You Will Finally Graduate

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Zondervan

Excerpted from God’s Story, Your Story by Max Lucado

May 19, 2007, was a splendid night for an outdoor graduation. Thirty-four members of the Lucado clan occupied a sizable section of the amphitheater seats in honor of high-school-graduating Sara, my youngest daughter. What we didn’t know, however, is that two Lucado women were graduating the same evening. About the same time Sara stepped across the platform, my mom stepped into paradise.

Applause for the first. Tears for the second. The sorrow is understandable. Yet should they be so different? Both celebrate completion and transition. And both gift the graduate with recognition: a diploma to one and a brand-new life to the other.

As God’s story becomes your story, you make this wonderful discovery: you will graduate from this life into heaven. Jesus’ plan is to “gather together in one all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10 NKJV). “All things” includes your body. You will finally be healthy.

I hate disease. I’m sick of it. So is Christ. Jesus will heal all who seek healing in him. There are no exceptions to this promise — no nuances, fine-print conditions, or caveats. To say some will be healed beyond the grave by no means diminishes the promise. The truth is this: “When Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

You’ll have a spiritual body. In your current state, your flesh battles your spirit. Your eyes look where they shouldn’t. Your taste buds desire the wrong drinks. Your heart knows you shouldn’t be anxious, but your mind still worries.

Your “parts” will no longer rebel in heaven. Your new body will be a spiritual body, with all members cooperating toward one end. In heaven “there shall be no more curse” (Revelation 22:3 NKJV). As much as we hate carcinomas and cardiac arrests, don’t we hate sin even more? Cystic fibrosis steals breath, but selfishness and stinginess steal joy. Diabetes can ruin the system of a body, but deceit, denial, and distrust are ruining society.

Heaven, however, has scheduled a graduation. Sin will no longer be at war with our flesh. Eyes won’t lust, thoughts won’t wander, hands won’t steal, our minds won’t judge, appetites won’t rage, and our tongues won’t lie. We will be brand-new.

Let’s stand with Paul on the promise of eternity.

So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:16 – 18 MSG

A Scandalous Gift

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Zondervan

Excerpted from The Heart of the Story, by Randy Frazee

If you’re a woman and you’ve ever been pregnant, very likely this is the one question that turns you into a ninja inside: How much longer do you have? Nine months is a long time to wait for a baby.

So is four hundred years. This is how long God’s people had to wait after the temple had been rebuilt. Except they weren’t waiting for a baby; they were looking for a king who would “reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom.”1 Instead, they got a scandal.

A young couple — Joseph and Mary — are engaged to be married. Then Mary gives Joseph the news: “I’m pregnant.”

What was a scandal to Joseph was a solution to God. Remember, God’s Upper Story has one major theme: “I want to give you a way to come back to me so we can do life together.”

Mary’s child could not be given to her by any man — even a godly man like Joseph. The baby in Mary’s womb had been placed there by the very Spirit of God. What appeared to be scandalous in the Lower Story was in essence the great “good news” of the Upper Story.

The baby growing inside of Mary’s womb was God himself. God’s own Son was leaving the Upper Story to come down to not only be with us but be one of us. To walk with us, talk with us, live with us. We refer to this as the incarnation, which literally means “in the flesh.” Through Jesus, God came down and took up flesh to be among us.

You know the rest of the story. Nearly everyone does. Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, the town of their ancestors, so they can be counted in the census that Caesar Augustus, the emperor of Rome, has ordered.5 As they arrive in Bethlehem, Mary goes into labor. Apparently, the best we could do for the arrival of God to our world was the barnyard suite at the Manger Motel. In the Lower Story, this is not what we expected.

To fulfill the prophecy, Jesus has to be born in Bethlehem in humble circumstances. Caesar thinks he himself is in charge of the world, but he isn’t. God knew what he was doing, even using something as benign as a census to bring about his Upper Story plan.

For the children of Israel, the wait is over. In a stable surrounded by farm animals, Jesus is born. The heavens rejoice as angels announce his birth. Shepherds and Magi race to the humble manger to worship the newborn King. In the City of David. A Savior. The Messiah. The Lord.

Exactly according to plan. Not to save face for Mary and Joseph, but to save a nation.

To save you and me.

