ARE YOU A STORY-TELLER? I am SO
glad that God breathed into the hearts and minds of the men who authored the
books of the Bible – the stories and accounts He wanted us to know about, so we
could recall having read them, and then be able to tell them again in turn to
someone else! This Christmas season, my
husband is preaching a series called, “The Amazing Emmanuel”, and one of the
messages is about learning how to share the stories of our True Hero: Emmanuel.
Well, people have all kinds of heroes, right? Or … at least we used to – when there were
lots of heroes to look up to and admire.
In today’s world, it seems we have to look a little harder and longer to
find the true heroes. But when it comes
to the True Hero … we have to look no further than … Emmanuel! So why shouldn’t it just be a natural thing
to tell His stories? Some of those
stories are found in book after book -chapter after chapter of God’s Word, and
others are actually located in our memory bank!
You see, we’ve lived them and they’re worth telling … and
re-telling! And we get pretty good at
telling our stories – because we’ve told them so many times, over and
over. They are easy to tell, because
they are true. We don’t have to wonder
what to say, because we know how the story goes – we don’t have to make it
up! Talking about stories, that reminds
me of our wonderful Thanksgiving visit from our second son, his wife, their
children, and their baby grand-daughter!
Yes … that makes her our great-granddaughter! What a great time we had experiencing the joy
of making new memories together, but one of my favorite things was when we
would chime in with “remember this?” – or “remember that?” And then, the story-teller would take front
and center stage and recreate the “once-upon-a-time” scenario and bring it to
life all over again! We’d laugh together
as we remembered. Time has changed the
season of life we are in. We used to be
the grandparents, now our son and his wife have taken on that special title and
role (of course, we’ll still be grandparents, too … we wouldn’t miss out on our
own grandchildren’s lives for anything!).
But we’ve entered a new season – and we’re embracing this one every bit
as much as the seasons previous! It’s a
time to pass our special family stories on to the next generations – so they
might enjoy them as much as we have! A
devotional I read today talked about how good we get at giving short little
one-minute testimonials about something we believe in … whether it be a
business opportunity, a nutritional product, a new book or movie that’s out, or
even a travel destination we’ve been to.
We speak with conviction and excitement, and others catch our excitement
as they listen to our stories. Like the
devotional writer said, it’s a good story when one person shares their
experience about something, but when a few others, or even several begin
jumping in with their personal reviews … it lends such power to the subject at
hand that listeners are gripped with the message, especially when the speakers
are prepared to summarize. He stated,
“By preparing their remarks carefully, they had captured the essence of their
experience and retained the sense of how wonderful their product was.” Then this writer made a great point. He said he was thinking, “Wow! If Christians could learn to talk like this
in church, it would add a huge sense of excitement and credibility to our
services.” Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad
idea to begin working on our own one-minute testimonial/story right now. I echo the closing thought in the devotional
by David Mains when he says, “Just think what would happen if, starting with
pastors, everyone in the church got good at telling their one-minute story in
church, and then outside it as well!” We
had such a precious time with our family that we cannot help but thank them for
sharing their lives and their stories – it’s what makes us the family we
are. And likewise, there are lots of
people just waiting to hear “our stories” about our personal excitement at
having God in our lives. When they hear
our brief, but amazing news, they will want what we have … and we could turn
our churches, our neighborhoods, and our communities upside down and right-side
up for the glory of God! What better
Christmas project could you take on … then to practice the one-minute story
you’d like to share about your True Hero and you? Emmanuel!
God with us! Let’s DO it!
IN A NUTSHELL . . .
MAY GOD BLESS all of those who support our church – we could not
do it without you! Thank you for teaming
up with us in this Kingdom work as we serve our God together - to build up His
people and to reach those who are lost and need Him!
SUN, DEC 02: 10:00 A.M. –
PRAISE & WORSHIP/COMMUNION/MESSAGE:
“The Amazing Emmanuel – Part 2”
SUN, DEC 02: 10:30 A.M. –
KIDZONE CHILDREN’S CHURCH with Verla
& Kelly … your kids will not want to miss this!
WED, DEC 05: 7:00
P.M. – MID-WEEK BIBLE STUDY in the book
of James at 905 El Dorado Street SE in Owatonna/join in!
THU, DEC 06: 7;00
P.M. – MID-WEEK BIBLE STUDY in the book
of James at 165 24th Place NW in Owatonna/bring a friend!
SAT, DEC 08: 8:00
A.M. – MEN’S BIBLE STUDY/FELLOWSHIP at church – let’s invite some new guys to
join us for this time!
SUN, DEC 09: 10:00 A.M. –
PRAISE & WORSHIP/CHRISTMAS CAROLING to follow w/Chili and bread back at the
church!
PRAYER OPPORTUNITIES . . . Shirley, Julia, Max, Hazel, Tina,
Johnny & Cherry, unspoken needs, Lundstroms, Seykoras
REMEMBER . . . “The fact of Jesus’ coming is the final and
unanswerable proof that God cares.” ~ William Barclay
Serving Christ Joyfully . . .
Pastor Doug and Debbie
