Personal Testimony

February 1

As a new Christian, I began telling any who would listen what God had done for me. As I grew and studied His word, my personal testimony changed. I have learned most testimonies are missing some of the most vital ingredients, namely how one can actually begin his walk with Jesus as Lord. In our small group meeting this week, we discussed the need to have a well prepared personal testimony so we can be ready to help others find the narrow path that leads to life. We are all committed to writing out our testimony, learning it well enough we can share it when the opportunity presents itself, and aggressively seek opportunities to share it with anyone who will listen. After all, Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost, and He commissioned us to go and do the same (Luke 19:10; Matt. 28:18-20). I’ve rewritten mine to include the many changes that have occurred since the last time I wrote it. I have done some major revisions because I’ve come to realize a personal testimony without enough gospel to help a lost soul get unlost is incomplete. After all, your personal testimony might be the last chance the one hearing it has to respond. I know it seems a little far fetched, but the one you share with might not see another full day.


Personal Testimony

As a child my parents had us in and out of a couple of churches in the Fort Worth, Texas area. I specifically remember the first one was a Four Square Gospel church. When the pastor of that church died in an automobile accident, my father’s commitment grew cold. Later, after we moved to a new home, we started attending a Baptist church. The pastor made some snide comment about smokers one morning. My father was a smoker, so shortly thereafter he quit attending church altogether. As far as I know, he never again set foot in a protestant church anywhere except at two of his children’s weddings.

Finally, when I was twenty-six years old, I had an emotional experience that literally threw me for an eleven month loop. As a result of an ego crushing event, I went on my own personal pilgrimage in search for some kind of meaning to life. I wasn’t even sure at the time what it was I was looking for. I sold everything I had, which frankly wasn’t much, bought some camping gear, and set out from Davis, California in the summer of 1971. I met lots of people during those eleven months who shared their own personal testimonies with me at various times in various places from Montana to Texas. My pat response to each of them was that I was looking for something more than some blind leap of faith into an experience that, frankly, I still didn’t get. Finally in June of 1972, I literally stood at the crossroads of my life. I remember I was in Oklahoma, standing on a corner when I looked east and west, trying to decide whether to go to Florida or back to Southern California where my parents were living.

I tossed a coin and ended up returning to Southern California where I discovered, to my dismay, that my younger brother had committed his life to follow Jesus Christ just a few months earlier. He invited me over to his house for dinner one night where, as we sat down to eat, he began sharing his personal testimony. I had always considered myself to be the debater of the family, so I enjoyed arguing with him. I used my old stand-by point, that only weak people needed a crutch like Christianity. I even belittled his need for that kind of crutch.

However, that night as I lay on my bed, the truth of what he’d shared hit me. I could see that his life was changed. Prior to his conversion, he would never have had the nerve to argue with me. His quiet, calm, self-confidence in what he was saying made me realize that he had had a genuine life-changing experience; and though I didn’t understand it, I did realize I wanted to have that same kind of life-changing experience. I remember vividly praying, “God, I don’t even know if you really exist, but if you do, I want to give my life to You completely, without reservation. Forgive me for doubting all these years, and use me anyway you choose.”

The walls didn’t shake; the roof didn’t cave in; there were no visible signs that anything had changed in the world as a result of the words I had spoken. However, I can also remember vividly, how an incredible peace came over me at that moment. I remembered my brother’s words. He had told me that if I made that commitment, God, in a moment of time, would forgive me. What I didn’t realize at the time was that He regenerated my dead soul and made me alive to Him so I could begin understanding His word and living for His glory. I didn’t understand at first, because no one told me, my soul was dead because of my sin, that Jesus’ death on the cross was necessary to redeem me, because of my natural, unregenerated determination to rebel against God.

I got a bible and immediately began an intense study of His word. I couldn’t get enough of it; and for the first time in my life, it made sense. I began praying and telling others what God had done for me. Since then, I have been a pastor, a cop, a public school teacher, and a truck driver.

My life has been filled with some really good times and some really hard times. I met my beautiful wife Sharon of nearly 38 years a few days after I made the conscious choice to confess Jesus as my Lord. We got married ten months later. I’ve made it a major priority in my life to help as many as possible understand how they can find the narrow path that leads to the kingdom of God. I rejoice daily in the knowledge that God’s word says He chose me before the foundation of the world to be one of His adopted sons. There have been few days in the past 38 years I haven’t begun with prayer and bible study. I have learned that God is both faithful and unchangeable. In John 10 Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” The knowledge that He actually chose me to be part of His kingdom and that He’s holding on to me, helping me grow to maturity, to understand His word, is still mind boggling for me after 38 years of walking with Him.

The bible makes it clear all have sinned and fall short of God’s requirements. It also tells us the wages of sin is death; that while we were yet sinners Jesus left heaven, came into the world as a baby, grew up, lived a sinless life, paid God’s just requirement for our sins by dying on the cross in our place, and promises eternal life for any who will turn away from their own personal life of rebellion against His revealed will (the bible calls it repentance), gets baptized (a symbolic public act declaring we’ve made that choice), confesses Him as Lord, and believes God raised Him from the dead.

If you decide you want to do that, He’ll instantly clear your slate of sins, make you a new creature, come to live inside you in the form of His Holy Spirit, and you’ll begin understanding what the bible means as you read and study it. You’ll want to find a local church where you can be discipled by the preaching from the pulpit, small intimate study groups, and in the lives of the people who attend that church. And you’ll want to make it a priority in your life to tell anyone who’ll listen what God did for you. If I can ever help you, just call or email me.

I have cards I leave with anyone with whom I’ve had the opportunity to share the gospel