WITNESS, BY LIFE

Some years ago, on returning from a business trip, a man brought his wife some souvenirs. Among them was a matchbox that would glow in the dark. After giving it to her, he turned out the light, but the object was not visible. “This must be a joke!” she said. Disappointed, the husband commented, “I’ve been cheated!” Then his wife noticed some French words on the box. Taking it to a friend who knew the language, she was told that the directions read: “If you want me to shine at night, keep me in the sunlight all day.” So she put her gift in a south window. That evening when she turned out the light, the matchbox had a brilliant glow. The surprised husband asked, “What did you do?” “Oh, I found the secret,” she said. “Before it can shine in the dark, it must be exposed to the light.”

Just as the matchbox, having been exposed to the sun, took on the nature of the sun and began to shine, so Christians should constantly expose themselves to the Son, that they may take on his nature and shine as lights in a dark world.1468

In the days before electricity had been harnessed, oil lamps were used for lighting. But to have them work to the maximum, the wicks had to be carefully trimmed to spread the flame evenly, and the globes had to be cleaned so as to be clear and shiny.

Christians are like oil lamps: they need to emit a steady, unobstructed light—the light of Christlike life in them.1469

In winter months in the northern states, salt and sand are put on the roads to make driving safer. This mixture eventually becomes plastered on the sides of cars, making them filthy and unattractive. One dirty car looks about the same as another. About the time that everyone is used to the universally grayish color of cars, a warm spell comes along and some energetic person will wash his car. Then the difference is apparent. One clean car makes all the difference in showing how much dirt has accumulated on the other cars!

The believer’s lifestyle should be like that one clean car. It should stand out so brightly that in contrast the unbeliever’s lifestyle is seen for what it is—murky and marred by the darkness of sin.1470

Jim, an elder at a church, was to oversee the evangelism of new people that moved into the area. Sun Lee and his family were Vietnamese refugees who had recently been moved into the area. They had no possessions, knew no one, needed help in every way. Jim began by helping them to get food and then spent much time finding Sun Lee a good job. Jim wanted so much to tell Sun Lee about Jesus Christ, but he didn’t know Vietnamese and the refugees knew very little English. Both men sought to learn the other’s language so that they could become better friends.

One day, Jim felt that he knew enough now to tell Sun Lee about Jesus. Jim began to explain about God and Jesus to Sun Lee, but the more he talked, the more confusing it seemed to get. Sun Lee would repeat in Vietnamese a little of what Jim said in English. Finally, Jim was so frustrated that he decided to give up trying to communicate until he had learned more Vietnamese. Sun Lee at this point blurted out, “Is your God like you? If he is, I want to know him.” Jim explained that Jesus Christ was greater than he was, far greater. Yet Sun Lee wanted to know more about Jesus Christ if he was like Jim! Jim had thought for all these months that he was not communicating the gospel. But he was, with the greatest form of communication a person can use—the example of a life filled with Jesus Christ.1471

A minister was making a wooden trellis to support a climbing vine. As he was pounding away, he noticed that a little boy was watching him. The youngster didn’t say a word, so the preacher kept on working, thinking the lad would leave. But he didn’t. Pleased at the thought that his work was being admired, the pastor said, “Well, son, trying to pick up some pointers on gardening?” “No,” replied the boy, “I’m just waiting to hear what a preacher says when he hits his thumb with a hammer.”1472

A Christian’s life should stand out to the world as different. We should be like zebras among horses. When our life is indistinguishable from the world’s, we are like albino zebras. They really are zebras, their parents are zebras, they know they are zebras on the inside. But to all who see them from the outside they are no different from horses.1473

We are the only Bible

The careless world will need,

We are the sinner’s gospel,

We are the scoffer’s creed,

We are the Lord’s last message,

Given in deed and word.

What if the type is crooked?

What if the print is blurred?”

