Stories

Stories Are the Gifts of God

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Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10:8 NIV

Jesus loved to teach with stories. When asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered with the story of the Good Samaritan. When teaching about God’s kingdom, He often recounted stories of fishermen and shepherds, merchants and farmers. One of my favorites is one about a merchant looking for pearls. He must have gotten up early each day and made his way to the docks in order to meet the fishermen as they came in with their catches. Among those who cast their nets for nice kosher fish, were others who dove to harvest shellfish to sell to the Gentiles. Every day there would be some would discover pearls of various sizes among their harvest and this astute businessman wanted to be the first to swoop up the best of the day. One day as he made his way among the unruly and smelly crowd of tired fishermen, he came across some men who had just begun unloading their catch and there in a small basket containing a few common looking pearls he spotted one whose size and luster took his breath away. “This must not be real,” he thought. So, he called out to those fellows and asked to have a closer look. On closer examination he could hardly believe his eyes. ” Trying not to show his excitement he asked as calmly as he could, “And how much for this one?”

The captain of the boat, with years of experience haggling with the merchants, smiled, knowingly. The rest of these you could purchase for a few denarii, but that beauty…he paused here for both effect and a quick calculation for how much he might get, that one will cost you one talent of silver!”

In shock the merchant drew a breath, and replied, “You must be joking. An entire talent! That is worth several years wages!” Who has that kind of money on these docks?” The captain smiled. and replied.

“Along these docks I have no doubt that you are right. But in Jerusalem, there are kings, generals and governors who could easily pay twice what I am asking today.”

The merchant paused, carefully calculated that he would have enough if he sold his entire inventory. He also realized that he could also make a handy profit in Jerusalem if he was willing to take the risk, and then quickly answered. “Done! I’ll be back in the morning!”

Though the price seems ridiculous, when we sellout for Jesus, it’s always a good deal!

What’s Your Story?

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment 
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:30-31 ESV

It is almost impossible to rank the 10 bestselling autobiographies of all time, because no matter where you look, what you actually see are the ten books that someone else likes the best or are hoping to sell to you. But if we were to rank by the number of readers, that list would certainly include the Gospel of John. Interestingly, while in these books, most authors make themselves, either the hero or heroine of their tales, John barely appears. John’s passion was to tell the story Jesus and the lives that He changed forever.

Now as we know, the original document was a scroll and was not divided into chapters. Instead, as it unrolls, we encounter the stories of many different people. First, he introduces us to John the Baptist, who we find shouting to anyone who would listen, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” Second on the list is Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose advice is, “Whatever he tells you to do, do it.” Our third person is Nicodemus, whose question about being born again, brought us perhaps the most loved verse in the Bible, “For God so loved the world…” Next in line comes the woman at the well who joyfully discovers the living water that Jesus gives. As the scroll continues unrolling, we encounter a man that Jesus heals, who for 38 years had waited by the pool of Bethesda. Then, in possibly the most dramatic story so far, we find Jesus multiplying bread for 5,000 men on a hillside, all from the gift of one special young boy. Each chapter tells us the story of another person, and though John is writing the account, he finds little opportunity to mention himself. To me, most amazing of all, though Matthew, Mark and Luke speak regularly of John, in John’s own gospel, he never once mentions himself by name. John chose to make the story of His life, about the story of those who Jesus blesses, and only includes himself as, “The disciple who Jesus loved.” So, what’s your story? What is mine? If someone were to sit down with us at a party and ask, “Tell me about yourself.” How would we answer. What stories could we tell?