New Series: God's Story

This week I will be starting a series of talks on the story of God. In considering this idea of "story," how do you read a story?

Stories can be told different ways. Some start at the beginning and move forward in time. Some start at present time or even future and move backwards in time explaining why things have happened the way that they have. Some start in the present and then flashback to various points in the past to make sense of the present (where the story began). Consider the timelines of some of your favorite movies and stories. How are the stories told?

How does God tell His story through the books of revelation (God revealing Himself to mankind) that we call the Bible?

Sadly, most of the time in our selfish arrogance, we simply read God's story as if it is all about ourselves. I think the world revolves around me and so I must be at the center of the story. So then I read God's story through my perspective. I look backwards through the deep long lens of how people before me have understood the New Testament and Jesus. And then we use this framework to then explain everything that happened in the Old Testament as if it was just setting the stage for the main show: New Testament that then led to the most important scene in all of God's story: ME

How would people living in the day of the Old Testament or in other parts the world years ago feel about this way of seeing the story?

What if the story was meant to be read looking forward? God, a good creation, a created people who lost their innocence. Then a God who loved them and began revealing His love and ways to them in various forms: (poetry, law, prophecy, wisdom, and songs). Then from a particular culture, a chosen people, God came, Jesus emerged as the full revelation of God to all mankind. Many rejected Him and had him condemned to die on a cross (a crude means of capital punishment), but He was raised from the grave demonstrating His power of death. Now all who will follow his ways and teaching will be led to truth, freedom, and life (eternal). It is this story that I have been awakened to find myself in: God's Story. For more, see you Sunday at Pleasant View @ 11 AM.