What’s Your Story?

I love a great story! Last night at our church our pastor urged us to tell our stories of hope, healing, and experiencing the love of God. He referred us to Luke 8, where we learn that Jesus healed a man whose life was a wreck, to say the least. When he was restored and whole, Jesus told him - “Go back to your family and tell them everything God has done for you.” 

Taking our cue from that message, several of us shared snippets of our life journey, reflecting on the goodness of the Lord and hopefully many were blessed.

Thanksgiving offers a unique opportunity to share our stories. Americans will travel to join with friends and family for the feast. The conversations will likely start out with chats about the weather, football teams, and then as we grow comfortable, we will move on to our personal tales. Some will be the often-told stories, family legends really, that make us laugh and cry. Some will be about heroic achievements. Others will bring up embarrassing memories of accidents, spills, and scrapes with the law.

Most of stories will have been told before and will be told again. It’s what we humans do. Our stories will make us laugh and cry, but they are more than entertaining.

Stories define and explain us.

The more of your story I know, the better I understand who you are. Authentic stories, told without embellishment or editing, will reveal the triumphs and failures, the hits and misses, of life. Being able to talk about who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become is part of growing emotionally and spiritually. The power of story is amazing. When a person is loved enough to know they can tell their whole story, they can find redemption, forgiveness, hope, and change that flows from the inside out. That is why 12 step recovery groups like Alcoholics Anonymous create safe places for people to tell their real story, not the “fake news” that perpetuates a lie about life. The truth is liberating, but leaves us vulnerable, so we need a loving place to tell it.

The best churches are those that are a loving place full of authentic people who are finding the way through daily life with God’s grace and the love of His Church not a place where everybody is putting on their best face and concealing their humanity! In a place that is filled with love and acceptance through Christ, one generation passes along the stories that encourage the next. One person who has found God’s grace and restoration gives hope to another. Yes, this is the power of STORY.

Sometimes we want to change our story, concealing the ugly parts or magnifying the moments of success. That’s an ancient sin called – Pride! It makes hypocrites of us. Jesus urges us to be authentic; our ‘yes’ a simple ‘yes;’ our ‘no’ a simple ‘no!’  Like the man whose eyes He healed we need only say “I once was blind, now I see.’  (John 9)

So, what’s your story?

Have you written a fiction about yourself that has enslaved you?
Have you believed a lie that somebody told you, a falsehood that controls you to this day?
Jesus says that He, the Truth, will free us to live- fully, richly, and joyfully – people who are saved from our sins, sealed by the Spirit, and living for His purposes. There is no better story to be written!

I’m looking forward to some stories on Thanksgiving. And I’ll tell a few myself. I hope that in them all there is a thread of faith, an echo of the love of Christ.

Take this word from the Word to heart and may you be a person full of gratitude.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
    His faithful love endures forever.
² Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!
    Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.
³ For he has gathered the exiles from many lands,
    from east and west, from north and south.

⁴ Some wandered in the wilderness,
    lost and homeless.
⁵ Hungry and thirsty, they nearly died.
⁶ “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
    and he rescued them from their distress.
⁷ He led them straight to safety,
    to a city where they could live.
⁸ Let them praise the Lord for his great love
    and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
⁹ For he satisfies the thirsty
    and fills the hungry with good things.

--Psalm 107

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At the heart of Christmas

Christmas decorations were dragged out of storage and put up in my home a little early this year. Customarily I wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the tree and “make the Season bright.”  But I wanted to enjoy the glow of the lights, the happiness of the decorations – so, I broke the rules.

One of my customs I will not abandon is observing the season of Advent! Christian, I want to encourage you increase the JOY of Christmas by adopting an ancient tradition, marking Advent, which starts this coming Sunday, November 30. Advent is a word borrowed from Latin that means “He comes to us.”  It is a time that is both forward looking and remembering. We remember Jesus’ birth AND we anticipate the Second Coming of Christ.

The joyous festivities that surround our “Christmas” are a great break from the weary duties of life. But . . . the BEST way to celebrate is to intentionally make your way through Advent, preparing your heart and mind for the coming of the King, going again to the Word to discover God’s great Gift and why He was given.

Advent calls us back to ponder God’s loving intervention in human history, when He gave us the gift of His Son, entering a world of death and darkness, with Life and Light.

We like to deceive ourselves with the myth that we are wonderful, that we only ‘make mistakes,’ that evil is only found in isolated pockets in this world. The true assessment of our spiritual state is much more grim – succinctly stated in Romans – “everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”  (3)  God looks over a world where people hate each with murderous intent in His Name!
He sees the cruelty of despots and tyrants.
He hears the secret conversations we have inside our own heads- where we lust, covet, and hate in secret.
He sees the prejudice, the greed, the selfishness that come so easily to us …
and He loves us anyway.

