1949AFC120619 – It’s the Same Old Story
Read it online here, please. And please, when you visit there, use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Romans 15:4 – 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd! Can you believe it’s December already? It is often said that as we age life seems to go by faster and faster. When we were kids, summer was always too short (well, for most kids, but not for me – I wanted to be back in school). It seemed to take forever to have another birthday. Church service was lo-o-o-o-ong, and coffee-and-donuts after was short. We never wanted to go visit my parents’ friends, but when it was time to go home hours later, we threw a fit and wanted to stay. Does any of this sound like a familiar story? I’m sure we all have memories like these – memories of time dragging along, time spent with our chums – or later on with our romancer. As we get older, we find genuine pleasure and sometimes gales of laughter in the time spent retelling some of these memories with or about family, or perhaps with longtime friends, or new acquaintances. In our house – the Land of the Todd Tribe in Denver – a lot of those story-telling events occurred with people we knew at Corona Presbyterian Church. Mostly they were stories about things people had done, or places they had gone. Sometimes, though, they were about moments of trial or danger, or stories of faith, and even at times stories about the Bible and how it affected our lives. 
My very first “public speaking experience” was one of telling a Bible story – the story of Jonah and the Whale. In the Old Testament, the word for story is מִדְרָשׁ (midrash) {mid-rawsh’}, so I told the midrash of Jonah in front of several hundred people while standing on the dais at Corona Presbyterian. You can find out more about that disaster here. I loved reading, and I especially loved telling and retelling the stories I read. Most people these days don’t know anything about Tanzy and Bobbles on Fable Island, or The Water Nix. I could recite Simple Simon top to bottom, knew the stories of Siegfried (I called him Sig-FRIED like French Fried), Beowulf, and Reynard the Fox. Gulliver and Sinbad were favorite stories along with Saggy-Baggy Elephant, Babar, The Little Train that Could, Bongo the Bear, Lassie, Aladdin, the Velveteen Rabbit, “Br’er Rabbit,” and on and on. I loved the stories of Jonah and The Great Fish, Moses and the Bush, Jacob and the Angel and the Ladder, David and Goliath, Jonathan and David, the Nativity Story, Jesus in the Temple, Psalm 138, and all the Gospel Parables and accounts of Jesus’ preaching, teaching, healing, dying, and rising. By now, all of you know that much of my past centered around the hymns and Gospel songs we sang at Corona. I’ve put bunches of those links in previous posts, so let’s talk about the story behind the posts and the stories about the stories.
These posts are the stories of my story with Jesus and his Church. It is a way for me to testify about how God has shaped my life – given me my life. Sometimes I get to share your stories – especially your prayer requests (which is one of the main reasons we have this outlet on the Internet). Music has always been a top activity in my story. From marching around the room to Big John and Sparky with Yehudi to the 12-inch 78 rpm records my Gramma gave me to the coral-colored transistor radio I got in the seventh grade to the Children’s Choir and Sunday School, and Concert Choir, the Folk Song Club, my guitar and dulcimer, always, always, always there is music, music, music. That strange little guy in the back right-hand corner of my brain is always playing something. If there is music coming from any source, I cannot help but listen to it. That is especially true if it is music in related in any form or fashion to His Story the story of Jesus. So, Belovéd, I’m going to risk sending you into the listening booth. If you’re at work, you might want to find your ear-buds; however, if you are at home or at the beach or in the mountains, go ahead and PUMP UP THE VOLUME.
Tell Me the Old, Old Story (↔ Music Link) From the Corona and Two-by-Two days
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus (↔ Music Link) I still sing this one when I need pepping up
I Love to Tell the Story (↔ Music Link) I like the traditional arrangement better than the contemporary, overly orchestrated versions
Tell Me The Story Of Jesus (↔ Music Link) A close relative of my pep-up song
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (↔ Music Link) Gramma’s favorite was The Old Rugged Cross
Shadrach (↔ Music Link) I sang Armstrong’s version for years.
Blessed Assurance (↔ Music Link) This and Jesus Loves Me are great ways to start your day, remember?
I don’t want to take up much more of your time, but I do want to make a point related to today’s Key Verse:
His Story can be, should be, would be, could be part of our story if the Spirit of God is within us (See Romans 8:9). So what I write is because whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. 
