Listening to testimonies of local believers
Last week over supper at our house Jenn and I got to hear how God had saved our neighbors, a dear brother and sister in Christ and their two grown daughters. It was amazing! A few things stood out to me from what they shared:
They live with the joy of the gospel in their lives. They talk about it fluently. They are so thankful and explicitly vocal about what God has done for them. It’s obvious they share the gospel with their neighbors just like they were sharing it with us that evening.
They are so thankful that their daughters are saved. They see this as nothing other than God’s precious blessing over their home. They knew how dark life was for them as individuals and as a family without Jesus. They grieve over their lost neighbors as they pray for and share Christ with them. I asked both daughters how they got saved. They said it all started with seeing the transformation in their parents’ lives.
Both parents wondered aloud what life would have been like if they had heard the gospel when they were young, like their daughters are now. Instead of regretting half-wasted lives, they testified how God had used the spiritual transformation of getting saved in their 40s as a witness first to their daughters, and to their neighbors; to those at work, around the apartment, among relatives. People who have known them for years have noticed the difference. This has opened the door to the gospel among many of their neighbors.
I probed a little, “Tell me what you experienced when you first heard the gospel?” My brother recounted how the hair on his arms literally stood up the first time he held a Bible that was still wrapped in the paper bag. He was so full of excitement and fear. He began reading through the books of Genesis and John with a local brother. The turning point was when he read Genesis 1:1-3 which he readily believed, and then read John 1:1-5, which he didn’t. God grabbed his mind and heart and drew a grand arc between these passages to show him that indeed, Jesus was God.
I sat spellbound. Just that morning I had lamented how so many of my neighbors simply reject the gospel because they reject the Trinity, they reject Jesus as God. That evening God reminded me through my neighbors that he’s got this. He saves!
Do you have opportunities to listen to encouraging and enlightening testimonies from local brothers and sisters like this?
Seek them out! They are there! Sit at their feet! Listen to them! Learn from them! If you don’t know where to start, find testimonies in books, or online. Trust me - you will be so blessed, and you will learn so much!