What Does the Song of Solomon Teach us about Relationships and Sex? – Part 1

On February 14, 2018 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical1 Comment

Sex isn’t a topic that’s discussed often in the church, if at all. It can even be a taboo subject among Christians. Something they do but definitely not something they discuss.

When we compare the church to the world, we see that there is quite a difference between the two. The world talks about sex constantly. Movies, T.V. shows, the news, articles, and conversations with friends are often dominated by the subject. I mean you can hardly watch a television show without some random comment or scene thrown in there that’s really unnecessary, and the only role it plays is just to glorify sex.

But why is there such a difference? Why don’t we talk about sex in the church? Especially when we consider that almost the entirety of one of the wisdom books — the Song of Solomon — is dedicated to the subject.

Now, the Song of Solomon isn’t without its controversy. Many have questioned why it’s in the Bible. It’s been kept out of the hands of teenagers and young adults. It’s been allegorized, historicized, and misinterpreted in an effort to diminish the raciness of the book. But while all that and more has occurred throughout the centuries, it still remains a valuable book.

At its core, it’s about a relationship between a king, presumably Solomon, and his wife. It tells the story of their courtship, wedding, and relationship thereafter. It does so with vivid poetic imagery that at times leaves us, modern-day readers, guessing at the meaning and wondering why the woman is blushing when in today’s terms his comments would be taken as more of an insult than a praise and would probably warrant a slap. But for all its difficulties, the Song of Solomon is inspired Scripture that teaches us about God’s desire for sex and relationships.

What, then, does the Song of Solomon teach us about relationships and sex?

(1) Relationships and Sex should occur between a man and a woman (vs. Gen. 1:27-28; 2:24; Rom. 1:27-28; 32)

That idea — that relationships and sex should only occur between a man and a woman — is fast becoming out of step in our modern world. But while the traditional view is fast becoming out of step, it is the biblical view. One that’s upheld in the Song of Solomon. When you read the book, the love story, including the intimate parts, are portrayed between a man and a woman. That is the relationship that is celebrated by the book. That’s the relationship God endorses and promotes.

Lest someone claim the Song of Solomon only represents one type of relationship, God’s explicitly clear in the rest of the Bible what He endorses. In Genesis 1&2 we learn that a man and woman were created. Verse 27 of chapter 1 reads,

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Ge 1:27)

And in verse 28 we learn that:

“…God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (Ge 1:28)

Then in verse 24 of chapter 2, we are told that,

“…a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Ge 2:24)

This tells us that God’s original plan in creation was for one man and one woman to be together for life. If that’s not clear that it’s God’s plan for a man and woman to be together, we also learn in Romans 1 that:

“…God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Ro 1:26–27)

God gave them up to these unnatural relations because of their refusal to recognize him as the one true God despite the evidence He has provided. He gave them up to homosexual behavior, which we are told in verse 32 is something that warrants God’s punishment.

You see, despite what our culture proclaims and trumpets as acceptable, the Bible tells us that it’s nothing more than an aberration, a departure from God’s original plan for creation. If those in our culture are honest, they know this too. They show they know that when they say things like: “This is the new normal.”

So one of the things we learn from the Song of Solomon is that God’s design and plan is for relationships and sex to occur between a man and a woman.

Question for Reflection

What are your thoughts on the Bible’s plan and God’s design for sex and relationships? Do you agree or disagree? And why? (NOTE: Since this is an emotionally and politically charged topic, I’m looking for thoughtful, gracious, loving, and engaging answers/comments.)

Resources

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Post developed from my sermon What does the Song of Solomon Teach us about Relationships and Sex?

What’s Required to Have an Effective Mercy Ministry? – Part 3

On January 22, 2018 By Dr. Casey LewisIn PracticalLeave a comment

In the last few posts, we’ve seen that an effective mercy ministry not only requires compassion, but it also requires responsibility. Today, we’ll explore some guidelines by which to operate. Just as Paul gave Timothy guidelines by which to operate, we too should have guidelines by which we operate. It’s not ungodly or uncompassionate. Instead, it’s wise and helpful. It not only allows us to care for others, but it allows us to provide care in a way that is most helpful for them and best uses the resources of our church.

