If the focus of our testimony is our changed life, we as well as our hearers are bound to be disappointed.

Michael S. Horton

I once heard it said that the best way to share the gospel is to share your personal testimony. I disagree. I believe the best way to share the gospel is to share the gospel.

In order to find peace with God; in order to be forgiven from your sin; in order to escape the wrath of God, you must believe in Jesus. Jesus’ message was that He is God and that in order to be eternally safe, you need Him and only Him. You need to trust in the fact that while He was on the cross He paid the sin debt you owed to the Father. You must then hate your sin and desire to daily turn from that sin no matter how violently it wants to hold on to you.

If you believe and turn from your sins, you will be freed to serve the Lord in gladness and eternal joy.

That being said, let me share with you the turn of events that providentially led me to trust in Christ alone for my rescue.

I was a rebellious preteen headed toward becoming a rebellious teenager. My parents began attending some church in town and invited me to come with them. My older brother wanted nothing to do with it, but my parents had changed–they didn’t force him to go. That interested me and I started attending. Soon after I started going with my parents they decided to “join” which meant going to the front and filling out cards. They also desired to be baptized, and someone told me I should get baptized as well.

A few years later, I was fully invested in my dualistic life. I enjoyed sin fearlessly in Highschool and then played a good Christian kid at church. During a summer camp experience, my hypocrisy came to a head. God’s providence would have it that our youth group would be huddled up in little pockets across the campus one night. We were praying for a girl who came with us who said she was involved in the occult. I fooled myself in thinking that if I could pray with eloquence, God would listen to me and would have to give me what I want.

The report started spreading that the girl had come to faith in Christ. Well I picked up my head up and believed to my core that I was the cause that she was saved. A friend who was a few classes lower than me in school walked up to me and shared that he had just repented of His sins. He had been living a duplicitous life. He enjoyed his sin at school and thought he could play the Christian at church. Instantly God struck me with the deepest experience of conviction I’ve ever felt.

Time seemed to stop. I couldn’t to this day tell you how long it was that night I pondered the truth that I too was not a Christian. Later that evening I grabbed a friend of mine and confessed to him, but really to God, “I am not a Christian.” I began to confess my sins to Him/him. Moments later I, since I knew the gospel, I knew that I had finally lived out the repentance at the first. My heart turned from stone to flesh and it began to beat for the glory of Christ.

From there I sought out accomplishing my goals for my life, only aiming them at the glory of God. I had set my coarse. I was going to join the Army and become a Ranger. I passed a practice ASVAB test at the recruiters office with an 89%. I was bringing my physical body into line with my goals training as hard as I could. The summer I was turning 18 and planned to enlist, I first had the opportunity to preach for my youth group. I loved it. I fell in love with studying and the delivery of God’s word. Making clear and plain the things of God for people to know more about their savior became almost a drug.

I inquired about becoming a chaplain, and the Lord directed me away from that. By the time that summer was over, I surrendered my planes for the plans to be some kind of pastor. Youth, outreach, anything really–well anything but a preaching pastor from behind a pulpit. I remember saying that this was the only thing I did not want to do. Twenty-two years later and this is what my entire ministry has been. And I love it!