The Greatest Story Ever ToldSample

The Greatest Story Ever Told

“It’s a tale that begins before every other beginning. A God who is three and one. A cosmos born of community. A catastrophe unleashed at a stroke. A tragedy entered by love. A Creator made creature and killed. A Corpse conquering death by dying. A Lord with scars, rising to rule. A world invited to share God’s life. A universe renewed and redeemed.” – Glen Scrivener

To start, let’s answer this question: What is the Bible? If you don’t know what the Bible is, then it can be really hard to know what the purpose of it is. The Bible is not a textbook, or a rule book, or even a collection of inspiring quotes. While it encompasses parts of all those things, the Bible is so much more than any one of them. 

The Bible is a story that imparts wisdom and leads us to Jesus. 

It’s not just any story though. The Bible tells The Greatest Story Ever Told. It’s the story of God and the story of humanity. It’s the story of a good and loving God creating the heavens, the Earth, and everything in it. Of humanity rebelling against our loving creator and introducing sin, death, and evil into His good creation. It’s the story of God stopping at nothing to redeem humanity from our rebellion and to reconcile us to Himself by becoming a man and dying on a cross. It’s the story of a redeemed humanity, once again partnering with God, participating in the restoration of creation. A time when God makes all things new. 

This is our story. 

Here’s why this matters: The parts give existence to the whole and the whole gives meaning to the parts.   

Okay, what does that even mean? Let me illustrate it this way: Letters by themselves are just letters, but when you put them together in the right combination, they form words. Those words can form sentences, sentences make paragraphs, and if you stick enough paragraphs together you end up with an entire book. That book is made up of parts. The parts give existence to it. And the whole, all of the parts together, is what gives meaning to each of the individual parts. 

The parts give existence to the whole and the whole gives meaning to the parts.

Your story is a part of God’s story. And God’s story gives meaning to your story.  

You are invited to be a part of God’s story. What will you say? Will you say, “Count me in”? 

Over the next few days we’ll walk through the big story arcs of the Bible—starting in the beginning with God creating the heavens and the Earth and going all the way through to the moment when God makes all things new. 

Are you ready to discover The Greatest Story Ever Told?