Tag: The Big Story

Heaven on My Mind

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In this final part of our series, The Big Story, we take a look at the exciting fourth act of God’s big story: Restoration.  This world is broken in spite of the fact that we live in the time when redemption is available to all those who would receive it.  This dichotomy can lead to endless frustration and even hopelessness if we forget about the fact that there is still one more part to the story.  Read on to learn more about this fourth part and how living in light of it can make our lives now so much better.

Heaven on My Mind

Okay, survey question this morning: how many of you like surprises?  Alright, how many folks are on the opposite end of that scale?  You genuinely don’t like surprises.  What about this: how many folks can handle a surprise if they know it’s coming?  You don’t know what it’s going to be—which is what makes it a surprise—and while you don’t love that you are able to endure the waiting since you at least know something is coming.  Okay, let me change things up just a bit: how many of you are good waiters (and I’m not talking about tables)?  You handle waiting for something you know is coming really well.  You’re certainly excited about it, you just channel that excitement into other things until the day arrives.  Alright then, let’s give the impatient folks a chance to raise their hands since they don’t like waiting: how many of you are terrible waiters when you know something is coming?  You fixate on whatever it is and it’s almost like you can’t do anything else until it arrives.  You’re constantly looking at the calendar, crossing off the days, or checking your watch, counting down the hours. Read the rest…

The Good News

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The great thing about God’s story, is that it doesn’t end after the second act.  In this third part of our series, The Big Story, we finally get to relish the joy of the third act: Redemption.  God’s efforts since the fall have been focused on this one goal.  Read on to see how this played out…

 

The Good News

Let’s start this morning with some trivia.  What do Return of the Jedi, Rocky Balboa, Antwone Fisher, Les Misérables, and Iron Man 3 all have in common?  They are all stories of redemption.  In Return of the Jedi the exciting climax of the movie comes when Anakin Skywalker—Darth Vader—returns from the “dark side,” saves the life of his son, Luke, and puts an end to the evil of The Emperor.  In Rocky Balboa, the washed-up, old fighter proves to himself and the world that he still has what it takes when he comes out of retirement and goes toe-to-toe with the reigning heavyweight champ, Mason “the Line” Dixon.  In Antwone Fisher a young, emotionally broken soldier finds healing and wholeness through the help of a committed counselor, his girlfriend, and the family he never knew he had.  In Les Misérables, the thief, Jean Valjean, is given a second chance at life by a gracious Catholic priest and commits the rest of his life to serving and saving those who were in the same dire straits in which he once found himself.  Finally, in Iron Man 3, Tony Stark at last discovers what’s most important in life and commits himself to using his genius and resources to make the world better. Read the rest…

Love Amid the Mess

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In part two of our series, The Big Story, we dug into the tragedy of the Fall.  While creation was originally adorned with not just beauty and splendor, but holiness and righteousness, it didn’t stay that way.  We broke it.  And yet, God refused to let sin have the last word.  Even in the midst of the mess of the Fall there was one thing God kept doing.  Keep reading to find out what this was…

Love Amid the Mess

Have you ever totally blown it?  I’m not talking a little explosion.  I’m talking, you rolled out the big guns, pointed them right at the stockpile of ammunition, and blew the whole fort to pieces.  If you’ve lived very long we’ve all done that at least once.  You may still be trying to recover from it.  Usually explosions that large leave a crater that even when once the ground has recovered from the blast still leaves a mark that everyone can see years later.  Where we came from near Petersburg, VA, there is the Petersburg National Battlefield Park.  The highlight of the drive through the Civil War battlefield is known as “the Crater.”  It’s this giant hole in the ground where the attacking Union soldiers exploded a mine up next to the defenses of the Confederates stationed there in order to breech the lines and win the battle.  The hole is still there.  They even named a road after it: Crater Road. Read the rest…

A Good Start

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This past Sunday we kicked off a brand new teaching series called, The Big Story.  Over the next few weeks we are going to look at the story of Scripture.  We often spend a lot of time studying the details of the Bible, and that’s not a bad thing.  But if we don’t know the much bigger context in which those details are situated, we run the risk of misunderstanding them.  The goal of this series is to help us understand the big story of Scripture more so we can better understand and know the God who is writing it.

 

A Good Start

Around parts like these where most everybody’s a “from here,” when folks meet someone new there are two primary questions they ask.  Anybody know what these are?  Where are you from and who’s your daddy?  The first question will tell them important things like whether or not you’re a Yankee.  It lets them know whether you’re a Tar Heel, a Blue Devil, or some other strange species…like a Jayhawk.  It gives them a sense of what kind of culture you bring to the area with you.  The second question—especially if you’re not a “come here”—gives them more of a sense of who you are.  If your daddy was well-respected in the community, you’ll probably be given the benefit of the doubt in a lot of things.  If your daddy was generally considered a scoundrel, though, you’re going to be treated with at least a bit of suspicion whether you deserve it or not. Read the rest…