After I became a Christian in my mid-forties I had many friends who were non-believers.
Many of them found it hard to fathom that I had found God. Some assumed I needed a crutch and that was my reason for finding the church. Others felt that I would soon get over it and return back to my normal life.
In my favour I had a powerful personal testimony about a miracle healing on my foot that brought me to Jesus. However, I still felt I needed to justify my faith to my non-Christian friends.
To prove I was not foolish I embarked on a mission to study creation and evolution and find some good scientific answers to any questions my non-Christian friends posed about God.
I discovered some startling facts and new scientific terms such as ‘irreversible complexity’.
‘Irreversible complexity’ describes creatures that defy evolution. In other words, creatures created so complex from day one that they could not have evolved.
For example, a dolphin finds it’s food through a sophisticated sonar radar system. If the dolphin’s sonar radar system was not fully functioning from day one it would starve.
Once I understood more about creation and evolution from a God perspective, I became comfortable that creation, evolution and science were quite compatible with the existence of a one creator God.
Genesis 1:20-21
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
This knowledge gave me good answers to any of my friends challenging questions. I could prove to them that I was not deluded.
Ironically, once I had all this validation available, the need for it wilted away.
I realised it was my personal testimony that carried the greatest weight.
No one could discredit my personal testimony. It was my truth.
Sharing my testimony
Recently I caught up with an old friend who I had lost touch with. We had not seen each other for 20 years.
20 years is a long time and it was wonderful to share what had happened in that time. Early on, I told him that I had become a Christian.
He was not fazed by this and shared that he had a faith too. He believed not just in one God but in many God’s and living a good life was important.
Lately however his life had gone down-hill after a relationship break-up. He was now reaching out to old friends and had re-connected with me through the internet.
As I listened to him sharing his story and his pain, I thought about how much he needed Jesus.
After about 30 minutes of listening to him, he asked me how I became a Christian.
I told him my personal testimony about searching for a purpose in life. This led me to cry out to God to heal a painful verruca on the heel of my foot.
I cried out, “God if you are real, please take this painful verruca from my foot”.
Then, 12 hours later, the verruca completely disappeared and I had no more pain. At that point I had to make a decision to either treat this as a co-incidence or accept Jesus into my life. I chose the latter.
My friend, who up until that stage had been very upset and angry, looked at me in astonishment, smiled, put his hand on my shoulder and responded, “Well Wayne that is your testimony and no one can take that away from you”.
After we left each other later that night I prayed for my old friend and cried out to God for him.
A few days later he phoned me. His circumstances had become even more desperate. After empathising with him, I asked him if I could pray for him in the name of Jesus. He willingly accepted.
This brought me a great deal of pleasure and reminded me that our personal testimony is powerful. It opens doors and softens hearts.
Acts 4:33
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all.