Your Life is a Gospel
By Jesse Pingenot in Student
I’ve heard many students claim they don’t have a powerful testimony. Usually it comes with claims like, “I never really rebelled” or, “My story just isn’t as spectacular as other people’s.”
That’s a load of crap.
If you are a follower of Christ, if you have accepted Christ’s forgiveness, then you have the Spirit of the living God alive and moving inside you.
Such a pure and powerful presence cannot leave a person unchanged. The fact that God lives in you means that God has changed you. It may not be spectacularly obvious, but you’ve been changed on a very deep, very fundamental level.
So much so that Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, made this claim:
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. –2 Cor 3:3
At the time, Paul was answering claims made by other teachers to the Corinthian church that he and his fellow apostles were not sent by Christ and their ministries were invalid. They came with letters of recommendation from other teachers, but Paul and his coworkers had no such letters. Paul counters with the powerful claim in v. 2: “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.” Paul’s ministry needs no letter of recommendation because the disciples of Christ he leaves behind him are proof of his call.
But Paul doesn’t leave it there. Paul cuts to the core of it all: that it was not Paul who worked in the Corinthian church, but rather Christ worked through Paul. Paul didn’t write the letter of recommendation; Christ did and Paul delivered it.
But this begs the question: To whom is the letter written?
Every Christian’s life is a letter written to the world. Your life, written by God Himself, is a powerful love letter to all humanity. Through you, God says to every person on earth: I love you and I want to be with you.
This is the letter people want to read.
The Bible is a wonderful collection, a record of God interacting with humanity. It is God’s Word written down so anyone can read it.
But to those who don’t know God, it’s just a book written by someone they don’t know a long, long time ago. Just like they’ve probably never read Ovid’s Metamorphoses and believed in the Roman gods, they’re not about to read the Bible and believe in Yahweh. To them it’s all the same: something written long ago and totally irrelevant.
It is easy to discard a book you have no reason, in and of yourself, to believe or even care about. It’s a lot harder to deny what is happening in your friend, in someone you know and love.
I see this happen over and over again. People don’t want to believe the Bible. But they can’t very well deny what happens in your life. Especially if they’re witnessing it as it happens.
I’ve had so many students lead others to Christ because those friends witnessed the change that happened in them. Some of our international students are so open about it that people in their home countries—friends and family they left behind when they came here to study–start believing in Christ before they’ve even returned.
The Holy Spirit is the single most powerful evangelism tool. And the Holy Spirit is alive and active in you. Your life is a powerful witness to God.
Never be afraid to share what God is doing in your life. These are your friends—they care about you and about your life. And God is a part of—more than that is the foundation of—your life. So it’s natural for you to share what God is doing with them.
Do not buy into our culture’s lies that “religion is a personal thing,” that it should be hidden. Your relationship with Christ is fundamental to who you are—more than race or gender or sexual orientation, all things this culture thinks should be publicly celebrated.
When you love someone, you eagerly share about that person with your friends and family. And you should! You’re excited! This person is important to you!
Likewise with God. God is not someone to be ashamed of, to keep hidden. If you are a Christian, you love God, who has done amazing things in you. And that’s exciting!
Let’s celebrate with our friends the things God has done in our lives. They may not fully understand, but the more you share, the more they will understand. And, no matter what you may think, they will want that.
Because through you, God is telling them he loves them. Through you, God is drawing them to him. And it’s a wonderful thing!
All views expressed on this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, U.S.A., U.S. Missions, and The General Council of the Assemblies of God.