I’m not going to take up any more of your day because I want you to give as much of it as you can (and Belovéd that means 100% of it) to God. Play the music. Find more music. Send me links to your favorites. Let me know what you felt listening to this handful of my favorites. This is a short-short post with a long-long message. Tell the story for others to hear, hear the stories others tell, and make The Greatest Story the Story of Our Faith in God and each other. I love you, Jesus loves you more, and that should be good enough for everyone.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Aloha Friday Message Mercy Series
Mercy Series – Part 2 of 4
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
1949AFC120619 – It’s the Same Old Story
Read it online here, please. And please, when you visit there, use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Romans 15:4 – 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd! Can you believe it’s December already? It is often said that as we age life seems to go by faster and faster. When we were kids, summer was always too short (well, for most kids, but not for me – I wanted to be back in school). It seemed to take forever to have another birthday. Church service was lo-o-o-o-ong, and coffee-and-donuts after was short. We never wanted to go visit my parents’ friends, but when it was time to go home hours later, we threw a fit and wanted to stay. Does any of this sound like a familiar story? I’m sure we all have memories like these – memories of time dragging along, time spent with our chums – or later on with our romancer. As we get older, we find genuine pleasure and sometimes gales of laughter in the time spent retelling some of these memories with or about family, or perhaps with longtime friends, or new acquaintances. In our house – the Land of the Todd Tribe in Denver – a lot of those story-telling events occurred with people we knew at Corona Presbyterian Church. Mostly they were stories about things people had done, or places they had gone. Sometimes, though, they were about moments of trial or danger, or stories of faith, and even at times stories about the Bible and how it affected our lives. My very first “public speaking experience” was one of telling a Bible story – the story of Jonah and the Whale. In the Old Testament, the word for story is מִדְרָשׁ (midrash) {mid-rawsh’}, so I told the midrash of Jonah in front of several hundred people while standing on the dais at Corona Presbyterian. You can find out more about that disaster here. I loved reading, and I especially loved telling and retelling the stories I read. Most people these days don’t know anything about Tanzy and Bobbles on Fable Island, or The Water Nix. I could recite Simple Simon top to bottom, knew the stories of Siegfried (I called him Sig-FRIED like French Fried), Beowulf, and Reynard the Fox. Gulliver and Sinbad were favorite stories along with Saggy-Baggy Elephant, Babar, The Little Train that Could, Bongo the Bear, Lassie, Aladdin, the Velveteen Rabbit, “Br’er Rabbit,” and on and on. I loved the stories of Jonah and The Great Fish, Moses and the Bush, Jacob and the Angel and the Ladder, David and Goliath, Jonathan and David, the Nativity Story, Jesus in the Temple, Psalm 138, and all the Gospel Parables and accounts of Jesus’ preaching, teaching, healing, dying, and rising. By now, all of you know that much of my past centered around the hymns and Gospel songs we sang at Corona. I’ve put bunches of those links in previous posts, so let’s talk about the story behind the posts and the stories about the stories.
These posts are the stories of my story with Jesus and his Church. It is a way for me to testify about how God has shaped my life – given me my life. Sometimes I get to share your stories – especially your prayer requests (which is one of the main reasons we have this outlet on the Internet). Music has always been a top activity in my story. From marching around the room to Big John and Sparky with Yehudi to the 12-inch 78 rpm records my Gramma gave me to the coral-colored transistor radio I got in the seventh grade to the Children’s Choir and Sunday School, and Concert Choir, the Folk Song Club, my guitar and dulcimer, always, always, always there is music, music, music. That strange little guy in the back right-hand corner of my brain is always playing something. If there is music coming from any source, I cannot help but listen to it. That is especially true if it is music in related in any form or fashion to His Story the story of Jesus. So, Belovéd, I’m going to risk sending you into the listening booth. If you’re at work, you might want to find your ear-buds; however, if you are at home or at the beach or in the mountains, go ahead and PUMP UP THE VOLUME.
Tell Me the Old, Old Story (↔ Music Link) From the Corona and Two-by-Two days
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus (↔ Music Link) I still sing this one when I need pepping up
I Love to Tell the Story (↔ Music Link) I like the traditional arrangement better than the contemporary, overly orchestrated versions
Tell Me The Story Of Jesus (↔ Music Link) A close relative of my pep-up song
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (↔ Music Link) Gramma’s favorite was The Old Rugged Cross
Shadrach (↔ Music Link) I sang Armstrong’s version for years.
Blessed Assurance (↔ Music Link) This and Jesus Loves Me are great ways to start your day, remember?
I don’t want to take up much more of your time, but I do want to make a point related to today’s Key Verse:
His Story can be, should be, would be, could be part of our story if the Spirit of God is within us (See Romans 8:9). So what I write is because whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. I’m not going to take up any more of your day because I want you to give as much of it as you can (and Belovéd that means 100% of it) to God. Play the music. Find more music. Send me links to your favorites. Let me know what you felt listening to this handful of my favorites. This is a short-short post with a long-long message. Tell the story for others to hear, hear the stories others tell, and make The Greatest Story the Story of Our Faith in God and each other. I love you, Jesus loves you more, and that should be good enough for everyone.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Aloha Friday Message Mercy Series
Mercy Series – Part 2 of 4
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
