July 4, 2008 by Matt.

Wow, not a single guess. I bet there are some people out there that know the answer, but just chose not to post a comment. Just in case any of you didn’t know the man in our story is Moses. That’s right, Moses was adopted by Egyptian royalty, grew up in there home as one of their own. Then one day as Moses was walking he saw an Egyptian beating a Israelite. This enraged Moses and he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand to hide his crime. This is the same Moses that went on to lead the nation of Isreal out of captivity, recieve the 10 commandments, part the Red Sea and write the first 5 books of the bible.

So, God could take a man that was not even rasied by his biological parents, infact raised by the very people that had enslaved his own people; a man that would later become a murderer, and turn him into one of the most influential people in the world. The influence of Moses is still felt today; whether it is the 10 commandments hanging on the wall in the Supreme Court, or his writings in the millions upon millions of bibles that have been printed.

If you think you see an emerging trend in Story Time, you are correct. The Bible says, in Romans 3:23, “…for ALL HAVE SINNED and fall short of the glory of God.” I hope that through Story Time you might see that not only can God save you, regardless of how you have sinned, he can use you to do a mighty work. Many people would rank murder among the top of their bad list, Christian or not. Yet God took a Murderer, Moses, and used him to do such increadible things. The enemy would have us believe that there are certain sins that can’t be forgiven. That we have, somehow, been to bad for God to even forgive us, much less use us. And even if we don’t feel our sin is too bad to be forgiven, the enemy wants us to believe that we could never be used by God.

My goal here is to show that while the people in the Bible did amazing things for God, they were just normal, flawed people like me and you. And, if God can use them, he can use you and me as well.

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July 2, 2008 by Matt.

Ok, here we go again. Today our story is about a man, we’ll call him Steve. Not long after birth Steve was adopted by a very rich and prominent family. So, Steve grew up as a member of this family. However, he knew all along that he did not belong, he was from the other side of the tracks so to speak. One day while walking through town, he saw someone from his old neighborhood being beat up by someone from his new neighborhood. Enraged by this Steve killed the man.

Do you know who this man is?

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June 27, 2008 by Matt.

As my brother Adam pointed out, the man in this story is indeed Paul.

Many people are familiar with the story of Paul. However, for those of you that are not, here you go. Paul was originally named Saul. As Saul he spent most of his time persecuting the followers of Christ. In fact he was responsible for deaths of many of them. Then one day while traveling he was stricken blind by an encounter with God. He was given instructions to see a certain man who would heal his blindness.

Saul followed these instructions and received healing from his blindness, received a new name, (Paul) and received salvation in Christ. From here Saul now called Paul became a powerful follower of Christ. During the course of his ministry Paul was imprisoned on more then one occasion and was eventually put to death for his Christian beliefs.

We are indebted to Paul for having written a large portion of the New Testament. The books he wrote were letters that he sent to churches that he had started in different cities. In fact some of these letters were written while Paul was in prison, awaiting his execution.

So, let’s recap. Paul was so anti-Christian that he even went so far as to have many Christians killed. Yet God chose him to write a large portion of the New Testament that we read today.

 After his conversion he was thrown in jail on more then one occasion and knew that he was going to either die in prison, or be put to death. Yet he maintained hope and faith and continued to write letters instructing the early church.

So, what does this have to do with you or me. Well, I think that Paul’s story shows that no matter what kind of sin our past holds, God is willing to forgive us. In fact not only will He forgive us, he can use us in a mighty way to profit the kingdom. We can also learn from Paul that regardless of how bad things get, like being wrongly accused, thrown in prison, and sentenced to death, we can maintain faith and hope.

While we will all sin and ,therefore, all deserve death; very few of us will ever be guilty of the kinds of sins that Paul committed. So, if God was willing to forgive Paul, he will also forgive you. And if God would use Paul, he can also use you. Furthermore, while we will all suffer, few of us will find our selves beaten, flogged, imprisoned, and eventually put to death for our faith. So, while the enemy likes to tell you that your sin is unforgivable, or that your suffering if far to great and that all hope is gone, I think Paul shows us that we will be forgiven, we can be used and we can always have faith and hope.

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