Step 10: Preparation of Christian Testimony
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Each testimony has three parts: BEFORE the experience of salvation; the CIRCUMSTANCES that lead you to accept Christ; and AFTER your salvation: what differences did you or others see? Can you find these three parts in Paul’s testimony in Acts 26? Write below the references that show his testimony: His life before knowing Christ: 26: ___________________________ — _________________________________________ How he came to recognize his need:
26: __________________________ — ___________________________________________ How he received Christ:
26: ______________________________ — _______________________________________
What Christ was doing in his life:
26: ______________________________ — ________________________________________ The general outline of giving a testimony might go like this:
BEFORE — Give a brief summary of your life before knowing Christ. Finish this sentence – There was a time in my life when I lived selfishly and tried to be as good as I could….
CIRCUMSTANCES — Then tell what happened specifically to bring you to Christ, something like this: – Someone came into my life who was honest with me about my sinfulness showing me how I had broken the Ten Commandments and would be found guilty before the judgment of God. I admitted that I had lied, stolen, lusted, etc., and it became obvious that I could never be good enough to be accepted.
Acts 26:4-5Now all the Jews know the way I lived from my youth, spending my life from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.5 They know, because they have known me from time past, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. Acts 26:13-15, about noon along the road, Your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining everywhere around me and those traveling with me. 14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by kicking against the goads.’15 So I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Acts 26:15-18, But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance as a servant and witness to the things you have seen and to the things in which I will appear to you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’