What is a Personal Testimony?

Generally speaking, our "testimonies" are organic accumulations of life experiences, as relating to our relationships and interactions with our Creator, before and after we submitted our lives to Him. We can, and naturally do, appeal to these "stories," as needed, when we want to strengthen our own resolves, exhort or encourage others, share how the Holy One has manifested His presence in our lives, etc. The subject of this teaching involves a specific subset of our accumulated "life" testimonies, that subset being our "personal" testimonies.

In the context of this study, one's "personal" testimony is a self-contained "package" of information, used to share how we came to become a part of the Commonwealth of Believing Israel, or G_d's family of believers.

In order to be effective, this package must contain each and all of the essential elements, or ingredients. If any element is missing, the testimony is defective, simply meaning that it is missing something essential. Therefore, it is likely not going to accomplish its goals. We will list and examine each of the essential elements as we go.