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Get Your Story Straight 2 Peter 3
Psalm 39:12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord… for I am a pilgrim with You…”
Just a few minutes ago I returned from another Story of Hope Chronological Bible Study with some neighbors. One is a new believer facing possible very serious cancer. Another is an elderly lady whose only daughter and care-giver recently died. She has no church background. There are others as well. Like us, each one has a confusing personal life-story that includes tragedy, heartache, sin, sorrow and suffering. I began by describing each of our lives as a painting; a picture encompassing a lifetime. By itself it is very confusing and there is no making sense of it. But, when we realize our story is really only one puzzle piece fitting into a very large puzzle of a much larger story, God's story that is, it begins to make sense. And that's what we do... we tell His Story to help other people get their stories straight! And repentance is the act of changing the story we believe in. It is throwing away the lies of our former false beliefs, turning toward the truth, and following the new story of God.
The devil has many deceitful stories ...
naturalism (you're an accident evolving more of the same); trancendentalism (you're stuck in a repeating story); relativism (you make up your own story - any one will do); materialism (the original "toy story".. he who dies with the most toys wins); hedonism (if it feels good, do it); nihilism (from nothing.. to nothing.. for nothing.. means nothing).
But God's story,
like every interesting story, moves from "back when... to now... and then." Back when is all about origin. And then is all about destiny. And now is all about responding correctly in the light of back when and then. Our choices are framed by our faith. Our faith is framed by our stories. Our stories are framed by the big story about "back then...now...and then."
Ephesians 2:1-22 Read it carefully and notice the past, present and future elements of God's story that frame our own stories. Back when we were dead, blind, without hope, But now we are saved, raised, seated, included And then we will be perfected, glorified, and made an object lesson of God's infinite, eternal kindness.
2 Peter 3:10-18 Read this passage and note the same... Back when God, by His word, made the world and judged the world, but now is now preserving the world, and then will destroy the world in firey judgment to come. Realizing the past and present, consider now how you should live in light of what's surely coming.
Prophets and apostles were called to frame this present life and command proper responses by placing God's people squarely in God's larger story. It's our calling as well. We declare the story of God in truth to give people the opportunity to get their own stories straight. And what delight when they do!
We tell God's story so we get our own stories straight!
Self-check questions:
1. How has getting God's story straight helped you respond differently than others who have the wrong story?
2. Describe a recent temptation to sin. How did your understanding of God's story assist you in overcoming that temptation or bring you to repentance for having given in to it?
For further study: Consider the story elements of "back when... but now... and then" in the following passages. How does a correct framing of the past and future in light of God's story change the response of the person in the present circumstances. Esther 4; Genesis 50; Deut 6; Daniel 9; Haggai 1; Acts 3; Acts 14:1-18; Act 17:16-34; 1 Corinthians 15
“Lord, I am so susceptable to the Deceiver! I listen to lies and fall prey to self pity, prideful comparisons, discontent and covetousness. When I forget the past and ignore the future I waste the present or worse. Thank you for the glorious privilege of proclaiming Your story to others, for the more I do, the more I recognize I need to hear it as much or more than they. As the old hymn says... "I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest." Indeed I do! I bless you for Your story, the good news of Christ Jesus, in whose name alone I pray, Amen.”
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