The power of your testimony

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Often new Christians will tell me they don’t know enough of the Bible to tell anyone about Jesus Christ.

To talk to someone about Jesus Christ you don’t need to know the scientific evidence for Noah’s flood, or be able to explain the Trinity, or know if Adam and Eve had belly buttons. It doesn’t matter if Christ saved you thirty years ago or thirty minutes ago, there is one thing you do know – the plan of salvation.

Having experienced salvation, you already know you are a sinner; that you cannot save yourself and that Christ was the sacrifice acceptable to God for your sins. You already understand your good deeds and religious works cannot earn your way to heaven or a life with God. You already know your salvation rests in the blood of Jesus Christ and that you are saved by grace, through faith.

Since you already understand these things, you can tell these facts to someone else. It’s no different than telling someone about your family or your job.

“But what if they ask me a question I don’t know the answer too?”

Tell them the truth, “I don’t know.”

Not knowing can give you an opportunity for growth. Do some study, ask someone more knowledgeable, find out the answer and go back to the person with the answer. Going back with the answer will tell the person that you care enough about them to take the time to help them in finding out the answer. This response on your part will often open up a line of communication and the ability to talk to them freely about the Bible and God.

There is one thing every Christian share, but yet, it is different for all of us, and that is our personal testimony. The story of our individual salvation experience. Some may be longer than others, some may be more dramatic than others, but all are equally miraculous. Salvation is a miracle. Tell people of the miracle of your salvation and how it has changed your life ever since.

When Paul stood before King Agrippa to defend himself against the accusations that sent him to prison, he told Agrippa of how Christ saved him and how that event had changed his life (Acts 26:1-32).

It was a verse from this passage that was the verse that led to me dropping to my knees and accepting Jesus Christ as my Saviour.

I was saved April 24, 1975.

My sister Brenda had fallen and had some bruises on her legs. The bruises hung around for about two months, so Brenda went to the doctor. She never came home. The doc sent her to the hospital for blood tests. The tests revealed she had leukemia. She went immediately to the hospital and died there 12 days later. Brenda was 26 years old, married, with a 4-year-old daughter. I was 15.

I started reading a Bible Brenda had given me years before, but after awhile I got bored with it and quit reading. Then almost three months after her death her pastor and an evangelist came out to the house. The evangelist was a former local basketball star (at the time, I didn’t realize he was a preacher). He asked what I was doing that night, and I thought he wanted to play some basketball, so I said, “Nothing.” Next thing I know, I’m on my way to church.

He preached on Acts 26:28, “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” He talked about how so many people are “almost Christians.” He spoke about how there would be “good people” in hell. Individuals who were generous, people who obeyed the rules as well as anyone else; didn’t get into trouble, people who were loved by those around them. He talked about how the “good people” were sinners just like the “bad people.” You only need to rob one bank to be a bank robber – you only need to commit one sin to be a sinner. One bank or ten, one transgression or a thousand; all are guilty. He described me to a tee.

Nearly all my grades were A’s, I played on some sports teams, I always met my parent’s curfew, I was the All-American boy, but I was a sinner in need of a Saviour. It was that night I put my faith in the blood of Jesus Christ to wash my sins away. It was that night 41 years ago I was saved.

You do not need to be a theologian; you only need to be saved, to tell people of salvation.

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Preacher’s Point: The power of your testimony

By Timothy Johnson

Preacher’s Point

Preacher Johnson is pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County Indiana. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.preacherjohnson.com. E-book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TUJTV2A If you email, inform me where you have seen Preacher’s Point. Viewpoints expressed in the article are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints or the independent activities of the author.

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