If You Build It…

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Zondervan

Excerpted from The Heart of the Story, by Randy Frazee

The Old Testament comes to an end with three building projects. There is the rebuilding of the temple under the leadership of Zerubabbel — God once again has a place to stay with his people. Sacrifices are once again being made for their sins. Second, there is the rebuilding of the wall around the city of Jerusalem under Nehemiah’s leadership. The people now have protection from the many folks who had been bullying them on and off through the years.

But the most important rebuilding project is the rebuilding of the lives of God’s people. As evidence of the heart makeovers they are experiencing, they initiate an event that is not Zerubabbel’s idea, nor Nehemiah’s idea, nor even Ezra the priest’s idea. It is the people’s idea. They want to initiate a restoration with God, just as it should be.

They tell Ezra to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses.1 It has been 140 years since they heard anyone read God’s word to them.

Then Ezra begins to read from the sacred book. For several hours — daybreak until noon — he reads, and as he shares God’s laws with the people, they begin to weep and mourn. The more he reads the louder their wailing. As they listen to God’s instructions for living well in community with him and each other, they are heartbroken over their failure to obey.

Nehemiah remembered that God not only gave the law to help his people live well but made a way for them to atone for their sins when they broke the law. He knew that the community God envisioned was one characterized by joy and contentment, not tears.

Once the people who had been weeping understood this, they “went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy.”

What a perfect picture of what God wants for us. Enjoy the best blessings of life. Share them with others. And celebrate!

The Bible does not consist of a bevy of ancient, unrelated paintings. No, it is a beautiful mural all joined together to tell of God’s great love for us and the extent to which he will go to get us back. When our souls finally get this message, it is so wonderfully overwhelming that tears of joy spring to our eyes.

The last person to speak before the Old Testament comes to a close is Malachi. He tells us that the next prophet who is going to speak for God is going to introduce us to the One we have been waiting for, the One who will provide the once-and-for-all solution for getting us back to God.

Isaiah had foretold the role of John the Baptist, and now Malachi restates it. Malachi foretells that the next time God speaks — which will be four hundred years later — it will be through the lips of John the Baptist, the one who would prepare the way for Christ to come. In fact, as many events and people have revealed, every single story of God’s people and the nation of Israel points to the first coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Like the children of Israel, we too must prepare the way for the Lord. We must prepare our hearts to receive this One who gives us back our intended life and destiny with God. Are you ready to meet him? Then, along with the Israelites, who proclaimed it thousands of years ago, we say, “Amen! Amen! So be it!”

Ordinary Matters

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Zondervan

Excerpted from God’s Story, Your Story by Max Lucado

The [Christmas] story drips with normalcy. This isn’t Queen Mary or King Joseph. The couple doesn’t caravan into Bethlehem with camels, servants, purple banners, and dancers.

Mary and Joseph have no tax exemption or political connection.

They have the clout of a migrant worker and the net worth of a minimum wage earner.

Not subjects for a PBS documentary. Not candidates for welfare either. Their life is difficult but not destitute. Joseph has the means to pay taxes. They inhabit the populous world between royalty and rubes.

Norm and Norma from Normal, Ohio, plodding into ho-hum Bethlehem in the middle of the night. No one notices them.

No one looks twice in their direction. The innkeeper won’t even clean out a corner in the attic. Trumpets don’t blast; bells don’t sound; angels don’t toss confetti. Aren’t we glad they didn’t?

What if Joseph and Mary had shown up in furs with a chauffeur, bling-blinged and high-muckety-mucked? And what if God had decked out Bethlehem like Hollywood on Oscar night: red carpet, flashing lights, with angels interviewing the royal couple?

“Mary, Mary, you look simply divine.”

Had Jesus come with such whoop-de-do, we would have read the story and thought, My, look how Jesus entered their world.

But since he didn’t, we can read the story and dream. My, might Jesus be born in my world? My everyday world?

Isn’t that what you indwell? Not a holiday world. Or a red-letter-day world. No, you live an everyday life. You have bills to pay, beds to make, and grass to cut. Your face won’t grace any magazine covers, and you aren’t expecting a call from the White House. Congratulations. You qualify for a modern-day Christmas story. God enters the world through folks like you and comes on days like today.

The Son of God

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Zondervan

Excerpted from The Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee

The people who met Jesus knew he was no ordinary man. But the question on everyone’s mind was this: “Who is he really?” And it is one of the most important questions any of us can ask.

Probably the people closest to Jesus were his hand-chosen followers, the disciples. They were his entourage, if you will, and if anyone was going to know who Jesus really was, it would have to be them. So when Jesus asks his disciples if they know who he really is, it’s not surprising that Peter quickly answers, “You are the Messiah.”

