Tag: Testimony

January 2015 Testimony

(Presented at the Protestant All-Faith worship service)

They say that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. I tutor for the GED program and on several occasions my students have introduced me to their people in the visiting room as “the guy who’s helping them get their GED.” Now I’m proud of that because they recognize that I want them to succeed, but that is nothing compared to what happened to me recently.

I’ve been walking the yard with a guy who introduces me to his home boys as “the guy who helped him get through the death of his mother.” We used to lock together in the same cube over on the east side of the prison and he knows that I’m a Christian. Not because I preach at him but because I lived my Christianity in front of him. And when his mother died I made myself available to him immediately. I didn’t have to say much, but rather walked the yard in silence with him and listened, like Job’s friends who were of the most comfort when they sat and mourned with him in silence.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16 that we are to be salt and light. We are going to have an impact on those around us when we make ourselves available and show others that same love of God that we ourselves have experienced. Francis of Assisi said that “we are to preach the gospel and if necessary use words.” Our actions really do speak louder than words. My friend is not a Christian yet, but I’ve sown seeds into his life that one day may bear fruit. I take every opportunity I can to encourage him, watering the seed and trusting in the Lord of the harvest.

Update November 2019: I’m still in contact with my friend. We are both trying to put our prison experience behind us and move on with our lives. We are both off parole now and have successfully transitioned back into society. We are both working and have family obligations. The first time we met in the free world we hugged, drank coffee and spoke for several hours. He shared with me that during our time in prison I was responsible for helping him keep his cool on several occasions when his emotions were running high which kept him from busting several guys heads who were getting under his skin. He’s a big guy who can hold his own but a fighting ticket would have cost him his parole, elevated his detention level and would have sent his life in a totally different direction. He told me about his experience going to his mother’s grave site the first time after he got out, eight months after her passing. His mother was a believer and he is convinced that she is looking down from heaven and watching over him. At the end of our get together I gave him my pastor’s business card and told him that if he ever needed to talk to a clergyman, I highly recommended this guy. (I’ve quoted his opening sermon stories several times in my news letters.)

Before I went to prison I had difficulty expressing empathy, situations involving death made me uncomfortable and I was always at a loss for words. In a place where men purposefully toughen their hearts and shedding tears is a sign of weakness God worked in me to soften my heart, gave me peace in the midst of the storm, and loosened my tongue and my pen.

Restoration and Renewal Testimony

(My personal testimony presented to my Keryx Brothers shortly before I was paroled by the MDOC in 2016.)

My name is Tim and I attended Keryx 10 here at STF and I sat at the table of Timothy.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.”

John 3:16-17

God reached out to me, to each one of us, in an act of sacrifice beyond our comprehension, to save us from ourselves and our self-destructive acts of sin. A free gift with no strings attached, but He knew that if we accepted it our lives would never be the same.

I gave my life to Christ when I was a teenager at an alter call at the end of a Christian music concert. Once I became a Christian God promised that “He would never leave me nor forsake me” (Deuteronomy 31:6), that He would be my Shepard if I would be His sheep (John 10). But I was young and immature, and I failed to develop and grow in my faith, so in the course of time I wandered away as sheep are prone to do (Isaiah 53:6).

Through a series of bad life choices I found myself in a dark place, cut off from everything and everyone I knew. But God was faithful and found me in my cell at the county jail. He reminded me how much He loved me and I renewed my vow and earnestly repented. For the first time in years tears flowed as I poured my heart out to God, surrendering every area of my life, confessing every sinful habit and committing for faithfully serve Him.

One of the first Bible verses God gave me to memorize was Psalms 51:10-12, and for the last 8 years I have meditated daily on this prayer of King David:

“Create in my a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast (right) spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit.”

Psalms 51:10-12

This passage clearly identified for me that after my act of confession and repentance it was God who must act to bring restoration and renewal to our relationship. It wasn’t something that I could do, because only God has the power to make things new (Revelations 21:5).