Just as Paul gave Timothy guidelines by which to operate, we too should have guidelines by which we operate. It’s not ungodly or uncompassionate. Instead, it’s wise and helpful. It not only allows us to care for others, but it allows us to provide care in a way that is most helpful for them and best uses the resources of our church.

Personal Guidelines

(1) Set aside a designated amount of money each month that can be used to help others.

When you run across someone needing help, you can help them without feeling like you have to break the bank or kill your budget.

(2) Pray with the person you are helping

I can’t remember if it is someone at my current church or another church that told me this. But basically, they said that the advice they were given in the past was to pray that the person would use the money you are giving them in a God-honoring way or face God’s judgment. If after praying that prayer they still wanted the money, then you should give that to them, leaving it between them and God as to what happens next.

(3) Designate a small portion of your income above and beyond your regular tithe and give that to a benevolence ministry each month.

That could be the church’s benevolence ministry or another ministry like WARM or Wise Choices Pregnancy Resource Center. The point in doing that is that you know your money is going to be used to actually help the person. When you walk past a person begging for money, you don’t have to feel bad because you have already given to a ministry that is local and can meet their need. You can even take it a step further by stopping and pointing that person to that particular ministry.

So those are a few guidelines by which you can operate. Of course, there are more but that should get you started.

Church Guidelines

I’ll tell you what we currently do at the church I pastor. Hopefully, that will help you get the ball rolling at your church.

(1) We have a system of accountability.

Meaning that one person can’t make the decision to help someone. They have to call another pastor or deacon and run the situation by them first.

(2) We don’t give anyone money or gift cards.

Instead, we will directly pay someone’s bill, rent, or for their groceries.

(3) We have a tiered system of care.

If you are a member, regular attendee, or family or friend of a member, you can receive more assistance than someone who just randomly calls the church.

(4) We have limits on how often you can receive assistance.

Meaning that we aren’t going to continually pay someone’s bills every month without first really digging into the situation and their finances. If someone needs assistance multiple months in a row, then they have to be willing to open their finances up to us and follow a plan we develop for them based on their budget.

(5) We have a budget for benevolence

We refer to that as our Local Mission’s Fund. A small portion of the general tithes and offerings goes into that fund every month. That is what we use to help those in need unless there is a special circumstance that requires more than that fund has. If that happens, we will take up a love offering or vote to use money out of the General Fund to help that family.

So those are some of the guidelines that we as a church operate under. We have put these in place because it allows us to be both compassionate and responsible, stewarding the resources we have as a church, as well as it also forces us to dig into the situation and provide the help the person really needs.

Conclusion

As you can see Mercy Ministry isn’t simple. It is complex. While compassion needs to be what motivates us, we also need responsibility to guide us. It’s compassionate responsibility that’s required in order for us to have an effective mercy ministry. I believe if we operate within that tension, we will be effective. As well as we will truly help those who are in need.

Question for Reflection

What guidelines do you operate by personally and as a church?

Resources

Post developed from my sermon: What’s Required to Have an Effective Mercy Ministry?

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What’s Required to Have an Effective Mercy Ministry? – Part 2

On January 18, 2018January 18, 2018 By Dr. Casey LewisIn PracticalLeave a comment

Last time, I laid out the idea that we have to be compassionate in order to have an effective mercy ministry. While it’s important for us to be compassionate, compassion left unchecked can, at times, do more harm than good. You see, meeting someone’s immediate need is not bad, and in reality a lot of times we need to do that. But if we blindly meet the immediate or presenting need over and over again, we aren’t really helping that person because we aren’t forcing them to deal with the underlying heart issue that may be causing their hardship.

