Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Ever Thought Your Testimony Was Just ... Boring?

So, obviously, it's only been a few days since my last post, maybe a week. The days start to run all together sometimes around here. See, when you're home full-time, AND you've had an injury like mine, it's easy for days to go by and things to seem mundane, at best.  So, anyway, here I still am and I'm still reading this book Glimpses of Grace.  So, while I'm still trying to find my "voice"  for writing again I'm just going to share the things I come across that are AMAZINGLY well written. 

I was reading a portion of chapter 4 (of my current read) to Anna yesterday where I had just stopped because I really got something out of what I'd read. I wanted to share it with her and take the time to ponder it myself. It wasn't until I picked the book up again today, and started reading where I'd left off, that I found an additional two paragraphs that were really the crowning sentences to what I'd read the day before!!

So, of course that means that I must share it here with you all.... :-). Please, I implore you, read all the way to the end so that you don't miss it too. 

Have YOU ever thought that your testimony was just ... Boring? Ordinary?

Think again....

"Sometimes when I hear people share their testimony of how they came to believe in Christ, they'll give this disclaimer: 'Oh, my testimony isn't anything interesting.' Then they'll talk about how they've believed in God for as long as they can remember. Or they were part of a church during their childhood and grew up trusting Jesus. Or, they testify to God's merciful providence in their never having fallen into any scandalous, family-splitting, relationship-severing, lawbreaking sin. Then they'll repeat their disclaimer as a conclusion: 'So my story is pretty average and boring.' But the Bible begs to differ;

Colossians 1:13-14
     He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 

Colossians 2:13-14
     And you, were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.

(Back to the author's words.)

Being delivered from Satan, sin, and death is anything but average or boring. Having your sins forgiven and being redeemed and made alive is mind-boggling. The idea that anyone's testimony of blood-bought salvation could be uninteresting or unspectacular is a defamation of the work of Christ. (!!!!!! Exclamation points added by me, but don't stop reading because its about to get good!!!!)

(Now I'm having to contain myself not to put this last part in ALL CAPS!!)

Your testimony may have occurred in the most ordinary of circumstances, but behind the scenes a spiritual battle was taking place. The Holy Spirit of God peeled the scales from your spiritually blind eyes, awakened your soul to the bright light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, and breathed life into your lifeless soul. God rescued you from the domain of darkness -- however gilded or ordinary or innocent it seemed. Then God transferred you into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

No testimony that involves the Son of God bearing your sins on the cross in order to bring you to God could ever be mundane or boring. It's an epic birth story -- a born-again birth story."    

Abiding in THIS amazing grace,
Lori

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