According to Webster to restore something is to put it back in its former position. And to renew means to make new again, to start over. Only God could restore that feeling I had first experienced at the alter call so many years ago. Now I have that experience of Joy in my heart every day. God has given me a fresh start, a clean slate, a new spirit within me. He is growing my faith and continues to reveal Himself to me in His Word and miraculous works on my behalf.

I have been transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). And as a result God has given me new strength (Isaiah 42:31), a new attitude (Ephesians 4:23), and a new sense of purpose (Jeremiah 29:10).

Not only has He worked in me, but He has worked through me to share God’s love with others, to serve the church, and to encourage and disciple my younger Brothers in the faith. God has also been restoring my relationship with my family, and this prodigal son will be going home Tuesday. I can’t have back the life I had before and don’t want it if I could. Instead I am looking forward to my new life in Christ, and the plans He has for me.

In closing, my prayer for you my Keryx Brothers is:

“Do not lose heart. Even though your outward man is perishing, your inward man is being renewed day by day: for the light affliction you are dealing with will last but for a moment and is working for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Do not look at the things which are seen, rather at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Until

(An original poem I wrote in prison based on the promises of Scripture and inspired by reading “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren in April 2016)

Until I realized I couldn't do it on my own,
     God could do nothing for me.
Until I asked for direction,
     God couldn't show me the way.
Until I confessed my ignorance,
     God couldn't teach me.
Until I laid down my burden,
     God couldn't carry it for me.
Until I searched for Him,
     God couldn't reveal Himself to me.
Until I died to self,
     God couldn't bring me to life.
Until I emptied myself,
     God couldn't fill me.
Until I surrendered,
     God couldn't give me victory.
Until I submitted to His authority,
     God couldn't free me from my bondage to sin.
Until I hungered and thirsted for righteousness,
     God couldn't satisfy my appetite.
Until I obeyed like a child,
     God couldn't treat me like a son.
Until I admitted my weakness,
     God couldn't strengthen me.
Until I walked by faith,
     God couldn't prepare me to run the race.
Until I acknowledged my purpose,
     God couldn't use me.

Spring 2018 News Letter

Greeting Brother,

He is Risen! A bold statement made regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ that was echoed by more than 500 witnesses according to I Corinthians 15:6. Jewish law required 2 or 3 witnesses to give matching testimony to establish the facts in a case. At Jesus’ trial the prosecutor had to resort to twisting Jesus own statements in order to gain a conviction since the witnesses could not agree.

So what would it be like to have 500 people agree? People from all walks of life, different social casts, men, women, free, slave all saying the same thing? While some like the disciples could be said to have a vested interest, in a group this large that certainly wasn’t the case for everyone. The modern equivalent would be like 500 people agreeing on a particular UFO sighting. The evidence is hard to ignore, even in the absence of physical proof.

Sitting where you’re at you know better than most the importance of witness testimony. First hand accounts are accepted while secondhand accounts are treated as hearsay and inadmissible in court. Truth is sometimes hard to hear but can’t be denied in the face of overwhelming evidence.

So why don’t people believe you when you share the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Based on the above discussion I think several reasons are obvious. First, after 2000 years we are not even secondhand witnesses, countless generations of believers have passed on their testimony. Many skeptics are quick to discount what you say because they think it is just a fairy tale that has been somehow changed in the retelling so that the factual persons involved couldn’t possibly be responsible for such miraculous occurrences. Like the factual St. Nicholas being morphed into Santa Claus.

Secondly is the content of our testimony. Do we agree with one another? Our greatest testimony is the way we live our lives before men. How often are Christians called hypocrites because our words and actions don’t align with each other, let alone others who call themselves Christians, and even less with the Scriptures?

To be taken seriously let alone believed, we as Christ followers coming from different denominations, walks of life, men, women, free or prisoner must be united. Not just speaking the same words of Scripture, but with our own firsthand account of what Jesus Christ has done for us as our Lord and Savior.

Jesus explained this in the simplest way possible in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.” You are in the darkest place imaginable, so turn on your light so that not only you can see but those around you can see where they’re going.

The ancient church had a call and response that is still used at Easter and I will close with it: He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

You are in my thoughts and prayers. Your Brother in Christ.