Write out your salvation testimony

Now as I said last week, to me the idea of a testimony is something that is fluid, organic and constantly changing as we journey and grow with God. Therefore although I have already written a number of blogs which could be classed as a testimony the one I am going to write here is something different. In addition to this the task is to write your salvation testimony, not just your testimony of life in faith. So first I just want to carify exactly what we mean by salvation;

sal·va·tion   [sal-vey-shuhn] – noun

1. The act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss,destruction, etc.

2. The state of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.

3. A source, cause, or means of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.

4. Theology . Deliverance from the power and penalty of sin; redemption.
(Source Dictionary.com)

So there we have 4 definitions of what salvation is, basically it is being saved, resuced, protected from harm, risk and destruction. All in all it is a pretty good word to sum up exactly what God has done for us through Jesus. So what about my salvation testimony?

Unlike some Christians I know or have heard speaking I can not place a date on when I was saved. For me there was no Damascus moment, no sudden conversion. For me I didn't wake up one morning and see the light. Being the stubborn block headed scientist I am it took a number of events, a lot of pushing and many helpful saints to get to the point where I was willing to accept God into my life.

I wouldn't say I ever disbelieved in God, I often denied Him or refused to acknowledge Him, but always in my life I have been looking for Him never quite knowing what it was I was looking for. When I first began going back to Church it was not for God or to be saved, but a selfish need to have some sort of support network around me in case things went wrong, again. But God can use even the smallest routes in to your heart, and placing myself in His home was only ever going to play out to His advantage.

Without going in to too much detail though there are a couple of points which for me were not so much conversion points, but moments at cross roads where God directed me onwards to a new and better path. And I just want to give a couple of brief outlines of these moments.

The first was while sitting in a youth gathering when the Minister challenged everyone there about their lives as Christians, bearing in mind at this point I did not consider myself a Christian. The challenge issued was that of "How is your prayer life? How is your Bible study". Now I know I have talked about this moment before but for me this was a huge revelation. It was not about going to Church and waiting to hear God talk, there was something I could do, I could talk to God and just maybe He would talk back to me.

As I continued attending Church and going about general life I slowly began to realise that the reason I had not been hearing God was that I was not listening, not that He was not talking to me. This second revelation totally changed my outlook on life and moved me on to the path I have been treading for a little while now. But with this realisation that God was talking to me, nay shouting at me, took me by a bit of surprise. It came at a time when I was least expecting it and when I began to listen to the advice and commands I could now hear my life began to turn around. In addition to this knowing what I was now listening to when I thought back through my life I could see moments when God had been talking and shouting at me in the past but that I had ignored and not paid attention to.

There are many other moments, points and people who have brought me to the point where I now know I have been saved by Jesus, I have been rescued from the dangers of destruction that I placed myself in to in the past. But to talk about them all would take too long and would likely not be all that interesting to people. I also know that most of the people who are instrumental in my journey getting to where it is will never read or hear this but I want to thank all of them, they truly are Godly people without who the Kingdom would be all the poorer for.

I know that this is not ended in a way that really bookends the story but I find that exceptionally hard to do as the story is far from complete. Everyday I grow and learn, continually I am journeying onwards and hopefully growing in faith and wisdom. My real testimony is this blog, my daily accounts and thoughts in faith while I am journeying onwards. This blog stands as the testimony to my growth in belief and faith, it hopefully shows an increase in understanding and love for God and Jesus.

So now onwards to the next task, the task which was draw from the hat this week is to read a book from the Old Testament. In a way I am glad it is a little bit of an easy task to complete this week as it is after all the run up to Christmas and there is much to be done. However as with every task it will be approached with a real determination for it to make a difference and mean something rather than it just be the reading of a story. Check back next week to find out which book I read and my thoughts on it. Please feel free to check out the previous weeks task on the Soldier's Challenge page and as always feel free to stay a while and read some of the other daily posts.