Jesus warns Peter and his buddies to keep this a secret for now and then goes on to explain that the Messiah will have to “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”

Peter can’t believe his ears. He pictured the Messiah as the great “anointed one” who had come to earth to rescue the faithful. According to the Bible, Peter rebukes Jesus for saying all these things about being rejected and killed.

Jesus had his work cut out for him in helping people redefine their expectations about him as Savior. At first, he really gets in Peter’s face, chastising him for thinking of the Messiah only from his Lower Story perspective, but then he uses this incident as an opportunity to teach Peter and the crowd that had gathered the true cost of discipleship from the Upper Story point of view:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?”

When Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Festival of Tabernacles, people began to play What’s My Line? with him. Some said, “He’s a good man.” Others said, “No, he deceives people.” About halfway through the festival, Jesus began to teach, creating even more speculation.

Jesus then starts dropping clues about his identity. He declares, “I am the light of the world.” The Jewish people would know that only God himself is the source of light, so this is a major hint. Later Jesus says, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.”

Fast-forward to the Passover festival, a grand celebration commemorating the day that the angel of the Lord passed over the homes whose doorposts had been sprinkled with the blood of a lamb, sparing the firstborn boys in those homes.

The common people of Jerusalem must have known, however, for when Jesus rides into the city on that donkey, they greet him as if he is, well, the Messiah! They scatter palm branches on the ground to make a path for his entry. They also wave palms as he passes in front of them. According to Jewish culture, the palm branch is a symbol of victory, the equivalent of a ticker-tape parade.

God’s people had been told that the Messiah — the Anointed One — would come. What they couldn’t have known was that God had something even greater in mind. It is one thing to believe that Jesus is the Messiah when everyone is cheering him on as he rides into town. But what will happen when things don’t go the way they hope they will go?

In the Lower Story, Jesus is a remarkable man in history whose teachings continue to this day to provide a foundation for moral and ethical behavior. He was a good man who had a special place in his heart for the poor and oppressed. He is easy to like.

But if we are to find our place in the Upper Story, he has to be more than just a good guy. Everything he did during his brief stay on earth was to convince mankind that he was the only solution to our separation from God. That he was God himself, living among us and willing to die for us.

The Beginning of the End

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Zondervan

Excerpted from The Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee

Throughout 208 years under 39 kings, both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah repeatedly turned their backs on God, and it was time for drastic action. Through his prophets God warns, begs, and cajoles these two nations, relentlessly trying to convince them to turn from their wickedness so that they can enjoy a great relationship with him.

The Bible reports that they even threw their own children into the fire as sacrifices to their pagan gods! They sold themselves to perform evil acts with others. They ignored all the commands God gave them. If he let them continue in their wicked ways, no one would ever see his true character and therefore be drawn to him.

It was time for God to act, and he did so decisively. According to the Bible, he chose another nation — Assyria (roughly the equivalent of modern-day Syria) — to invade Israel, defeat it, and deport its citizens back to their own nation. Just like that, Israel — the northern kingdom — ceased to exist.

So now all that is left of God’s special nation is tiny Judah to the south. Judah’s king at the time was named Hezekiah, and he happened to be one of the good kings. He removed all the idols left over from his evil predecessor and pointed his citizens to the one true God. As a result of his faithfulness, God rewarded him and his kingdom with success. The remnant of God’s special nation saw an increase in literacy and the production of great literary works. It also increased its military power.

Hezekiah died after faithfully serving God for twenty-nine years. His son Manasseh inherited the throne, and he turned out to be the exact opposite of his father.

Whereas Hezekiah removed idols, Manasseh reinstated them, even building altars devoted to foreign gods in the temple in Jerusalem — essentially thumbing his nose at God. Instead of seeking guidance from God, he consulted with sorcerers and mediums, a practice prohibited by God. He even threw his son into the fire of one of the altars as a sacrifice to a pagan god.

God raised up the Assyrian army to capture Manasseh in the most humiliating manner. They put a hook in his nose, bound his hands and feet with shackles, and led him away in plain sight of his subjects. Then they took him to Babylon and handed him over to become a prisoner in that pagan nation. Eventually, years after Manasseh’s death, the Babylonians destroyed the capital city of Jerusalem and deported Judah’s residents to Babylon.

