CN | Being with God in Stillness, Silence, and Surrender

 

It has been said that God’s first language is silence, because, through Christ’s sacrifice of love on the cross, God no longer has anything to say against us. What if God’s silence is, therefore, not an absence but instead an affirmation of our acceptance? + AJ Sherrill, Being with God

Along with Red Skies, When Faith Fails, The God in the Garden, and Living Under Water, Being with God ranks up there as one of my favorite spiritual reads during 2022. Here is an excerpt that has helped me embrace leaning into solitude with the Spirit of God.

The Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans … with the will of God. + Romans 8:26

Have you considered what an astonishing promise it is that the Spirit prays in us, and does so “according to the will of God”?

Everything about church planting that one needs to know, but soon forgets, is implied in the term itself: the vocation requires the patience of a farmer rather than the efficiency of a machinist. Self-imposed deadlines, relentless fundraising, and chronic comparison tragically turn church planters into church mechanics. Several months into the church plant I was a part of in Southern California, I was exhausted at every level. I needed a breakthrough, but I wasn’t sure what kind of breakthrough I needed.

Around that time, a friend was hosting a workshop that centered on the life and ministry of Henri Nouwen. Nouwen had left a prestigious faculty position at Yale to serve and live alongside people with cognitive disabilities in a community outside Toronto called Daybreak. 

Nouwen’s life had been characterized by the same struggles we all face: comparison, control, and consumption. 

Those three Cs were the merry-go-round in my head … The more I talked with a new friend I met at the Nouwen workshop during a break, the more I realized I needed the disciplines necessary to move beyond talking at God to being with God. I wanted a deeper relationship with God (think Mary at the feet of Jesus, not Martha doing chores around the house) that was in line with those of the early church, the desert fathers and mothers, the monastic communities, and many other Christian traditions. It occurred to me that maybe it was time to stop riding the merry-go-round in my mind, that maybe there was a better conversation I needed to join. And maybe that conversation wasn’t taking place “out there” but was already present within me through the Holy Spirit. This is where Romans 8:26-27 comes into play. Marjorie J. Thompson, a Presbyterian spiritual director, says it well:

Have you considered what an astonishing promise it is that the Spirit prays in us, and does so “according to the will of God”? Perhaps our real task in prayer is to attune ourselves to the conversation already going on ... Then we may align our conscious intentions with the desire of God.

 

Spirit’s 3 Ss: Stillness, Silence, Surrender Counter 

Our 3 Cs: Comparison, Control, Consumption

The three Cs of comparison, control, and consumption are subversive strategies we employ to strive in our own capacities … We equate strength with feeling equipped and competent in our abilities. We believe the illusion that comparing ourselves to others can lead to personal victory. We swallow whole the lie that if we can only control our lives through worry, manipulation, and striving, then we will achieve what we are hoping for. We are seduced into thinking that being fully alive means consuming the next product, latest gadget, or newest experience. Perhaps these are the very weaknesses from which the Holy Spirit — who lives within us — seeks to liberate us.

Finding our way back requires us to pursue the inverse of our natural impulses: stillness, silence, surrender. 

Surrendering to the indwelling Holy Spirit connects us to the eternal dialogue happening within the Trinity. This conversation that the Trinity has been having since creation is a far better conversation than the one happening in our heads. And entering this better conversation reminds us of what is true. The truth is twofold:

1. We are probably less important than we think. 

2. We are definitely more loved than we know.

When we first discover that we are less important than we think, the discovery can create a loss of significance. But this is a grace to us. It’s a grace because our self-worth no longer has to be forged and defended through comparison, control, and consumption. What liberation! When we get to that place, we then can fully embrace the reality that we are more loved than we know. This is why Christians claim wholeheartedly that identity is received, not achieved. God’s great love for us brings us, in Christ through the Holy Spirit, into the current of the Triune God. All we must do is surrender to it … enter the eternal conversation, where we can discover the joy and the mystery of what the Holy Spirit is constantly speaking with the Father and the Son. This conversation within the Trinity is full of sacrifice, acceptance, and creative love toward the other.

The Groaning of the Spirit & Surrendering to the Spirit

The essential task in prayer may not be to start a new conversation with God but rather to join the eternal conversation already happening within us. 

The Triune God is already having a conversation within us, through the Holy Spirit. The contemplative life is about learning to join that conversation. Prayer doesn’t begin with us talking and end when we run out of things to say. Prayer is always happening between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit … always invites us to pull up a chair and join.

Paul’s instruction in Romans 8 is perhaps the strongest admonition in the epistles to quiet the mind and attune the soul to silence, for it is only in the silence that we hear God’s whispers of liberation that release us from the burden of establishing and defending our own significance.

It has been said that God’s first language is silence, because, through Christ’s sacrifice of love on the cross, God no longer has anything to say against us. What if God’s silence is, therefore, not an absence but instead an affirmation of our acceptance?

Christian contemplation is a dive into the Holy Spirit. Rather than falling into nothing, we fall into Someone. And the Holy Spirit never calls us to flee all desire. The problem isn’t with desire but with disordered desire. Through contemplative prayer, we realign our desires with God’s desires. We do not need to fear surrendering to God in silence and stillness, for it is the Spirit of Christ who awaits our company and invites us into the conversation.

Prayer Practice of Surrendering, Listening for the Spirit’s Groans

The Eastern Orthodox Church has long practiced the tradition of praying a few short lines known as the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer focuses on repeating a simple refrain:

Inhale: Lord Jesus Christ 

Exhale: Have mercy on me

This condensed form of the Jesus Prayer centers our identity on the person of Christ. It acknowledges our inadequacy as sinners apart from the mercy of God, and it gives the mind something to focus on as we open ourselves up to the groaning of the Holy Spirit. 

Read Romans 8:26-27

Bow your head toward your heart 

Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and practice the Jesus Prayer.

If your mind wanders and/or when you realize your mind has wandered, don’t be hard on yourself or spend energy analyzing why you lost your way. Simply return to the Jesus Prayer.

Afterward, reflect on the experience in a journal.

