July 8, 2008 by Matt.

David was anointed to be king when he was still a boy. I am not sure exactly how old he is, but it seems to be that we was a preteen, or maybe in his early teens. While this is when he was anointed to be king of Israel, it was many years later that he actually became king. When David was anointed to be king the current king was Saul. Sometime after David’s anointing Saul went crazy and became determined to kill David. So, David avoided several of Saul’s attempts on his life, and then finally fled. David then finds himself living with the Philistines. The Philistines were enemies of the Israelites. Most of you are probably familiar with the story of David and Goliath. Well, Goliath was a Philistine. David lived with his mortal enemies for some time before returning to his own people and becoming king.

This is where I feel I am. No, there is not somebody trying to kill me, and no I don’t feel that I am living with my mortal enemies. However, I can relate to the time between when David was anointed to be king and when he actually became king. I know that God has called me to full-time ministry, but in many ways I don’t feel any closer to that calling then when I first felt the call.

There is a part of me that longs to sell my house, pack up the family and go off to seminary. However, I am being told by many people that I trust that I really don’t need to do that. Plus, I can’t really uproot my family to do something that I WANT to do, but am sure God wants me to do.

Anyways, I guess this post was just so that I could unload a little. If you are one to pray, then pray for clarity; that I would know what direction God would have me to go.

I wonder did David ever find himself wondering if God really intended for him to be king of Israel. “God, if you really want me to be king of Israel, why am I living with the Philistines?” Ok, maybe he never actually asked that question, but I could see where he could have felt that way.

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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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