Bridging to Bible stories – trying to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead
A teaching course was being held in Cambodia and myself and a friend arrived three days early to see some of the country. We wanted to see the famous Angkor Wat. A friend arranged local transport and an English speaking guide. We prayed that in the course of the half-day that we would have some storying opportunities.
We visited three different sites and before the first one we asked some questions of our guide about his family and he asked us why we’d come to Cambodia.
“I’m a storyteller and we’ve come to train others in storytelling.”
“Oh, I like stories.”
“Hopefully we can tell you a story this morning.”
And we left it there while continuing to pray and to ask that the Lord would guide us to the appropriate stories and connections to what we would see.
As we looked at the carvings all over the ancient buildings we noticed two possible links. One was many carvings of snakes. Another was the common depictions of a Hindu god judging people and sending people to heaven or hell based on their deeds.
After Angkor Wat, as we traveled along in our open tuk-tuk, I said, “We know a story about a snake.” Starting at the creation story (summarised) and then in story form from Day 6 we told the Genesis 3 story.
The guides immediate response was , “That’s a good story.”
We had a short discussion as we went on to the next tourist site.
Back in the tuk-tuk again we said, “It is interesting that so many religions have an idea of heaven and hell, two places that are either terrible or wonderful. However, each religion has a different judge. It would seem to be really important to know the judge and also to know how he makes his judgements. Is the judge the Hindu god or is it Jesus? If it is Jesus, how does he make his judgements? Does he judge on the basis of whether we are good or bad or something else?”
After interacting with us on this topic we told the Pharisee and Tax Collector story followed by discussion about the kind of person that God accepts. Strangely enough it isn’t based on good deeds. We followed this up with the Thief on the Cross. The second thief is ‘judged’ to be able to go to Paradise even though he has been evil. Why? Because he recognises his own evil and unworthiness and Jesus’ perfection and Kingship in a Kingdom that is to come.
At sometime during this conversation we talked about how we can be sure of the outcome of the ‘judgement’ that is, how we will be accepted by God. How a ‘dead branch’ (see explanation of this illustration below) can gain new life?
Both myself and my friend felt that it was too much of a jump for our guide to understand who Jesus is and his death (we’d mentioned it briefly already) so I elected to tell the story of Noah as a ‘rescue’ story. We discussed how Noah escaped the judgement by trusting God’s method.
After these wonderful opportunities we gave the address of this website so he could listen to more stories. We also suggested he ask the tuk-tuk driver why he and his family had decided to leave Buddhism.
He responded by saying he would ask the driver for his personal story, and thanking us for telling him the stories.
Dead branch illustration
Imagine that in the beginning of Creation that Adam and Eve’s relationship to God was like a branch to a tree. They were the branch that relies on the roots and trunks for life. However, when they chose to rebel against God it was a declaration of independence. It was like the branch breaking itself off from the tree (this illustration works best if you break off a twig in front of people’s eyes). For a day or two the branch might still look green and alive but what is it’s problem?
Right, it will dry out and dry. It’s on the way to death. In the same way when Adam and Eve cut themselves off from God, they were now on the way to death.
So there’s the problem of the human heart. We’re born separated from the source of life, we’re born dead. We might look alive and energetic but in our heart/spirit we’re dry and dead. Now can a dry branch ever walk up to the tree and climb it and re-connect itself?
In the same way, no amount of religious activity or any activity is ever going to make us ‘come alive.’ Who is the only one with that power?
Yes, only the Creator. So the solution of how to raise us from the dead and re-connect us to him must be HIS solution. Keep listening to stories to hear how the Creator does this.
I find this illustration must be repeated many times when people try and tell me that they can DO something to re-connect with God. I pull out the dead branch and re-explain and eventually it seems to be understood.
