CP 158 One story leads to another...
One story leads to another… CrossPurposes 158
The ladies are ‘verbalising dissatisfaction’ with the fridge in the church kitchen. The freezer compartment keeps frosting up. Rob looks at it, chuckles, and not concealing his merriment, says, “All you need to do is fasten the clip after you shut it!” Fred-of-the-smart-remarks chips in. “Ladies, I’m sure the reason he’s so aware that you need to latch the door is because he once forgot to latch the door of his delivery truck and half his load fell out.” Rob tells me I don’t know how close to the truth I am. There have been times when he didn’t secure the rear door properly and he did, or nearly did, lose stuff. Suddenly everybody has a story about other drivers who forgot to secure their doors and lost part of their load.
One had a contract for delivery of clean linen to hospitals and no longer had what he was supposed to have when he arrived. Another was to deliver a 44 gallon drum of specialised industrial oil. The poor man wasn’t even aware the drum had parted company with the truck on a roundabout. Yet another left his packs of insulation behind on the M5.
My own contribution happened when Rose and I were doing the 4WD bit on the Anne Beadall Highway through the sand dunes between Coober Pedy and the West Australian border. At one point I saw in the rear-vision that one of the side windows of the back compartment was open. We stopped to close it. 300km later we made camp for the night. I asked Rose to fetch the tent. It wasn’t there. I checked myself because I knew where I’d packed it in the morning. Not there. Click. Light dawned. It must have fallen out while the side window was flapping about. Slept out in the open that night.
The stories kept tumbling out. There was lots of laughter to accompany the tales. Everybody was interested. Story begets story. Memory triggers memory, which triggers memory, and community happens.
Something like that happened at an Alpha evening a while ago. We were talking about the circumstances in which we came to faith. Someone shared about a particular moment when the truth about Jesus became very personal. Among the listeners the gospel suddenly moved from being about Jesus Christ to knowing Jesus Christ. Someone else shared about the time Jesus became ‘real’ for her. Then another. And another. It was amazing how one story unearthed the next. Those present heard their Christian brothers and sisters speak of the Lord’s call and their subsequent journeys in ways they never heard before. Memory triggered memory, story led to story, community happened. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit became a felt thing among us. Everyone was encouraged.
Telling the story of our walk is good. More than that, it is necessary. In telling our own story we also confess the Lordship of the Lord of the story. In being free to share with fellow believers we find our voice for confessing Jesus Christ to non-believers. It’s called testimony!
Go check that word ‘testimony’ in a good concordance. It’s amazing how often the Word and testimony are linked. John, the author of Revelation, was banished to the island of Patmos ‘because of the word and the testimony’. (Rev 1:9)
For me, even though the gospel is always the unchangeable gospel, I find it much easier to listen to the preachers/speakers when I am given a sense of where they themselves are in the bigger story.
So lets keep calling each other to tell the story.
Be blessed this week. Fred
The ladies are ‘verbalising dissatisfaction’ with the fridge in the church kitchen. The freezer compartment keeps frosting up. Rob looks at it, chuckles, and not concealing his merriment, says, “All you need to do is fasten the clip after you shut it!” Fred-of-the-smart-remarks chips in. “Ladies, I’m sure the reason he’s so aware that you need to latch the door is because he once forgot to latch the door of his delivery truck and half his load fell out.” Rob tells me I don’t know how close to the truth I am. There have been times when he didn’t secure the rear door properly and he did, or nearly did, lose stuff. Suddenly everybody has a story about other drivers who forgot to secure their doors and lost part of their load.
One had a contract for delivery of clean linen to hospitals and no longer had what he was supposed to have when he arrived. Another was to deliver a 44 gallon drum of specialised industrial oil. The poor man wasn’t even aware the drum had parted company with the truck on a roundabout. Yet another left his packs of insulation behind on the M5.
My own contribution happened when Rose and I were doing the 4WD bit on the Anne Beadall Highway through the sand dunes between Coober Pedy and the West Australian border. At one point I saw in the rear-vision that one of the side windows of the back compartment was open. We stopped to close it. 300km later we made camp for the night. I asked Rose to fetch the tent. It wasn’t there. I checked myself because I knew where I’d packed it in the morning. Not there. Click. Light dawned. It must have fallen out while the side window was flapping about. Slept out in the open that night.
The stories kept tumbling out. There was lots of laughter to accompany the tales. Everybody was interested. Story begets story. Memory triggers memory, which triggers memory, and community happens.
Something like that happened at an Alpha evening a while ago. We were talking about the circumstances in which we came to faith. Someone shared about a particular moment when the truth about Jesus became very personal. Among the listeners the gospel suddenly moved from being about Jesus Christ to knowing Jesus Christ. Someone else shared about the time Jesus became ‘real’ for her. Then another. And another. It was amazing how one story unearthed the next. Those present heard their Christian brothers and sisters speak of the Lord’s call and their subsequent journeys in ways they never heard before. Memory triggered memory, story led to story, community happened. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit became a felt thing among us. Everyone was encouraged.
Telling the story of our walk is good. More than that, it is necessary. In telling our own story we also confess the Lordship of the Lord of the story. In being free to share with fellow believers we find our voice for confessing Jesus Christ to non-believers. It’s called testimony!
Go check that word ‘testimony’ in a good concordance. It’s amazing how often the Word and testimony are linked. John, the author of Revelation, was banished to the island of Patmos ‘because of the word and the testimony’. (Rev 1:9)
For me, even though the gospel is always the unchangeable gospel, I find it much easier to listen to the preachers/speakers when I am given a sense of where they themselves are in the bigger story.
So lets keep calling each other to tell the story.
Be blessed this week. Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 9:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home