The Stories

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “I had always felt life as a story; and if there is a story, there is a story teller.” ( Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p.59). Often, Christians are taught Bible stories at a very young age, and as they grow older, they seem to outgrow them. Those who return to them, like Chesterton, may find more than they imagined, and the Bible can become an indescribable life companion.

I have heard a sermon in which the preacher proclaimed that the story of David and Goliath is meant for us to identify with the frightened, helpless Israelite soldiers in need of a savior. When I asked my then four year old grandson, he told me that the story is about “When God helps you, you can kill a giant.” He had received a lovely plastic sword , and quickly decided he would be like David, since David acquired Goliath’s sword.

There are, in fact, not just one, but many story tellers, who were anointed souls writing the stories of Israel and then of the early Christians, and the prophetic stories of the future. These stories offer endless exposure to a Holy Triune God, His Holy Spirit and His Holy son. They bring to life a relationship that fills our needs and enlivens us.

. . . From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed . . . so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2Timothy 3:15-16)

Charles Wesley, the author of over a thousand hymns, including Hark the Herald Angels Sing! and Christ the Lord is Risen Today! Was converted simply by “opening the Book” when some friends came to comfort him in an illness: “Wesley ‘opened the book’ for himself; first at the text, And now Lord, what is my hope? Truly my hope is in Thee (Psalm 39:7) ; and the next text was, He hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise unto our God. (Psalm 40:3) This moment of conversion he described as ,”I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.” (History of Methodism, pg. 133)

Both Charles and John Wesley were converted at the reading or hearing of Scripture. They had both read and preached from the Bible many times, but at the moment chosen by God , they grasped the Book in a divine way that brought conversion to them and new life. In the Bible we meet stories that can change our own lives. God has given us His Stories.

Love in Him,

Prue