Linda's Testimony - Easter Sunday

Our church (Grace Community Church) has a tradition of hearing testimonies of new life in Christ on Easter Sunday. I do not remember one Easter Sunday when I did not hear over and over, "We were so blessed today!" Indeed, we were today as we saw video testimony from five college students, most of whom had trusted Christ within this past year. I also read Linda's testimony to the congregation, a testimony that she dictated to me this past week. I would like to share it with you now.

Linda Talley's Testimony

These last few months have been difficult days, but these have also been days of reflecting on God’s blessings to me. One of my greatest blessings is that God allowed me to be raised in a home where I learned to love Him and was encouraged to get to know Him. My earliest years were spent learning about God. Since my father was a pastor, I was in church every time the doors were open – and that was a great thing! I loved church and I loved learning about God. When I was seven years old, it seemed to be a very natural thing to trust Jesus as my Savior. I believe with all my heart that I became a Christian on that night that I asked Jesus to come into my life.

Even at seven years of age, I knew it was a special thing to be a part of God’s family. I knew that I had done bad things and that Jesus had died for me so that if I trusted Him, God loved me enough to forgive all my sins. That’s all I knew and that’s all that mattered. That was an acknowledgment of sin, it was the substitution of Christ, and it was repentance and faith, understood at a very basic level. In reality, anyone who comes to Jesus must come as a child.

I remember getting glasses around the same time I accepted Christ. I told my father as we came out of the optometrist’s office, “Look, Dad, you can see the individual leaves on the trees.” I also remember thinking about how both my physical and spiritual eyes were opened around the same time.

It was much later in life before I realized that there was an unseen battle for my soul, even at such a young age. That battle is happening at any age whenever someone is considering making a decision to follow Jesus, whether that person is seven or seventy. Parents, please keep teaching your children about God, Who He is and what He has done, and how they can have a relationship with Him through Jesus. Don’t pressure them, but do not discourage them from making that decision – they don’t have to understand everything.

I am so grateful for my heritage! God has been so good to me. I told you that my father was a pastor. In fact, both of my parents continue to serve the Lord in their church through teaching and singing. My dad still preaches, he writes books, and shares Christ along with my mom whenever the opportunity arises. It was never going to be possible, though, for their faith to sustain me. A passage that has meant much to me for many years is Colossians 2:6-7:

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

In fact, those verses are still so meaningful to me today. I am doing my best, with His help, to live by faith. Some people think that salvation comes by faith, but we grow in Christ on our own. But these verses teach us that we have to live the Christian life the same way we began it – by faith. I am trying to do that, every day. I am learning more about God and about His ways – by faith. I am trusting Him in the dark. I am putting one foot in front of the other – when my left foot cooperates – by faith. Even before this diagnosis, every breath and every step were dependent upon Him anyway – He has just made me more aware of it lately.

This Easter is very special to me. I have been thinking a lot about hope and about where that hope comes from. The hope I have in Jesus is based on His resurrection. Whenever we are faced with our mortality, it is good to know that our hope is in Jesus. His resurrection guarantees eternal life to the believer. My family is praying for a miracle for me every day, and I know many of you are praying also. I hope to share again 30 years from now. One day, though, all of us will leave this world one way or another. Thank God for the resurrection! I would like to share some verses from 1 Corinthians 15 that give every believer cause to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, not just on Easter, but every day, especially on Sundays.

1 Corinthians 15:51-57

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed

52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Soon after I was diagnosed with cancer, I thought much about knowing Jesus more intimately. Cancer has a way of focusing one’s attention. As one of my mentor’s told me, “Don’t think so much about what God can do – we know what He can do. Think about Who He is, His attributes, what He is like.” That was good advice! As I think about meeting Jesus one day, I have no doubt that He will know me, because He saved me those many years ago. My concern is whether or not I will recognize Him. This is my chance to get to know Him, so I say along with Paul:

Philippians 3:10

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.