Now, I’m not saying that everyone who is struggling has an underlying sin condition they need to deal with. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Health issues, natural disasters, the loss of a job, these things happen. When they happen, we may find ourselves struggling and in need of help, even though we have done everything right and our heart is in line with God’s Word.

But there are others who have needs, and those needs are the result of sin. In order for them to get to a place where they can be self-sufficient, we have to help them deal with their sin. If we are just operating on our emotions, we may not do that. Which tells us compassion can’t be the only driving force of an effective Mercy Ministry.

An Effective Mercy Ministry Requires Responsibility

Part of 1 Timothy 5 is centered around the care for the widows in the church at Ephesus. To give you some background information. Apparently, the church was facing a crisis. Their compassion had led them to enroll all the widows in the church and those loosely connected to the church into a welfare program. Providing for all these widows needs became a burden on the church.

Paul isn’t writing to tell Timothy and the church to quit providing for these widows. They were still supposed to provide care. They just weren’t to continue to operate as they had been. The church had to begin operating responsibly. They had to make sure these widows were cared for in the right way and the church’s resources used appropriately. Essentially Paul was telling Timothy that his compassion had to be balanced by responsibility.

He gave Timothy a set of guidelines by which the church should operate.

(1) The church is to care for those who don’t have a family to care for them (3,4,8,16)

Starting in verse 3 Paul says,

“Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.” (1 Ti 5:3–4)

Then in verse 8 Paul provides the motivation some family members needed to provide adequate care for their families when he says,

“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Ti 5:8)

So a person’s family should be the ones who care for them. If they don’t have any family, then the church should take over.

(2) The church is to care for those who have given themselves to God’s service and have a godly reputation (5-6)

Look at the text starting in verse 5,

“She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.” (1 Ti 5:5–6)

Now drop down to the second half of verse 9,

“Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, [and here is where we pick up] having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.” (1 Ti 5:9–10)

So the church isn’t just to enroll any widow. Only those who meet certain moral standards.

(3) The church is to care for those who are of age (9a, 11-15)

In the first half of verse 9, we are told that a woman shouldn’t be less than sixty years of age. Then picking up in verse 11 we read,

“But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan.” (1 Ti 5:11–15)

So again, not just any widow, but only those who meet a certain age requirement.

Next Time

Next time I’ll lay out the guidelines by which we personally and corporately should operate.

Question for Reflection

Do you exercise responsibility when dealing with those who are in need?

Resources

Post developed from my sermon: What’s Required to Have an Effective Mercy Ministry?

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What’s Required to Have an Effective Mercy Ministry? – Part 1

On January 15, 2018 By Dr. Casey LewisIn PracticalLeave a comment

As a pastor, I often interact with those looking to the church to provide them with assistance. Which means I have often found myself having to make a decision on how the church should respond to their need. I am sure you have also faced similar situations. Maybe not from a pastoral perspective. But I know we all have come across someone on the street or have had a friend or family member ask us for help or money.

How should you personally and how should the church corporately respond to those in need? In other words, what is required in order to have an effective mercy ministry?

What is a Mercy Ministry?

I see mercy ministry as a personal or church ministry that seeks to care for the physical needs of others. Whether that be those in our own church or those outside the church.

Providing assistance to those outside the church means that a mercy ministry becomes a vehicle we can use to reach the community for Christ. It is a way for us to not only share Christ through word but also deed. As we care for the needy and poor in the community, we are sharing Christ’s love, mercy, and grace with them. The same love, mercy, and grace that has been shown to us. So mercy ministry, while it’s primary focus is the physical needs of others, also has a spiritual component to it.

An Effective Mercy Ministry Requires Compassion

Our God is a compassionate God, who cares about the poor and oppressed. We see His care and concern in both testaments.

In Deuteronomy 15:11 we are given a picture of God’s heart for the poor and hurting when we read,

“For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’” (Dt 15:11)

His command for generosity was worked out in many different ways. One of which is:

The Gleaning Laws

God told “landowners [in the book of Leviticus that they] couldn’t gather all the grain their land produced. They had to leave some of it for the poor to gather themselves (Lev. 19:9-10; 23:22).”