Stick to this practice daily for a week and see what opens up for you over time. 

Through contemplative prayer we can keep ourselves from being pulled from one urgent issue to another and from becoming strangers to our own heart and God's heart. Contemplative prayer keeps us home, rooted and safe, even when we are on the road, moving from place to place … Contemplative prayer deepens us in the knowledge that we are already free, that we have already found a place to dwell, that we already belong to God. + Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus

Next post: CN | Here Is Honest, Messy Holy Ground: Pray As You Can

Here are links to other recent City Notes (CN) books:

A Time To Heal (Shalom); Red Skies; Story of God in a Sanitation Truck; The Artistry of What's Next; Days of Song on Spot of Scorched Earth; Seeds of Hope in the Rain & the Dark; The Church is the Most Corrupt Institution on Earth; The Seamless Life; A Good Calling; Inisheer Island; Wrestling with God in Doubt; Taste Grace in World of Seculosity; I've Seen What Hope Can Do; Ubuntu and the Family of God; Baptism as the Way of Life; Childlike Wonder; Listening to God's Voice; The Cross and Peacemaking Presence

With presence, peace, and many blessings,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Rootedness | Transformed into Communal Servants Like Jesus

"The Church's witness (should)
take the form of Jesus' witness,
whose power was manifest
in love, weakness, and suffering"
(Michael Goheen, True Story).

How do we grow as humble servants
who are baptized
in the name of the Son, Jesus,
whose servant leadership
continues to change human history? 

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. 

Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.  

In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called 'friends of the people.' But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

+ Jesus 

(Mark 8:34-35, 10:43-45; Luke 22:25-27)

As we began Emmaus City Church, and as we continue to seek Jesus' wisdom in how to be servants who are becoming more like Jesus, it's good to come back to His words again and again. 

If we have been baptized into the name of the Son, how do we continue to be rooted in our identity as His friends who love Him, do what He says, and bear the image of His servants' heart to our neighbors, friends, strangers, family, and enemies?

In light of this meditation, I continue to be convicted by the list below of 20 ways I think Jesus intends to transform us into servants. Using Jesus' method of comparison, the contrast of what leadership should and should not look like can be helpful. And I hope that future servant leaders I will get to learn from will be able to add to it so I can continue to grow in becoming more like Jesus (see also a previous post from Soma School on "How We Lead Others with Jesus"). The current list below is merely a starting point for holy curiosity and courage to become more like Jesus together.

For we do not preach ourselves,

but Jesus Christ as Lord, 

and ourselves as your servants 

for Jesus' sake 

(2 Corinthians 4:5).

20 Ways Jesus Transforms

an Entitled Individual

into a Communal Servant

 | 1 | 

Entitled individuals
need to be recognized
for what they've done for others.
Jesus' communal servants
focus on Him and
what He's done for them
and for others.

 | 2 | 

Entitled individuals
bring their past bitterness
into the present.
Jesus' communal servants
bring humble future hope
into the present.

 | 3 | 

Entitled individuals soak
in the world's cynicism.

Jesus' communal servants
seek the Kingdom
of heaven's realism.

 | 4 | 

Entitled individuals
wait for failures 

to happen any moment.
Jesus' communal servants
expect failures to shape
their faithfulness 

for every moment.

 | 5 | 

Entitled individuals
choose to keep a record
of others' sins with them.
Jesus' communal servants 

choose to love others 

in order to cover 

a multitude of sins against them.

 | 6 | 

Entitled individuals demand
others to repent first
in order to forgive.
Jesus' communal servants 

forgive first 

because they have repented 

and been forgiven.

 | 7 | 

Entitled individuals listen
to some portions of Jesus' words
in order to adapt it
to their knowledge of the world.
Jesus' communal servants 

work to be nourished 

by all of Jesus' words 

so they can be transformed 

to serve others.

 

 | 8 | 

Entitled individuals
expect others to come
to them for insight.
Jesus' communal servants 
go out to serve, 

learning from others 

along the way.

 | 9 | 

Entitled individuals separate 

from others 

during trials and conflict. 

Jesus' communal servants 

go to be with others 

during trials and conflict, 

including those 

they are in conflict with.

| 10 | 

Entitled individuals accept
being led only on their own terms.
Jesus' communal servants 
know they need to be led 

by others on Jesus' terms.

| 11 |

Entitled individuals 

casually read Jesus' words, 

assume their own goodness, 

and serve the community 

when it comes conveniently. 

Jesus' communal servants 

regularly pray and work 

to live from Jesus' words, 

ask to be filled 

with the Spirit He gives, 

and seek to serve their community 

because they expect all of the above 

not to come conveniently.

| 12 |

Entitled individuals self-protect 

and participate when the activity fits 

with their personality. 

Jesus' communal servants 

self-sacrifice and trust 

God will shape them 

to become more like Jesus 

to be fit for the needs that arise.

| 13 |

Entitled individuals fuel doubt 

with self-focused despair. 

Jesus' communal servants 

face doubt with Jesus-focused trust.

| 14 |

Entitled individuals want 

only invitation and community. 

Jesus' communal servants 

ask for challenge and vision as well 

that are needed in order for growth 

in forgiveness and grace to happen.

| 15 |

Entitled individuals want 

the glory without the cross. 

Jesus' communal servants 

know they need the cross 

in order to give Jesus the glory

and others their good.

| 16 |

Entitled individuals want
God and others only to lead them
to streams of living water.
Jesus' communal servants  

trust that Jesus is the Shepherd 

who can and will also lead them 

with others through the inevitable valleys 

of the shadow of death 

and sit with them at the table 

in the presence of their enemies.

| 17 |

Entitled individuals 

are self- and comfort-oriented 

complainers. 

Jesus' communal servants  

are others- and worship-oriented 

encouragers.

| 18 |

Entitled individuals wait 

to see "success" first, 

and then decide to give 

their commitment to what 

they want to do. 

