Word of the Week: Stories

We were blessed on the Sunday after Thanksgiving to have five new members join our church: Bill and Amanda Freels, Phil and Beth Griffith, and Beamer Carr.  One part of the membership process is to give your Christian testimony to the elders.  At Grace, there are often other members present as you tell this story.  There were some good stories told to the elders in this group.

There are no boring testimonies.  If you became a believer very young and grew steadily through life, that is not boring.  How can it be boring when all of us pray our children will have those kinds of stories?  None of us is praying for our kids to have colorful testimonies!  Such a testimony is a powerful witness to God’s faithfulness to His people.

Of course, some of the stories are of the struggles of living life without God.  For some of us, we came to the end of ourselves before we began with Christ.  It was when our hopes had failed us that we came to the fountain of hope.  It was when life seemed all but over that we came to Jesus - the way, the truth and the life.  This kind of testimony is to the power of Jesus our Savior, the one who “came to seek and save the lost.”

Over the years I’ve heard hundreds of these stories.  I’m often moved deeply by them.  I’m impressed always with God and His saving grace. These stories are powerful and persuasive.  It does us all good to hear them.  It does us all good to retell them.  To whom have you told your story recently?

In Him,

Don