Story time

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Acts 26:1-18

TO CHEW ON: “At midday, O king, along the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun shining around me and those who journeyed with me.” Acts 26:13

If there’s anything people love it’s a story. In our reading today, the Apostle Paul tells King Agrippa the story of how he met God – or rather, how God met him.

"Paul Before Agrippa"

Stained glass window in the Union Congregational Church, Montclair, NJ 

Designed by Tiffany Studios

Telling your story is a powerful way to share your faith. Unlike the kind of defensive reaction you may get when trying to convince someone of God’s reality by using apologetic argument, people probably won’t get all huffy when you tell them your story. Your story will also put a sense of awe into your hearers as they come face to face with yet another evidence of God’s love, creativity, faithfulness and personal knowledge of us as unique individuals.

Paul’s story contained some pretty amazing happenings. I know my story doesn’t have lights brighter than the sun, disembodied voices, or energy that threw me to the ground. But perhaps more people can relate to a story of a little girl coming to Jesus at eight because she was afraid of what would happen to her if she died – and returning to Him in her 20s after finding out that life without Him only spiraled downward. That, in a peanut-shell, is my story. What’s yours?

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for drawing people to You in unique and wonderful ways. Please help me to have the boldness to tell my story at the right time.

MORE: Over years of blogging I’ve read some fabulous stories of how people came to faith. Here, for example is “My Two Year Journey to the Lord” - the story of writer friend Janice Keats, author of Evangelism: The Heart of the Matter (a whole book about how to share your story!).