Jesus' communal servants  

know "success" is first bringing 

their faithful presence and patience, 

and then giving themselves 

to what God wants them to do.

| 19 |

Entitled individuals try 

to love their family, 

tolerate their neighbors, 

and ignore their enemies 

with their own strength 

when they feel like it. 

Jesus' communal servants  

choose to love their family, 

neighbors, and enemies 

knowing Jesus can provide 

what's needed 

even when they don't feel like it.

| 20 |

Entitled individuals look 

at all of the above 

and think about everything 

that's not worth the sacrifice. 

Jesus' communal servants  

are convicted by all of the above 

as they wonder about 

how they can seek to be 

about God's work in the world, 

what they will follow Jesus 

into as servants alongside Him, 

and what the Holy Spirit will do 

in them and through them 

in the journey ahead.

For an example of how this approach impacted the growth of the first faith communities who followed Jesus, we have the story of a small group of people in Thessalonica under severe persecution in an insignificant area of the Roman Empire at the time. We get to read how they chose to be servant leaders so that more people would come to follow Jesus:

We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the Gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory. And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus.  

+ 1 Thessalonians 2:4-14

Because of their not perfect, but living, example, we also hear how the part of Jesus' Church in Thessalonica imitated this servant leadership that reflected His life and cross-bearing death:

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers ...

+ 1 Thessalonians 1:3-7

Jesus made it happen in Thessalonica then. I believe He can make it happen again now. May He do it again among you and me in the days to come.

Next post:
Healing in the Name of Jesus

– Sully

Curiosity piqued? Something inside you being stirred? Go ahead and connect. For other updates, like and follow Emmaus City on Facebook.

CN | Genesee Reading: Baptism as Jesus' Way of Life for Us

Baptism of the Christ by Daniel Bonnell

What if baptism

is designed to be

not an event

but the deepest part of our identity,

the central, guiding reality

that defines our lives?

Along with Red Skies and When Faith Fails, Living Under Water: Baptism as a Way of Life ranks up there as one of my favorite spiritual reads during 2022. It's also one of the books to read when going on Cultivate's Abbey of the Genesee retreat alongside Henri Nouwen's The Genesee Diary and Thomas Merton's Thoughts in Solitude. And as we continue in Emmaus City Church's summer series on "Rootedness," Living Under Water is a wonderful resource in helping us focus on the meaning of our baptismal identity (i.e. who we are as the family of God sent to love, serve, and witness) that we get to live into each day. 

This meaning of this identity is as powerful as the exodus, as being recognized as part of a royal lineage. N.T. Wright captures the heart of this in a quote from his Christian formation commentary on Galatians:

This is the new Exodus,
the ultimate release from slavery,

the moment when God says
of all of Jesus the Messiah’s people
that He said through Moses to Pharaoh:

“Israel is My son, My firstborn.”

What God said of Israel then,
He said of the coming

Davidic king
in Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14;

this national and royal title
was then spoken over

Jesus Himself
at His baptism (Mark 1:11 and parallels);

what God said of Israel,
the king, and then Jesus,

He now says of all
who belong in the messianic family …

All sons and daughters of God
in Messiah Jesus

Baptized into the Messiah,

Clothed with the Messiah,

All one in Messiah Jesus,

Belonging to the Messiah,

Therefore Abraham's seed
and promised heirs.

+ N.T. Wright
based on Galatians 3:36-4:7

For this City Notes (CN) post, below are some excerpts that stood out to me about baptism as the way of life with Jesus. I love the gift of baptism, and Living Under Water by Kevin Adams is full of beautiful stories, a bevy of historical and ecumenical highlights, and may be the best book I've read yet in unpacking this sacrament for all of us, young and old, seasoned and new to walking with Jesus. If this post intrigues you to engage more with the mystery, beauty, and power of baptism, you can read Living Under Water: Chapter 1: The Script for Our Truest Selves for free.

Living Under Water:

Baptism Brings Us

into the Biblical Script

Baptism brings us into a particular story by which we make sense of our lives and find meaning and joy for them. Anglican bishop N.T. Wright says about this script,

"The point of the Scripture narrative
is to say that baptism
draws together all those stories
about creation and Exodus,
about Jesus,
but also about the life
of His Church in the world.
When we baptize someone,
we are participating in that same narrative.
We are saying, 'We are on this journey,
this is our story,
and it is now your story as well.
And if you stick with us,
we will help you live
that story with us.'
That's what baptism is all about."

+ "Space, Time, and Sacraments"

Wright summarizes what Christians for centuries have understood: that baptism encapsulates the entire Bible, starting in Genesis with creation, when God's spirit "moves upon the waters," and ending with Revelation's closing image of the river of life flowing through the eternal and electric city of God. In between is a life-shaping thread of baptism stories: Noah and the ark (Gen. 6), Moses and the Israelites' escape through the Red Sea (Exod. 14), Joshua and the crossing of the Jordan River (Josh. 3), Jonah swallowed by a huge fish (Jon. 1-2), and the prophet Ezekiel sprinkling the people as they receive new hearts (Ezek. 36), to name a few. Jesus tells a religious outsider, a Samaritan woman, he can give her living water (John 4), and later promises that those who believe in him will have "rivers of living water ... flow from within them" (John 7). The early church believed that the saliva Jesus used to heal a blind man was a reference to baptism (John 9). Sometimes the connections between baptism and the biblical story are obvious. Acts tells us about a converted jailer and a businesswoman named Lydia, both baptized and dramatically switching scripts. But if you were to read through the Old Testament with early Christians, you'd see baptism stories everywhere (ex. take, for instance, the Old Testament story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5).

Living Under Water:

Living Out Our Baptism

Together as God's Family

William Willimon, former chaplain of Duke University and now a United Methodist bishop, remembers assisting with two baptisms one Sunday morning. The first was a three­-month-­old baby girl whose parents were active in that Methodist congre­gation. The pastor read the prescribed forms, asked the parents baptismal vows, and baptized her. Then he took the child in his arms and said, 

“Mary, we have baptized you and have received you into the Church. God loves you and has great plans for your life. But you will need the rest of us to tell you The Story and, from time to time, to remind you who you are and to keep you in God’s family. We are especially going to appoint some members to guide you and watch over you as you grow in faith. And all of us promise to adopt you as a sister in Christ.” 

