Frontline

Planting and Watering the Seed (Growth):   Testimonies are the fingerprints of our lives as Christ followers.  Each one of us has a testimony that is a unique story which leaves physical evidence that Jesus has touched us and lives in our hearts.  There are few “tools” more powerful than our testimony when we go out to spread the Gospel, as Christ commanded us to do.  Within minutes, a testimony can reach the heart of a non-believer and minister to the brokenhearted.  A testimony can also be a teaching tool, or can be used to reinforce lessons we have already learned. Testimonies put the Bible in a class of its own in the literary world. They differentiate the living, breathing Word of God from other books that contain true and amazing stories.  What makes a testimony different? What makes Moses’ testimony more than a story of a bush burning in the wilderness (Exodus 3)? We’ve heard testimonies that range from one line to over an hour long. Some Christians speak of how Christ rescued them from the brink of death, while others have known Christ most of their lives. What is the key ingredient that gives these testimonies their flavor?  The same thing that separates Christianity from religion: a true understanding in our hearts of the meaning of grace through Jesus Christ, and a changed life as a result. 

"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis

of faith." (Philippians 3:7-9)

" I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you." (1 Corinthians 1:4-6) 

 Bread doesn’t rise without yeast.  Our testimonies are little more than stories if they are delivered without a message about God’s grace and changed lives. Grace is love in its purist form.  It is forgiveness that was granted to us which we did not earn. Religious legalism is little more than a series of meaningless actions.  Salvation does not come from religious rites or actions,  but from accepting the free gift of grace that Jesus gave us when He willingly laid  His life down to pay for our sins.  We become willing to let Him change us as a result of grace, not so that we can gain it. We must be “born again” in our hearts (John 3:3). What is a testimony?  It is a story of grace.  Without grace, Paul would have continued to practice religion, believing himself right and pure in God’s eyes.  He would have continued to destroy and imprison Christians, believing that he had a God given authority to do so.   Without grace, Paul’s story would be one of a man who was knocked off his horse and blinded on his journey to Damascus, rather than the life changing testimony of a man who recognized his need for his Savior and accepted His free gift of grace.