The Story: Grounding Your Life In The Narrative of God

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good. Genesis 1:1–4

A week ago we looked back at our life as a church and as individuals and families and leaned into the intentional practice of remembering how we had seen and experienced God during the past year. How easy it is to forget to remember. How important it is to set intentional pieces so that we do not. Seeing how God has been at work in our past gives us courage to move into our future. Here is a link to the Creekside’s 2015 Annual Report to help you remember.

This past Sunday we launched our new year of ministry as we launched our sermon series: The Story, Grounding Your Life In The Narrative of God. We looked at the beginning of the story; “in the beginning, God.” God created us in his image and his likeness. He breathed his very spirit into us, and called us to partner with him as image bearer of him. Here is a three minute video by NT Wright which discusses “image bearer.” It is am amazing charge by an amazing God.

And we all know the next part of The Story — the fall, the rejection of God by the people he made and the consequence, death to the kind of life with God that we shared before the fall. Yet, God pursues with grace “who told you that you were naked,” “I will call to me a people and I will be their God, and they will be a light to the nations.” And we find our story in that Story, bearing the image of God yet bearing the brokenness and likeness of our brother and sister in the garden. God seeks to restore, he calls us to himself, he promises life, and so often we reject it, only to be pursued and wooed by a loving God. It is only when we ground our lives in his narrative that we find the meaning we all look for and become equipped to move into the life we were created to live as co-creators with God.

One of the best ways to ground our life in The Story is to walk through that story with God and with others. Yesterday we began our 9 month Bible Read Through. Are you joining us in that? If so, let me know. Here is the schedule so you can keep track. Here is a link to the Facebook group so you can join in. You can also go deeper by joining a Story Group where you can hear what others are seeing and hearing and share your own thoughts. Our goal is simple, moving together in The Story so that we can together be grounded in it.

I encourage you to enter in with us. You will be thankful you did. Peace, hope and love

Doug