GOD’S STORY -- An Introduction

What’s the best way to get to know another person? It is to learn his/her story; isn’t it! Everyone has a story, and it’s nearly always true that the better you know someone’s story; the better you know the person. Could the same be true about getting to know God? Yes, the better one knows God’s story, undoubtedly, the better one knows God. There is a difference between knowing a person or God and knowing their story, but the two go hand in hand.

     The Bible is God’s Story. For many years I thought that the Bible was a book of theology. (I could not have articulated that early on, but that’s what I thought.) “I might know the stories of the Book, but it was the preachers who really understood the Bible.” And, if I wasn’t going to be a preacher, which I wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t ever really understand that somewhat foreboding, “funny talking” book with its “thee”(s) and“thou”(s); etc. Oh yes, I knew that the Bible was God’s Word.

     Later in my life I came to understand and embrace the concept of the narrative primacy of this God-breathed Book--it’s God’s Story! Theological systems and postulates are fine and necessary, but they are extrapolations--what scholars have derived from the Bible, not the Bible itself. This writing is not intended to downplay theological systems, confessions of faith, catechisms, etc.; they are necessary and valuable; it is just to get the emphasis on the right syllable. After responding to God in faith, the best way to get to know God better, is to learn God’s Great Story.

     There is a difference between knowing one’s story and knowing one by and through their story--God or human. The first, assentia, is giving intellectual assent to one’s existence; the second, fiducia, is knowing personally, being involved with--entering into a relationship of caring; and that is what I am advocating.

      In the Christian walk, there is a proportional relationship between knowing God and knowing God’s Story--the better I know His story, the better I know Him. Faith in God comes from hearing (reading) His Word. (Romans 10:17) 

     A line in an old Gospel song goes, “There are some things I do not know; there are some places that I can’t go, but of this one thing I’m more than just sure, my God is real, for I can feel Him in my soul.” I have sung that song and I believe it states a great truth! But, let’s get the order straight--God is not real just because I feel Him in my soul; I feel Him in my soul because He is real apart from being in my soul. I can, therefore, feel Him in my soul because I have invited him in. God’s Spirit witnesses to my spirit that I am His, and He is mine. (Romans 8:17)  As good and important as it to feel the Spirit of God within our spirits, we  can grow in and beyond that, by reading and knowing God’s great Story.

     Oh, God’s Story is not just a story, you know; it’s an epic; well, actually it’s The EPIC.