Testimony—Begin the assignment by asking somebody if they know Jesus. If they answer “No”, introduce them to Jesus by sharing your testimony. If they answer “Yes”, ask them to share their testimony instead (500 words maximum).
Just Love
by Ray Burton
Peter struggled to find meaning in life, so I asked, “Do you know Jesus?”
“I’m a Christian” he replied. “Yes, but do you know Jesus?” I probed.
“Not really. I just know about Him. Tell me Ray, how did you become a Christian and get to know Him?” asked Peter.
“During the summer of 1973 I was holidaying with my family. One night I lay on my bed waiting for dinner. What happened next changed my life forever.”
“I had completed 12 months in the Royal Navy as an Artificer Apprentice, my escape plan from a toxic home environment.
Navy life appealed to me. A girl in every port, drink, and travel.
I had been fighting God for 12 months. The Queen’s Regulations stated that all shore-based establishments were to receive religious instruction. A regulation I strongly disapproved of.
The 1970’s had seen a global movement, called the charismatic renewal. A season of God moving powerfully all over the world. People were being saved as the power and presence of God came upon them. They were convicted of sin, confessed, repented, and filled with the Spirit. But He had not caught up with me; yet!
In the religious instruction classes, my goal was well, mischief and misery. I would taunt the Padre with every tricky question I could dream up. I would sit up at night and consider life’s most perplexing issues to throw at him.
What I did not understand at the time was the Charismatic Renewal had taken hold of my naval base, HMS Fisgard in Plymouth. In those religious instruction classes, no small number of the apprentices had experienced the Holy Spirit themselves and become Christians. I was not just fighting Ray Jones the Padre but earnestly praying Christians and I am sure much of the angelic realm.
My greatest goal was to make Padre Ray angry. But he just beamed Jesus and irritated me. God had been faithfully answering the prayers of the saints, breaking down my mindset and hardness of heart.
At the end of the 12 months, I knew the gospel, but did not believe it. God could not send his son to die for us because, “God” did not exist. How could He with so much pain in the world, and in my heart?
I noticed a Bible on the bedside table. I flicked through its pages and wondered if there was any truth in it.
Before I could gather my thoughts, God spoke. “Do not fight me, Ray. Just love me. That is all I have for you. Just love.”
In that moment, the stronghold was broken. I could no longer say God did not exist, because I had just heard Him speak. I could no longer deny His love because it had just melted my heart.
I slipped off the bed and prostrated myself on the floor. “Okay God, I surrender all to you. I am yours,” I said humbly.
That is how I became a Christian,” said Ray.
A Life-giving Conversation
by Linda Otter
Do you know Jesus? No?
I love Jesus. I simply wouldn’t want to have a life without him in it. I actually grew up in a Christian family and always knew God was real. But from my late teens to my mid-twenties I really just wanted to have fun, you know? It seemed to me God just wanted to take the fun out of life, so I decided to just do what I wanted to.
I made so many wrong decisions. Jesus actually said that he came so that we can have life to the full. I know what that means now. Anyway, I’d been ignoring God and doing what I wanted to do while travelling the world then I finally made it back to New Zealand and sort of just went back to the same old same old. Still thinking I was missing out on something and trying to find it.
One day my Aunt and Uncle asked me to attend a church service at The Salvation Army as they were becoming enrolled as Soldiers. I hadn’t been back to church in all this time but I cared for them very much so thought I’d better go. During that service I discovered that God gave us his law known as the Ten Commandments to abide by, because he is a very holy god and therefore cannot tolerate sin—sin is breaking any of his Ten Commandments. I realised I broken many of his laws and as a Holy God he would judge me for that and I would have to accept the penalty. I tell you, when I thought of going to hell, a very real place, I was terrified. I burst into tears. I cried to God that I was so sorry I’d wandered from him and made such bad choices. I asked him to forgive me, and as I had learned from a child, I asked Jesus to be my Saviour.
God’s plan to restore us was to have Jesus take all our sins on his shoulders and die on our behalf; to take the punishment for our sins, for always. When we accept that he is God’s son and ask him to save us – well he does.
My life didn’t get easier, but it completely changed from that moment. I have such confidence in who I am as his child, such faith that my future is in God’s hands, and such peace in where I am going when I die. I hope that you too might want this hope and this peace. If you want I can show you the Ten Commandments and you will know if you have sinned by breaking any of them—the truth is we all have. But if you truly repent of your sins; if you accept and trust Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin and ask God’s forgiveness, then you too can have faith in living forever in Heaven after you die.