Next, the minister baptized a thirty­-year­-old man who had recently converted to Christianity. After the man made prom­ises and received his baptism, he stood before the congregation alongside the minister, who said,

“Tom, we have baptized you and have received you into the Church. God loves you and has great plans for your life. But you will need the rest of us to tell you The Story and, from time to time, to remind you who you are and to keep you in God’s family. We are especially going to appoint some members to guide you and watch over you as you grow in faith. And all of us promise to adopt you as a brother in Christ.”

"Burden" Film Baptism Scene

Living Under Water:

Baptism Gives Us

Our Identity and Sets Us Free

What if baptism is designed to be not an event but the deepest part of our identity, the central, guiding reality that defines our lives? ... What does your baptism mean to you? What if you had not been baptized? What difference would that make? 

Baptism is a countercultural way of viewing race, sex, money, and everything we see. In a world with a hundred groups to join, a thousand songs to sing, and countless tantalizing stories promising the good life, baptism initiates Christians into an alternate story offering an inherited identity, a sense of belonging, and a set of lenses through which to see God at work in our sin-damaged world. 

For example, Father Silouan grew up Roman Catholic, rebelled against everything he learned at home, and then became a Hindu monk. One day, as he walked in Manhattan's Lower East Side, he picked a flyer off the ground inviting people to believe in the Virgin of Guadalupe. Somehow, in reading this simple tract, his heart turned a corner. It didn't just encourage him to faith; it started his life in a whole new direction. To him it signaled far more than a heartfelt love for the Virgin Mary and her divine son. In his deepest self, he sensed, "This is it." So he became a Roman Catholic parishioner, then an Orthodox monk, and eventually an abbot. As we walked, Father Silouan shared, "Baptism is about ontology. It's a state of being ... baptism is about our identity." He said all this as a gentle but clear admonishment, frequently turning to look at me, his eyes flashing for my acknowledgement. 

"If people in the early church talked about their identity, if they asked, 'Who am I?,' they would answer, 'I am a person who has died and risen with Christ.' ... To answer questions of identity with 'I am baptized' is a summary of that reality. Life, then, is about knowing who we are. ... 

When we are baptized into the church, we become part of it, a part of something bigger than us as individuals. In a sense, we don't exist on our own anymore. We are dead and have been raised with Christ. ... People tend to live in fear. We are afraid of losing our self, but we will all die, and we have already died in Christ, so we can let that fear go." 

Because of baptism, we can live in the kairos (Kairos is a Greek word that means "the right time" or "an opportune or decisive moment") ... in the present moment. 

Living Under Water:

Biblical Baptismal Images

Are Colossal

Baptism is washing.

Baptism is dying and rising.

Baptism is the start of a new life.

Baptism is joining a community of fellow believers.

Baptism, braced by these life-altering images, is designed to be the central pivot of life, the hub through which every spoke of piety – praying, giving, fasting, selfless serving, communal living, mission – links to and works with the others. 

Baptism is the lens through which a believing person sees all the daily and weekly and lifelong rhythms of devotion more clearly. (We can) visualize baptism as an anchor for a lifetime of faithful living.

What if baptism were the fountain of a Christian life ... rather than one more spiritual episode among a thousand? 

What if baptism became not just an expression of faith but a source of deep reassurance in times of doubt or failure, a sign of God's abiding presence even when we stagger through the emotional chaos of grief or prayerlessness or overwhelming doubt? 

We receive life. In the same way, baptism begins a life of faith. Every subsequent act of Christian obedience depends on (i.e. is rooted in) and flows from this beginning. 

The baptized still struggle to be decent human beings. We are still tempted to be less than God created us to be. But in Jesus, God gives us spiritual power to choose a higher and better way. Because of our baptisms, we live inside the promise that we are loved and can live love. 

Every baptism is a renunciation. And it's an anointing, a call to live as prophet, priest, and king. Baptismal identity is a gift, a grace we receive. And it's also a gift we put into action as called people in the often tangled and thorny work of life. 

Baptismal living always includes a renunciation, an anointing, and a "putting on." We wear our baptism in a way that makes us new – including the way we speak and think and rearrange our finances and value people in a racially charged world, etc. 

Baptism redeems, sanctifies, purifies, loosens, forgives, illumines, renews, and heals. 

To live our baptism is live our truest, deepest, most life-giving selves. It is to push away temptations to do life as performance or show or theater. It is to live life as an unwarranted gift.

The Present Moment (Life of Christ Series)

God has chosen through baptism 
to create a people who are
His Kingdom representatives
to the kingdoms of the world.
This is why Paul writes about
how those who are one in Christ
through baptism 
are now no longer Jew or Greek,
male or female, slave or free. 
Baptism sets apart a dynamic community
of people of all ages
that challenges and critiques
the social hierarchies of this world. 
Baptism makes Jesus' Church
a family of Kingdom servants
and ambassadors where
the age, ethnic, and class distinctions
of ancient Rome; or historic India or China;
or the modern U.S. no less; no longer matter. 

Next post: 
Childlike Wonder:
Marveling w/ Buechner at Jesus' Grace

Other recent City Notes (CN):

A Time To Heal (Shalom); Red Skies; Story of God in a Sanitation Truck; The Artistry of What's Next; Days of Song on Spot of Scorched Earth; Seeds of Hope in the Rain & the Dark; The Church is the Most Corrupt Institution on Earth; The Seamless Life; A Good Calling; Inisheer Island; Wrestling with God in Doubt; Taste Grace in World of Seculosity; I've Seen What Hope Can Do; Ubuntu and the Family of God

With presence and peace,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

SOG | Creation, Crisis, Covenant, Christ, Church, New Creation

What is the Story of God?

