God’s story.
 
Psalm 119 is an acrostic. The psalmist starts singing praises for God’s word with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and sings a praise beginning with every letter. It is as if he was saying, “From A to Z, your word, God, is perfect!” One of my favorite lines from that psalm is verse 162: “I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.” Most of us know the importance of God’s word. We know that it is sharper than any two-edged sword. We know it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We know to hide it in our hearts so we won’t sin against God. Nonetheless, God’s word doesn’t seem to make sense. Why did God give Israel all those laws about what not to eat? What does it matter that a boy killed a giant? What was all those things John saw in the Revelation—seals, horses, beasts, 666, etc.—really about? Other than some Psalms, sayings of Jesus, and the Letters, there seems to be few things that are relevant to our lives. I believe this is because we have failed to see the “big picture” of God’s story. Instead of asking “What does this mean to me?” we need to begin by asking “What does this say about God?” If we begin with God’s story, then we will begin to see how the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is relevant to the Christian. Beginning June 27th on Sunday nights, we will begin a journey through the entire Bible that will take only a short 9 weeks based on the book God’s Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts. I hope that everyone can join us and experience a transformation in their reading of the Bible that occurs when we understand God’s story. Bro. Josh Elk Lick News
June/July 2008