A blessed Christmas to our members and followers. May your celebration of Christ's birth be meaningful and rich.
Since some of you requested it, I posted this morning's Focus Point below.
Blessings to you & yours,
Barbara
The Power of Story, part 2
Last month we talked about Jesus’
story telling. If anyone possessed the wisdom and knowledge to cut directly to the heart of the matter it was Him - He didn’t
need to weave stories to convey His point. Could His reason for storytelling have
been because it is easier for us to grasp and remember truth through a story?
Jesus’ stories were not for entertainment;
they always had deeper meanings—take-aways, if you will. As His people we can
present deep truths through stories as well. Last month I shared this takeaway
from Cec Murphey's website: Stories convey truth, sometimes better than stated principles.
Luke demonstrates this in his 18th chapter with these words: 1Then
Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray
and not give up. 2 He said: “In a
certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people
thought. 3And there
was a widow in that town who kept coming to him… We know this as the parable of the persistent widow. Jesus
told the story “to show them…” He did not tell them to always pray and not give
up; He told the story and the story told them, impressing hearers with a story not easily forgotten.
This
season many people will read the story of the first Christmas from the Bible
or a retelling or both. This beloved "story" is not about the elements that have grown precious to us. It is not about a journey, full inns
and a manger bed. It’s not about glorious angels making a surprise visit to sleepy shepherds. It’s not about foreign dignitaries following a star to
honor a baby King. The purpose of the story is the takeaway - eternal life for all who believe the
Christmas Babe is their Messiah.
As Christian writers, our stories have the
power to convey God-ordained messages that offer life.
Take away thought: Story may be our greatest show-don't-tell tool and our most powerful method to convey truth.
