Nov 29, 2009
Tell Me the Story of Jesus
Sometime in these days before Christmas, likely this very week, you will meet or be with someone with whom you can share something special.
The Christmas season — everything we are surrounded with, and all that is missing in contemporary-style surroundings — can allow the sharing of thoughts to come easier. Or it can make it much harder. Clichés rush to our lips, and can sound like old truths, which they are; or sound like… well, empty clichés.
Here’s a thought: if you think someone has a need in his or her life that can be filled by the spiritual blessings you have experienced, DON’T tell them about your wonderful church.
DON’T tell them about the great music on Sunday mornings.
DON’T tell them about the amazing sermons, even if you have a stack of cassettes.
DON’T tell them about the wild youth group and all the activities.
DON’T tell them about the small group studies, ladies’ fellowships, men’s breakfasts.
DON’T tell them about the neighborhood Bible studies.
DON’T tell them about the outreaches, soup kitchens, and missions programs.
… not first, anyway. Not even second or third. If the person you talk to needs those things, he or she will come to know them, sure enough. If you act like those things are the Main Deal in your faith life… well, you’re revealing that you are a social animal, but sharing nothing about your faith. Or, rather, the Source of your faith.
Tell them about Jesus. That’s all. Tell them the story of Jesus.
The blind poet Frances Crosby (who never wrote a poem until her 40s and wrote 7000 poems and hymns before she died) said it best — and provided a brief script for us, if our own words come hard! — in the song Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Here it is sung at a Gaither Homecoming camp meeting on a warm summer evening in Fairmount, Indiana; followed appropriately by a verse from another beloved hymn, I Love to Tell the Story.
Click: Tell Me the Story of Jesus
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