How a Witness is Essential to Your Witness

Kirk E. Miller

Introduction

“Stepped out in faith.” “God laid it on my heart.” “Ask Jesus into your heart.” All of these are what we call “Christianese” phrases. UrbanDictionary.com defines “Christianese” as “A communicable language within the Christian subculture with words and phrases created, redefined, and / or patened that applies only to the Christian sphere of influence.” Another example of this sort of sub-cultured speech is the term “witnessing” or “being a witness.” Now, I have absolutely no problem with this particular “Christian term.” In fact, I think it is quite helpful (contrary to most ambiguous Christian lingo). I also believe it can teach us something incredibly vital to our Christian life. However, as with all “Christianese,” confusion can also accompany its use.

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Wesley on “What Manner of Men We Ought to Be”

Kirk E. Miller

Preface

In John Wesley’s “An Address to the Clergy” in Wesley’s Works (1872 Jackson ed., vol 10), originally addressed or more likely written in London on February 6, 1756, Wesley addressed a group of clergy/ministers (or as we might say, “pastors/elders”) as to what type of men he and they ought to be as shepherds of God’s Church. The following is Wesley’s selected list of attributes (in direct quotes) that I trust you will find both interesting and challenging.

“To begin with gifts”

“With those that are from nature”

  • “First, a good understanding, a clear apprehension, a sound judgment, and a capacity of reasoning with some closeness.”
  • “Secondly. Is it not highly expedient that a guide of souls should have likewise some liveliness and readiness of thought?”
  • “Thirdly. A good memory. . . .”

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“We Will Have to Change”

Kirk E. Miller 1 Comment

Recent events have caused us to rethink our society.[1] It has been said that “we [our nation] will have to change.” Many solutions have been proposed.

Before the Genesis-flood, God described humanity as such: “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Gen 6:5). “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways” (11, 12). One might find some parallels between this description and they way many individuals currently feel about our society.

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Some Thoughts on Social Media

Kirk E. Miller 8 Comments

Disclaimer: Please note, by pointing out the following, I do not mean to suggest that I have used social media perfectly at all times. These are simply some observations and lessons learned from my own personal experience.

Pros

  • First and foremost, most people enjoy social media because we are social people and we like to stay in touch.
  • The tremendous opportunity and potential:
    • Our culture is extremely bound up with social media. (If you disagree, you’re living under a rock; sorry.) Therefore, for Christians to abandon this new realm of social media would be, in a large sense, to disengage themselves from a significant sphere of our culture.
    • In a similar way to how Christians used the invention of the printing press to advance the Gospel and Biblical thinking, the emergence of social media (obviously less significant than the invention of the printing press, but nonetheless–) provides us with a tremendous tool to do the same–advance the Gospel and Biblical thinking. Social media can be used to challenge and encourage other Christians and articulate the Gospel and other biblical truths to the lost. By simply creating a Facebook account, Twitter account, etc. (and assuming that you have some people who will “add” or “follow” you), you automatically have a “platform of influence,” a “public voice,” at least on some level. Whereas in previous times, to get something in print on a public level was somewhat difficult, now anyone can do it, which is both scary (con) and amazing (pro).

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Our Wedding Vows

Kirk E. Miller

Framed and hanging on a wall in our apartment are the wedding vows of my wife and I. I put the piece together (a four-frame piece, two slots being filled with pictures and the other two with our vows) as a Christmas present for my wife our first Christmas together, a little over a month after we were married (11.19.11). Seeing that today is our one-year wedding anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate and encouraging to share our wedding vows in a post.

As you will see, we decided to write our own vows (in a sense) by combining a modified set of traditional vows with Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 5:22-33. In Ephesians 5:22-33 Paul sets forth the beautiful, distinct, functional roles of the husband and wife in marriage, which, contrary to much contemporary thought, are nothing short of a blessing when lived out properly. Although neither of us is perfect and neither of us perfectly fulfills God’s intention perfectly in this regard (hence “Although I will often fail you…”), our prayer is to strive towards this model year after year.

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