Show Me Your Testimony

SHOW ME YOUR TESTIMONY

Rev.6: ⁹ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

Rev.12: ¹⁰ And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

¹¹ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
¹² Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Every believer should have a testimony that both reflects his original conversion as well as reflects his present conversion. When you ask a believer to share his testimony he should have shared it many, many times already. I realize that some people get converted as young children, but their testimony should reflect how that original conversion worked its way out as they grew up and how it was confirmed in later years. But when a professing believer seems uncertain about his conversion experience it can be very troubling.

Not everyone has a Damascus Road experience, but every believer should at least be well aware of when he saw the light of the gospel and his heart was transformed. We all grow in the Lord at different rates, and most of us have struggled at times, but without a testimony we seem to be just religious people. The afore mentioned Apostle Paul gladly shared his testimony before paupers and kings. Men’s arguments dissipate when a person has had a personal encounter with the Crucified and Risen Christ. I know I am saved because of God’s Word and because I was there when it happened. Yes, I have a testimony.

I have not always lived up to my testimony to say nothing of living up to my Risen Lord in all His glory, but it always nourishes my soul to relive and retell my testimony. As the song goes, “Take me back to the time where I first met you”. And even in the midst of his correction and repentance, the Patriarch David asked God to “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation”. After all the theological arguments subside, and after all the systematic theologies have been read, there is nothing that can compare with the day God’s Spirit came to live inside a lost sinner and in that moment darkness became light.

I was baptized as an infant and raised in a mainline Lutheran church where my mother was choir director and my father went on Christmas and Easter. I went to three years of catechism and was confirmed as a member as I received my first communion. Despite all the ceremony I was lost and did not have a personal knowledge of Christ. I was a disinterested high school student and although my SATs allowed me to attend college I squandered my first year and dropped out. I quickly went into alcohol, drugs, and a promiscuous lifestyle. I became involved with drug dealing as well as violence.

I was an out of control train racing toward the cliff with no thought of tomorrow. It was all a game and survival and pleasure was the goal. In my life there were arrests and police and violence and drugs sold right into the high school. I was notorious in my community and I loved it. I was planning to rob a bank and kill the guard as we went in. I stood 6 foot 5 inches with platform shoes, a 18” afro, a red dog collar with gold studs, and I was looking for trouble. It was all planned out.

But something happened in March of 1975 that changed everything.

Jesus.

I cannot show you heaven, and I cannot show you eternal life. But what I can show you is a transformed life changed completely by the power of Christ. The man I described died in 1975, and a new man was born. I am observably imperfect and I still sin. But I can stand before you and say my testimony is this. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and to Him alone I cling. I have let Him down many times but He has always been faithful to me. I am not what I could be. I am not what I should be. But since 1975 I am not what I was.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.

That is my testimony.