God and His Story

 At Lord of Life, where God has placed me at present to serve His people, we have been working through a curriculum called "The Story." This breaks down the biblical story into 30+ chapters, with a primary look at the lives of God's people in chronological order. It helps the reader to get a grasp of how God's story with His people unfolds. It does not seek to get into all the deep theological points, but rather presents the overview of His interactions with His people and their interactions with each other and the world around them.

Over the years, I have come to realize that there are many people who are faithful followers of Jesus, but perhaps miss how His life fits in with the overall story of God's people. We hear often of the different people of the Bible, but without putting them into their place in history, it can be challenging to place them, or to know who came first or who came later. This also has an impact when we hear God speaking to His people, such as through the prophets. Part of what makes their words impactful is the situation into which they spoke. That might mean that, at one part of history, God would have one message for His people, but at a different point in history, they might be doing something different, and so God spoke in an appropriate way for their current circumstances.

Understanding this history can help us get a growing perspective on just how patient and caring God is for His people. When you consider that, in a couple of different instances, God waited for hundreds of years to take action, it shows how long He is willing to wait, to give people a chance to change, to return to Him, and to remember what it means to be His people. A word from the old King James version sums this up nicely: long-suffering. God is willing to wait, far longer than you and I, to see His people change their hearts and minds.

That's why we look at the history of God's people. We also end up seeing ourselves reflected in their lives, even though they lived long ago and far away. We'll cover that in a future post. Until then, I hope you enjoy or make an effort to get to know God's story as it happened and learn from Him.