Look at the entire bible from the
beginning to the end, and you will see that it is a story. We call it the story
of redemption. God’s rituals of communication tell how we were created in God’s
image, how we fell away into sin, how God worked in history to restore our
relationship to him. God worked through the patriarchs, through Israel, and
through the prophets. Finally God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ who
lived among us, He was rejected and crucified for our sake, overcame the power
of death by being resurrected from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will
return again to restore the created order and make it new.
The story extends from Genesis to
Revelations and on through your and my life. And REDEMPTION in God’s story is
the key through which all other stories of the Bible are to be understood.
Unfortunately, we often get lost in the
particulars of the stories of the O.T. or of the Gospels. We want to know the
moral of the story of Abraham or of Moses or of David of the prodigal son. But
forget the story is there to reveal God’s nature…the primary purpose of these
stories is not to teach morals or values (Although most do and we accept that).
The ritual acts of communicating in worship are to reveal God redeeming love
manifested ultimately in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The
parts and pieces serve the larger story as part of the plot and action, as well
as teach us how to live…
Romans 10:17 states, “Consequently,
faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word
of Christ.”
So, are you in God's story? If not, you need to be. You know I love ya, Don
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