Some of you, like me, may struggle to find a testimony that is relevant to a sinful world. I was in church from the time I was three days old. I heard the Word from so many Sunday school teachers, my pastors, and my parents. By the time I was in first grade I wanted to be a preacher. By the time I was in high school I had firmly decided that my passion would be missions and foreign languages.
So what’s the problem?
Well, that doesn’t relate well to 90% or more of the world’s population who yet know Christ. In fact, it tends to discourage some of them from thinking God could ever change them since they didn’t have such close-to-perfect circumstances growing up.
So Sunday night we were sitting at a North African family’s house having dinner after church. A 21 year old girl is a new believer and member of our church and had invited us to “celebrate” Mohammed’s birthday with her parents and sisters. So for an hour or so I made conversation with her dad after the meal. He asked questions like:
“Why does America help Muslim countries in Africa when Saudi’s, who are their brothers, don’t?”
“Aren’t all American’s Christians?”
“What do you think about the Koran? Is it from God?”
In the middle of our lengthy discussion I told him that though I was a Christian that my dad did not grow up in a Christian home. I then explained to him my dad’s story as he told it to me last year for the first time. My dad had finished high school and set out on a two year endless party hippie style with all the drugs and alcohol he thought would make him happy. One night watching “The Exorcist” (or some other horror movie of the day, I can’t remember which) he got a glimpse of the Kingdom of Satan and didn’t like it one bit. So he said to himself, “If this is the Kingdom of Satan, I’d like to find the Kingdom of God and run to it.” So a friend told him about a small church he had heard of and just that night they were having a prophecy conference. The preacher preached right down my dad’s ally. He went back the next night and the next and was soon at the alter repenting of his sin and believing on Christ. This caused a huge change in his life that included (among other things) a new hair cut, a new set of friends, and a meeting with a beautiful young Christian girl named “Belinda” at a church roller party who would become my mom.
So I told him this story and threw in verses like John 1:12 and John 3:16 and I Cor 5:17. I explained to him the new birth and how I also accepted that same gift of salvation when I was 11.
I had never done this before but it really made an impact on this girl’s dad. He listened close and later even accepted me telling him that I believe the Koran to be a book from evil spirits.
So if you don’t have a testimony that the lost can relate to, does your dad? or your mom? or your grandparent? Ask them to tell it to you and repeat it over and over with the lost.