I can easily imagine Manasseh beginning his reign with every intention of being a great and godly king like his father. As he was anointed by the high priests of the temple, he may well have declared his faith in the one true God and meant it. But then his eye caught the exotic beauty of a golden statue. What harm could come from placing it alongside the altar in God’s temple? Perhaps he reasoned that all gods are somehow cosmically connected to form a bountiful collection of deity, so why not worship all of them? Why can’t we all just have our own gods and get along together?

Because God loves us so much that he can’t allow it. He knows that in order for us to have a relationship with him, it must be pure. Anything less won’t be a relationship at all. In the New Testament, believers are referred to as a “bride” for God’s Son. What groom wants to stand at the altar and see his bride coming down the aisle with four or five other “grooms” by her side?

God promises us residence in his perfect community forever, and all he asks is that we love him, and him only, and respond in humble obedience to the guidance he gives us.

Resurrection

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Zondervan

Excerpted from The Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee

To make sure no one tampered with the tomb containing his body, the people who convinced Pilate to have Jesus crucified asked him to provide a sentry to guard the tomb. Pilate agreed, and he added the extra measure of ordering the stone door to the tomb to be sealed so that if anyone tampered with the grave, they would have proof — the final blow to this whole nonsense about Jesus being the Messiah.

The day after he was crucified was the Jewish Sabbath — a day when people went to the temple and then stayed in their homes. But the following day, two women — both named Mary — went to the tomb to pay their final respects. So you can imagine their shock when they get to the tomb and the stone has been rolled away!

Thankfully, an angel sitting next to the tomb tells them what happened. The stone had been rolled away, and Jesus was not in the tomb. “He is not here,” said the angel. “He has risen, just as he said . . . Go quickly and tell his disciples.”

Even after hearing this good news, Mary cannot quite get her arms around what is happening. She sits by the tomb crying when a man approaches her. In her grief, she doesn’t recognize it is Jesus. Jesus then simply speaks her name, and in that instant she knows it is him. She is overjoyed and naturally reaches out to embrace him, but he tells her to go share with the disciples what she has just discovered.

On the same day that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, two disciples were walking to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. Jesus approaches them, but like Mary, they don’t recognize him, even when he asks them what they have been talking about. Once they realize they are speaking to Jesus, they race back to Jerusalem to tell the rest of the disciples: “It is true! The Lord has risen.” Even as they celebrate this great news, Jesus appears in front of all of them and continues to teach them how his mission on earth is coming to an end and how they are going to carry it on after he returns to heaven.

The time was rapidly approaching when Jesus would leave his human experiences in the Lower Story and return to his Father, the author of the Upper Story. Apparently, everything was in place to finally provide a way for anyone to get back to God, but the mission now would be shared, beginning with a handful of men and women.

Jesus accompanied his disciples into the mountains for one last retreat to give them both their mission and a promise. While his message was directed to his disciples, it speaks clearly to anyone who has decided to follow Jesus, and it has come to be called the Great Commission.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

His enemies thought they had finished Jesus off. But despite their great pains to discredit him and keep him in the tomb, he returned, just as he said he would — just as the prophets said he would. His own victory over death gives everyone the same opportunity to live forever with God, which has been the plan from the beginning. Jesus’ mission on earth has been completed. Now it was up to a small group of men and women who believed.

All Things Work For Good

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Zondervan

Exerpted from God’s Story, Your Story by Max Lucado

There are so many things we do not know. We do not know if the economy will dip or if our team will win. We do not know what our spouse is thinking or how our kids will turn out. We don’t even know “what we ought to pray for” (Romans 8:26). But according to Paul, we can be absolutely certain about four things.

We know . . .

God works. He is busy behind the scenes, above the fray, within the fury. He hasn’t checked out or moved on. He is ceaseless and tireless.
God works for the good. Not for our comfort or pleasure or entertainment, but for our ultimate good. Since he is the ultimate good, would we expect anything less?
God works for the good of those who love him. Make his story your story, and your story takes on a happy ending. Guaranteed. Being the author of our salvation, he writes a salvation theme into our biography.
God works in all things. Panta, in Greek. Like “panoramic” or “panacea” or “pandemic.” All-inclusive. God works, not through a few things or through the good things, best things, or easy things. But in “all things” God works.

