Rev. Ray and Pat Amos
MARK 8:18
“Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?”
“FAITHFULNESS TO HEAR, SEE, HONOR AND REMEMBER”
Sometimes I am asked, “How do you remember so much about days so long ago?” I can easily answer that question; It was because people told stories, and they were good at it. To me, life was richer without all the gadgets that have closed our ears and memory. Do you remember when we remembered, multiplication tables, Bible verses, important quotes in history, and a long list of other things (even our phone number)?
Many of us grew up with storytelling as a part of our lives. I was around some of the best storytellers ever, and all I had to pay was attention. It was not only entertainment, but a way of preserving the family history. You handed it down to the next generation as a sacred trust. What happens to us when our story stops being told? Then our stories are soon lost in the sea of forgetfulness.
“Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the earth.” A nation was being told that if they would remain the people of God on this earth, they would have to honor their God given heritage (their story). We are witnessing firsthand in America what happens when a Christian heritage is no longer honored.
What happens when generations of Christian families suddenly cease to honor their faith? In the Bible it was a dreaded thing for the family to be “cut off” and no longer a part of the chain. That is happening far too often in what were once Christian homes.
Jesus told the healed demoniac to stay at home and tell what wondrous things that God had done for him. Isaiah wrote that, “The fathers tell their children about God’s faithfulness.” Do our children and grandchildren know the story of our faith? It is their story too.
There is something about a story that meets a need of the heart. Take some time to go back and sit on memory’s porch. Remember where you came from, and the people along the way. Sit once again in that little country church, or the big one downtown. Can’t you hear the voices singing, “I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because I know ’tis true; It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.”
I love to tell the story, for those who know it best, seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song, ‘twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.”
Grace and Peace, Rev Ray
“Link to YouTube Video – I Love to Tell the Story
