I believe it was last week when I first posted a blog entry about stories and the role that they play in passing on things that we believe. Jesus used stories to convey many points about the kingdom of heaven, and overall, the Bible contains a great many stories, all of which have the point of telling us about God's intentions and attitudes toward us as people.
Over the past few weeks, I have been incorporating an ongoing story format in the Sunday messages that I use. They center on a family, and I put together a short story from something that happens in their lives to help teach about our faith. Sometimes these stories are to show that we are not alone in the challenges and difficulties we may sometimes have in applying our faith to "real life", and at other times, they are to show how something of what God says really does happen or how it looks in our life.
But one thing I have realized in my attempts to do this is that you have to be sure of what the story is saying, and of what is being conveyed through the story. When we think of the parables or stories that Jesus told, we see very precise stories with a particular point. While the people listening to them may not have completely understood them, they did have a particular point that they were making, and many of His listeners did get that point. And that is the key. There was a very specific point to those stories that was being communicated.
As I go about this story series, I have realized the importance of knowing what the story needs to convey. If I tell the story and it only serves to confuse people, then it has missed its point, and I have failed in my efforts to convey God's truth. Who ever knew that story-telling could be such a challenging venture? And yet, I am finding that I really enjoy it a lot!
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