God, in other words, isn’t making up a plan as he goes along. Nor did he wind up the clock and walk away. He “executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another” (Psalm 75:7 ESV). These terms confirm the existence of heavenly blueprints and plans. Those plans include you. “In him we were also chosen, . . . according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

The apostle Paul’s life is proof. We know just enough of his story to see God’s hand in each phase of it. Paul grew up in Tarsus. Any child raised in Tarsus would have heard a dozen languages and witnessed a tapestry of cultures. Paul conversed with students in the streets and, at the right age, became one himself. He learned the lingua franca of his day: Greek. He mastered it. He spoke it. He wrote it. He thought it.

Paul not only spoke the international language of the world; he carried its passport. He was born a Jew and a Roman citizen. Whenever he traveled through the empire, he was entitled to all the rights and privileges of a Roman citizen.

Paul’s parents sent him to Jerusalem for rabbinical studies. He memorized large sections of the Torah and digested massive amounts of rabbinical law. He was a valedictorian-level student, a Hebrew of Hebrews.

Before Paul was following God, God was leading Paul. He gave him an education, a vocation, the necessary documentation. He schooled Paul in the law of Moses and the language of Greece. Who better to present Jesus as the fulfillment of the law than a scholar of the law?

Jesus transformed Paul, the card-carrying legalist, into a champion for mercy. Who would have thought? Yet who would be better qualified? Paul could write epistles of grace by dipping his pen into the inkwell of his own heart. He’d learned Greek in the schools of Tarsus, tentmaking in the home of his father, the Torah at the feet of Gamaliel. And he learned about love when Jesus paid him a personal visit on Damascus Highway.

“All things” worked together.

Satisfying Spiritual Hunger

Posted on November 9, 2012 by waynehastings

Spiritual hunger and thirst are recurring ideas in both the Old and New Testaments. Physical yearnings associated with hunger and thirst are often linked with the person’s true need of spiritual resources and fellowship with God.

When we read the Bible we find that from the very beginning people failed to seek satisfaction in the right place—they sought to satisfy spiritual hunger and thirst literally with food and drink, wealth and knowledge, or political power. As a result, their spiritual hunger pangs continued.

We see this same notion today as people seek to satisfy their spiritual hunger. They try all kinds of ways to fill the void but they are left feeling unsatisfied. Often they try, without success, to read the Bible, but they cannot make it through or stay at it long enough to reap the spiritual feast its holds.

Immanuel Church in Forest Lake, MN recently completed The Story Church Campaign with tremendous success. Pastor Mark Coughlin recently shared, “People are hungry to know God and to know what the Bible is all about. So many people, when they bought the book [The Story] told us, ‘I wanted to read through the Bible for so many years, I really look forward to this.’”

He goes on to add, “[The Story] helps people who want to know what the Bible is all about to have a tool that is functional for them.”

People are hungry to know God and part of knowing God is reading and understanding His Word. The Story and The Story Church Campaign are two ways to help people not just read the Bible, but satisfy the spiritual hunger and thirst for fellowship with God.

You can visit this website for more details about The Story and how its many resources can help your people, from kids to seniors, experience God’s Word as never before.

Training New Leaders

Posted on November 5, 2012 by waynehastings

Pastor Bill Hybels wrote in his book, Courageous Leadership, “Leaders learn best from other leaders. It is the responsibility of veteran leaders to provide the necessary opportunities so the next generation of leaders will be trained and ready to meet the challenges the future.”

Investing in new leadership is critical to any organization, and it’s especially critical to the life-blood of any local church. The pastor cannot do it all and he needs good people to step up and step into responsibility and leadership.

One of the best ways to do this, according to Hybels, is to “Make him or her lead something.”

Jim Nichols from Christ Church United Methodist understands this and The Story Church Campaign gave him a unique opportunity to do just that.

“We had some young leaders. We gave them The Story and resources from The Story Campaign. They began to lead small groups with the resources bring the Bible’s story alive. It was so good to watch other young people [leaders] not only learn the story, but step into leadership with it.”

As Hybels wrote, “We must hand emerging leaders an important kingdom baton.” What more important baton is there to hand young and emerging leaders than facilitating an understanding of God’s story to other people. What an exciting and rewarding way to help new leaders grow themselves and also see growth in other people.

Pastor Nichols was able to use The Story Campaign as a catalyst to mentor and train young leaders because it’s of the completeness of the resources and the program’s inherent flexibility. Both aspects came together to help him, his new leaders and his church grow and develop a deeper understanding of the Bible and God’s story.

This website is full of information on how you can bring The Story to your church. Take a few minutes and see for yourself how The Story Church Campaign can help your church and your people.

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