From church today: a quote and a word of praise, both related

Pastor Howard said, "When Jesus enters the story, the story changes."  He was preaching about the healing of the dude with a Legion of demons in gentile pig-country.  A hopeless situation (for the man) and a livelihood (for the pig-farmers) are utterly altered by Jesus' actions.  Both, in turn, had a story to tell.  The pig-farmers told the story, not of a man healed, but of their income drowning in the sea; the man's story filled people with amazement, as he was sent by Jesus as the first missionary to the Decapolis (Ten Cities), which, as it turns out, became a place of refuge for persecuted early Christians and is, according to my pastor, the most well-preserved church community in that area today.

So, "when Jesus enters the story, the story changes".  That brings me to the next thing:

Our church has been struggling financially this year.  A lot of people in our church are out of work.  But on the day after Christmas, with a snow-covered Charlotte and 60 people in attendance, $25,000 was raised by God's Spirit moving through those few people (we were not there, sadly!), which put us back on track financially.  

Jesus entered the story.

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