God's Story your story

     I've been reading quite a good deal in 2012, and I'm loving it.  My bit of leisure time is the silver lining to each day, but If I could find a way to read, knit, exercise and talk with Brad all at once, my days would be overflowing!  Instead, I value the richness of each of these pastimes whenever I can work them in. 

     This weekend, I spent a little time reading God's Story your story by Max Lucado.  Unlike the last Lucado book I read, one I owned and therefore ambled through, this one belongs to the library.  So I have to get through it with a quicker pace.
     I wish I could tell you all of it, that's how highly I recommend this book. Since seeing Max at The Story concert in December, I can hear his voice as I read, and that makes his writing all the better.  I hear a pastor sharing a good story with each chapter.
     However, I can't retell the whole thing, so I'm going to share two bits from it with you.  Only pages apart, they really struck me.
     The first is from a letter written around 120 A.D. when people were already and still working to refute the Truth of Christ, His miracles and His resurrection:
     "...a man named Quadratus wrote the emperor Hadrian, defending Christianity.  His apologetic included this sentence: 'The works of our Saviour were lasting, for they were genuine:  Those who were healed and those who were raised from the dead were seen...not merely while the Saviour was on earth, but also after his death; they were alive for quite a while, so that some of them lived even to our day.'"
     After reading this, and reminding myself Quadratus would have lived when people were still around who witnessed Jesus on Earth, I recalled a sermon from church. Back when I was a new believer.  Pastor Dave at Community shared a message, "CSI," in which he detailed the lack of evidence Jesus' disbelievers provided the world with back then.  If there was a body, don't you think they would have dragged it through the streets to disprove His waking from the dead?  After the soldiers drew lots for His clothing, mocked Him with a crown of thorns, and crucified Him, parading His body through the streets to prove He had truly and forever died was not beyond those folks.
    But of course, they couldn't, because there was no body.  Already following Him were people like this letter's author, people who were compelled to share the Truth.  How could they not evangelize?
     How can I not? 
     The second tale to resonate with me was about a man I'm told sits on a branch in our family tree, Winston Churchill.  As a believer, it was essential to Mr. Churchill that the following be done at his funeral, so certain he was to be waking up in a new and better place after death.  First, a lone trumpeter played "Taps," to signify the end of this day.  Then immediately following, the song "Reveille," was to be blown to signify a new day, more importantly, a new beginning. What a wonderful and lasting witness from one of the most influential men of the 20th century.
     Can you hear those songs?  As sorrowful as it is to hear "Taps," to hear "Reveille," immediately following would be incredibly uplifting and Truth filled.
     The whole of this book is affirming.  The little anecdotes used to tell the story are remarkable.