when once you have turned

Continuing yesterday's pondering of EO's list of "Ten Deadly Trappings of Evangelism". About the only one I have serious disagreements with is number five on that list, Carter's contempt of personal testimonies.

For my money, I can't get enough of them. Been listening to a number over the last year, and every time I find it marvelous to behold the power of God succeeding through faulty vessels. Have heard it stated that it is easy to argue against theological points, or philosophical stances, but that no one can argue with a testimony that shows how once you were lost but now you are found, once you were blind but now you see.

Personal testimonies are the reason much of the Bible was written in the first place. Why detail all of the travails David went through if David's only importance was his genealogy? Why detail any of the great heroes of the faith if their stories are second-rate when compared to the Lord's story?

The struggles of those in the Word are detailed so that we can see the Lord's strength and perfection working through their weakness and imperfection. And personal testimonies today continue the tradition of revealing Him through us. It is so gauche to quote oneself, but I don't care. As I once penned, "The sharing of each of these paints the giant canvas that is the saving grace of God."