Telling the Story Again

 

A  few months ago, my wife Ann and I travelled  a few days away from our home  to visit the beautiful mountains of North Carolina and Virginia.   Our eyes soaked up the beautiful vistas along the Blue Ridge Parkway… our bodies enjoyed the tranquil thrill of  biking along the Virginia Creeper Trail… and we enjoyed eating on roadside tables and uncrowded restaurants.   One day, we stopped at a restaurant we had visited on several occasions in the past.   Though it was lunch time, the restaurant was quite uncrowded.   A nice server took our order and brought it to us promptly and with a smile.   As is often the case, I struck up a conversation with our server who asked where we were from and a little about ourselves.   When I told the server I was a pastor, her eyes lit up and a big smile came across her face.   Shen then proceeded to share with Ann and I  how she had had a terrible auto accident many years ago and how God had saved her from the clutches of death.    She ended her story with telling us that her restaurant manager had given her blessing for her to share her  testimony and that her pastor encouraged her to do the same.

I left the restaurant that day with my belly filled with a great meal and my heart full of her testimony.   I kept turning over in my mind this question:   When was the last time that you shared your testimony with anyone?     50 years ago this month in the city of Burlington at a lay witness mission at a local church, I gave my life to Jesus Christ and asked him to be the Lord and Savior of my life.   That October weekend began a journey that led to ordained ministry and to the privilege to serve as a pastor to numerous churches across North Carolina.  

In the book of Acts, we read the story of the Damascus Road experience of the apostle Paul.  In Acts 9, we read about how Paul, a persecutor of Christian, met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road and was transformed into one who was zealous for sharing the good news of the grace that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ.     Though we hear the Damascus Road experience in Acts 9, Paul shares his testimony again Acts 22 and Acts 26.   When was the last time you told someone the story of what God has done and is doing in your life?     The story of how Christ Jesus could love a wretch like me is one that is worth telling over and over again?   Thanks be to God.   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

 

PRAYER

O God,  I give you thanks for your saving grace that transformed my life long ago and is still at work in me.   Help me to tell that story through word and deed again and again; through Christ our Lord.   Amen.