Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, last day of Galatians chapter one. We're going to do a bunch of verses starting in verse 11. I'll read them and then unpack them. Paul says, For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and I remained with him fifteen days. But I saw no one of the other apostles except except James, the Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you before God, I do not lie. Then I went into the region of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of me. Here's what I want to talk about. This Paul here gives a version of his testimony. Now he's going to do it two other times in the book of Acts, okay? Early in the book of Acts and later in the Book of Acts when he's standing before King Agrippa, he gives his testimony. Let me ask you this have you ever written out your testimony? Have you ever taken the time to succinctly like give your testimony? And I know you think you can do it, and the reason you think you can do it is because you've never done it before, you've never thought through it. I want to challenge you today, before the weekend is over, to write out your testimony. It doesn't have to be extravagant, you don't have to share every little minor detail. But maybe the best model to use, you see, this is what Paul said. Paul does this. Paul says, basically, this is who I was before I met Jesus. I was a Pharisee, I was zealous for the law, I was a persecutor of Christians. This is how I met Jesus. He is, he just kind of gives a little bit of a wink to the road to Damascus there. In the book of Acts, he describes it in totality. But this is who I was before Jesus. This is how I met Jesus, and this is what my life has been like since then. One of the best pictures of this is in John chapter 9, you see Jesus heal a blind man. Jesus comes up to the pool of Siloam. There's a guy there, he's been blind from birth. The disciples say, who sinned, this man or his parents, he'd be born blind. Jesus is like, nah, that's not how it works. And then Jesus makes some mud, spits on the ground, makes some mud, wipes it on the dude's eyes, and tells him to go wash his face in the pool of Siloam, and then the brother can see. Then the Bible says immediately this man begins to tell people his story. That people begin to say, hey, that kind of looks like the guy that used to be blind, but is it really him? And the man goes, No, that is who I am. Then the religious leaders, the Pharisees, come in and they begin to question him and they ask him all kinds of theological questions that he doesn't know the answer to. And here's what he says, I don't know. That's a perfectly fine answer if people ask you theological questions that you don't know the answer to. Now, hopefully you can go look it up, or you can point them to where they can look it up. But here's what he did say, John chapter 9. He said he basically shared his testimony. Here's what I know. I used to be blind, then I met Jesus, and now I can see. And then they would ask follow-up questions, and he would go, I still don't know. But what I do know is I used to be blind, then I met Jesus, and now I can see. All right. Write out your testimony. I dare you. Answer the questions. What was your life like before you met Jesus? Next, what were the circumstances surrounding the moment that you put your faith in Jesus? If you can't remember the moment, that's fine. Tell your story. But I promise you, a moment happened when you went from death to life. So what was my life like before Christ? What were the circumstances surrounding the moment I put my faith in Jesus? And what has my life been like since then? And the reason I want you to do that is because maybe you can't answer every theological question, but now then after you have written out your testimony, that you have said it out loud, that you have used the words to give God glory by how he saved you, then when somebody asks you about you, you will be prepared to give testimony to what God has done in your life. That you were dead in your trespasses, and by God's grace, he sent Jesus on a rescue mission for you, and you put your faith in him, and this is what Christ has done in your life from that point to this point. And people can argue about history, people can argue about archaeology, people can argue theology, but people cannot argue with your testimony. So write it down and pray that God would give you an opportunity to share it, just like Paul did. Amen.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.