Annie Johnson Flint

It’s not our choice as to whether or not we believers wish to be epistles of Christ. We just are! What is the message others read in you?1474

When budget cuts sharply curtailed athletic programs at an inner-city high school in Chicago one year, LaSalle Street Church stepped in to help. A staff member of this evangelical inner-city congregation drove the basketball team to their away games in the church van, and the team’s athletic banquet was prepared and served at the church. After the season ended, the players attended a Christian ranch in Colorado, where all made commitments to Christ. The living witness of LaSalle Street church members sowed some healthy seeds of faith in the young people which later bore fruit.1475

The effect of the Christian life lived out in difficult situations is often quite dramatic and forceful in its impact on the non-Christian. An article that appeared in Christianity Today (June 21, 1974), was about Christians in the Soviet Union. A former criminal, Kozlov, later a church leader, wrote of life in a Soviet prison:

Among the general despair, while prisoners like myself were cursing ourselves, the camp, the authorities; while we opened up our veins or our stomachs, or hanged ourselves; the Christians (often with sentences of 20 to 25 years) did not despair. One could see Christ reflected in their faces. Their pure, upright life, deep faith and devotion to God, their gentleness and their wonderful manliness became a shining example of real life for thousands.1476

A Chinese farmer, after having cataracts removed from his eyes, made his way from the Christian compound to the far interior of China. Only a few days elapsed, however, before the missionary doctor looked out of his bamboo window and noticed this formerly blind man holding the front end of a long rope. In single file and holding to the rope behind him several dozen blind Chinese whom the farmer had rounded up and led for miles to the doctor who had worked the “miracle” on his eyes. What a recommendation! Restored sight was cause enough for this man to share what had happened to him with those of like condition. Just so with the gospel of Christ.1477

You are writing a Gospel,

A chapter each day,

By deeds that you do,

By words that you say.

Men read what you write,

Whether faithless or true,

Say! What is the gospel

According to YOU?1478

The story has been told of a missionary to China who was in language school. The very first day of class the teacher entered the room and, without saying a word, walked down every row of students. Finally, still without saying a word, she walked out of the room again. Then she came back and addressed the class.

“Did you notice anything special about me?” she asked. Nobody could think of anything in particular. One student finally raised her hand. “I noticed that you had on a very lovely perfume,” she said. The class chuckled. But the teacher said, “That was exactly the point. You see, it will be a long time before any of you will be able to speak Chinese well enough to share the gospel with anyone in China. But even before you are able to do that, you can minister the sweet fragrance of Christ to these people by the quality of your lives. It is your lifestyle, lived out among the Chinese people, that will minister Christ to them long before you are able to say one word to them about personal faith in Jesus.”

It is like that with us as well. Though we may not be eloquent speakers, unbelievers we encounter will be ministered to by the Christ-likeness of our daily lives, if indeed we are Christ-like.1479

Jesus stressed the positive effect we can have on others when he said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16, rsv) But if sin dims our testimony so that our “light” is no longer visible, some of those we might have influenced for Christ may drift on in spiritual darkness.

On a dark and stormy night, with waves piling up like mountains on Lake Erie, a boat rocked and plunged near the Cleveland harbor. “Are we on course?” asked the captain, seeing only one beacon from the lighthouse. “Quite sure, sir,” replied the officer at the helm. “Where are the lower lights?” “Gone out, sir.” “Can we make the harbor?” “We must, or perish!” came the reply. With a steady hand and a stalwart heart, the officer headed the ship toward land.

But, in the darkness, he missed the channel and the vessel was dashed to pieces on the rocks. Many lives were lost in a watery grave. This incident moved Philip P. Bliss to write the familiar hymn, “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.”1480

Dr. Charles Weigle, who is probably best known for his song “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus,” was once preaching at a Bible conference in Pasadena, California. He spent one afternoon visiting some of the famous rose gardens in that city. When he returned to the Bible conference later that day, a number of people inquired as to how he had enjoyed the lovely gardens. Mystified by their knowledge of his leisure time, he inquired as to how they knew where he had been. The response was, “You have brought the fragrance of the flowers with you.”

So, too, can our lives bring “the fragrance of the knowledge of him [Christ] everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14, niv).1481

A Chinese National, Christiana Tsai, told of her ministry to her family after years of suffering pain through many illnesses. One day, one of her brothers, who had rejected the gospel, assembled the members of the family without them knowing the purpose behind it. He then told them: “I have been to see Christiana many times and wondered how she could endure all this suffering. Now I can see that she has been given some sustaining power and can only explain it as coming from God. So, I have decided there must be a God after all. I have read the Bible and realize that I am a sinner. So here and now I want to tell you that I have accepted Christ as my Savior, asked Him to forgive my sins, and promised to follow Him.”

Christiana commented that “the brother who tore up my Bible and persecuted me in the early days at last confessed my Lord. In all, fifty-five of my relatives have become God’s children and expressed their faith in Jesus. I have never been to college, or theological seminary, and I am not a Bible teacher; I have only been God’s hunting dog.” (Cited in Christiana Tsai, Queen of the Dark Chamber, p. 184.)1482