|
|
Would That All Were Prophets
Day of Pentecost
Go to the full installment
|
|
|
What's Up This Week
LPentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. No longer would humanity be separated from God, having to pass through a veil to enter his presence. Now, God is present in the hearts of every believer through the Holy Spirit. Frank Ramirez offers an illustration of how the Spirit is for everyone and not a privileged few in "Would That All Were Prophets." Along with the presence of the Spirit came the gifts of the Spirit. John Sumwalt offers a humorous example of one of those gifts in "A Ducky Miracle."
* * * * * * * * *
Would That All Were Prophets
Frank Ramirez
Numbers 11:24-30
And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!" But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!"
-- Numbers 11:27-29
Simon Winchester is a science writer beyond compare, able to take the most difficult subjects and make them not only understandable but fascinating and compelling. He does this by telling stories, and taking the larger story apart and finding other stories inside.
In his book, The Professor and the Madman, Winchester told the story of the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary, a massive feat that took decades to publish, in part by focusing on the contributions made by an American who was in a British prison for the criminally insane for having murdered an Irishman after suffering what we would call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder while serving as a physician during the Civil War.
In Krakatoa, he made the unimaginable catastrophe imaginable by telling the story through the eyes of witnesses, both those who barely survived as well as those who saw its effects months later and thousands of miles away.
But the story I want to talk about is in his book The Map That Changed The World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. It tells the story of a special map, eight by six feet, which single-handedly created a brand new science. Most scientific advances are the work of many people, perhaps thousands working together on a project, and these advances often require immense resources. The map that changed the world by creating the brand new science of geology was made by a single person who worked alone: a canal digger named William Smith. In 1793, Smith noticed that no matter where he went in England, the same layers of rock appeared in the same order.
In Smith's day, science was something that was dabbled in by the rich and the nobility. They were the ones who were allowed to form scientific societies and publish papers. Their discoveries were the ones that mattered.
>> More
>> Subscribe to StoryShare
|
What is StoryShare?
StoryShare is a treasure house with hundreds of good stories to share, stories which relate authentic, life-changing experiences that demonstrate the Lord's power and presence. Many are intensely personal accounts that concern visions, healing, or answers to prayers, but all bear witness to the indescribable joy, comfort and peace that come from a personal encounter with the divine. Our "Good Stories" section includes short fiction, parables much like those Jesus told.
Can I share stories that I have?
Yes, you can. You have good stories to share too, probably more than you know: personal stories, and stories from others that you have used over the years. StoryShare is always looking for "vision stories," stories involving personal experiences of the presence of God. Have you or someone you know heard the voice of God or been healed as a direct answer to prayer? If you have a story that you can share, especially about extraordinary spiritual experiences of ordinary people, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here (share-a-story@csspub.com) and email your story to us.
>> Subscribe to StoryShare
|
|
|
|
