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Faith Stories

A faith story is your own personal narrative of how your walk began or how God has moved in your life. Above all, its purpose must always be to bring Glory to God. For most, at its core, our faith story is an account of how Christ saved us and what he saved us from.

Most stories follow a simple format of BC, NC, AD. This would be Before Christ, New Creature, and After Death (that is the death of our old self) or, optionally, anno domini, meaning''in the year of our Lord'', to represent your new life in Christ.

BC focuses on your life before Christ. This is what Jesus saved you from. Here, we want to tell it like it was. This will five the listener the opportunity to identify with our past and hopefully convict them in the same way we were convicted. Take caution of the extremes, we want our stories to bring glory to God. Be cautious of giving too much detail, in order to sensationalize our past sines. We don't want to offend by being too graphic. At the same time, we don't want to down play our previous nature. All too often, I hear testimonies that someone grew up in church, lived a good clean life, and decided one day to give Jesus a try. I certainly don't want to belittle this type of back ground, in fact, it was similar to how I viewed my own, regarding how I was raised. However, the Bible says in Romans 3:23, ''for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.'' For lost people to understand and receive the Good News, they must understand the bad news. We must convey that without Christ saving us, we fully deserved God's wrath and eternal Hell. This is the purpose of the Law. John 3:36 says, ''Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains of him.'' Our faith story should convey our understanding of our sin and its deserved punishment, and the saving work of Jesus Christ. Simply tell them ''why'' we needed to be saved.

The New Creature section flows automatically from the BC. It describes the point of conversion. It should detail how we were brought to the knowledge of our sins and understanding that we stood guilty before a Holy God. As a result of this conviction, our response is repenting from our sin, turning away from them, and putting our trust in the Savior, and being baptized. Galatians 2:20-21 says, ''I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!'' This is a strong image. Our old life has been crucified with Christ! This is the death and burial of our old self. This is when we stop trying to be good enough or earn our way to Heaven. It's when we realize that our very best effort or great works are but filthy rags (Isaiah 54:6). When we let go of everything and cling to Jesus, He saves us and transforms us into a new creation. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, ''therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come''

This transitions to the AD section. It describes our new nature and how our lives have changed since Christ. Romans 6:4-7 says, ''We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.'' Our AD life is one of victory over sin and the confidence that we have been redeemed. Yes, we will still struggle with our sinful flesh, but we have been granted victory. I encourage you to closely study Romans 7 and 8 to fully understand this struggle. But in conclusion, Romans 8:15-17 proclaims that 'For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ''Abba, Father''. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.' Indeed, we are co-heirs with Christ! We have been made Alive in Christ. Our life in Christ is under His leading, control and blessing for the purpose of bringing Glory to God the Father.

I pray that in some small way this will help you to write your own faith story. In our new life in Christ, we are Christ's ambassadors, tasked with sharing the Gospel with all who will receive it.

Please consider writing your own faith story/testimony and turn into Rev. Spencer Good at sgood@rocraleigh.com. Our hope is to post a number of these stories on the church website to encourage others and glorify God through the telling of our stories.

In Christ,
Andy Moore