Have You Heard?

Have You Heard?

We were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes when he received honor and glory from God the Father.

2 Peter 1:16-17

Once upon a time there was a great storyteller named Mark Twain. One day he was talking about storytellers who persistently interrupt themselves to ask their listeners if they have already heard the story they are telling. Twain, being critical of those people, told of an encounter he had with the actor Henry Irving.

The actor asked Twain if he had heard a certain story.

“No,” replied Twain politely.

Irving proceeded with the story, but after a bit once again made the same inquiry: “Have you heard this story before?”

“No, I haven’t,” said Twain a little more emphatically.

Proceeding almost to the climax of his story, Irving again stopped to ask if Twain had heard the story previously.

Irked by this poor habit of Irving’s, Twain finally said, “I can lie once, I can lie twice for courtesy’s sake, but I draw the line there. I can’t lie the third time at any price. I not only heard the story, I invented it!”

Some people claim that the stories told about Jesus are fictional, made-up stories. Yet the people who told them proclaim that they were not “making up clever stories” when they related the tales about him because they “saw his majestic splendor” with their own eyes. They were, in fact, eyewitnesses—the most powerful kind of testimony used in a court of law today.

So you can be confident in telling the story of Jesus, knowing that the facts are true, the Man was real, and the God of heaven backs you up.

Father God, we love to tell the story of you and your Son. Please give us the courage to tell it to everyone we know so they, too, can find your grace and salvation. Amen.