In my natural way of thinking, the story of Noah makes more sense to me than the story of Jesus! Genesis tells us that "God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, “I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I’m sorry I made them.”" (Genesis 6:5-7, The Message) That makes sense, doesn't it? Just destroy it and start over!

Advent reveals GRACE, promising us a merciful albeit just God who acts from a love that defies my understanding. In the coming of Jesus, our Creator stepped into this world not to destroy it but to restore it to the beauty He intends – starting with you and me.

Advent’s glorious message is summed up in this passage which says - "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:6-8, NLT) 

Our brokenness becomes the place for the display of God's beauty!
Our sinfulness provides the canvas on which He paints His picture of forgiveness.
The darkness makes His Light shine brilliantly.

Advent renews my hope - for myself, for the world that I live in.
It is not hope that springs from any human self-improvement program or some personal victory. This hope comes from the promise of Jesus Christ to make all things new.
Advent sings with joyful celebration -"He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found!" 

Your online shopping for that perfect gift, those colorfully wrapped gifts, the lights strung to celebrate can never replace the JOY in the message - "Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79, NLT)

This is not a season for despair; He comes with hope.
This is not a season to be discouraged; He comes with deliverance.

It’s Advent! (Latin – He comes to us!)

Join the angels and sing -
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King.”
Let ev'ry heart prepare him room,
And heav'n and nature sing.”

If your church does not provide a guide for daily inspiration through Advent, here is one I suggest. https://davidjeremiah.blog/a-red-letter-christmas-advent-devotional/

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Video of this blog

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Who needs a god?

In the last decade, here in these United States affiliation with a Christian church of any type has steeply declined from about 78% to 60%. This notable shift created a group called “Religiously unaffiliated adults” – people who are either atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular” often referred to as “Nones” and numbers about 30% of American adults today.

Various reasons for this decline in religious practice exist, but none is more widespread than the conviction, brought on by scientific explanations of life’s mysteries, the ability to understand the laws of nature, medicine, and psychology. This causes many to think that that they have no need for God or a god. Actually, this is not a new philosophy.

Friedrich Nietzsche, in 1882, wrote about the “death of God” in Europe. He did not actually mean that God had died, but rather that humanity was outgrowing the need for A Supreme Being. Thus, he concluded that the belief in the Christian God that had shaped the culture of that continent was dying.  

He birthed the idea of "Superman" (or Übermensch in his native German).  He suggested that by overthrowing “God” we could begin a process of self-discovery, create new values, and rise to new heights of accomplishment, driven by the "will to power."  Humanity no longer needed to bow to the will of God. The best of us were those who could achieve great accomplishments with intellect and determination.

The violent spasms that shook the world in the 20th century and the bleak secularism that grips much of Europe now can be traced to the death of vital faith in a living God. I fear that America has headed down that same path, replacing God with Self, with no good result to be seen. Radical individualism and pursuit of our own happiness at any cost leads to a society that is sickened by Selfishness.

Yes, science may explain the ‘how’ of the world, but our discovery processes cannot explain the ‘why.’ I understand the mechanism of conception that brought me to life, but that tells me nothing about why I am here, or why I even ask the question – ‘Why?’

Is it enough to simply say that we exist? Shakespeare’s Macbeth said, “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Is this the truth about us?

If we accept that “God is dead,” then in fact we have no greater purpose than survival of our genetic strain and a few years of pleasure. Our lives can achieve a sort of frail nobility only by tasting the delights of our senses and preparing the world for the next generation. By contrast, Christ offers us eternity, calling us to true nobility through love, the supreme law; and invites us to worship of a God Who cares for us as a Father, waiting to welcome us home.

Which Vision shapes your life?

I am convinced that an honest inquiry about the world in which we live will not lead us to superstition, but it will humble us enough to consider that God exists.

The wonder of the cell, billions of them form our bodies, are stupendous!
The beauty of the Universe, vast and yet to be fully explained by the most brilliant minds among us, is stunning.
The power of love to move us, to draw us into relationship, to great sacrifice remains a mystery.

To me, it requires greater faith to believe that such amazing things emerged by chance from chaos that it does to accept that there is a Designer of it all. To acknowledge that there is an Intelligence making the universe exist as we know it does not automatically make a person a Christian, of course. But, if one accepts that there is a God, then it would follow that we should want to know Who God is.

And for me, the story unfolded in the Bible reveals Him, Lord of the Universe who further revealed Himself as my Savior in the coming of Jesus Christ. Far from diminishing our lives, this story gives meaning and purpose to us. Like all good things, the Story can be misused to oppress and misunderstood in ways that darken understanding. But, where the Spirit is allowed to make the Story live, humanity is richer.

God is not dead. He lives. And I, for one, love Him and I am thankful that He has chosen to make Himself known to me.

Here’s a word from the Word. Meditate on this, asking that the Spirit will make the written Word into Living Truth in your mind and heart.

Ephesians 1:17-18
I keep asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.
Ephesians 3:14-19

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Amen

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Video of this blog

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