I hosted a testimony party on Zoom.

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Good news? Yes! Christianity today needs Good News About Jesus Testimony Parties!

The daily, ongoing good news about Jesus is too often silenced. Even in countries where Christians are free to testify about what Jesus is now doing in and through them, Christ-followers have been trained to listen to lectures about Jesus, but not trained to show and tell everywhere what Jesus is doing and has done in their heart and life.

Jesus isn’t just good news! He is today’s news, breaking news, current news, ongoing news! Jesus is news now because He is always living, present, and working in the world. However, today’s news about Jesus is frequently ignored and even censored by our fear of being transparent.

The earliest Christians boldly broadcast current news about Jesus everywhere they went. (See Revelation 12:11.) They testified not only about what Jesus had done during His physical lifetime, death, and resurrection. They also testified about what the risen, present Jesus was doing right now in and through their life.

Let me zoom into the present. Two days ago, I hosted what I called a “Christmas Jesus Testimony Party” on Zoom and invited many of my Facebook friends. I asked if people would share a testimony about how Jesus has worked or is working in their lives. Wow! We all heard some amazingly good news!

We heard the good news about how six months ago one man’s hard heart was suddenly filled with compassion when Jesus became real to him. Both he and his wife said that he is no longer the same man.

We heard the good news how a woman who has struggled with mental health issues opened her life to Jesus and began to write about her experiences with Him and come out of her shell.

We were told the good news about a young man who thought that church attendance made him a Christian, until one Sunday morning Jesus spoke these words in his heart: “If you were born a Hindu, what would you be today?” He answered that he would have been a Hindu. Immediately, Jesus responded by asking him: “Why do you think you’re a Christian?” Suddenly he realized that he wasn’t a Christian at all but only a church attendee. He asked God to show him the truth and two years later he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus.

We heard the good news about a man who was raised in a Hindu family but struggled with hopelessness until he met a group of Christ-followers who told him the good news about the living Jesus and demonstrated Christ’s presence to him by loving him unconditionally.

We received the good news about a woman who had experienced Jesus as a child but had strayed away and lived a double, compromised life for several years. Then Jesus did some amazing things to bring her to total commitment to him. As Jesus was turning her heart back to him, he spoke to her in a clear voice: “You’ll never know all that I have protected you from.” When she heard Christ’s voice she sobbed and sobbed and has passionately pursued His presence ever since.

We heard a man share how he grew up in church and learned a lot about Jesus but how it was mostly just religious information. However, little by little, as he read about Jesus and spent time with people who openly loved Jesus, he noticed that Jesus was making Himself more and more real to him.

We heard a woman tell how she longed to know Jesus better and went from denomination to denomination (joining churches and getting baptized by different ones) but was always wanting Jesus to be more real to her. Then she started hanging out with some Christ-followers who met in a small group and openly talked about how Jesus was working in their lives. Seeing the living Jesus in and through those people began to fill her with Christ’s presence and joy which radiated from her face as she talked about Him.

Have you been to a Good News About Jesus Testimony Party? I plan to host more of them on Zoom after Christmas. (Hope you can come.) You can also host your own. Simply get a few people together (in person or online) and create a kind friendly environment where they feel safe to open their heart. Then allow whoever wants to share the good news about how they have experienced Jesus. (It helps to set a timer and a time limit for each person so that no one person takes up other people’s time.)

Christianity is about having a close, day-by-day relationship with the risen Jesus Christ. You too can get to know the risen Jesus as your friend.

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