Just a few days ago we commemorated the 18th anniversary of 9/11. Just like me, I’m sure you can remember the events of that day – where you were when you heard the news and what you did as the rest of the day played out. Even if you weren’t alive and didn’t personally experience that tragic day, you know the events. You’ve read it in a textbook and others have shared their story of that day with you. Sort of like how I am with the events that surrounded the attack on Pearl Harbor. I wasn’t alive to personally experience it, but I know the story because it’s been passed down to me generation after generation.
If you are a Texas Tech Red Raider football fan you are almost certainly like that with the unforgettable touchdown pass from Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree in the 2008 game with the Texas Longhorns. Texas came into Lubbock ranked number one in the nation with hopes of playing in a national championship game and left…well, beaten and disappointed. Every Texas Tech fan tells that story – especially when things aren’t going so well – and so, even if you didn’t personally witness the miraculous throw and catch, you know the story well.
Yet there might be a story we are not sharing so well…
…and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Judges 2:10
Are we passing down a knowledge of and a love for God like we are other things? Do my kids know my story with God as much as they know my story of 9/11 or the Red Raiders? It’s my responsibility to make sure my family and the next generation knows the story of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Here’s what we need to be about:
1. Sharing our story of faith in Christ
Our story of salvation is part of our family’s story of salvation. The more others hear our story of faith, the more likely they are to experience their own faith story. If we can’t share our story with our family, who can we share it with.
2. Taking every opportunity to point to Christ
We must look for teaching moments in every minute of every day. When we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise. God gives us opportunities each and every day that we can seize and use to point others toward Christ.
3. Showing Jesus by the way we live
The greatest enemy to real faith might well be our spiritual activities - reading the Bible, praying, attending church, etc. Those are all good things and we should be doing them. But if we are not living out faith in our everyday lives, others pick up on that. We can’t just post our faith on our walls, we must be living it in the halls.
What story are you sharing today? Everyone loves a good story. Let’s make sure we are sharing the most important one!
Ryan Smallwood
.svg)