How a story ends matters, doesn’t it?
To Know Him and Make Him Known
Once Upon a Time
Before God’s happy ending for the world can come, the current dark spiritual forces that run the world must be dealt with. The Story tells us that Jesus will return to our earth to do just that, justly making war with these forces and defeating them forever so that He can establish God’s rule over…
Jesus’ followers realized soon after His resurrection that it wasn’t yet time for God’s kingdom to come to earth. Instead, Jesus intended for them to bear witness to the whole world of His victory over sin and death at the Cross and to the Kingdom still to come. The Holy Spirit came to empower them…
They way to insure that God’s Happy Ending for the world (the ultimate “win”) would happen was for the Messiah to lose his life. The Old Testament prophesied it and Jesus experienced it. His death freed his people from sin and brought them back to God. And the final shocking plot-twist was that Jesus was…
Jesus was born into a nation eagerly waiting for the Messiah who would rescue His people and make God’s restorative rule on earth a reality. His mission was simple: to announce God’s kingdom, to give a preview of what life in God’s kingdom would look like, and to explain God’s kingdom to people who misunderstood…
Knowing God’s rules didn’t help Israel obey them. Instead, the nation sank into the deep darkness of rebellion against God, resulting in punishment and a near-failure in her mission to bring God’s blessings to the world. God responded with an ultimate solution, the Messiah: God’s chosen rescuer who would make everything right.
Religion tells us that if we just follow God’s rules, we can repair our broken relationship with Him. The Story tells us something different: before God gives us rules, He wants to rescue us from our sin. After rescuing us, God gives us His rules so that we can show the world was God is…