Troubles with a Testimony

I get to teach in Word of Life for the Junior Highers tomorrow night, and the topic is: being prepared with your salvation testimony. We find that the Apostle Paul used his personal testimony a couple of times when presenting an argument, a defense, for his faith. He used it as a witnessing tool.

So, as I'm preparing to teach the kids, let me ask you: Would you be prepared to give a good presentation of your personal testimony to someone that is interested? Well, we probably should be.

But my thought for the day is the trouble that having a prepared testimony could be. The problem comes if there is a false conversion. That is, if there is someone that has never had their life changed, has never been born again, does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling him, and if he is taught how to prepare a testimony, then all that is being done is that he is encouraged and strengthened in his trust in his false conversion.

Look at it this way. When you want to help someone know that their saved, what's the first question you ask them? "Mister, Mister, I want to know if I'm saved or not." "Well, Johnny, you need to be able to go back to a time or place, when you put your faith in Jesus...." Is that the right answer? I don't think so.

Is that not teaching the questioner to trust in an event that happened in their life? "If you can't go back to a time or a place..." teaches the trust to be put in the events of that time and place. The correct answer is, "Well, Johnny, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved." The trust needs to be in the event of 2000 years ago, not just a little while ago. Let's be sure that, while it's good to have a prepared testimony, we don't end up teaching people to trust in the wrong thing. The publican that prayed, "God, be merciful to me a sinner," does not look back at that moment in time, but rather looks at the God that is merciful to him, the sinner.

Just a thought...