When I was a kid the words "Once upon a time....." seemed to be the best stories. I can remember my mother and my grandmother reading stories to me. The ones my Granny read were from Grimm's fairy tales and were scary but fascinating. I can remember other stories too that my dad would tell. Stories from work of things that had happened, and stories from the army when he served in Korea, and was stationed on Okinawa Japan. I also remember just like it was yesterday the revival services we had as a kid at Hurt Road Baptist Church and the Evangelist telling the storeys that would sometimes scare me and sometimes break my heart, but I still remember them.The ones the evangelist told always would point me toward commitment to God.
The point is I remember stories. We remember the things that happen to people. Now days I tell a lot of stories. Stories about what happened on a mission trip, or what happened one night out on patrol with the police. Its seems many people love to hear the stories that God has given me in all of my experiences to tell.
So many stories are out there. Some are fairy tales, some are antidotes, and some are from the Bible. All of these stories are there in our heads and they give us a little perspective on life, but too often the case with the telling of all of these stories is that people do not realize the perspective and reality of the Bible Stories. All too often also when we say the word "story" people put the things written in the Bible right along side of Grimm's fairy tales and there is a big, big, difference. The stories from the Bible are in some way like the tales my dad told, and in some ways like the ones I get to tell now. They are true. They are real life adventures of people. The reality is the Bible was written with so much of it so that you would become part of the story. So the Bible is "The Story" that points us to God and it is true.
Last night we began as a family reading the book The Story together. We as a church family are doing this (reading The Story) together and Pastor Mike will be preaching The Story, and I will be teaching The Story for 31 weeks. It started last night. Kathy read the first few pages for us. I am excited about reading the story of the Bible again. Yes I have read it many times but this time we are doing like I was a kid, together out loud. Every week we will get together and discuss with friends What is happening in The Story. And in many ways most importantly how we are involved in the Story.
One of the most amazing things is you can join us in the story at any point and it will not be The Story but what it really becomes is OUR Story.


