The Plan, The Power, The Purpose of a Testimony: A Study of Applied Christianity: Who Do You Say He Is? One Family's Experience

By Jere Probert

In my years of Bible teaching, I became aware of the scope covered by the vast presentations in the Word regarding Old and New Testament saints. Moses is first mentioned as a baby floating down a river. His pass through the next eighty years was detailed all the way and ended with leading millions of God’s people to the land of milk and honey. Likewise, Saint Paul recorded finite details of his travel for the Lord. His travels by sea clearly told where they were and what was happening. The early believers seem to have been able to include every detail of their life whether as a sinner or saint. It is in the Word. Counter to this, it seemed as if I were hearing today’s believers giving abbreviated presentations. Therefore, this book is an effort to encourage believers to share their account of their personal relationship with Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit in such a way that those hearing them or reading their experiences will seek a personal in-depth relationship with the Trinity and every person God places in their life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638146766

Book preview

Chapter 1

When God Began His Work with Us

The first weekend of November 1972, my wife Beverly and I committed our lives to Jesus Christ. Almost every year since that, I have given a very short State of the Salvation Address on that weekend. I thought if the governor can give an annual State of the State Address and the president can give his State of the Union Address, I should have equal opportunity to give a State of the Salvation Address on a regular basis. I may not be as important as them, but my boss is more awesome than the boss those others have.

When I found us celebrating our fortieth anniversary as believers in our Lord and Savior, I began presenting our testimony with its Bible connections. This report was initially prepared for presentation at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Elkader, Iowa, in December 9, 2012, Sunday. That site was equipped with the tools needed to record a presentation and make CDs of it. I firmly believe it is the responsibility of every Christian parent to make their personal relationship with the Lord known to future generations. Because of the circumstances at our fellowship, we were able to present a CD copy of our testimony to each of our three children. Our children were then able to make this information known to the next generation. We believe the teaching of God’s love and grace along with Christ’s total and complete victory at the cross are the greatest heritage a parent can pass to future generations. In the spirit of what John, the disciple, said at the end of his gospel, I must say that there is a whole lot more to this testimony than has been recorded in this narrative.

For this whole presentation, I want to attempt turning this message into an ongoing autobiographical testimony coupled with small group activities. I see much of this type of presentation in the Bible. He (God) covers, often in great detail, the life spans of individuals, families, and nations. God wants us to continue to report what He has done and what He is continuing to do. He does have a plan for each one of us, and He isn’t finished yet!

Discussion Topic Number 1

Have you ever considered how you might pass on your Christian heritage to your loved ones? When do you think this should be done? After you have lived it awhile? As soon as possible? Would it be wise to recruit help? Are there tools available to help? What are the tools?

Chapter 2

Captured by Christ

Can the heathen notice the difference? You will hear that question from me frequently. Sometimes, it may be, Can the believers tell the difference? There will be instances when I’ll use, Can the Gentiles tell the difference? Other times, I may simply ask if anyone can tell the difference. When we become Christians, we become new creatures. That change should be obvious to everyone who meets us. If people can’t see or hear that difference between a new believer and their former self, something is wrong. Second Corinthians 5:17 is very clear on this issue.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB)

The following three accounts demonstrate the reality and outcome of the question, Can they tell the difference? An elderly couple who were longtime followers of Jesus must start my list. They were already following Jesus and loving people when I was born. The youngest of their several children and I grew up together and graduated from the same small local high school. Historically, they had been members of a small-town Evangelical United Brethren congregation. The Presbyterian church began in the 1920s with people getting born again at tent meetings. Unfortunately, that evangelical fervor had waned away by the time Bev and I had become members. When a few of us got saved and a revival started in the 1970s, this elderly couple were the only ones attending our church membership who knew what was happening! The elderly wife of the longtime saved couple said to me, We’ve been praying for this for forty years. They could tell the difference from the first day of the new revival!

The next account gets a little more complicated. I call this the K and R Story. On February 1994, God managed to get me started moving to where He wanted me. I found myself working for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. I was working with people who had been caught in the farm crisis of the 1980s followed by the floods of 1993. Those floods held some Mississippi River flood records until 2019. Stress levels in many farm families were dangerously high. Suicide potential and divorce were frequently a family’s major issues. My job included helping families deal with interfamily tension created by financial and other new problems that they had never before experienced.

In 1998, that funding ended, and I began working with and empowering individuals who were chronically, unemployed. Many of these individuals only knew unemployment because those around them were also unemployed. It was Iowa’s attempt at welfare reform. The program was funded by the state of Iowa. The same day they hired me, a twenty-four-year-old mother of three was hired as the new boss of the program. Her name was R, and she was about the same age as my grandchildren. Her father was a pastor of a mainline church. The first time we met, we were left alone sitting on some courthouse steps for a couple of hours. In my eyes, she was a captive audience, so why not give my testimony? When I finished, she innocently replied, Did you have an epiphany moment? Since I didn’t know what she was talking about and since it was obvious she didn’t know what I had been talking about, I responded, No, I just got saved. I am happy to