God's Story: Which God?

In the last post I mentioned how I am preaching through The Story where I serve. I plan to have a series of posts dealing with an issue or two in each chapter of The Story as I progress through it. But first a few disclaimers: 1) there will likely (hopefully) be other posts intermingled with this “God’s Story” series, and 2) hopefully this will not die in the realm of good writing intentions (I have had more than a few of those).

With that said, chapter one in The Story covers material found in Genesis 1-4 and Genesis 6-9. Granted, not every verse is included as the editors selected what they thought were the more important passages in order to accomplish their purpose.

A major issue I focused on in this sermon (from 9/8/13) was the importance of knowing who God is based on what the Bible says about Him. While this may sound a bit simplistic, it is foundational for learning more about God.  

Let’s be honest, everyone has a concept of God. Even if one’s concept of God is that He does not exist, this is still a concept of Him. This concept is certainly not accurate based on the Bible…but people who believe God does not exist do not believe the Bible is truthful – which is a much different topic than I am addressing here.

What I am addressing here is that if we are going to open ourselves up to the transformative power of God’s Story, then we need to have an accurate view of God. We cannot base our view of God on our experiences or what we have been told. This does not mean everything you have been told about God is untrue, or that your experiences are not valid. Yet it does mean people can, and do, misrepresent God (not always willfully, though sadly this is sometimes the case), and God is bigger than our experiences (however joyful or painful they may be).   

I certainly do not have God all figured out and will not claim to as I write. Yet it is sad to hear of perceptions of God, even some shared by Christians, which are simply not true. This is why looking at the Bible is foundational to knowing God. Actually, it is vital. The Bible must trump our experience and what we think we know.

With that said, next time we will look at parts of Genesis 1-3. If you read it, I want to encourage you to treat Genesis 1:1-2:3 as “act one” and Genesis 2:4-3:24 as “act two.” Trust me; it really is OK to ignore chapter and verse divisions in the Bible. While they are helpful, they can also be a hindrance. Oh yeah, a reason to read Genesis 1:1-2:3 as a unit is because Genesis 2:4 starts with “These are the generations…,” which is a phrase found numerous times in Genesis – all of which start a new section (e.g., Gen5:1; 6:9; 11:10; et al.).

Until next time, may the Spirit of God open our eyes to the truth of Who God is and what He desires.