THE “HEART” OF THE STORY
Hope Mwemba
Midland SDA Church
September 3, 2016
Scripture reading: Hebrews 12:1-3
Story telling – Purposes:
1. Teaching and learning purposes
2. Encouragement for others
3. Inspiration
In academia story telling is used for interprofessional teaching especially in the health care field with the purposes of promoting critical thinking skills in students.
Since a patient is seen by multiple health care professional throughout his/her hospital stay, stories help the care providers decide at which point they should intervention.
The point is to tell the patient’s story and let the health care providers decide the point of intervention and what type of intervention with the purpose of optimizing patient care outcomes.
Again, purposes of storytelling in health care;
1. Communication
2. Streamlining patient care
3. Optimizing patient care outcomes
In our spiritual walk, storytelling is used for similar purposes but most of all for the purposes of;
Drawing us closer to Christ, character building, making us more like our savior, to remind us of His love for us!
Paul states in 2 Timothy 3:16 That “All scripture is God Breathed (inspired by God) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (NIV translation).
The stories I picked to share with you are stories I hope and pray will have you re-think your current relationship status with God and those around you.
The first: is the one on prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer
(In Hosea chapter 1 from verse 1-11) God tells Hosea to go and marry Gomer an adulterous woman and Hosea obeys the command.
Hosea has children with this woman whose names God provides which no one would have agreed to because the names symbolized God’s anger. Their names represented God’s increasing judgement against Israel’s adultery and idolatry.
Tonga (Zambian from the Tonga tribe) names, are given to children according to the situation during the time of birth. Their African names always mean something and you can tell where someone is from by their name. Examples are; WHY, GARDEN, ABSENT, ACCIDENT, MAY, REJOICE, MEAKNESS, HAPPY, etc.
Now back to Hosea’s story, First, comes punishment (Jezreel – son =I will soon punish Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel)
Jezreel is a place mentioned back in a historic incident found in 2nd Kings 9-10 where King Jehu slaughtered a wicked king and all his associates.
Hosea lived to see his prediction of punishment on Jehu’s house come to fruition when the last king of Jehu was murdered in 2nd Kings 15: 8-12
Then, a loss of love (Lo-Ruhamah - daughter= not loved)
And finally, total divorce (Lo-Ammi – son =not my people)
The story is that Hosea was not sure if the last two children were his. However, his wife continues to be restless and decides to leave him and go and live with her lovers.
Think about his heart break!!!
· In Chapter 2:2 of the book of Hosea, he pleads with her not to leave
· In verse 3, he threatens to disinherit her, but still she chose to leave him
Why would a loving father allow such pain to occur…..yet still ask Hosea to go and buy his wife back and love her again??
The heart of the story is that Hosea was obedient and second, God used him to illustrate His love for Israel, for us and His plan of salvation.
How the story relates to us;
Hosea paid (in chapter 3 verse 2) fifteen shekels of silver and thirteen bushels of barley. God continues to pursue us even today, with all our sins, He reminds that the price was paid at Calvary and all we have to do is accept Him in our hearts. Hosea knew His Lord and obeyed Him knowing He would make sense of what He was doing through him.
How many parents would allow their son to go through what Hosea went through? This was total obedience and complete surrender to the Lord!
Jesus used parables as well as stories to illustrate his teachings. But I want us to talk about “His story” as told in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I would like for us to focus on His passion to save the lost. His desire to reconcile us to His father. His story is a redemptive story and “the heart” of all stories.
Let’s take the story of Mary Magdalene
*Mary Magdalene had a sister named Martha and a brother called Lazarus.
According to New Testament scholars, the woman referred to as “woman” in the story of the woman who was caught in the act, was Mary Magdalene. The Bible never mentions her by name but scholars believe that the story found only in the Gospel of John, was Jesus’ first encounter with her.
Other places in the Bible also refers to Mary as “a woman” like in Luke 7:37 and perhaps due to the circumstances in which she met Jesus, she became a devoted disciple of Jesus and to protect her identity John decided to write her story in a more anonymous format to protect her reputation.
New Testament scholars believe that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany mentioned in the gospels are the same Mary because;
· Neither of them were married
· Both had bad reputations
· Both had money and had the same name
Read through the following verses;
Matthew 27:56
Mark 15:40
***Narrate the story from when she was found in the act and barely dressed and paraded in the street to the temple where Jesus was teaching.
The story is found in John 8:2-11
*Talk about the plot to have Jesus stumble…regarding sin
*Talk about how some of us might have loved ones just like her
Results of Mary’s Transformation
1. She fell hard for the savior because she could not comprehend how this teacher chose not to judge her but forgave her and told to go and sin no more.
2. She saw compassion, love and such Grace, or such grace! *Mary finally met a man who loved her for her “soul” and not her body!
3. She sought to hear his teachings at every opportunity to the point of risking her relationship with her sister Martha
4. She risked it all by pouring her alabaster oil on Jesus’s feet and wiping it off with her hair.
“The heart of the story”
*Nothing compares to the best story ever told!
The four gospels found in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) gives us a unique perspective of Jesus’ life. The first three where written within a period of 5 year (AD. 55-65) hence the recording of Jesus’ life in a similar view but because John took some time to think and reflect on the life of Jesus, and through the direction of the holy spirit he wrote (almost 35 years later), the story with interpretations of what everything meant.
The Heart of all four gospels is that God sent His son who came in human form and died for our sins to redeem us from eternal condemnation!
· Jesus was born in a manger,
· Walked among us as a human being,
· Was tempted,
· Arrested, mocked,
· Beaten and killed on the cross so that we can have eternal life through Him. If you are down in your pits and need a “lift me up” type of story, this is the one, the heart of all the stories!!
We read in Hebrews 12:1-3 that we should not grow weary because Christ already endured the cross (read it again), and overcame death.
God’s stories begin in the past and stretches into eternity future. Human beings are story-shaped creatures. We are born into stories, raised in stories, live and die in stories.
Whenever we have to answer a big question — who am I, why am I here, what should I do, what happens to me when I die? —we tell a story.
The “heart” of the story, is the story of God’s love for his creation, and all other stories are to be measured against it. The single best way of cultivating your faith and living a faithful life, is telling a story in which you are a character (some of you might call it a testimony)
If faith were primarily an idea, the intellect alone might be adequate for dealing with it. Since it is instead a life to be lived, we need a story. A Story engages all of what we are — mind, emotions, spirit and body.
Faith calls us to live in a certain way, not just to think in a certain way. It is no surprise, then, that the central record of faith in human history opens with an unmistakable story signature: “In the beginning…”
*Encourage one another as we face end times through stories
1 Thessalonians 5:1 – 11= Talks about building each other up as we wait to join our savior in a pain or death free world. Stories can be shared for such purposes!
2 Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen
3 Hebrews 10:23-25 (encouraging one another toward love and good deeds)
“Encouragement is an essential way of extending grace to one another” May the heart of your story be one that will draw others to Christ!