Chaturvedi Badrinath, a Hindu scholar of world religions, once said to the English Reformed bishop Lesslie Newbigin:

I can't understand why you missionaries present the Bible to us in India as a book of religion. It is not a book of religion – and anyway we have plenty of books of religion in India. We don't need any more! I find in your Bible a unique interpretation of universal history, the history of the whole creation and the history of the human race. And therefore a unique interpretation of the human person as responsible actor in history. That is unique. There is nothing else in the whole religious literature of the world to put alongside it.

Ever wondered what the point of the Bible is? Does it make any sense? And if so, how is Jesus the one who helps connect the beginning and end? 

Key questions to consider as you see the story develop are:

(1) Who is God?
(2) What is God doing?
(3) Who am I in the story?
(4) How would my life be changed if I believed this story about 
God, humanity, and the world?

The Story of God in the Bible Helps Us Understand His Love
and His Kingdom Mission for His People and His Creation

Shorter Version: The Story of God, the Story of Us 
5-Minute Video: True Story

Act 1: Creation

 

What would life on earth look like for us if we lived the way God created life to be – good, true, and beautiful? 

The story begins with God, the holy Creator and King who came and spoke the universe into existence by His Word. His Spirit was present with all that He made. In reflection of the Creator God being good, true, and beautiful, everything He created was good, true, and beautiful. He made outer space surrounding the earth, the sky above and the sea around the earth, and the land and plants on the earth. And then He did wonderful work to fill these places. He spoke stars and planets into existence to fill space, birds and fish to fill the sky and sea, and animals to fill the land and help spread out the life and plants. And it was all beautiful and good. Then He made humanity, the crown of His creation, by breathing into them His very own life. He formed a man and woman, diverse and unified, to reflect His own image. And then He rested from His very good work. And before the man and woman did anything for Him, He graciously blessed them. In resting in their identity in Him, they then learned to work well in His creation. There was family, food, and work. The holy Creator God and King walked with them like a good Father for this first family, and as a generous King He gave them wonderful responsibility to rule the land and animals with Him in His Kingdom mission for the earth. He placed the first humans inside a garden at the center of His creation and called this family of husband and wife to receive knowledge from Him in how to give life to everything around them. They were to make the world flourish by working and resting as they spread the glory of God and the beauty of His garden temple to the ends of the earth. They were to work like He did by being creative, making more image bearers to fill the earth, cultivating the potential of the earth, and ruling the garden and animals with understanding, good authority, and care. The relationships between God and His family, between the man and woman, and between the humans and the creation were all very good in the garden. The man and woman trusted the Word of God. Their lives were a song, full and wholly good in working, ruling, playing, and resting like God. God dwelt among them and His glory filled the garden with the humans and creation. God was with humanity and everything was very good.

Creation Scriptures | Genesis 1-2; John 1:1-5; Genesis 5:1-2; Psalm 90:17; Isaiah 40:28; Psalm 24:1; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 19:1-7; Psalm 47:6-8; Psalm 74:12; Psalm 90:17; Psalm 148

Act 2: Crisis 

If God created us and the earth good, true, and beautiful, why is there so much evil, self-destruction, ugliness, and rebellion in us and around us? 

After a period of time of walking with God, receiving life from Him, and doing good work that flourished in His ways, humanity chose to break relationship with God as Creator, Father, and King and chose to irresponsibly rule in their own way by taking instead of receiving and giving. They stopped trusting God's Word and walking in His ways with Him. In ungratefulness for all that He provided them, the man and woman chose to take knowledge and life in a different way than God had given them to receive. Rather than trusting God’s good reign and relationship with them, this first family chose to turn away from God and turn to God's enemy, listening to the evil one's slippery lie of twisting God's words into meaning that serving themselves would bring them life instead of death, and that this life separate from God would be better for them instead of loving God and each other, and continuing in their good work and responsibility of ruling God's Kingdom with Him on earth. The consequences were personal and far reaching as the man and woman, named Adam and Eve, invited ungratefulness, entitlement, and separation into every crevice of their life and the world. Family was fractured. Food became more scarce. Work became toil. Instead of filling their relationships and responsibilities with goodness and love, they felt the emptying impact of sin's shame and blame-shifting, and ran away from their relationship with God and responsibility before Him by hiding. The entire creation fell under the shadow of death, corruption, and destruction. Sin, like a parasite, entered into God’s good world as death began to eat away at everything. God, the Rescuer and Righteous Judge, moved on behalf of humanity and the earth by cursing the enemy and promising that there would be a future promised One who would crush the evil one. But the holy Creator God and King who loved them like a Father, in keeping His Word that if they chose to not believe Him that they would die, had to make these broken humans leave His holy presence in His temple garden so they would not be consumed by His perfect justice. On their way out, He covered them in animal skins to cover their shame and nakedness. Relationship with God and each other, and responsibility to work the gift of creation, would now be fractured and difficult because humanity chose their selfish pride over God's self-giving peace. History began to spiral into increasing hardship, violence, greed, poverty, erosion, and disrepair. The first child of this now broken world committed murder. And the taking of life multiplied. The fear of death was everywhere and sin crouched, attacked, and sought to rule over humans instead of having them serve God as King and working together to bless and fill the earth as His good co-heirs. More and more, humanity chose to manage good and evil in their own ways instead of by God's words and instruction, doing what was right in their own eyes and taking from God, each other, and the earth instead of receiving and giving. They continued shamefully focusing on making and taking a name for themselves, and they became more and more irresponsible in warping the purposes of family, community, art, and vocation, which in turn led to increasing evil and death. God the Creator, King, and Righteous Judge, sought to cleanse the world of this great wickedness including all of humanity. But He had grace on one man named Noah, who walked with God in close relationship, which in turn led the way to the salvation of this man's whole family, creation, and the world. Noah listened to God's Word in relationship with God, did responsible work for God, his family, and creation, and saw God begin again His Kingdom mission after the cleansing of the world.

