My Testimony

Tonight I’ve been asked to share my testimony with our project students and staff. I am so excited. Testimony is amongst the most powerful things that the Christian wields. It is the power of Christ put on display in the life of a human being. Though I am a very conversational person, I’ve been asked to memorize a selection to give to the group. I think this is a great idea because it frees me from the need to pull out a piece of paper when I’m sharing it with someone. Anyways, here’s the basic text. Hopefully it’s pretty conversational.

I have always been the “chosen one”. I am the oldest son of my father. He is the baby of his family but the only son of his parents’ marriage. I was born and raised in the same church that my father went to all of his life. My family was one of the biggest and most well-respected of all the church. All the ladies that used to cradle me in the nursery and teach me in Sunday school tell me that I was a joy. No word of encouragement was ever withheld from me.

I quickly learned to play the part of the chosen one. After all, the benefits were amazing. I could choose to do whatever I wanted to do, so long as I was excellent at it. I could put on a smile and some nice shoes and become the pride of my parents. In reality, it wasn’t until high school, when I realized that being Tim Warnes was “kind of a big deal”, that this pride became sin. I was the #3 hitter, the valedictorian, and the right-hand man of my youth pastor. I knew that Jesus had come, died for my sins, and forgiven me. I had been taught that since childhood. But it was only then, as I entered my high school years, that the Lord entered my life and asked for all of it. If He was going to become Lord of my life, some things were going to have to change.

Thus, it was around this time of my life that God convicted me of this pride. However, I allowed the enemy a foothold. He exchanged my pride over being the best at everything for a pride of being the keenest at recognizing sin in the lives of others. I was a typical brother to my two younger sisters: annoying, boyish, and immature. Needless to say, car rides home were never fun. I was often short with them (and my mother). I was sometimes harsh with them. And I was occasionally a flat-out jerk. But God didn’t allow me to wallow in my ways for very long. He is persistent. He pursued me. He pursued my purity. He pursued righteousness for me in my relationships with my mother and sisters. It was impossible for me (Praise God!) to continue in my mistreatment of these women in my life and maintain my honesty with myself about my relationship with God. He transformed not only my feelings towards Him, but also my feelings and behavior towards them. Though it was a slow process, I can honestly say that I so much more enjoy my relationships with my mother and sisters now because of the transformation that putting Christ on the throne has wrought in my life.

In the end, I have determined that it is better to be chosen by God and then to choose Christ than to be chosen by any man.

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19