Posted on 12/19/2014 5:21:08 PM PST by Gamecock
I have no memory of becoming a Christian. I didn’t pray a prayer or walk an aisle or have a eureka moment. In fact, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love the Lord Jesus. My Christian testimony—the story of how I came to faith—is downright boring.
In fifth grade, I began to attend a school where dramatic testimonies were a regular part of morning chapel. Week after week, speakers—a drug addict, a party girl, an atheist—told of God’s rescue. I loved these stories, and today I am thankful for revivals of such “testifying” in places like this regular feature of ct.
In retrospect, though, I’m not sure why the administrators chose to feature only the extraordinary. The pews, after all, were filled with church kids whose parents were committed to their religious education. I suppose such testimonies were meant to broaden our awareness of the world outside our youth groups; possibly the faculty wanted to encourage students who were struggling with sin or doubts. But I am baffled that I never once heard a testimony like my own.
And so I began to fear that I hadn’t really been saved—or, at least, that my story of being saved wasn’t quite legitimate.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Resonates with my walk. Felt my story wasn’t sexy enough, and yet much later I realized it is no less a sign of God’s love than that of the druggie or the hooker or the....
Bookmarked.
An Important story Indeed,
Thank you.
My testimony would be boring too. I just came to know Jesus over time and as I’ve tacked on years I see more and more of his amazing grace playing out.
Decades ago I had some association with an evangelical/pentecostal campus ministry. Sometimes it seemed as though there was a bit of a contest of who could provide the most dramatic “in my former life...” testimony.
The sin of pride wears many masks.
Your story is similar to mine. When I was a kid, I felt like something was wrong that I didn’t have a dramatic conversion testimony to share.
I was actually envious of people who had dramatic 180 degree turnarounds in their life. Then, like others have stated, I began to just appreciate the fact that I am now out of darkness and in the kingdom of light!
John 20:29
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Some are the prodigals and some never left our Father. Praise be to Him for loving even us boring, predictable ones!
As a former pastor of mine pointed out to me once, there are also a lot of those "dramatic 180 degree turnaround" people who wish they had a boring testimony, because if they had been raised in the faith, they'd have been spared a lot of grief. So it goes both ways!
I had a dramatic conversion as an adult, but I made sure my children were raised in church and around believing Christians. Their testimony is much different from mine, and I thank God that they didn’t make some of the mistakes that I made before I was a Christian.
If you didn’t live in darkness as an adult, thank God for that. Consider this: You would be very thankful for being saved from drowning, but is almost drowning something to be proud of? Would you want your kids to go through that just so they could have an exciting testimony?
Thank you for sharing.
Her story is very similar to mine. No earth shattering conversion experience, just had parents who raised me in a Christian home and faithfully lived Christ in their lives; as a kid I remember praying to ask Christ into my heart.
Fast-forward, raised my daughter the same way as my parent raised me and my siblings - in church and in a Christ-centered home. Thankfully, my daughter made a commitment to Christ and as a young 20-something faithfully serves the Lord.
Mickey and Becky had a song (Testimony Song?) that had the line
“I never smoked dope, swore at the pope, or spent the night with a shady lady,
Bet a sin’s a sin whatever shape it’s in, and I said Jesus I want You to save me”
I have much the same testimony. For years it really bothered me that I couldn’t pinpoint a specific moment.
I did, however, come to have a rather dramatic moment when my eyes were opened to the truth of the Doctrines of Grace.
My testimony isn’t dramatic either although not having been raised as a Christian, I made my share of mistakes.
So I look at the bright side. There was enough of a dramatic difference that there’s never been any question about my conversion, but I don’t have a list of things to live in regret over like so many others.
Great thanks for posting this.
Great thanks for posting this.
The earthly profile of an eternal salvation can have many looks. But at root it is saying yes to the ministry of Jesus as Savior, and seeing it work out as a result.
Dramatic salvation stories, on the other hand, aren’t pride unless they are characterized as the only valid ones. The spotlight should also go on the Lord, not the person.
And then there are stories like “I was dramatically accepted by the Lord and then I spent the next 25 years shaking a monkey off of my back.”
I can kind of relate to this too. My mom says I accepted Jesus when I was really young — like 6 years old. In High School, I started to drift away and hang around with worldly people and do worldly things, though I never got into any real trouble. When I was 30, I made a “recommitment” to the Lord and started living for Him ever since.
So since then I’ve never been certain if I was saved when I was young or when I was 30. I always knew God was there and I knew I wasn’t living for Him during those “dark” years, but had I died then, would I have been lost?
Also, I can’t remember the day I recommitted to the Lord, I can only remember the approximate month — April 2000. I’ve heard preachers say since that if you don’t remember a specific date when you were “born again”, it probably never happened. They use the reasoning that you would never forget your physical birthday, so how could you forget your much more important spiritual birthday?
I don’t know what to make of any of that. All I know is I’m saved and Jesus lives in my heart. I love the Lord and try every day to live for Him. I get frustrated when I get tripped up by sin, but I also understand I’ll never be perfect this side of heaven, and that I can’t do a thing in my own strength — it’s Christ and Him alone that provides salvation.
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