Crisis Scriptures | Romans 5:12; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Genesis 3, 4:6-12, 16-24; 6:5; Romans 1:19-32; Deuteronomy 9:24, 32:6; Psalm 14:2-3, 51:5; Isaiah 59:2; Jeremiah 17:9, 22:1-17; Ezekiel 22; Matthew 15:19; Luke 6:45; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Revelation 12:9; 1 Peter 5:8; Genesis 6:8-13; Genesis 9:1-3, 8-17

Act 3: Covenant 

 

Does God desire to step in and restore what we have broken and ravaged? 

Despite continuing to choose their own ways over His again and again, God pursued humanity with mercy and justice. God the Provider, the Promise-Maker, and Promise-Keeper, made generous covenants, promising to intervene and graciously bless humanity again so that humanity would be with Him and work together with Him to bless the world. He told Adam and Eve that He would defeat the evil one, sin, and death with a promised One in the human line. He would not destroy creation, but would restore it and make it fruitful and multiply like He promised Noah and his family. He would bring a solution to the problem of sin and death that was infecting His good creation through blessings that would create a relationship between Him and people from all nations. After Noah died, in His grace-filled love for humanity despite them choosing to not fill the earth and instead build a tower for their own names, God chose to call and bless a family again, led by a man named Abram, telling him and his family to go, multiply, fill the land with His glory, and demonstrate and declare His goodness and grace throughout the earth. God told Abram, who He renamed Abraham, which means father of many nations, that He would make Abraham's family as numerous as the stars and make the land his family cared for flourish like a bountiful garden. In being blessed by receiving this covenant promise from God, this household was to bless and give to people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. Abraham's family became a nation of people called Israel, and God, the Redeemer and Rescuer, brought them from out of slavery in Egypt and brought them into relationship with Him, calling them to be a kingdom of priests who were to bless every nation throughout the world by taking on the responsibility of demonstrating and declaring the good ways of God in relation to Him, each other, and all of creation. He gave them His Word of life in the law and called them to follow it to show what humanity on earth was intended to be in relationship with Him and in responsibility for the world. Families were blessed, food was provided, and work was valued. He dwelt with His people in all His glory in a tabernacle, which was created by His direction, and Spirit-fueled work in chosen people. The tabernacle was modeled to resemble the Garden of Eden and the entire cosmos, showcasing His continued purpose to walk with mankind and make the earth His Kingdom's dwelling place. He taught the people how to provide pure sacrifices like a firstborn spotless lamb that would remind them that life was in the blood He gave them, that their sin caused death to creation, and that their sin needed to be covered and removed from them and the earth so that they could continue to be with Him. The high priest did this for the people before entering into the Holy of Holies to show that humanity's place was with God when their sin was paid for and removed. Celebration meals involved recognizing their freedom from slavery, death passing over them when blood was marked on their doors, and the firstfruits and fulfillment of the harvest. These happened yearly, and forgiveness of debts and giving to the foreigner were also part of these great celebrations in recognition of how God forgives debts and welcomes the foreigner and the poor. But even with God and His glory and power dwelling with them on the earth, the people were stubborn and rebellious and soon rejected their relational identity to Him and the responsibility He gave them for the world even after He redeemed and rescued them. They fell back into putting themselves before anyone or anything else, including the sojourner and foreigner even though they were once the same in Egypt. And they took advantage of the poor, the weak, the orphaned, and the widowed among them, and misused creation instead of cultivating it. They continued to selfishly do what was right in their own eyes. However, even when they didn't listen to God and rebelled, He still pursued them as a Father lovingly seeks his lost son or daughter and rescued them over and over again from their destructive ways. He even gave them the promised land of flourishing He told Abraham about, and He gave them a good king in King David and a wise king in his son, King Solomon, to provide glimpses of what God's Kingdom and good rule could be like on earth. King Solomon built a temple even greater and more beautiful than the tabernacle where God came to dwell with them in His glory. The surroundings of His Holy of Holies in the temple were also created to look like the Garden of Eden and the cosmos in design and purpose. But future kings continually forgot God's relational promises and responsible commands, and fell into repetitive destructive habits until eventually God let them turn themselves over to their desires for lesser idols and often horrific lusts involving sexual abuse, greed, violence, and even child sacrifice outside the walls of their city. They rejected God and His Kingdom reign, and were enslaved by other kingdoms and gods. The temple was destroyed and the people were taken captive in exile by other harsh and abusive nations. Throughout all of this time, even in the midst of their slavery, rebellion, and exile, God continued to provide faithful men and women who called the people to repent and turn back to God's ways. These priests, judges, kings, and prophets reminded the people to remember what God had said in order that they might hope for the day when He would graciously come to dwell with them in close relationship again and free them to obey His life-giving commands. The prophets said that God would write His law on their hearts so that they could obey Him, and that God would give them His Holy Spirit so that they would walk in His steps. The prophets also spoke of a promised anointed One called the Messiah who would suffer as a servant and die for them, but also raise up and bring God's mighty Kingdom. God continued to hold to His Word that He would atone for His people and forgive them, that He would gather His people from all nations, removing the deceitful, wicked, and selfish from the land, that He would bring His Kingdom's justice to the oppressed, and that He would restore all of creation to be good and bountiful again under His loving reign. But after a period of time, only some remembered the covenant promises and the promised anointed One.

Covenant Scriptures | Genesis 3:15; 9:1-3, 8-17; 12:1-5, 15, 17:1-9; Exodus 4:22-23, 12:1-28, 19:5-6, 22:21-22, 23:6-12, 31:1-11, 35:30-35; Leviticus 26:9; Deuteronomy 11:8-28, 15:1-11; 28; 30: 2 Samuel 7:8-16; 2 Chronicles 7; Isaiah 42:1-7, 10-12; 52-53; 55:3-6; 62:2-4, 10-12; Jeremiah 23:3, 31:31-34, 32:37-41; Ezekiel 36:23-38, 37:24-28; Zechariah 8:1-8, 20-23; Isaiah 66:1-2, 22-23; Psalm 67, 96

Act 4: Christ 

 

How does God come to fulfill His promises and rescue, redeem, and restore us and His creation?

