Thoughts on sharing our faith...

Some time ago, I attended a talk at the Chapel Service at Houghton College where Ravi Zacharias was the speaker.  I just found some notes on that talk, and wanted to share some thoughts on that.  Some of the thoughts I’ll be sharing over the next several days will be either from Ravi’s talk, the Question and Answer period after, or things that just came to mind while reflecting on what was discussed.

Today, some thoughts on the importance of using our personal testimony when sharing our faith. On Wednesday, I shared the three things we must keep in mind when sharing our faith. The first of these was that our message needs to be seen, not just heard.

Ravi suggested that because of our growing up in the television age, we have become accustomed to seeing things. Our sense of sight has become a primary way of receiving information. Carrying that to the next logical level, we need to see something to believe it. Often we won’t believe it unless we see, and on the flip side, we see things we believe (on TV, for example) that aren’t true. But because we see it, we believe it.

What does that mean for us as we share our faith. It shows us that we can talk to people all day, and they might agree with us on many points, but they won’t accept it as truth unless they see it. It has to make a difference in your life, and they have to be able to see that difference, in order for them to really believe it. Our lives must reflect our faith. We must be authentic.

It seems to me then, the next step is being able to tell that difference to others. They need to see the effects of our faith on our daily lives, there is no getting around that – they have to see it. But a natural extension would be to share with others the difference that our faith has made in our lives. And that, in a nutshell, is our testimony.

So when you share your faith, make sure to tell people the difference that knowing Christ has made in your life. Hearing that, and seeing the difference in the way you live your life each day, will lead many to a life saving faith of their own