THE BEAT e150 That Moment When You Witness Romans 10:9

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 2 Episode 150 

THE BEAT | That Moment When You Witness Romans 10:9

Quick Take 

Hey human, what would you say is “the moment” in your witness to others? We consider the threshold we stad on with the unbeliever, the clarity God gives us and how it manifests joy. Reciprocal joy! The angels rejoice. Join us for the final episode of Season 2, e150. It will inspire and prepare you for our season break – and a little reflection. Thanks for listening.

How is Jesus prompting your witness today?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

There is no end of the road with Jesus. He is all about beginnings and all the spirit things eternity is made of. That’s my mindset for completing this Season, Season 2 of Faith to Witness 99. It has had an unexpected rhythm for me. A spiritual syncopation that has moved me to listen more closely to God’s voice.

And there is no other time, no other place that I hear him more clearly, feel this more deeply than when I witness someone coming to Christ, confessing to Christ, giving to Christ the only thing any man, any woman has to give him.

His life. Her life.

Romans 10:9-10

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

 

That moment.

Today’s episode is the eye of the witness storm – what happens when someone responds to Jesus. It is in the middle of the “before” of the unbeliever and the “after” of the new believer. It is that moment when the Savior’s sacrifice is redeemed.

That Moment. I Need Saving. I am a Sinner.

I am a small group leader in a community Bible study across several local churches, founded and led by a good friend. We were currently in session 5 of a 7-session series on Tuesday nights. A young woman showed up to sign-in. She had not attended before and was assigned to my group. I introduced her, and she sat quietly through our discussion. I sat down by her in the large group session. I arranged to provide her with the final two sessions of study notes the next day.

As I dropped off the notes, she introduced me to her daughter, a bright, curious 5-year-old. I got a quick sense of daily life, and the closeness, the bond between them immediately.

I don’t typically share details of someone’s specific life, the circumstances they are in, challenges they face. In this case, it is enough to know that this young woman is a single mom who has set her heart on seeking something better, a higher power than herself.

She has lived up to this point by the choices of those around her, and her own choices. This is any of us. All of us.  When we come to the decision to mobilize our free will and seek something more.

She became actively engaged in the final two sessions of our current study. Engaging with study notes, highlights, contributing to discussion. She had attended our church for a couple of weeks before coming to the Bible study and continued to do so. We continued our text chats. She headed straight for God’s word, reviewing past sermons in our church app, taking notes on Sundays… a proactive seeker.

I invited her to spend some time together over lunch. She was seeking her place with God, and I was seeking clarity for her. Listening to her story, sharing my witness, not all of it, but how I came to the decision to give my life to Jesus, the conviction I felt, and who was there to help me come to that moment. I was 22.

We talk about how to share, moments to embrace others with our witness on this podcast. For the unbeliever, it all comes to that one moment when someone says this:

“I need saving. I am a sinner.”

That’s the power of sharing your moment with someone else.

When You Witness The Moment

Our discussion continued and I asked where she thought she was in her relationship with God, and his Son. She described wanting to commit to a life with Christ. I asked if she was on the threshold, and she said, “yes” that she wanted to talk to the Pastor about it but didn’t quite know how…

I asked her if she would like help with taking the next step. She said “yes” so I scheduled a follow-up conversation with our pastor, her and me. Listening to our pastor share his witness, compassionately engaging in her seeking, bringing his witness to the moment. And bringing my witness to the moment. To follow God’s will and her free will, to bring clarity to this threshold, not for us, but for her. She had come to the moment. She had been seeking, praying, wondering, hoping for, questioning, and it had come to this place.

When you witness someone who needs encouragement to pray out loud, to take her confession to God, to do that which she has never done (none of us had), it changes you. Every time.

When you witness someone lay down, relinquish, abandon, all advantages and disadvantages this world deceives us with, it inspires you. Every time.

When you witness Romans 10:9, someone confessing with their mouth, and believing in their heart, it elevates you. Every time.

It is a transcendent experience. When spirit matters more, God’s sovereignty matters above all, and your heart is bursting with joy.

I live in this joy, watching this new believer, and what God is doing in her life. I say that the moment of confession and salvation is the eye of the witness storm because challenges await the new believer on the other side of the storm. And those who bear witness to it. I am talking about the struggles that continue, and the strong hand by which God guides her through it. I’m awestruck. We had a text chat while I write this, a difficult moment in her day, and I can assure you, human, when someone gives their life to Christ, he wastes no time filling them with his goodness and the conviction to press on. He gives us the courage to walk together stride over stride. I am blessed by her witness.

So, I am not a poet, but this is for her, a short something inspired by the sacred moment I was blessed to share with her. It’s a working draft.

The Moment

I thank Jesus for his sacrifice on the narrow road.

I wept all the tears I had ever cried on the much broader road.

Drenching his shoulder with my sin-sorrow.

I repented like I lived in Rome (10:9)

He saved me on the Roman road. (10:10)

And gave no thought to the drenching.

I weep all the tears I will ever cry,

Drenching his shoulder with my grace-gratitude.

He walks with me on his narrow road.

And gives his Father the glory for the drenching.

When God Supercharges Our Witness – Clarity, Wisdom and Joy

Season 3 will start on October 1. Between now and then is reflection time. To reflect on some of the spiritual lessons learned in Season 2. I think you will like the episodes I have chosen—a few challenge prompts, some reassurance, a few stories again, and of course, motivation to seek that moment for someone. We will publish Re-releases on Wednesdays through September—to keep us in the rhythm of his grace, his love, and his divine purpose—that we hear God and share our Shepherd.

I want to send you into this time of reflection with three insights on how God supercharges our witness. What God made clear to me through the confession and redemption of a single mother who lives just 8 miles down a winding country road from me. How he prepares us in all our “go finding” for moving toward that moment.

1. He gives us clarity on exactly where a person is in relation to Jesus and to God through conversations with them. When we go finding we are working toward that moment and helping someone find that threshold when giving it all to Jesus is coming home to what we were made for. It takes humility and courage to meet this moment.

2. He gives us the wisdom to share the specific moment when our own personal seeking became salvation. It is the most powerful response to someone who is moving toward that moment. Sharing who we were and what our conviction experience was, the WHY that brought us to that threshold. 

3. He gives us manifest joy, a shared joy that takes our relationship with a new believer into the storm on the other side, to keep the bond and a relationship that is based on reciprocating our daily witness to each other. Stride for stride on his narrow road.

Not to mention the joy we share with God’s angels.

Luke 15:10

10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And need I remind you human that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. What I am saying is that when we witness, witnessing to this seeking single mom, walking alongside her, is something of a wellspring. A wellspring of joy. Because I know that I am 100% in God’s will. When we come on this journey with one who has been lost, and is now found, we are investing in eternity. Investing in the people we will spend with in heaven. The psalm 139 in every human.

This is where humility lives.

It is God’s faithfulness that we are witness to. He fuels our faith to be a witness. To go finding.

There is no end of the road with Jesus. And the witness we bring to others is powered by the narrow road he walks with us.

Hey human, fellow traveler, enjoy our season break. Enjoy reflecting on a few re-releases. I’ll meet you back on this, the narrow road, October 1.