EVERYONE HAS A PERSONAL STORY… AND EVERYONE IS PART OF A BIGGER STORY

Every people you encounter, every community you enter, and every culture you engage has a dominant story with many sub-stories. It is the dominant story that primarily shapes how we perceive God, ourselves, others, relationships, and all of life.

Your Story

How you answer the following questions echos what you truly believe and the overarching narrative that has shaped you.

Who am I? Why am I here? What do I look to, trust in, or depend upon for my worth? In what do I find my identity?

How come my best intentions often fail? Whom or what is the fundamental problem I blame for things that are broken in my life and the world in which I live?

To whom or what do I look for answers and solutions to the dilemma’s in which I struggle? Whom or what am I looking to as my savior to rescue or deliver me?

What might the world, and my life, look like when all is as it should be and who or what would be the focus? What is my hope for the future?

God’s Story

The Story of God, drawn from the pages of the Bible, has four broad movements enveloping all things—creation, rebellion, redemption, consummation.

Creation

(Genesis 1:1) God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the eternal Creator and Sustainer of all things. This means He gives value, meaning, and purpose to all that exists, and is the One for whom all things exist. Thus, we aren’t self-made people and we don’t determine our own core value, meaning, or purpose. Rather, it is God who determines and secures these for us so we can truly flourish. Moreover, He has the authority to hold us accountable to that for which He made us.

Rebellion

(Isaiah 53:6) The prime reason why the world is deeply broken and no longer in the originally good state in which God created it is because, in Adam and Eve, humanity has entered a willful state of rebellion against God. For this, we deserve judgment and death, and ultimately we will all stand before God as our judge.

Redemption

(John 3:16) Since human rebellion is ultimately against God, and since it is God who has turned humanity over to their desired rebellion, only God can rescue and deliver us from what we deserve. The good news is that, in unmatched holy love, God had already determined to rescue humankind, even speaking words of hope to Adam and Eve, and so to all the generations and peoples. He continued to foretell his plan of redemption over time through prophets of Rescuer who would come to live the perfect life we don’t and can’t live, die the death we deserve and could not otherwise avoid, and rise from the dead to overcome for us sin and sin’s penalty. It is Jesus Christ alone, the Son of God, who ultimately satisfied the righteous requirement of God for us and purchased for Himself a people who, by grace through faith, would be set apart for His work and worship.

Consummation

(Revelation 21:1-4) The good news doesn’t end with a forgiven people trying to make the world a better place! God’s plan is consummated in the return of Jesus Christ in a completely new heaven and new earth where sin, death, and destruction are forever removed and peace and love define how we relate to God, each other, and the rest of creation. Jesus will someday fully restore and be the center of all things—and all honor, praise, and glory will belong to Him. While we wait with hopeful anticipation for Him to return to fulfill His promise, He calls us to participate with him in the here and now to bring about healing and restoration as a foretaste of this future reality. Wherever people are living in submission to Jesus and His ways, serving and sharing the good news with others in the empowerment of His Spirit, future restoration is being experienced. Our lives of gospel service are like a movie trailer of what is to come when God’s kingdom is fully consummated.

Realigning Your Story within God’s Story

(Acts 16:31) In light of the continuous evil, suffering, and death characterizing us and our world, it couldn’t be clearer that our personal and cultural stories are wrong at critical points, which errors lead us to live in ways that unwittingly perpetuate the evil, suffering, and death we want to avoid.

Rather than perpetuating our grief generation after generation, we can realign ourselves with our Heavenly Father by believing in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord. Then, with the help of the Spirit in a believing community, the church, we can walk out the renewing process of repentance and faith. Simply reach out in prayer, ask, seek, and knock and you will be welcomed into His abundant saving love and grace.

If you would like to know more about the Christian Gospel, and of becoming part of our church, then please contact us.