really love this form thread cant stop just reading big hugs all around

Proverbs 18:10
The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

The Purpose of a Testimony

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

When you tell other people about what God has done for you, you are sharing your testimony. A testimony is when you share your story of how you came to faith. Every Christian has a testimony.

Some Christians have dramatic testimonies where they tell of being delivered from a life of drug addiction or crime or some sordid deeds. Other Christians don’t have testimonies that are quite as dramatic—but they are just as significant.

I like to hear how people came to Christ, but I don’t like it when people go into gory details about their past. Then there are testimonies where people tell how much they have given up for Jesus. They’ll say things like, “I gave up this and that for Jesus. I have made such sacrifices for the Lord. I have done it all for Him!”

Your testimony is not about what you gave up for Jesus. It’s about what He gave up for you. Don’t share what you have done for Jesus. Share what Jesus has done for you. Jesus is the one who has done the work. It is Jesus whom we are proclaiming.

A good, strong testimony will lift up what Christ has accomplished. The fact of the matter is that all of us were sinners hopelessly separated from God, traveling in the same boat on our way to hell; and the same gospel came and transformed us. That is the testimony we all have.

© Greg Laurie

Romans 5:3
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

Share Your Testimony Of Gratitude

Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the world about his wondrous love and how mighty he is! - Isaiah 12:4 TLB

No other person on Earth knows your story better than you do. Sharing your testimony with others can be a powerful and important way to tell God thank you for all he has done. The Bible says in Isaiah 12:4, “Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the world about his wondrous love and how mighty he is!” (TLB)

You know what a testimony is. It’s not what lawyers do. It’s what a witness does. You’re not trying to convince anybody. You’re not trying to pressure someone for a decision. You’re just telling others what happened to you. Nobody can give your testimony except you.

Unless you give a testimony about how God works in your life, your story will never be told. As you share your story, you’re expressing gratitude to God. You’re not only letting others know about what God is doing in your life, but you’re also being a model for a life of gratitude — which is incredibly important.

For example, I once read a scientific study that said the two healthiest emotions are generosity and gratitude. People who demonstrate those emotions regularly are more resistant to disease and less likely to get ill than people who are grouchy and grumpy. When you publicly tell others about what God has done in your life, you let them in on this amazing health secret!

You also give them a glimpse into God’s will for their lives. The Bible says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV). God’s will for our lives is gratitude in all circumstances. God doesn’t want thanksgiving to be an event on our calendar; he wants it to be our lifestyle.

When our lifestyle expresses gratitude to God in front of others, miracles happen regularly. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas, two preachers in the New Testament, went to Philippi to speak. The crowd didn’t like them, so they stoned and jailed them. At midnight in a dark jail, Paul and Silas started thanking God despite any apparent resolution to their problem. They prayed, they sang, and they thanked God. God then sent a miraculous earthquake that opened the doors of the jail and loosened their chains.

When the Roman jailer saw this, he was so shaken he almost committed suicide. Paul and Silas then shared their story, and the man became a follower of Jesus right there. Soon his whole family followed suit and were baptized that night.

Your testimony of gratitude has the power to unlock prisons, too.

© Rick Warren

Hebrews 3:1-19
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.
4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Philippians 4:13
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The Power of Integrity

That you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. - Philippians 1:10-11

In ancient Rome, fine pottery was relatively thin and fragile and often would develop cracks after firing. Rather than remake the piece, unscrupulous shops would fill the cracks with hard, dark wax and then sell it as new.

So you would take your purchase home and put it outside, and in the blazing Mediterranean sun, parts of it would start to melt. Then you would take that pottery back to the shopkeeper and say, “What have you done? This isn’t right. I want one without wax.”

That is what Paul meant when he prayed that the believers in Philippi would be “sincere and without offense.” Sincere is sometimes translated “without wax.” So Paul was essentially saying, “Move forward in your life without moral failure.” He wrote in 1 Corinthians 10, “Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. (verses 32–33). Another way to translate that is, “Don’t give an unbeliever a reason to not believe.”

Jesus saved his most scathing words not for struggling sinners but for hypocritical believers, those who appeared to be one thing but really were another.

So let’s make sure we are not people who bring reproach to the name of Jesus Christ. Each of us has a sphere of influence. Each of us has a group of people who are watching us carefully. They are scrutinizing every word and hoping we will mess up. When you walk with God, live a godly life, and do what He wants you to do, it drives some of them crazy. And so it should. It is the power of a good testimony.

© Greg Laurie

Finding Your Lost Joy

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. - Romans 14:17 NLT

What’s the easiest thing for you to lose? Your glasses? Your keys? Your mind?

The easiest thing of all to lose is your joy. You can lose it with one phone call or email, a letter or conversation. You can watch a commercial on TV and lose your joy. It’s the easiest thing in the world to lose. And a lot of people in a lot of circumstances are conspiring to rob it from you.

When God’s children aren’t filled with joy, it makes God look bad. Cranky Christians are a bad witness. They look like they’ve been baptized in vinegar because they’re never really smiling. And that makes God look bad.

Why? Because God wants us to be witnesses with our countenance.

The Bible tells us that the Christian life can be summed up in three words: goodness, peace, and joy. Romans 14:17 says, “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (NLT).

The reality is, though, that you can lose your joy so quickly, and there are thousands of ways to lose it. There are thousands of killjoys in life that will rob you of your joy, even to the point that somebody like Jeremiah, a prophet of God, could say this in Lamentations 5:15, “There is no joy left in our hearts” (GW).

I don’t know if that’s where you are today, but if you’ve ever gone through that period where you feel like you’ve lost the spark and you’re not as close to God as you used to be and you’re just going through the motions of life, you need to know that it’s quite easy to get your joy back, too.

So, how do you get your joy back? The first step you need to do is admit you’ve lost it.

You simply look at your past and ask yourself a couple of questions: Has there ever been a time in your life when you were closer to God than you are right now? Has there ever been a time in your life when you were more joyful in the Lord than you are right now?

Now is the time to make the change. But you’ve got to start by admitting that you’ve lost what you’ve had in the past. You could ask God about it; he’s waiting to help you. David prayed this in Psalm 51:12: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation” (NIV).

© Rick Warren

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
Matthew 24:42-44