The Art of Communication

My Testimony

I was a normal, average kid, with a boring story. I was born and raised into a family whose father was a preacher and mother was teacher and she was heavily involved in church ministry as well.

I was a regular old, boring Christian kid whose parents loved and adored the Lord and brought me up to know the scriptures and understand the clear Gospel.

My testimony isn’t very exciting, the only trouble or suffering I experienced was the stuff I brought upon myself because of my own sin. My home was one that encouraged my faith to flourish and my flesh to fail.

I remember one night when I was about 10 years old. I pondered in my bed through some questions about God. I wondered about the infinity God. How was God always there? I thought about the evil I saw from a distance in the world. How could God let this be?

And then, I walked over to my parents room and asked them. They gave me excellent answers, the best of which was another question directed back to me: “Do you believe the Bible is true?” yes. “Do you believe Jesus is who He says He is?” yeah.

“Then you do not have to understand all the other details about God. Some things God did not mean for us to fully know. But if you believe those two things, that is all you need to trust God.”

I gave my life to Christ that night.

I attended youth group years later and many of my friends were coming to know the Lord too.

Wyatts dad passed away when he was 12, the Lord used that to bring Wyatt to a saving faith.

Cameron’s parents hated Christianity and his involvement with the church. The Lord used that for him to be saved.

Eric came from a broken family and early-on drug addiction. The Lord delivered him of that and used it to bring Him to Christ.

Holy Moly! The Lord is so good and so unbelievably cool for using these broken and awesome stories to save my friends! …Wow…. that is so so awesome.

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And it is. But the devil was feeding me lies.

Ephesians 2:1-6

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

I was once dead in my trespasses. With sin that condemned me to Hell. But because of God’s love for me, I was delivered from that sin. I am living and walking proof of a man who was saved by the grace of God. And the more I grow, the more I am astounded by the generosity of God in my story.

In a world where hundreds of millions of people are born, live and die without hearing the name of Christ, God personally ordained — on purpose, I might add— that I, Austin Cressman, would be born into a faithful, Christ-loving home that taught me to love and trust the Lord with my heart, mind and strength.

So is my testimony boring? Normal? No. That is absurd.

Through God’s abundant love and grace, He blessed me beyond what I could have ever earned or deserved. He drew me to Himself. He put me exactly where I, Austin Cressman, was meant to be to know him.

My testimony is a story that is alike to all others in the best way possible.

God raised me from death to life.