Testimony

"But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect." -1 Peter 3:15

I've read, seen and heard of many people who have had what we call, "amazing testimonies". The ones where the people were living their lives for the enjoyment of the flesh and for the moment, and while doing so, they also would be openly rebellious towards God and His Word; scorning the Cross and all it stood for. Yet, the Lord in His wonderful, un-explainable grace, chose to look on them with mercy and moved their hearts to repent of their sins, put their faith in Christ and become new creatures in Him.

Amazing is a wonderful way to describe their testimonies of God's grace and loving-kindness in saving them from their sins. It never fails to make me rejoice when I hear such wonderful testimonies.

All this to say, those aforementioned testimonies are of no greater importance than any other testimonies of God's saving grace.

How often do we as Christians tend to compare and contrast such things as testimonies? Oh, how wrong we are for doing so. It's as if to say that God only chooses those most vile in the world's eyes to save, as if to assume at times, that He will be more glorified in saving a drug addicted, drunken prostitute, and turning her life around, than in saving a seemingly perfect church-going (yet still unregenerate) girl.

The root of that thought I believe would be pride. A pride that invokes self-righteousness, a self righteousness that leads one to think that the prostitute, in her sin, is more vile than the church-going girl in her sin. Sin is sin! It is not the amount of times we've sinned, nor the degree of those sins, that condemns each and every one of us; for James 2:10 says;

"For whoever keeps the entire law, yet falls in one point, is guilty of breaking it all."

It also is not about how few times we've sinned or how small the sin seemed to us, for our righteousness is like filthy rags ( Isaiah 64:6).

"As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, no not one.'" -Romans 3:10

The factor that makes our sins so serious, is not "which sins were committed", but rather "to Whom those sins were committed against". God is our Creator and Sustainer, we've sinned in stealing the very breath we breathe from Him, we've sinned in not thanking Him continually for every breath, and every blessing He's bestowed on us. He is completely just, completely righteous and holy. He Himself cannot sin, He cannot lie, He cannot even look on sin. For this very reason we all fall short and are in need of a Savior. That is what is amazing about our God. Though He cannot look on sin, cannot accept us in our fallen state, He loved us, sent His Son to live the perfect life, die to take our sins that separated us from Him, and rise again, conquering death, that we might live in Him!

Because of this, we must always remember that in Christ and Christ alone are we found worthy in God's eyes. Not by works lest any man should boast, but by grace alone. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Therefore, put aside all thought that we, with our sins in our pasts, our conversion , our present lives, that we can somehow lend to make our testimony of salvation a wondrous, amazing thing. It is God and His beautiful act of love that makes the testimony what it is. It is a testimony of God, not of us!

Wield your swords for the glory of God! "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."- 2 Timothy 2:15

When asked of the hope that is in you, proclaim the testimony of God's grace that was so amazingly shown to you, proclaim day in and day out, "Christ and Christ alone".

~My Personal Testimony of God's Grace~

Having been saved at a very young age, I am blessed to say that I cannot recall too much of my life without Christ as my Savior. Looking back, there are a few things that I remember about my early childhood that show how completely depraved I really was. Some might say that "children are innocent", yet while recalling the state of my own heart while still a child, I can attest otherwise to that common myth. Though quite young, my heart was indeed sinful, the sinfulness was evident in my attitude, my desires and my means of fulfilling those desires. Most of my life revolved around my selfishness, there were things I wanted for myself and I would do all I could to get them, more often than not, at the expense of other people's own wants or needs. Life in my small eyes was about me and me alone. God's Word supports the doctrine of natural sin, even in children; "Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me." -Psalm 51:5 "Therefore, just as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned." -Romans 5:12

For me, the Lord revealed that sin nature in me when I began reading the Bible for the first time, after having received it for my seventh birthday. The Lord began a work in my heart even then. I had a strong desire to read as much as I possibly could and learn everything there was to know about Jesus, my young mind thought that I could within that first year, obviously not knowing the journey that was ahead.

As I read, naturally I started to have many questions about what the Bible said, mainly in regards to salvation. I was under the impression that all I had to do was 'believe' in Jesus and I would then go to Heaven. After repeatedly professing that I 'believed' in Jesus, I grew fed up, for it didn't seem like 'simply believing' was enough. Reading through the Bible I came to the book of James and saw that even the demons believe in God. That fact alone blew the theory of 'simply believe in Jesus', out of the ring. My little mind knew that the demons were not entering Heaven with Jesus, so my 'simply believing', was futile. It seemed hopeless at that point.

The Lord then used my parents as the strongest influence on my life, in leading me to the Truth of the Gospel. Every question I had about the Bible, Salvation and Jesus; they answered patiently and thoroughly, always pointing back to my need of a Savior from my sins, my need to repent and put my faith and trust in Christ to be saved.

Almost two years exactly from when I received my Bible, by God's good and amazing grace, I repented of my sins and was saved by Christ and His atoning power on the Cross!

Undeniably, I was saved at a young age. At the time, I knew only the very basics of the Gospel, but it was enough to know that I had sinned against God and could never atone for that sin on my own and needed a substitute who was perfect. All I needed was met in Christ and in Him alone. His work on the cross, His rising from the dead, His sitting at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for us, and the Holy Spirit indwelling in me, is what saved me, kept me, grows me and reassures me. To God be the glory!