Everyone knows God’s story. We are reminded of at least one aspect of God’s story every time we worship him. His story consists of four main parts: the creation, the fall, the solution, and then partnering with us in restoration. Creation was perfect. Out of nothing, God created the universe and everything in it. He took a rock almost 25,000 miles in circumference and made it spin at speeds up to 1037 miles per hour (at the equator)! In case you were wondering, that would be earth. This gave earth the 24-hour days we love! He put a protective barrier around this particular rock, unlike every other rock he created. Not only that, but he made this barrier out of roughly 78% nitrogen, almost 21% oxygen, and small amounts of other gases. Finally, he finished off his perfect creation with us! It just so happened that we need this exact combination to survive. God is good!
“And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.””
Genesis 1:6-8 NIV
The second part of God’s story is terrible. It was the fall of creation due to sin. God gave us one command, and we chose to break it. Every aspect of human life was infected because of this. There is pain, work is tedious, disease is rampant, and life is short. These are but a few of the impacts disobeying God had on mankind. Because of the fall, sin is embedded in our nature. We see this daily in our lives whether it is racism, sexism, corruption, and many forms of injustice.
Luckily for us, God had a plan. The third part of God’s story brings us a solution. It took a long time after Adam and Eve, but Jesus, his son, came at the perfect time. Jesus was fully God, fully human. He was, is, and will always be perfect. God sacrificed this perfect son for us because he loves us that much and wants a relationship with us. There is no more need for animal sacrifices because Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. The only thing we need to do in this relationship is to commit to Jesus in your mind, body, and soul. Accept him as your lord and savior, and you will have eternal life. It is that simple because Jesus did all the work for us. Don’t let his suffering be in vain.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 NIV
The last part of God’s story is straightforward. After we accept Jesus as lord and savior, we are called to spread the Good News to everyone. God wants to spend eternity with everyone. We are his creation. We must join Jesus and tell everyone we know of the power of Jesus and have them understand what he did for us and how much he loves us. It is beautiful, and nobody else would do that for us. This part of the story tends to be the hardest for most people to accept. It could be counter-cultural to spread the Word with your family or in your workplace, but we are called to do so.
“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.””
Mark 16:15 NIV
This should look familiar for most people reading this, but this post is about your story, not God’s. The people who we are close to who reject Christ might know this story too. The problem is, they don’t have a relationship with God yet. That makes the story hard to believe, and thus impossible to feel the pain that Jesus experienced for us. We must tell OUR story to these people and how our life looked like before Jesus and after Jesus. These transformations in our lives (physical, emotional, and mental) mean more to non-believers than hearing God’s story one more time. Someone may want some of your ‘Jesus-ness’!
Messengers of Mercy 