The Epic Introduction
September 11
"I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?" J.R.R. Tolkien
"Life is a story that comes to us, scene by scene. Think about your favorite movies. Notice that every good story has the same ingredients. Love. Adventure. Danger. Heroism. Romance. Sacrifice. The Battle of Good and Evil. Unlikely heroes. Insurmountable odds. And a little fellowship that in hope beyond hope pulls through in the end. If you want to get to know someone, you need to know their story." John Eldredge
Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Matthew 22:37
If we love the Lord with all our hearts, soul and mind, then we should know enough about him to excite us to tell his story. My prayer is that this week as we look at the story John Eldredge has written, what we read about the story in the BIG Book will be repeated by us to someone each day. Try it out on a telemarketer if you are timid. You don't want them to call back anyway. Write it on a note and hand it to a random person at the gas pumps or be bold and talk about it with someone you love and cherish.
In Telling the Truth, Frederick Buechner writes this about the story of Christianity, which confirms my quote "Life is a lot. A lot of joy and a lot of sadness." Yes, an Epic into which we were born.
"It is a world of magic and mystery, of deep darkness and flickering starlight. It is a world where terrible things happen and wonderful things too. It is a world where goodness is pitted against evil, love against hate, order against chaos, in a great struggle where often it is hard to be sure who belongs to which side because appearances are endlessly deceptive. Yet for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name...That is the fairy tale of the Gospel with, of course, one crucial difference from all other fairy tales, which is that the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happened once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening still."
Let's take time this week to love the story of His LOVE.
"I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?" J.R.R. Tolkien
"Life is a story that comes to us, scene by scene. Think about your favorite movies. Notice that every good story has the same ingredients. Love. Adventure. Danger. Heroism. Romance. Sacrifice. The Battle of Good and Evil. Unlikely heroes. Insurmountable odds. And a little fellowship that in hope beyond hope pulls through in the end. If you want to get to know someone, you need to know their story." John Eldredge
Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Matthew 22:37
If we love the Lord with all our hearts, soul and mind, then we should know enough about him to excite us to tell his story. My prayer is that this week as we look at the story John Eldredge has written, what we read about the story in the BIG Book will be repeated by us to someone each day. Try it out on a telemarketer if you are timid. You don't want them to call back anyway. Write it on a note and hand it to a random person at the gas pumps or be bold and talk about it with someone you love and cherish.
In Telling the Truth, Frederick Buechner writes this about the story of Christianity, which confirms my quote "Life is a lot. A lot of joy and a lot of sadness." Yes, an Epic into which we were born.
"It is a world of magic and mystery, of deep darkness and flickering starlight. It is a world where terrible things happen and wonderful things too. It is a world where goodness is pitted against evil, love against hate, order against chaos, in a great struggle where often it is hard to be sure who belongs to which side because appearances are endlessly deceptive. Yet for all its confusion and wildness, it is a world where the battle goes ultimately to the good, who live happily ever after, and where in the long run everybody, good and evil alike, becomes known by his true name...That is the fairy tale of the Gospel with, of course, one crucial difference from all other fairy tales, which is that the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happened once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening still."
Let's take time this week to love the story of His LOVE.
