God’s Gospel Testimony

On Sunday nights our church takes time in the service to hear testimonies from those gathered. My typical introduction says, “Who has something to share to encourage the saints? Either a morsel from the Word that blessed you this week? Or answered prayer, or a kind providence of God — great or small — to report? Who would like to go first?”

Then comes the pause … while folks decide if their testimony is worth sharing. To the best of my recollection, we’ve never gone lacking for a testimony.

Did it ever occur to you that without the “testimony” of God Himself, we would not know Him or about the salvation He offers mankind? Reading in puritan Thomas Manton this morning brought this to mind:

The Gospel is so called because there God hath testified how a man shall be pardoned, reconciled to God, and obtain a right to eternal life. We need a testimony in this case, [revelation, preaching or proclamation] because it is more unknown to us. The law was written upon the heart, but the Gospel is a stranger. Natural light will discern something of the law, and pry into matters which are of a moral strain and concernment; but evangelical truths are a mystery, and depend by the mere testimony of God concerning His Son.

I pray that you listen to God’s testimony (read it in the Bible), then believe it, and thank Him for it.

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Spotting Big Questions in Little Books

Coming home from the T4G Conference with 20+ books (most were gifts!) not only adds to the stacks of books in my Pastor’s Study but adds to my weekly reading agenda. It’s not that I will try to read them all in a few week’s time, but before I can decide which ones to read first, and which to set aside for a time, I must browse them all. This task is a real joy, but one still fraught with danger (that is, I could become caught up in the book and spent more time reading in it than I can afford that day).

Monday (typically my day off) I ambitiously took a handful of these books to the sofa for browsing after my devotions. I grabbed a bunch of the smaller books, foolishly thinking they could be browsed faster. I got caught right off the bat, and didn’t get past the first one! But this was really the Spirit’s work, I quickly realized (thank you, Lord). Continue reading