Third Year Tithe

Tithing isn’t just a New Testament thing it was also commanded in ancient Israel. Its purpose was to provide for the Levites and priests, as well as for the upkeep of the Temple. However, every third-year tithes were diverted into a public fund set aside for the care of the poor, the immigrants, the fatherless, and the widows (Deut 14:29).

Jesus, who is God incarnate, also had compassion for the poor and needy.

As we look through the New Testament, specifically the Gospels, we see that:

Jesus cared for the weak, the harassed, and the helpless (Matt. 9:35-36).
He moved in with the poor.
He ate with and associated with the socially ostracized (Matthew 9:13)
He healed the blind, lame, leper, and deaf (Matthew 11:4-5).
He raised a poor widows son back to life so she would have someone to support her (Luke 7:11-6)

Just from these limited examples, we can see clearly that God cares about the poor. He wants us, His church, to care about them too having the same compassion as He does. If we don’t, we either won’t do anything for those in need or we will do it for the wrong reasons. So it’s important our Mercy Ministry be motivated by compassion. Doing so helps us:

Avoid Giving for Personal Gain

I’m not sure if you are familiar with NPR. It stands for National Public Radio. As a public radio station, they receive funding from donations of people like you and me. Several times a year they have a fundraising drive. One of their tactics or arguments for why you should give to support the radio station is that it will make you feel good.

While there is nothing wrong with feeling good about helping others, that can’t be our primary motivator. If it is, we are only going to give when we need to feel good about ourselves. Not only is that selfish, but our need to feel good about ourselves and someone else’s need may not always line up, which means there will be times when we overlook those who legitimately need our help. So giving to make ourselves feel good isn’t the best motivator.

Nor is giving so that others in the community will think well of you. Generally, those who are generous are well known in their community. At times, they are even celebrated. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that. But if you crave the approval of your peers, you may find yourself giving for that reason. But that too is selfish and shouldn’t be the driving motivation for Christian giving.

Still another way we may give for our own personal gain is to relieve guilt. Maybe you have been blessed financially. When you look at the poor and needy, you feel guilty for what you have, so guilty you feel that you have to do something about it. So you find a charity, a church, or a person in need and give them some money. While giving to them might have been a good thing, it was selfish because you only did it to make yourself feel better.

So instead of being motivated by personal gain, we see that we should be motivated by compassion. It, not selfishness, should be what drives our giving to and care for those in need.

It’s important we give out of compassion because it helps us to:

Avoid an “Us and Them” Mentality

It can be easy to think about those we help as “them”. But this mentality isn’t helpful, nor biblical. Think about it. What if after presenting the gospel to those we are helping, they come to Christ. Then they start coming to our church. If we are operating out of an “Us and Them” mentality, it is going to be difficult to quit thinking of that person as a project or see yourself as equals with them. That’s because even though we have helped them, we have been using them. Using them to make ourselves feel good, accepted, or less guilty.

But on the other hand, if our motivation has always been compassion and not personal gain, accepting them into the church and working alongside them as equals won’t be difficult. It won’t be difficult because we haven’t used them for our own personal gain, nor have we elevated ourselves above them, thinking we are better than them.

So our motivation must be compassion.

Next Time

While it’s important for us to be compassionate, compassion left unchecked can, at times, do more harm than good, which is why compassion needs to be balanced by responsibility. We will talk about that next time.

Question for Reflection

Do you have compassion for those who need assistance?

Resources

Post developed from my sermon: What’s Required to Have an Effective Mercy Ministry?

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In what ways does Jesus provide us with a whole new way of life?

On January 12, 2018 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

Christmas is a time to celebrate God’s gift to us. He gave us His Son who is the Lord and Savior of this world. As our Lord and Savior, He provides us with a whole new way of life.

In what way does Jesus provide us with a whole new way of life?

