TESTIMONY
You are the
only Bible some unbelievers will ever read, and your life is under scrutiny
every day. What do others learn from you? Do they see an accurate picture of
your God?
Holy Mr.
Whitefield, when someone observed, "I should like to hear your dying
testimony," said, “No, I shall in all probability bear no dying testimony."
"Why not?" said the other. "Because I am bearing testimony every
day while I live, and there will be the less need of
it when I die."
C.H. Spurgeon
A man’s life
is always more forcible than his speech. When men take stock of him they reckon
his deeds as dollars and his words as pennies. If his life and doctrine
disagree the mass of onlookers accept his practice and reject his preaching.
C.H. Spurgeon
There is a
language in actions. And in some cases the language of action is much more
clear and convincing than words.
Jonathan
Edwards
Distinguishing
Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, 1741.
Modern language courtesy of Archie Parrish, The Spirit of
Revival, 2000, p. 70.
Whenever I
hear anything spoken in conversation of any person, if I think it would be
praiseworthy in me, Resolved to endeavor to imitate
it. July 8, 1723.
Resolution Number 54.
The
Word of God is the principle means by which other means operate and are made
effectual… For all that is visible to the eye is vague and vain without the Word
of God to instruct and guide the mind. It is the Word of God that is indeed
held forth and applied by example, just as the word of the Lord sounded forth
to other towns of Macedonia and Achaia by the example of those who believed in
Thessalonica.
Jonathan
Edwards
Distinguishing
Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, 1741.
Modern language courtesy of Archie Parrish, The Spirit of
Revival, Crossway Books, 2000, p. 71.
Someone has
said that more is learned from what is “caught” that “taught”… Though it is
certainly important to communicate God’s Word didactically, it’s what people
see in our lives that gives weight to our words. That is why the qualifications
for elders are so important. If we are to “teach the Word of God” effectively,
we must simultaneously “live the Word of God.”
Gene Getz
Elders and Leaders, Moody, 2003, p. 267.
God has no
more precious gift to a church or an age than a man who lives as an embodiment
of his will, and inspires those around him with the faith of what grace can do.
Andrew Murray
Men of Integrity, July/August 2000.
Apart from
faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life.
Author Unknown
Written on the epitaph of William
Borden's grave.
Throughout
the world, in nation after nation, men and women have died for their Christian
faith. The very least we can do is live for our faith.
Author Unknown
If you are a
Christian, you can expect folks to criticize, but you ought to live so nobody
will believe them.
Author Unknown
Testimony
is, of course, popular in our postmodern, that’s-good-for-you age. Who would
object to your thinking you’ve gotten something good from Christ? But wait and
see what happens when you try to move the conversation from what Jesus has done
for you to the facts of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and how
that all applies to your nonbelieving friend. That’s when you discover that
testimony is not necessarily evangelism.
Mark
Dever
The
Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Crossway, 2007, p. 73-74.
If
lips and life do not agree, the testimony will not amount to much.
H.A. Ironside
But depend on
it, bad company in this life, is the sure way to procure worse company in the
life to come.
J.C. Ryle
Thoughts for Young Men.
You must
remember we are all creatures of imitation: precept may teach us, but it is
example that draws us. There is that in us all, that we are always disposed to
catch the ways of those with whom we live; and the more we like them, the
stronger does the disposition grow. Without our being aware of it, they
influence our tastes and opinions; we gradually give up what they dislike, and
take up what they like, in order to become closer friends with them. And, worst
of all, we catch their ways in things that are wrong far quicker than in things
that are right. Health, unhappily, is not contagious, but disease is. It is far
easier to catch a chill than to impart a warmth; and
to make each other's religion dwindle away, than grow and prosper.
J.C. Ryle
Thoughts for Young Men.
Parents, take
inventory in your own hearts. Do you thirst for God as the deer pants after the
water? Or is your own life sending your children a message of hypocrisy and
spiritual indifference? Is our own commitment to Christ what you hope to see in
your children’s lives? Is your obedience to His Word the same kind of
submission you long to see from your own kids? These are crucial question each
parent must face if we really want to be successful parents and good role
models for our children. Parents who are lax in these areas virtually guarantee
that their sons and daughters will fail spiritually.
John MacArthur
Successful Christian Parenting, 1998, p.
23-24.
The Greek
word translated "example" is tupos, which means model, image, or pattern… When you set an
example, you are giving people a pattern to follow. Someone once said,
"Your life speaks so loud I can't hear what you say." Your lifestyle
is your most powerful message.
John MacArthur
The Master's Plan for the Church, Moody,
1991, p. 159.
The man who
lives right, and is right, has more power in his silence than another has by
his words.
Phillips Brooks
It is for us, in whom the Christian Church is at this
moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that the Christian
faith can do that for the world which the world needs. You say, “What can I
do?” You can furnish one Christian life. You can furnish a life so faithful to
every duty, so ready for every service, so determined not to commit every sin,
that the great Christian Church shall be the stronger for your living in it,
and the problem of the world be answered, and a certain great peace come into
this poor, perplexed phase of our humanity as it sees that new revelation of
what Christianity is.
Phillips Brooks
Precepts
instruct us what things are our duty, but examples
assure us that they are possible… When we see men like ourselves, who are
united to frail flesh and in the same condition with us, to command their
passions, to overcome the most glorious and glittering temptations, we are
encouraged in our spiritual warfare.
William Bates
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 95.
A man ought
to live so that everybody knows he is a Christian…and most of all, his family
ought to know.
D.L. Moody
The virtue of
a man ought to be measured, not by his extra-ordinary exertions, but by his
everyday conduct.
Blaise Pascal
The Christian
is a person who makes it easy for others to believe in God.
Robert M. McCheyne
God knows His own. It is well that He does, for sometimes it
would be difficult for us to determine who are His!
Vance Havner
In our manner
of speech, our plans of living, our dealings with others, our conduct and walk
in the church and out of it – all should be done as becomes the gospel (Phil.
1:27).
Albert Barnes
The course of thy life will speak
more for thee than the discourse of thy lips.
George Swinnock