“Life, you’ll notice is a story. Life doesn’t come to us like a math problem. It comes to us the way that a story does scene by scene, you wake up. What will happen next? You don’t get to know—you have to enter in, take the journey as it comes.” – John Eldredge
Have you ever sat in the presence of a grandparent, an older relative or an older person, and heard the stories they tell? I remember my wife’s grandmother. She could tell a story; stories about her difficult childhood; stories that kept you on the edge of your seat. Ma could tell a ghost story that kept you awake at nights or made you pray before you went to bed.
We all have a story. Our life is a story like Christian from the Pilgrim’s Progress. Our life is a journey, which can be told in the form of a story. For some of us, our story is either an adventure or a disaster; for others, it’s a love story and yet for others it is a fictional or a horror story. What is your story? Many Christians do not want you to know their life story. Some are ashamed about where they come from. Some are not proud of the things they have done, the places they have been, or of their associations before they came to Christ.
Have you ever read the biblical genealogy? If you are like me you find them very boring, but a genealogy tells the story of a family, like the story about the family of Jesus from Matthew chapter one:
“Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king.” (Mat. 1:5)
The story of Rahab the prostitute is one of those people from the Bible who have a great story, which God used to accomplish His purpose. Rahab gave up her former lifestyle and married a man by the name of Salmon, who became the father of Boaz. Boaz married a young widow who gave up all she knew to help her mother-in-law and gave birth to a son by the name of Jesse. Jesse was the father of the great King David, a man after God’s own heart. This former harlot by the name of Rahab is the great-great (many greats) grandmother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Like Jephthah, your life story may not have started under the best of circumstances: “Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. And Gilead was the father of Jephthah.” (Judg. 11:1) Jephthah was a great warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute, he was the result of an illicit affair his father had with a woman who was not his wife. The sons of Gilead his father rejected Jephthah and drove him out of his father’s house. He becomes an outcast. But when Ammon attacked Israel God used Jephthah to deliver his people. People may reject you because of your story, but God will not and does not reject those who come to him with a repentant heart. Listen to what David said when he made a mess of his life.
“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.” (Ps. 51:1-2)
I want to encourage you. It is not how your life story begins that matters, it’s how you finish your story that counts. Finally, never be ashamed to share your story. If God delivered you from a life of sin, turn the page and never be ashamed to share it. Remember that you overcome by the word of your testimony.
Purchase Bishop Jemmott’s books and sermons including his latest release entitled “Still Standing” here.