Coming to the End of Know the Story, Live the Story

Can you believe we only have one more week left of our year-long series through the whole Bible? We started in Genesis, and we will wrap up in Revelation this Sunday. We have covered a lot of ground! From CREATION and humanity's intimacy in relationship with the Creator to the FALL of humanity due to sin. From the FALL we moved to God's unfolding plan for REDEMPTION. This REDEMPTION came through God choosing Abraham and setting aside his descendants, Israel, to be the megaphone to the world of God's plan for salvation. Through Israel and, in particular, King David, God would raise up a Messiah, his Son, who would come to redeem not only Israel but the whole world! 

Eventually, Jesus did come from David's line and would be this long-awaited Messiah, King, and Savior. Through Jesus--the Son of David and Son of God--God would enter into the world to address the issue of sin that separated humanity--and impacted all of God's creation--from the intimate relationship he desired. Thus, when salvation came through Jesus, the problem of SIN and DEATH was answered by his sacrifice on the cross. In addition, the church was now raised to be his megaphone to the world of this wonderful salvation. After Jesus ascended back to the right hand of God in heaven, he left his church with a mission to proclaim this good news to all the world by the power of his Holy Spirit.  Thus, all of history is pointing to the day when Jesus will return and finally bring with him justice upon the earth and once and for all RESTORE the whole of creation. 

So, in a nutshell, here is the story of the Bible: CREATION...FALL...REDEMPTION...RESTORATION. Of course, there is so much more that could be said, but this way of viewing the overall story of the Bible will help you keep in mind God's plan from beginning to end, his plan to bring us back to intimacy with him, unity with others, and harmony with all of creation.

I hope you'll join us this Sunday!

In Him,

Daren Penwell