(1) Jesus provides hope.

In Luke 2, we learned that Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, the King of this world. If we are honest, a Savior is what we are all looking for and want someone or something to save us because we know the world in which we live is broken. You only have to open the newspaper or turn on the nightly news to know that’s true.

At the core of that brokenness is our sin. Sin is more than just breaking the rules, sin is an all-out rebellion against God. Because we have sinned against God, we deserve for God to punish us for rebelling against Him. There is nothing we can do to escape God’s punishment, which means that apart from Jesus we don’t have any hope for the future.

Jesus, however, gives us hope because He takes our punishment for us. In doing so, He repairs our relationship with the Father so that we no longer live under the threat of God’s wrath being poured out on us.

Along with saving us from the Father’s wrath, Jesus also saves us from sin and promises us life eternal in a completely different world. A world that isn’t broken, but is perfect.

So, in Jesus, we experience hope. In Him, we have something to look forward to. And that hope is life changing.

(2) Jesus provides us with the ability to pursue forgiveness

Say I went over to your house with my kids. Right now, they are really into playing superheroes. When they play superhero’s, they run all over the house like crazy, chasing one another and sometimes knocking into furniture. Say one of them knocked your lamp over and it broke. Instead of making me pay for the lamp, you said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.” Not only would that be extremely nice of you, but you would be absorbing the cost of that lamp because you would be replacing that lam with your own money.

That’s exactly what Jesus did for us except on an infinitely greater scale. He absorbed the cost, not of a broken lamp, but of the eternal punishment we deserve.

The remarkable thing is that He purposely came to provide us with forgiveness. You see, Jesus didn’t just happen to forgive because it was convenient for Him, or He was in the right place at the right time. Instead, He actually pursued us in an effort to repair our relationship.

For those of us who have experienced Jesus’ forgiveness, we should be willing and motivated to forgive others. We should even pursue others as Jesus pursued us, desiring a restored relationship as He did.

While forgiveness is costly and requires some vulnerability on our part. It’s something we should be willing to extend to others because it has been extended to us. Being willing to forgive is necessary if we expect to have any sort of deep and lasting relationship with others because inevitable a situation is going to arise where someone is going to sin against us and we are going to have to extend forgiveness. And that’s inevitable because we are all sinners.

But as you probably know sinners, forgiveness doesn’t come easy, which is why we need Jesus. We need Him to change our lives so that we are not only forgiven but can pursue forgiveness.

(3) Jesus provides us with the ability to deal with suffering.

Reading some of the recent headlines, I’m sure at some point you’ve wondered why God continues to allow suffering in this world. Especially seeing all the suffering that has come about as the result of hurricanes, forest fires, and earthquakes. Along with natural disasters, we’ve also seen others suffer at the hands of ungodly people who have used and abused them. Reading about and seeing all this suffering, it’s natural for us to ask why. Why does God allow it to continue? It’s a common question. I wish I could tell you exactly why God allows everything to happen that happens, but I can’t.

While I can’t give you a definitive answer to why God allows suffering, what I can tell you is that God is not ambivalent about human suffering. He has and is doing something about it. Christmas is proof. As one author says,

“The gift of Christmas gives you a resource — a comfort and consolation — for dealing with suffering, because in it we see God’s willingness to enter this world of suffering to suffer with us and for us.” [1]

Knowing that God Himself has suffered on our behalf should help us to face suffering.

(4) Jesus pushes us to care for others physical needs

When Jesus was born, the eternal spiritual God became a man. Not in an illusory way, but in a real physical way. He didn’t just appear as a man; He was actually a man. That’s unique because most other world religions either believe the physical is bad and something to cast off, that God would never stoop to the level of a man, or that He would never willingly experience physical need. But Jesus did. As such, He knows what it means to be poor, to be a refugee, to face persecution, to hunger and thirst, to be beaten, to be falsely accused and ultimately be condemned to an unjust death. He knows what it’s like to face all those things. Since Jesus faced those things we know that God not only cares about our spiritual need, but He also cares about our physical.

