This is my story, this is my song…

FMF:STORY

notepad, felt-tips and glasses with hand-written words – This is my story

Do you know this song?

This is my story,

This is my song,

Praising my Saviour, all the day long…

There is one big story – the story of the God who created the world and all that is in it and saw that it was good.

The God who so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.

The creation story and the redemption story is the story of the Bible – It is the Gospel.

Likewise we each have a story, the story of our creation, our response to it, and our redemption.

This is my story. This is my testimony – what I have seen, heard, experienced and witnessed.

My story is my truth and my witness of praise to my Saviour.

It always strikes me how St Paul loved to tell his story over and over.

He spoke only about how he was the greatest of sinners, but God…

He spoke of his journey on the road to Damascus and how Jesus spake, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’

This was his story, his testimony. It was therefore his way of presenting the gospel.

Read and ponder how St Paul tells the Gospel through his story.

(You will find it in Acts 9 and again in Acts 22.)

Ask Jesus what the nuggets of your story are? What He wants you to share?

Which parts most give glory to Him, the Saviour? Ask Him,

What is my story, my testimony, my song of praise to my Saviour and God?

Then share this for His glory.

Every Friday, I join an online Christian writing community, Five Minute Friday. We are given a one-word prompt and write – unscripted, unedited, pure free-write – for 5 minutes. The prompt this week is: STORY.

Actually, I do read through my script afterwards to correct my mistakes, underlined in red; to check scripture references and to find an appropriate image to illustrate the topic.

http://fiveminutefriday.com/linkup .

What have you witnessed?

FMF: Witness

If you heard my sister and I describe our childhoods, you would have no idea that we lived in the same homes, with the same parents!

If we wrote our life-stories, they would look very different.

When a friend and I took a day out to the sea-side, weeks later we reminisced over our outing. He described the arcades, the cars, the picnic I bought and the train time-table; but I remembered the beach, the seaside town streets, the wind on the pier and the hunt for a public toilet that cost me 20p.

If we had written our account of the day, they would have been very different.

What we witnessed were specific aspects of the day.

I am often amazed at this phenomenon – how two individuals together can seem to see completely different things and sometimes have almost opposing perspectives on the same event.

We see it, hear it, taste it, smell it and feel it through our own personal senses and we interpret the whole experience according to our personal understanding and preferences.

Where I’m going with this is, being a lover of stories, I often encounter scenes where witnesses are called upon to ‘tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God’ but the account they say they witnessed often looks only vaguely like the one shown in the story.

Every witness has their own perspective.

The witness may not be lying, but they are only telling the part that they witnessed and remember.

The gospels are like this too.

Reading the four gospel accounts of major events in the life of Jesus, we see the different focus and perspectives of the four writers. We also see the stories told for the interest of the particular audience they were addressing.

At Christmas I particularly like to read Luke’s account. He was not an eye-witness of the events leading to the birth of Jesus, but he told the stories handed down by those who were eye-witnesses.

I particularly like the focus on the prophecies of the angel Gabriel and the prophetic praise of Elizabeth, Mary and Zechariah.

We are obviously not witnesses to the birth and death of our Lord Jesus, but we have each witnessed the saving grace of Jesus in our lives.

You may not thing your story is very exciting, but you are an eye-witness to the transforming power of God in your life.

Your story is a unique perspective on the character, beauty and power of God and yours is the story that you need to tell.

Only you can tell your story, for the glory of God.

You are His witness in the world in which He has placed you, for such a time, and such a purpose, as this.

Image of witness’s hand swearing oath on Bible