Fear - Witnessing

[Daily verse and quote]

"We were looking for peace, but no good came;

and for a time of well-being,

but there is only a great fear."

Jeremiah 8:15

 

At this time of the spreading coronavirus,

God has gotten our attention like never before.

This is our opportunity to proclaim “Christ as Savior”

to a frightened world.

Be bold…God will be with you!

Anon.

[Neighbor]

2 hours ago, Daily verse and quote said:

At this time of the spreading coronavirus,

God has gotten our attention like never before.

This is our opportunity to proclaim “Christ as Savior”

to a frightened world.

Be bold…God will be with you!

Anon.

 I beg to differ. God has sought attention  of his creation many a time in manners way more violent than what this occasion is doing to date.  Has He gotten attention?  Four hundred years in Eygpt and then an exodus as example, followed by nearly 40 years wandering till all that started except two on the journey had died.  A great flood. A Roman empire oppressing Israel the Killing of god who willingly gave his life to give life. 
All have bene pretty significant attention getters. Yet without the call by God the Holy Spirit specifically to each individual given to Jesus by name by His Father no one will turn about to God.

Proclaiming Jesus has always been paramount, for it is commanded by God and is duty, it will remain so even after this time passes should it pass.; but man does not turn about because another man proclaims Jesus. That is the duty of  all that have been turned about by God for sure. Yet it is God alone that brings about the repentance from sin against Him in any man.

[Neighbor]

Some near context:

Jeremiah 8 English Standard Version (ESV)

8 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. ² And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ³ Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

4“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵ Why then has this people turned away
    in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
⁶ I have paid attention and listened,
    but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
    saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
    like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane^[a]
    keep the time of their coming,
but my people know not
    the rules^[b] of the Lord.

⁸ “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
    and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
    has made it into a lie.
⁹ The wise men shall be put to shame;
    they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    so what wisdom is in them?
¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
¹¹ They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
¹² Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
¹³ When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are no grapes on the vine,
    nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them.”

¹⁴ Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
    and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has given us poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came;
    for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

¹⁶ “The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
    at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
    the whole land quakes.
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
¹⁷ For behold, I am sending among you serpents,
    adders that cannot be charmed,
    and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.

[Neighbor]

 

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹³ When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

[Daily verse and quote]

1 hour ago, Flowersun said:

Amen!

 

1 hour ago, Flowersun said:

Amen!

Flowersun, I pray you know what real encouragement you simple "Amen"

is to me. A profound "Thank you!"

Blessings in the name of our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

[Daily verse and quote]

21 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

 

2 Chronicles 7:13-14 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹³ When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

These verses just quoted reinforce the original quote: People worldwide are seeing a circumstance they are helpless (and perhaps hopeless) to deal with. They can't look "in" for an answer; they can't look "around" for help; therefore their one, best, and only choice is to look "up" to our Creator.

[JohnD]

I just witness all the time (good or bad).

Everyday is a good day to pray... witness...

[JohnD]

Teach the Bible from the Holy Spirit and wow them into being curious.

Most never hear the Bible from God's perspective. Only man's.

The point Jesus was making:

Matthew 16:13–23 (NIV84)
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Blessings

 

[Daily verse and quote]

1 hour ago, JohnD said:

I just witness all the time (good or bad).

Everyday is a good day to pray... witness...

I agree with that statement. But I believe it deserves an explanation of the term "witness". Is it walking around like a Billy Graham quoting the bible at all times, or is it simply living a life approving to God which other people can see, and maybe say to themselves: "I want to be like that." Or is it a combination of the two?"

[Daily verse and quote]

1 hour ago, JohnD said:

Teach the Bible from the Holy Spirit and wow them into being curious.

Most never hear the Bible from God's perspective. Only man's.

The point Jesus was making:

Matthew 16:13–23 (NIV84)
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Blessings

 

You make an excellent point! Your observation that most non-believers can only hear the words of Scripture - and make observations about the person who is addressing them. And never getting to the real "meat" of what is being said.