A bedtime story

Tonight I watched a movie with my family called Bedtime Stories. It had Adam Sandler as the main character and he inherits his sisters kids for the week. The Background is his dad owned a failing hotel but never let his son in on it and always read him elaborate bedtime stories. But one night his father sells the hotel to a man who promises that if Adams character shows promise he can one day run the hotel. When Adam's character puts the children to bed they ask for a bedtime story and he begins to recite one for them but the kids add a twist to the end of the story and the twist they add always seems to come true in Adam's characters life, like gum balls raining from the sky, him rescuing a damsel in distress, and Abe Lincoln showing up underneath the boardwalk. Overall a great movie; no bad language, no hidden agenda, and something you can watch with your family without feeling ashamed of what you have just subjected your family to.

After the movie ended I decided to tell my kids a bedtime story, it was one they had heard before in fact one they hear most every night. It was a story about a King stepping down from his throne and coming to live among the people in which he had invested so much in. He didn't come in a way that the people would recognize him though he came in the form of the King's son, royalty disguised as a commoner. People had talked about him doing this for years prior to the event taking place but the people grew tired of hearing the story and begin to live their lives as though there was no King and that there was no hope of ever being rescued by a King.

In the same way that people had been told about years before, the King came, but few accepted it as the truth. The King made no fuss though, he went to school, he practiced his faith, and he trained to work the same way everyone else did. As he lived, he experienced the same things that every one else experienced. In adulthood, he went to see a relative who baptized him in keeping with the story that had been told and the wishes of the King. Then there came a time when the King began to tell a select few that he was in fact the King, in all 12 followed him and believed that he was in fact the King. As the King went around and began to tell people that he was the King, there were many skeptics but the King welcomed them all, proving over and over again by healing the sick, aiding the poor, giving hope to the hopeless, and telling people the truth about their transgressions, showing that he was in fact the King. While all this was going on, there were others plotting behind his back attempting to dissuade the people from believing he was the King they had heard about for so long. Eventually, one of the King's 12 would turn against him handing him over to these Pharisees of sorts, who would push for the King's execution and eventually have their requests granted, mind you the King had never done anything wrong, he had not spoken an idle word, not falling prey to the traps that were set before him and he had not done one immoral thing in his entire life. They would take the King to be killed and after his death had him buried in a borrowed tomb. 3 days later when some ladies went to properly care for their King, they found that he was not there and would later have an encounter with the King, as if he had never left them. The King also showed himself to some of the others who believed him and handed over the power he had as King to them to go and continue his work he had started. The message they would be taking was a message of love, hope, and forgiveness. A message that would bring men to their knees and free slaves from bondage; it was the message the people so desperately longed to hear. It was a message of salvation provided by the only one that could provide it, as he had promised to do, The King!

Today, you can receive that same gift of love, hope, and forgiveness as this is the story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is much more than a bedtime story, it is a story for the ages and story that brings salvation to every man, woman, and child. I wonder if today is the day you would receive your King?

student leadership: forgiveness? do i have to??

student leadership: forgiveness? do i have to??

Chosen

Today as I was studying for an upcoming lesson I came across a verse that I have read hundreds of times but it had new meaning today. The verse was John 15:16, it reads; 16 You did not chose me, but I chose you and appointed you.... this is just the first half of the verse and the rest is equally encouraging however, this first half is the part that really struck me.

I was thinking about all the people of the world out there who were never picked for a sports team or at the very least never picked first, all the people who were told they could not do something because of their size, whether to big or to small or because they weren’t smart enough or pretty enough or whatever else it may have been that kept them from participating in that particular event.

As I read this verse it occurred to me that there is One who chose us before we were even really “us”. One who looked at every individual and said you are worth the cost and you can be on my team! There is none that has ever lived that is not included in this. In the world today we are classified and labeled and put into categories and sub-categories, but there is One who loves, accepts, and welcomes us just as we are. Big, small, smart, goofy, quirky, temperamental, flawed, fun, outgoing, sheltered, damaged, shy and whatever else you might feel you are, there is One who has chosen you and appointed you.

This One didn’t just say okay you can be on my team, He says you are significant, you matter, you are my plan A and it isn’t because of who you are but it is all about who He is. You have been chosen and appointed, are you living like it?