I didn’t grow up in church. When I was a kid, every now and then my mother would get what I called a “wild hair” and would make my brothers, sister and I go. Sometimes she would go with us and sometimes she wouldn’t. Our family never really ventured to church enough for me to really understand the whole point of church. If you’d have asked me as a kid what church was about, I probably would’ve told you that church was a place where you had to sit still and quiet for a long time, except when the choir sang; then it was okay to clap and sing (if you knew the words, which I didn’t because we didn’t go to church that often). As a kid I probably would’ve went on to tell you about hearing preachers “hoop” and seeing people “catch the Holy Ghost.” That’s all church was for me. I didn’t know a thing about Jesus or salvation or anything like that, so when I accepted Christ when I was twenty-one, I pretty much came to the church as a blank slate as far as “church stuff” goes.
One of the first things that people told me I needed to do after accepting Christ was to read the Bible. Of course, I knew what the Bible was (sort of), but I don’t think I had ever cracked one open, even on one of my family’s random church excursions. So, someone gave me a King James Bible and told me to have at it. That lasted every bit of two minutes before I found myself confoundedly asking, What’s a ‘thee’ and who is ‘thou,’ and why do all these verbs end in ‘eth’? What’s up with that?” I quickly tossed the King James Bible to the side and started trying to figure out how I could be a Christian without reading the Bible. When I got hold of a New International Bible (NIV), things changed drastically. There were no more thee’s, no more thou’s, no more “eth’s.” Now I was able to better understand what I was reading, and what I found in the Word of God absolutely amazed me (still does).
I was told that I had to read the Bible to get to know God and to learn how He wanted me to live my life, so I expected the Bible to be a big book of “can’t do:” Can’t do this, can’t do that, and you definitely better not do that over there! I was so surprised to find that the Bible was anything but that. I found it absolutely amazing that there were stories in the Bible—lots and lots of stories! And I instantly fell in love with these stories. I love the stories of Esther and Ruth and Nehemiah and of Jesus Himself. I loved that these stories were so exciting. I love that they contained depth and held spiritual truths. And I loved that this is how God had chosen to reveal Himself to us—through stories in the Bible. How absolutely cool!
Here I am several, several years later, and I am still fascinated by the stories in the Word of God, and my ministry is to bring those stories to life on stage, so that God can speak to others through the truths contained in His Word.
One of my favorite stories in the Word of God is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). Jesus told this story, and it is a beautiful story about God’s redemptive love. Over the next few months, check out this blog as I and a few others discuss what makes the story of the prodigal so powerful. Then plan to join us on Sunday, April 16, 2017, at 10 a.m. at New Life World Outreach Center in Snow Hill, NC, as we bring this amazing story to life on stage. You won’t want to miss it.