It was Visitation Night.  The “saved young people” were paired with mature believers. We first gathered as a group to pray for those we would visit to have open hearts and willing minds to hear our testimony of who Jesus is and what He does for us.  We then prayed for our words to be understandably clear to the hearers that night. This is how I grew up in the church through the sixties as a teen.  I was taught to tell the story of Jesus. 

As teens, of course we were scared to death and nervous at first until we realized that God’s Spirit would give us the words.  I remember the night we visited my next-door neighbor as if it were yesterday.  I can still see us sitting in their living room even now. I knew their son well as we played together in our yards since early childhood.  His mom babysat my brother and I when my grandparents weren’t available. 

But this was the first time to tell them what I truly, personally believed about Jesus.  I took a deep breath and words came from my lips that I did not expect or plan.  I remember using the phrase, “Jesus is my Friend,” often when telling how personal Jesus was to me.  I was never one to memorize a program or recite the “Roman Road”—I simply told them who Jesus is and how He became my Savior and Friend for life.  After that, my friend was allowed to go with us to church each Sunday after the “visit.”  Later in life, as a public school teacher, I would enrolled my friend’s son in my first grade class! I still enjoy this friendship on social media of the whole family.

Tell me the story of Jesus…write on my heart every word…

It is in the telling that our testimony and knowledge of Jesus who saved us grows stronger!  Remember God’s Holy Spirit power and wisdom does all the work—God’s way for His purposes!

1 Corinthians 2, The Message

^1-2 You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s sheer genius, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.

^3-5 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.

^6-10 We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.

But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.

^10-13 The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.

^14-16 The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Tell the story of Jesus—simply Jesus—at the center of our telling. 

We have the authority given to us by God through His Son: 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  Jesus, Matthew 28:18-20, NIV

We have help—God’s Holy Spirit—who tells us how and what to say!  “God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.” –Paul, verses 3-5

We have full access to God’s wisdom! “God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes.”  When we ask for wisdom, God generously gives what we need— “God’s determined way of bringing out His best in us”!

Live what we say we believe.  “Your life of faith is our response to God’s power.”  God’s Holy Spirit living in us makes all the difference!  Truth is told through our lips by Truth living in us!  Jesus is Truth.

Lord,

Thank you for reminding me that telling your story began long ago as a young teen who was scared and felt very inadequate until YOU took over and told your story through me.  Thank you for adults who nurtured me as you grew their faith!  Thank you for using us to continue to tell you story for your glory so others may know and believe!  We live to tell your story!

In Jesus Name, Amen