The Stories God Writes

Have you ever thought about the fact that God is an Author? It says in Hebrews 12 that He is the “Author and Perfecter of our faith.” God is actually a writer and He writes amazing stories.

The stories God writes are full of every element of a good story—suspense, drama, thrill, excitement, pain, sorrow, loss, romance, joy, despair, hope, life, and death. God does not write boring stories. He writes stories that take us on a journey of hope and trust in Him, stories that stretch our faith and perfect it.

Why did God write “history” like He did? Why did He have to grow through the promise of the Messiah, the long wait, the first Coming, His death and resurrection, and the long wait again for His Second Coming? It seems like God could have done it all quickly and gotten it over with—of course He could. But, God is an author who is writing one of the most spectacular stories ever written. When we look back over His Story, we will see the remarkable leadership of the best Author who has ever written. God writes beautiful stories.

Have you ever thought about the Book of Life being more than just a list of names? What if it is an actual “Book of Life”? What if it not only has our names written, but also has our stories written? Can you imagine God writing down Your story? Psalm 139:16-17 says, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

God keeps tracks of every person on the planet. He knows about the little decisions we make for Him and He writes them down in His book.

When I look back over my life, I can see the amazing way God writes a story. Even in the most tragic of experiences, God can turn into something beautiful. He gives beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning (Is. 61). God is an amazing Author. The bible even says that He keeps all of our tears in a bottle and writes them down in His book (Ps. 56:8). Psalm 69 says that the wicked will be blotted out of the book of the living that the names of the righteous are written in. In Malachi 3:16, a Book of Remembrance was written before the Lord of those who feared His name.

During the suspense, drama, waiting, and longing, we must remember that God is an amazing Author who is writing one of the best stories of all time. We must remember that He is the Author of our Faith and He will bring it to completion. Even through the ups-and-downs of a wild, thrilling story, we must learn to trust the Good Author and know that this story will have the happiest ending ever.

Fine Line of Evangelism: Love & Repentance

People ask me all the time what I think about evangelism. Should we tell people they are going to hell and to turn from their sins or should would just preach the Love of Christ? The truth is that people are asking the wrong question.

This question comes from a wrong view of God and a wrong view of repentance. Telling someone to turn from their sin IS the Love of God, and preaching the Love of Christ IS repentance. It is two sides of the same coin.

The problem is that we do not understand the reason for the commandments of God. We do not believe that He is good and what He tells us to do is for our own benefit. To tell someone to turn from their sin is one of the most loving things you could ever do for a person. We also have a wrong view of correction. Gentle, loving correction is actually a good thing and one of the best indications that we are loved by God (Heb. 12).

God gave us commandments to follow so that we could be in relationship with Him. He also gave provision for the times when we fail. Furthermore, He also gave us a way to walk out His commandments called the grace of God and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. He set up the entire plan that would make it impossible for us to fail if we do what He says.

When people ask this question, they must first have this basic understanding before going further. Next, they need to realize the question they really want answered is a pragmatic one—how do I present the Gospel? For this question, there are several responses.

Number one, we must have God’s heart for people in order to properly convey His Word in a way that will draw them to Him. Even if you give a difficult word of correction and turning to someone, if you have God’s heart for them and have truly experienced the need for forgiveness in your own life, then you can deliver the difficult word in a way that the person feels loved, edified, and empowered to draw close to Jesus.

Secondly, we must tell people to turn from their sin. This is an absolute necessity for preaching the Gospel. In our humanistic culture, people do not realize their need for a savior. They believe that man is inherently good and that they will get to heaven for doing good things. This is a lie from the pit of hell, and we cannot passively allow it to permeate our lives and surroundings.

However, we also must be careful in how we speak to people. I was stopped by a young man in the grocery store last night who found out I was in ministry and asked me what I thought about the haunted houses happening downtown this month. I said, “Well, I believe that the people attending are longing to be fascinated with something, and they are being fascinated with fear. I believe there are much better things to be fascinated with.”

My answer stunned him. He said that when he asks believers that question, he hears something about them all going to hell, and he does not understand what the problem is with people going to a haunted house. I told him that people have longings in their heart that can only be filled by God, but they try to fill them with everything else. I said that the longing must be filled with God first, then the rest of your life will line up; however, if you try to fix the lifestyle before the longing, it will never work.

The young man was astonished and by the end of the conversation, he was asking me how to join our bible school—and I do not even think he was saved yet.

If we remember how God rescued us and forgave us, we can come to people with humility and love that will turn their hearts to God regardless of the words we have. We can have all the correct doctrine and theology in the world, but if we do not have the lifestyle God desires, then our words will fall to the ground empty. We also must not water down the truth of the gospel, trying to be culturally relevant. If we have His heart for His people, we will be able to speak what they need to hear, and there will be power to back it up. We can tell people to turn from their sin and they will feel so loved that they will run to Jesus.

 

Adventures of Kingdom Life

Hello All,

I have decided to change the style of my blog. From now on, I will give short daily excerpts of stories, highlights, revelation from the word, etc...to keep you informed of what is happening in my life and to encourage you on a daily basis. I hope you will follow my blog and encourage others to do the same.

Over the next few days, I will write stories from our IHOPU trip to California that I just returned from last week. The International House of Prayer in KC sent 35o students to universities all over Southern California for ten days to preach the gospel on the streets. Lots of really cool things happened that I will be telling you about over the next few days...