Monday, April 16, 2018

The Stories

This past weekend I traveled to Michigan to see my Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathy who came all the way from Oregon to visit my mom. What an incredible few days of stories and old pictures! Laughs were plentiful. Sad moments too. But the thing I will remember the most are the stories.

Most of the stories were from before I was born. Like the time my uncles got my mom some underwear for Christmas. Rather than wrap her "unmentionables" in a box or bag they chose to display them . . . on the Christmas tree. Boys! (Why didn't I think of doing that with MY sister!)

The stories seemed to be endless and told with such emotion. Do we tell stories like that with OUR families?

You know, we sit in church and listen to old stories out of the Bible. Rarely are they told with the emotion and vigor the stories I heard this past weekend were. Why is that? Where has the fire gone? Where have the Biblical stories gone that we should be telling our children?

One of the reasons for our lack of enthusiasm is that all of the Bible stories are at least 2,000 years old. They are no longer just one or two generations removed from our own. The stories of my parent's generation are somewhat real to me because I actually KNOW some of the people in them. But my children cannot relate to them because they don't have that personal connection.

Why don't we tell Bible stories with passion and excitement? I think it's because we are generations removed from them. It's becuase they didn't happen to us or someone we know.

But each of us has our own present day story to tell of how God touched our lives. I do. It's called our testimony. Stories of how God touches our lives are everywhere and we should tell them with unbridled enthusiasm. Why? Because they happened to us and God wrote them.

Do YOU have a story to tell about how God changed YOUR life? Tell it! Work it into the conversations you have about God. Let people see your emotions and just how dramatically God has changed your life. The word of our testimony is a powerful thing. No 0ne can refute it or argue against it. It is a story of redemption and love. Those two things are something the world needs lots of today. So let's tell it! :)

Overcome - Jeremy Camp
I Am Second - Ashley Rawls

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