Testimony #7

Matt is pretty young, probably early thirties and small in stature.  He sits by himself and keeps quiet.  Not so much on this Tuesday.

Already, we had heard a few testimonies of seeing God at work in the prison when Matt stood up and began to speak in a rapid staccato rhythm.

He told us about seeing a muslim inmate talking to a guard and telling him that Jesus was a great prophet. On the inside, Matt was screaming, “Jesus is the Son of God!” but he saw no opportunity to say anything.  

He prayed about it and a few days later this is what happened.  In the dorm Matt found himself in a confrontation where  another inmate was challenging him, threatening him, “Are you willing to die for your faith?”

Matt responded. “Jesus is the Son of God and my Savior!”

The adversary continued to press the same question and Matt continued to declare, “Jesus is the Son of God, whether I die or not!”

Over and over, the same exchange — louder and louder until the whole dorm of over 100 men had gathered around to see what would happen.

Matt continued to declare in a loud voice that Jesus is the Son of God, not backing down.

Eventually the antagonist did back down.

Then Matt told us it was then he realized that God had given him this opportunity in front of the entire dorm, including the muslim fellow from earlier (and several others) to boldly declare that Jesus is more than a prophet, that He is the Son of God. ( “IS” not “was”.)

I could tell that some of the men listening to Matt were judging him as socially inappropriate and would have responded to his testimony with an attempt to correct his unsophisticated ways.

Before anyone could respond to Matt, I took the opportunity to commend him for his passion and the militance of his faith.  His testimony served as a needed challenge to all of us to take seriously our role as Ambassadors for Christ and to be willing to take a stand for the gospel in the face of the opposing forces of darkness