God sent Jesus Christ – the "Yes" and "Amen" to all His covenant promises – to save His people from their sins. Jesus came to the earth as the Word of God made flesh, and the Spirit of God was with Him to speak the Good News of the Kingdom being near now and coming fully again. He was born into poverty as part of an oppressed and ethnic minority people group – Nazarene Jews in the Galilee region of the Gentiles under the rule of the Roman Empire – working well to cultivate creation as a carpenter, and growing in favor with God and man. As the Son of God, He was the only human to live a whole life of selfless, holy service in relationship to God, with other humans, and with all of creation. Jesus was good, true, and beautiful in who He was and how He lived. He made family members of people from all walks of life. He ate with them and gave Himself as the Bread of Life for them. He also calmed creation with His voice, and creation listened to His voice in harmony with what He said. All of Jesus' good, true, and beautiful work brought healing, redemption, and restoration. He received and He gave without taking. His message and life were loving God and loving others as He called people to turn back to relationship with God and each other, instead of continuing in selfish and destructive ways. He taught them how to seek first the Kingdom of heaven, so they could learn again how to rest in their identity from God the Father, and then responsibly work to serve the world around them. Jesus, the Son of Man, came to make the crooked paths of humanity straight by following every one of God's instructions and law, and walking in every one of God's ways so that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation could walk together in God's ways with Him. He did this to fulfill God's promise to Adam and Eve that the evil one would be crushed, the covenant promise to Noah and his family that the earth would not be condemned, the covenant promise to Abram and his family that their generations would bless all the peoples of the earth, the covenant promise to Moses and Israel that God's people would be a light to the nations and a kingdom of priests, and the covenant promise that the Kingdom He established in David's line would never be broken and that a King after God's own heart would sit on the throne. Jesus was the Redeemer, just like God with His people in Egypt, and the Rescuer who set men, women, and children of all kinds free from slavery. Jesus, whose name means "God saves," was the fulfillment of the ultimate plan and promise of Emmanuel, "God with us." He came and tabernacled among us as God's true temple, man with God and God with man, bringing together the Kingdom of heaven and earth, the meaning of the whole cosmos. His good news of the Kingdom of God was full of grace for the foreigner, the weak, the widow, the orphan, and the poor in spirit who knew their need of Him. He came to heal those who knew they were sick in heart and mind, and to seek and save the lost who were humbly hoping to be found by God. He resisted all of the enemy's lies and obeyed all of God's Word. And He did this all when humanity so often played the enemy of God and His ways. The evil one's power play wasn't enough and he felt the victorious impact of this anointed promised One's crushing power. But this also means that those who continued to listen to the lies of the enemy already thought they were right in their own view of the world and did not want Jesus to be the answer to their ungratefulness, entitlement, and separation from others they did not like. They did not think they were broken, so they did not want to listen to Jesus' good, true, and beautifully powerful words or follow Him, revealing their need of Him. Jewish leaders thought He was blasphemous by equating Himself with God. Romans thought He was crazy for even desiring to be a king of an oppressed and enslaved people. So just like humanity didn't follow God's righteous reign in the beginning in the garden and broke relationship with Him and responsibility to the world, those in power when Jesus came to earth did not want Him to be God with them and reign over them either. They decided to break relationship with Him and any responsibility to Him by killing Jesus, the Messiah sent from God, outside their city, sacrificing the Son of Man and Son of God by crucifixion. Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed One who fulfilled the new covenant promise of restored relationship with God, and the responsible Servant King of God's Kingdom, was killed on a cursed cross as the perfect spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus took on and received the just punishment of sin and death we deserved. But, as God promised, after three days in the grave, Jesus was raised to life, defeating sin, death, and the evil one, and came back to invite us to trust in His death-defying words and walk in His evil-crushing ways. Jesus was the perfect Rescuer, Priest, King, Redeemer, Prophet, Provider, Promise-Maker, Promise-Keeper, Messiah and Victor over all that is evil. God's ultimate plan of restoration and renewal to turn the tide of our human history was revealed and accomplished. His Kingdom purposes had been showcased, and the full extent of how far He would go to restore our relationship with Him was revealed.

Christ Scriptures | Matthew 16:15-17; John 11:27; Psalm 111:9, 130:7-8; 2 Corinthians 1:19-20; Isaiah 52:7-53; Hebrews 8:6, 9:11-15; Matthew 1:21-23; Deuteronomy 16:11; Mark 10:45; Luke 1:68, 22:14-20; Acts 10:38; Romans 3:23-24, 8:18-25, 10:9-13; 1 Peter 2:24, 3:18; 1 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 1:9-10; Titus 2:11-14; Philippians 2:6-11; John 1:29, 3:16-17; 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14-15; Colossians 1:12-17, 2:13-15

 Act 5: Church 

If God came in Jesus to redeem and restore us and His creation, how do we follow Him and His ways in countering all the evil, self-destruction, ugliness, and rebellion still prevalent in the world today?

