The Danger of My Testimony...

Barb · #1 08-19-2007, 05:27 PM

There is an article in the January 2007 of the PH that really made an impression on me. It is written by Bro. Scott Graham, and I will only be able to post portions. He began...

"Sometimes we glamorize the wrong things. I thank God that the grace of Jesus Christ reaches deep enough to bring a man out of any pit, and I rejoice that no life of defilement is too filthy for Him to cleanse."

Just one comment…thank God that this is true or many of us, including this poster, would not be here. God has rescued many of us from destruction and hellfire, and the fact that some may have returned to the pit of sin and deception does not negate what God has done or can do again.

"But I also rejoice for the grace of God which saved me from many things out of which He did not have to save me. That is no less a miracle. In fact, in some respects it may be even a greater demonstration of grace than the former.

"There is inherent in my testimony a danger--I do not know what it feels like to be lost...I went to bed each night having said my prayers...I had a Bible before I could walk. I do not know what it is like to be lost..."

Bro. Graham speaks about the waters of Bethesda...

"It was a place of miraculous demonstration…The danger is in getting caught up in what God has done for us that we miss the reason for the moving water. Stop a minute in your admiration of the glory of God's moving to see it all again. Pause and look at the fields. See what is all around us--a multitude of hurting, broken people...

Into Bethesda's environment Jesus steps and asks a man sick for thirty-eight years the most startling of questions: ‘Wilt thou be made whole?’...If the angels visit was only annual, there were at least thirty-eight individuals who knew it worked. Where were they?...

Surely they came...Tell me they did not just come to conferences and talk about their healing, and talk about the water, and talk about the feeling when they first stepped in.

Tell me they didn’t make their missionaries deputize for two years just to get back to the water's edge. Tell me there were not still fifty-two countries and dependencies, with more than forty of them open to North Americans, waiting for someone to answer the call to come…Tell me they did not leave the broken struggling to get to the water…”

continued…

Barb · #2 08-19-2007, 05:28 PM

Bro. Graham continues and speaks about possessions and the gospel…

“I wonder just how long it takes a man to forget those on the water’s edge…I wonder just how long it took for my testimony to become my trouble?

Our possessiveness can become a stumbling block. We get so caught up in talking about what is ours, when in reality, everything we ‘have’ belongs to God. We are merely stewards of what He has entrusted to us.

We talk about my church. My building. My house. My car. My money…(and) it is even more dangerous to talk about ‘our gospel’…You cannot hide ‘the gospel.’ Rome tried. Russia tried. China tried. And ‘the’ gospel burns brighter and brighter. But you can hide ‘our gospel.’

…if we ever get too possessive about the gospel and start treating it as if it is our own, it will then become far too easy to keep it hidden from the lost. But when we remember that we are but stewards of the grace of God according to I Peter 4:10, then we cannot keep His gospel hidden…

I thank God for my testimony, but what I don’t want is to be so caught up in my miracle that I ignore my mission. I don’t want to get so wrapped up in my salvation that I forget my sacrifice. May my deliverance never displace my devotion. May God save me from the danger of my testimony.”

This is a wonderful article...!!

#3 08-19-2007, 05:33 PM

That was really good, Barb. Thank you for posting it.

Sherri · #4 08-19-2007, 05:58 PM

I think this is similar to what he preached at Gen. Conf. in 2005. Seems familiar anyway.

Barb · #5 08-19-2007, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sherri

I think this is similar to what he preached at Gen. Conf. in 2005. Seems familiar anyway.

I think it is outstanding, and quite timely. If you would like it, I will send it to you, Sis. C...I have another from November of last year, The Ministry of Reconciliation.

There may be more as I haven't gone through the stack of PHs Jim brought me.

Sherri · #6 08-19-2007, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barb

I think it is outstanding, and quite timely. If you would like it, I will send it to you, Sis. C...I have another from November of last year, The Ministry of Reconciliation.

There may be more as I haven't gone through the stack of PHs Jim brought me.

Thanks, Barb! I'll PM you my address.

LaVonne · #7 08-19-2007, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sherri

I think this is similar to what he preached at Gen. Conf. in 2005. Seems familiar anyway.

That's what I was thinking as well. I watched that message online...I'm sure it's one in the same. Great, by the way!

ILG · #8 08-20-2007, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barb

I thank God for my testimony, but what I don’t want is to be so caught up in my miracle that I ignore my mission. I don’t want to get so wrapped up in my salvation that I forget my sacrifice. May my deliverance never displace my devotion. May God save me from the danger of my testimony.”

This is a wonderful article...!!

Although there is validity to this....I heard this so much early on in my walk with God that I basically stopped sharing my testimony, feeling like I was glorifying the wrong thing. Now I realize that both things are valid and glorify God.

Barb · #9 08-20-2007, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILG

Although there is validity to this....I heard this so much early on in my walk with God that I basically stopped sharing my testimony, feeling like I was glorifying the wrong thing. Now I realize that both things are valid and glorify God.

Exactly the point, ILG...balance in all things.

Thank you for making it clear...

Rhoni · #10 08-20-2007, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILG

Although there is validity to this....I heard this so much early on in my walk with God that I basically stopped sharing my testimony, feeling like I was glorifying the wrong thing. Now I realize that both things are valid and glorify God.

ILG,

I agree with you that it is important to tell your story/your testimony but I also think we need to have wisdom and know when to share and to which audience.

There are things I have shared through the years, and even on this forum...but I have so many things that God has laid on my heart that I will only share with a particular audience and I know who it is and just waiting for God's time.

Remember, there are always those out there that will take your testimony and twist it around to make you re-pay for past mistakes, or accuse you of glorying in your victimization, or boasting of the sin that you were delivered from...but trust me...the devil sits in our pews right beside us...and greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

Again, just cautioning you to pray for God's timing before sharing things from your past that God has delivered you from, kept you from, or walked you through.

Blessings, Rhoni