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10 Stories for Teaching or PreachingMarch 19, 20201. Star FloatIn 2008 it rained for days and days in northern England. A family in Chester-le-Street went out for a walk. The 3-year-old daughter, Laura, wanted to jump in the puddles. So that’s just what she did. She ran toward a puddle at the side of the street and jumped! Then she disappeared. Laura’s parents ran over and quickly realized what had happened. There had been so much rain that the gutters were full and had popped off the grate cover. When Laura had jumped, she went right down the hole. Thinking quickly, the father, Mark Baxter, figured that the gutter emptied into the river 100 yards away. He ran as fast as he could, jumped into the river, and pulled out his little girl before it was too late. In an interview afterward, Mark said that worst-case-scenarios had come into his head. But he refused to think the worst. For her part, 3-year-old Laura said that when she found herself in the rushing water, she immediately did the “star float.” She had been taking swimming lessons and was taught to do that if she ever experienced unexpected danger.Source: N.T. Wright, After You Believe (New York: Harper One, 2010), 22-24.Possible Directions:Training in faith and discipleship enables us to rise to the occasion in a crisis.2. Give Your Excuses to GregGreg Stubbs is a small group leader for some young people at a church in Georgia. He has a big heart for youth. Not only is Greg a small group leader but he’s in the military. A few years ago he was deployed overseas. Thanks to modern technology Gregg was still able to keep in touch with the young people in his group by email. A mom was so impressed with this that she told the pastor, Andy Stanley. The next time Greg was home in Georgia, Andy asked him to join him at the front of the church as an example of setting priorities and serving others even when you have other important things going on. Then he said that if anyone felt they were doing too much or were too busy to serve, that they should come to the front of the church and give their excuses to Greg!Source: Andy Stanley, Making Vision Stick (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 41.Possible Directions: ServanthoodVolunteering3. A New HeartTara Storch’s daughter Taylor “was a popular and busy eighth grader. Taylor played volleyball and was in the band. She took the toughest classes. She made silly YouTube videos with her brother. But in the spring of 2010, a skiing accident took Taylor’s life. What followed was eventually every family’s worst nightmare: a funeral, a burial, a flood of questions and tears. Her parents decided to donate Taylor’s organs to needy patients. Few people needed a heart more than Patricia Winters. Her heart had begun to fail five years earlier, leaving her too weak to do much more than sleep. Taylor’s heart gave Patricia a future again.Taylor’s mom had only one request: she wanted to hear the heart of her daughter. She and her husband, Todd, flew from Dallas to Phoenix and went to Patricia’s home. The two women embraced for a long time, soon to be joined by Todd. After a few moments, Tara took a stethoscope, placed it against Patricia’s chest, and heart Taylor’s heartbeat again. “It’s so strong,” the mother whispered.“She is very strong,” Patricia assured.Mom and Dad took turns listening. They heard the still-beating heart of their daughter, even though in indwelled a different body.”Source: Max Lucado: Wild Grace (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012), 119-120.Possible directions: The indwelling of the Holy SpiritMax Lucado: “Grace is God as heart surgeon cracking open your chest, removing your heart, poisoned as it is with pride and pain, and replacing it with his own. His dream isn’t just to get you into heaven, but heaven into you.” (same reference)4. The Two-Dollar RingMattie Dixon didn’t have a will; she hadn’t taken care of anything in that way. She was eighty-nine when she died. She didn’t have any children; she was a widow, and she had some distant great-grandnieces, nephews, and cousins maybe. They didn’t attend the funeral; they didn’t really know her. They didn’t know what to do or what would happen to the house, the property and the mementos, or the personal effects. Finally, the taxes had to be paid; other bills had to be paid too. The auctioneer came, and strangers crawled around all over the personal effects of Mattie Dixon. There was her wedding ring, one of those heavy ones. When she was alive, if you said to her, ‘Mattie, I love that ring, I’ll give you a thousand dollars for it,’ she would turn that ring on her finger and say, ‘Fifty-six years of marriage, and you want to buy this? I wouldn’t sell you this for 10 million dollars!’ And the gavel of the auctioneer came down. “Sold. Two dollars.” Source: Fred Craddock, Craddock Stories (St. Louis: Chalice, 2001), 133-4.Possible Directions:The true value of things5. Chauffeur Knowledge vs Real KnowledgeIn 1918 Max Plank won the Nobel Prize for physics. As was sometimes customary back then he went on a speaking tour. He traveled Germany with his chauffeur giving lectures on Quantum Mechanics. Every night he gave the same lecture. His chauffeur commented that it had become very predictable. In fact, the material had become so familiar to him that he suggested that at their next stop in Munich he deliver the lecture instead of the professor! He would put on the lab coat, and Professor Plank would sit in the front row wearing the chauffeur’s cap. Plank liked the idea so they went for it. It actually went very well… until the question and answer period. As you might expect, someone asked a question that was beyond what the masquerading chauffeur had memorized. So this is how he responded: “Never would I have thought that someone from such an advanced city as Munich would ask such a simple question! My chauffeur will answer it.”Source: Rolf Dobelli, The Art of Thinking Clearly (New York: Harper, 2013), 46.Possible Directions:Overhearing things about faith vs. personal knowledge and transformation HypocrisyAuthenticity 6. Four-Inch Knife BladeLi Fuyan was a having unstoppable headaches. Nothing helped. But an x-ray revealed the problem. Stuck in his head was a rusty 4-inch knife blade! Four years earlier he was attacked by a robber resulting in cuts on the right side of his jaw. Apparently the blade had broken off inside his head, but he didn’t know about it!Source: Re-told from: Max Lucado, Wild Grace (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012), 101.Possible Directions: What would we find if we had an x-ray of our soul?7. A Win-Win PlayoffThere was a 30 year-old truck driver who had his whole future ahead of him. Life was smooth sailing. But one day while driving he got pains in his chest. At the hospital he found out that a malignant tumor was wrapped around his heart. It was complicated to say the least. But through the treatment and surgery his attitude amazed the doctors and nurses at the University of Michigan. In the midst of what would make many people crumple on the floor, he was incredibly positive. Apparently the size of the hope in his heart was bigger than the tumour wrapped around his heart. They asked him how he could have such a great attitude even though he was threatened with death. So he told them about his faith in Jesus. Even still, they didn’t hold out much hope and said that only a miracle could save him. He looked at them and said: “Docs, I’m in a win-win play-off. If I live I win. If I die I win.”Source: I’ve re-told this story as originally found in: Billy Graham, Nearing Home (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 84-85Possible Directions:Hope, perspective, eternal life, faith8. Missing MaryThere was a young boy who really wanted a new BMX Bike for Christmas. But his parents knew it was expensive and weren’t keen on it. One night his mom even caught him praying about it. She criticized him because there were so many other things he should be praying about instead. The next morning the mom went downstairs and admired their beautiful nativity scene. But she saw that something was wrong with it. The wise men and shepherds were there. So were Joseph and Jesus. But Mary was missing. She went closer and noticed a note where Mary would normally be. The note said, “Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again, you had better get me that BMX bike.”Source: Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You A Story: Life Lessons from Unexpected Places and Unlikely People (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000), 60.Possible Directions: Is our faith about getting what we want, or pursuing what God wants?9. It’s Never Too LateOn Christmas Eve 1992, a couple noticed something at the end of their driveway. It was a large object wrapped in plastic. Turns out, it was a wicker chair that had been stolen 18 years earlier! Attached to it was a note which read:“To whom it may concern: Approximately 13 to 17 years ago my husband stole this wicker chair from the porch of this house. I am ashamed of this behaviour and am returning this stolen item. I have since been divorced from my husband and have since been “born again.” My life has completely changed and I want to undo any wrongdoing to the best of my ability… I realize the cowardly fashion in which I am returning this, but the reason is obvious. I will not bother you again. Please forgive us.”This person had a burden on their heart for many, many years. But that didn’t stop them from doing something about it. They still needed to put something right after all that time.Source: Re-told from: Kyle Idleman, Grace from the Cross (Grand Rapids: BakerBooks, 2018), 62-63.Possible Directions:Forgiveness, repentance, grace 10. Slow and SteadyIn 1911 two explorers and their respective teams set out on a 1400 mile journey to be the first in modern times to reach the South Pole. Roald Amundsen was the leader of the first team. Robert Falcon Scott led the other team. They were pretty much equally matched, but had different strategies. Scott, the leader of the first team, traveled based on the weather conditions. If it was sunny they went further—sometimes up to 50 miles in a day. That’s a lot. But if it was stormy, they didn’t travel very much at all. But Amundsen, the leader of the second team, had a different approach. He and his team would travel 15 to 20 miles a day no matter what. Rain or shine, 15 to 20 miles. Sometimes his team would complain by saying that they should go further when the weather was good, or not travel at all if it was bad. But he refused to listen. They needed to be consistent. Do you want to know who got there first? Amundsen’s team. This was the second team who took consistent approach, day in and day out. They beat Scott’s team by thirty-four days. Not only that, but on the return trip, every one of the members of Scott’s team died.Possible directions:ConsistencySpiritual disciplinesPerseverance ................
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