I think I have told you the story before of a person I met in my early years of being a Christian who told the true story of someone they knew who was shocked to learn he did indeed need to give a verbal witness to his faith in Christ. (I have done a quick search through past Gemz to find it but can’t at moment; so I will retell it.) There is an idea that is broadcast among Christians that we don’t have to tell people we are Christians, followers of Jesus, believing that Jesus is who He says He is and placing our on going trust in Him. We can just live the life and that is sufficient. We don’t need to witness. The story goes that a Christian in the work place was seeking to “witness” to his colleagues but was somewhat afraid of confessing the fact that he followed Christ, when in the office environment it was unpopular to do so. So he “bought into” the notion of living the life, demonstrating his allegiance to Christ, by his actions rather than his words. He had been doing this for some years. Finally there was a huge evangelistic meeting in the town which he attended. On the Monday in the office, the colleague told him how on the weekend he had “become a Christian”.
To which he then replied, “Praise the Lord, that is great news.”
The colleague look at him intently and then said. “Do you mean to say that you are a Christian too?”
“Yes.” he replied.
To which the colleague said something that shocked him. “Then you are what has kept me from Christ all these years. I have watched you and been impressed with your life style and standards but never have you said anything about the reason, that you follow Christ. So I figured when others witnessed to me, that if you could do it without Christ, then so could I.”