strife and the church will be united and strong.

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