The story isn’t over yet. Jesus, whose name means "God saves," and who was the fulfillment of the ultimate plan and promise of Emmanuel, "God with us," lived, died, resurrected, ascended, and sent the Spirit of God to you for you to believe in Him, be redeemed and reconciled with God, and join His Kingdom mission of sharing and showing this good news throughout the whole earth with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. He gave a new promise that He would continue to be with us and would return as King of kings to reconcile heaven and earth and establish His Kingdom forever. When you trust in Jesus' perfectly good words, works, and ways on your behalf, your sins are forgiven and removed, and your relationship with God is restored. Instead of trying to achieve fulfillment by your own merit while continuing to struggle with ungratefulness, entitlement, and separation from God, you gratefully receive the abundant life He selflessly provides by His grace because He has defeated sin, death, the evil one, and separation from God for you. When you believe and trust in Him, you will be able to rejoice in how you now understand and know the good news that though you were more broken, selfish, and rebellious in yourself than you ever dared believe before, you are more loved and accepted in Jesus than you ever dared hope. When you receive this gift of life with God in Jesus – like God has always done with people who walk in His ways – He dwells with you by His Spirit so that you become part of His family and His temple. In loving relationship, He gives you His name, baptizing individuals and households in the name of the Father, and the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit. He also gives a celebration meal called Communion or Eucharist (i.e. thanksgiving) where Jesus' body broken and blood shed for us, represented in bread and wine, help us remember what He did and that He is with us until He comes again. He gives you the responsibility to dwell with Him and walk with Him to bless people and His creation throughout the world. By trusting His Word and walking in step with His Spirit, you will be able to embody His purpose for humanity to showcase glimpses of His Kingdom in your community and city by demonstrating and declaring the good news of God's reign in and through Jesus with those who know they are sick and lost. You will also be able to remain faithful to Him even as many will reject you for following Jesus' words, works, and ways as many rejected Jesus when He walked the earth. But in faith in God's providence and the power of His Spirit in you, you will be able to strive on faithfully in life with God, each other, and all of creation because of His grace, and His growing desire in you to see restoration happen in others and the world around you. Your family, food, and work will be able to be received as gifts from God, and you can give them to others freely in Jesus' name. By His Spirit, You will be able to love both neighbor and enemy as Jesus did. You will join Jesus in welcoming the sojourner and foreigner to believe in His salvation. And you will share His compassion in caring for the weak, the oppressed, the widow, the orphan, and the poor in spirit. As you discover that people across all ethnicities and cultures are your family in Jesus' name, you will be able to lay down your prejudices and privileges so that you join together with sisters and brothers in God's family to represent His Kingdom of priests to the world. You will suffer because much of the world did and many still do reject Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. But, as Jesus promised, He will be with you in the suffering, and will bring others who will suffer with you. We follow Him and do this together as His Church – His multiethnic family of Kingdom servants who are redeemed by His shed blood and empowered by His Holy Spirit. Jesus has called us to be God's light to the nations together. We can love, forgive, and sacrifice in Jesus' name for each other. We can enjoy family, food, and work for the glory of God, doing all for Him rather than for our value or greed. And we can serve those around us, and the world in the spheres of our neighborhoods, workplaces, avenues of art, and the environment as a preview of what Jesus will soon completely fulfill when He returns to bring God's good, right, and beautiful Kingdom of heaven to earth.

Church Scriptures | Mark 16:15; Colossians 1:11-22; Matthew 16:16-18, 25:31-46; Luke 10:25-37, 14:7-14; Mark 10:42-45; Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:46-47; John 20:21-22; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:42-47, 4:29-35; 2 Timothy 1:9-10; 2 Corinthians 9:6-12; Ephesians 1:15-23, 2:13-22; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, 6:16-18; 1 Peter 2:9-12; Romans 12:9-21; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:23-24; John 17:6-26; Romans 8:18-23

Act 6: (New) Creation 

 

How does this story of God come to completion for us and the earth? 

When Jesus comes back to earth to bring God's Kingdom reign to fruition, He will make all things new. Everything will be good and completely beautiful again. God will be with His people and He will justly remove from the earth all of the sin, death, hell, destruction, and the evil one, and will restore the earth's brokenness to complete peace in His Kingdom of flourishing mercy and power. The place where heaven meets earth will include the garden where God used to walk with humanity, only now it will be a garden city full of people from every part of humanity. God's family from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be His Kingdom and priests, and His glory and goodness will fill and overflow from the temple – which is now God on His throne dwelling with man on earth – into every area of humanity and the earth. Those who reject God's grace and Jesus' holy good reign will receive justice in their desire to reject relationship with Him. They will be made responsible for their ungratefulness, entitlement, and separation, and be forever set apart from Him without His redemption or restoration outside the Kingdom city with the evil one in isolation, darkness, and weeping. For those who have a redeemed relationship with God through Jesus, and who have answered His call in obedience to be responsible to follow His ways in declaring the good news of His Kingdom, salvation, and caring for others – including feeding, clothing, welcoming, healing and helping the poor and oppressed in the world – they will be with Him and will be fully blessed to enjoy good, right, and beautifully abundant life together with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation forever. All relationships in God's Kingdom – between God and humanity, mankind with each other, and humanity with the earth – will flourish. Work will always be good and productive, art will be beautiful all the time, creation will be cared for with understanding and appreciation, and the glory of God will fill the earth. God will be with us – His family featuring blessed children, women, and men from every cultural and ethnic background as He promised – and we will thrive in perfectly loving God and each other, and cultivating His creation together. We will always take on the responsibility of reflecting His goodness in the reconciled heaven and earth as His Kingdom and priests. This will be better than even the very good at the beginning. It will be more than we can ask for or imagine. 

(New) Creation Scriptures | Psalm 90:1; Matthew 5:5; Habakkuk 2:14; Isaiah 60; 2 Chronicles 6:18-21; Isaiah 65:17-25; Mark 16:15; Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 5:9-10, 7:9-10; 21-22  

What if this story is true? 
How would this change the way you live and who or what you trust in today? 

The word "repentance" actually means to have a change of mind and to make a turn in direction on the path one is walking. What would it be like for you to think differently about Jesus and begin to follow His way, His truth, and His life? How would your thoughts change? How would your behavior change? How loved would you feel that God is willing to do all of this for you even after you have ignored and rejected His pursuit of you so often? How would you receive this gift and then share this good news with others in word and deed? 

For those who like to read and want to look more into the details of the story, I encourage you to read Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen's The True Story of the Whole World: Finding Your Place in the Biblical Drama or Sean Gladding's The Story of God, the Story of Us: Getting Lost and Found in the Bible. For something shorter, be sure to check out Missio Dei's "True Story: From Creation to Restoration" doc as they are the ones who came up with the helpful symbols above. 

If you'd rather not do more reading, and instead would just like to talk with someone about this, feel free to contact me. I would be more than willing to meet you at a cafe or pub and answer any questions you have, as well as listen to your story. If you ask me for my story, I'd be more than willing to share it, too. The Story of God is not only my favorite thing in the world to share, I believe it is the true story and I strive, by the grace of God and joy from His Spirit, to live my life following Jesus in light of it.

Next post: The Story of God | Jesus: True and Better

Christ is all, 

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

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