Lesson 3
Developing Our Story, Learning the Bible Story
Nothing tells a story better than a story teller. The lost art of
witnessing is because we have forgotten how to be storytellers. This lesson is
about developing your story and using stories in the Bible to respond to
questions and to witness to the power of God. In developing your story, break
down your life into three phases: Before Christ, Why Christ and Christ in me.
Before Christ is all about who you were before you allowed Christ to
enter into your heart. Some of you may have powerful witness about life on the
fast lane, taking the road most traveled or just a series of constant bad
decisions with consequences. My life was like that. I had grown up in the
church because my Mom made sure that I got a religious education. Truth is part
of the problem with the world today is that not enough mothers assure their
children get a religious education. I’m not talking about the judgmental kind
but rather the stories of the Bible told and retold. More on that in a moment!
But what will be important to your story is if you are honest and authentic
about whom you were before Christ finally entered your heart. Now maybe you
were baptized at a young age like me, maybe you confirmed your faith around the
beginning of your teen years (also like me) but maybe like John Wesley, your
heart was never strangely warmed until much later (like me). And that story of
transformation touches people right where they live.
At some point in your life you decided, truly decided, to let God into
your life. That moment may have been at a Billy Graham crusade, a camp meeting
or at some group study like this one, but at some moment you opened your heart
to God. Now some of us may not remember that exact moment. For some it is a
lifetime of progression through study and action that leads you here today. But
for all of us there are stories along the journey. And it is those stories that
I want you to tap into. There was some compelling reason that you decided to
allow God in. What was it? What was going on in your life that caused it to
happen? What were the circumstances that led to your decision? For me it was a
lifetime journey of seeking answers and never finding them in the places I was
looking. In 1981 I almost lost my life in an industrial accident that left me
wondering what my purpose in life was. And in that wandering found my way to an
Emmaus weekend, a weekend of Christian love and teaching that helped me focus
on what God was both doing in my life and calling me to do.
The last phase of your life is after that time of transition when God’s
work in your life is bearing fruit and that fruit is evident. Some people keep
journals that help with this aspect of their lives. In the journal you might
write down a scripture that you are studying today. Or you might write down a
particular prayer concern that you have on that day. Leave room to the right of
it or below it so that a week or month from now you can revisit that journal
entry. As you revisit, remark on how God has used that scripture or prayer
concern to impact your life or someone you know. Or how God has responded share
with others about how God is working in your life.
So we have reached the pinnacle of preparation and are now ready to share
our stories with others, right? OK, well maybe not so fast. The focus of
evangelism efforts by the faithful disciples needs to be centered on the
biblical story with a firm foundation on how God is in relationship with you.
We have all been brought up to believe that we need to be theological scholars
in order to discuss the bible with others and my contention is that we have led
down the wrong path for evangelism. Our most important lesson here is that we
are about the business of building and establishing relationships. We want to
use our own experiences and words to illustrate a relationship with God and
relationships with one another in such a way as to present the story of
creation, redemption and salvation. My own experiences allow me to share how
God has been interacting in my life. In order to do that, we need some tools in
our arsenals.
I had shared with you previously that we need to learn our own stories
and how to develop that story to share with others. Our spiritual journeys have
all been about how we met, developed a relationship with and how we follow the
awesome God who loves us unconditionally. Our stories need to be concise and
directed to the individual we are talking to. In other words, we need to meet
our audience where they are, not expect them to come to us. We need to be
focused on listening to what they have to say, explore who they are and where
they are in their life’s journey and then interact with them. Part of what I
have suggested is that we develop our stories about our own lives and how God
has been in relationship with us throughout our lives. That would allow us to
come across as genuine people who are human, make mistakes, are then forgiven
and continue to grow. Development of your personal story is helpful in learning
about ourselves and developing who we are. Then I would suggest that we learn
at a minimum five important stories in the bible and be prepared to talk about
them in our own language. They are: the story of Abraham including the Isaac
Sacrifice (Gen 22: 1-17), the story of Moses including his killing of an
Egyptian and his wandering through the desert (Exodus 2& 3), the story of
David including his relationship with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) and two parables,
the parable of the sower of seeds (Mark 4: 3-9) and the Good Samaritan (Luke
10: 29-37). These stories are great illustrations for interacting with others.
There are no questions for this lesson other than re-reading the Biblical
stories and developing your own story.
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