We not only see evidence of that in His but throughout His ministry.He healed the broken, fed the hungry, spoke up for the oppressed and misled. He did all those things and more. He did them because He cares about our physical needs.

As His people, we should care about these things as well. Christmas, then, should be a reminder that we are to work for social justice, to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, to continue to minister to the broken, the poor, and the hungry.

(5) Jesus allows us to reconnect with those we despise

Let me just say that no one is off the hook on this one. Sure, you might not be prejudice toward another race, but that doesn’t mean you don’t despise someone. For all of us, at least to some degree, there is someone we look down on, are snobbish towards. Someone we look at and say, “They are the problem with this world.”

But Christmas is the end of us thinking that we are better than someone else. That’s because Christmas tells us that we aren’t good enough. Jesus came to us instead of vice versa. His coming tells us that there is nothing we can do to get ourselves into heaven. We might be able to get into the best school, secure the best job, live in the best neighborhood, and rub elbows with the most connected people in town, but we still aren’t good enough to get ourselves into heaven. Jesus’ coming proves that.

So rather than thinking that we are better than someone else, rather than despising others, we need to recognize that they are just like us — sinners who are desperately in need of a Savior.

Conclusion

Thankfully that Savior has come. In coming, He provides us with a whole new way of life. One that:(1) Provides hope, (2) That gives us the ability to pursue forgiveness and (3) face suffering. (4) One that pushes us to care for others physical needs and (5) to reconnect with those we despise.

In all those ways and more, Jesus provides us with a whole new way of life. A way of life that wouldn’t be possible without the gift of Jesus. And that’s because He changes us from the inside out. He changes us through and through. He is a revolutionary gift that makes a revolutionary impact on our lives.

Question for Reflection

Do you recognize the revolutionary impact Jesus can have on a life?

Resources

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[1] Tim Keller, The Gifts of Christmas, in Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, pg 39.

What’s the True Source of Powerful Evangelism?

On January 2, 2018January 2, 2018 By Dr. Casey LewisIn Evangelism, PracticalLeave a comment

In order to be effective in evangelism, we often believe we must be a world class apologist who can answer every question thrown at us, an extrovert who can talk to anyone, and a bold witness who isn’t afraid of persecution or death. While we may think that, the average Christian doesn’t typically possess these characteristics.

According to Jack Miller, the author of Powerful Evangelism for the Powerless, we don’t need to possess these characteristics to be an effective evangelist. He believes effective evangelism, like what took place in the eighteenth century, was built on a different premise. He says,

“I am convinced that what gave evangelists in the eighteenth century remarkable power was the Whitefield-Wesley confidence in the supreme authority of Christ. Jesus acted in and through them not because they were powerful persons, but because they were empty vessels needing grace. He was the one who forgave and cleansed them; He was the one who sent them with the gospel; and He was the one who opened the hearts of hardened people to a very humbling message. By contrast, believers today typically serve a much smaller Christ…

Miller went on to explain the true source of power for evangelism:

The leaders of the Great Awakening had extraordinary power in evangelism and renewal. They followed an omnipotent Christ, the divine warrior, and He anointed them with His missionary presence. But this power was poured out on those who knew that they were inherently powerless without a constant dependence upon the working of God’s grace in their lives.” [1]

It seems counterintuitive to say that the more powerless we are the more effective our evangelism can become, but God doesn’t always work in intuitive ways. Instead, He works in ways that show His power and bring Him glory.

The apostle Paul was familiar with this idea. In 2 Corinthians Paul prayed several times for God to take his “thorn in the flesh,” away. But God didn’t. After wrestling with God’s answer for a time, Paul finally understood why. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 and 10 he writes

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Co 12:9–10)

So instead of allowing our inadequacies to keep us from evangelism, we should allow them to propel us into it. Not in our own strength, but in God’s power working through us. When we do that, we will be powerful witnesses for Christ.