So, here is what I know…

God is on a mission to write His name into the hearts of people all across this earth…Or another way to say it, God is writing His story, His metanarrative, the story to end all stories and the story that  every other story depends upon.

Now, God’s story is being written not in an abstract way, but in the very lives and hearts of people all over this world. It is being written in the life of a man who goes to work everyday to support his wife and kids; it is being written in the life of a single parent struggling to make ends meet; it is being written in the life of a teenager who is in a fight with her parents; it is being written in every life, and every breath on earth, whether those who are the participants of God’s story even acknowledge His existence.

Knowing this, and then realizing that as I read Scripture that God is inviting me to not only be a participant in His story, but has also invited me to be an instrument for Him to use to write this story of the world, I cannot help but fall on my knees in thankfulness for the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this gospel story, Jesus has taken people that hated and ran from Him, and not just redeemed them, as great as that is in and of itself, but now invites them to be an active participant in writing the rest of the story with Him.

Can you imagine that!

God could use rocks or donkeys to proclaim His message of redemption and renewal to the world. He could use trees, a megaphone, or a thunderbolt to get people’s attention and spread His message. But instead, he uses broken, weak, and helpless people like me.

But you see, that’s just it. With Jesus’s story as my story, I am no longer broken, weak, and helpless, but instead I, and you, are more than conquerors when we participate in God’s unfolding story.

For so long we have been fooled by the Enemy I believe, into thinking that are small lives don’t matter in God’s big plan. That wherever we are, whatever we do, is just for us and doesn’t really matter in the long run. But, as I read Scripture, I am convinced that when we attach the story of our lives to God’s story of redemption that He is telling everywhere, all of the sudden our “little” story becomes very, very big.

God’s story defines our story and makes us more than we could be without Him.

So, are you settling for second best by trying to live a story that is not written by the Master Storyteller, Jesus Christ. His story is the story that enriches all stories, that brings meaning to the day to day story, and gives hope that the end of the story is good.

When your story becomes His story, watch out, you just never know what the Master Storyteller of the universe will do in the next chapter. But I can promise you this, it will be bigger, more fulfilling, and more exciting than any story you could have written on your own.

My Story is His Story!

However, I have found control, the kind of control we all want in our life, is an illusion. It simply is not possible to control your life. You can make decisions that have impact on your life, but you cannot always control the outcome of your decisions; and because you can’t always control every aspect of your life, then you really don’t have control of anything. Control is all or nothing. You either have all control, or you have no control.

Jesus, in the gospel of John, makes a remarkable statement to a couple of men who decided to leave John the Baptist and follow Him. Jesus notices their following him and asks them what they are seeking. They reply by asking Jesus where he is staying. This is an interesting reply as they do not directly answer Jesus’s question. Looking to the context of their question they are essentially asking Jesus, “Do you have the status, by who you are staying with, to be the Lamb of God that John says you are? Are you powerful enough to give us the outcome we are looking for? John is set-up to do great things; he has a big following and people love him, but can you give us what we think he is going to give us?”

Essentially these two men are asking Jesus if He has the power to do great things like they thought John was going to do. You see, they were not willing to give everything to Jesus yet. They wanted to know if he would give them what they wanted in return for giving up their present lives and following John. We can all be guilty of this same mindset. I’ve been asked several times by people, “If I become a Christian will I have to give up _________?” The question is the same these men were asking. These two men speaking to Jesus, and us today, are asking Jesus, “Will I still get to be in control of what I do with my life and how I live, or do I have to give up control?”

Jesus’s response to these men is the same response He gives to us some 2000 years later, “Come and you will see” (John 1:39). Jesus is not interested in our desires and our control of our lives, He is interested in us coming to him fully and seeing Him for the savior that He truly is. Jesus asks us to look to Him and follow Him only, the rest is in His control.

“God is great, so we don’t have to be in control.”  God’s greatness is demonstrated in so many ways in our world and in our lives that it is literally impossible to list them all. Consider his greatness in the gospel. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s greatness lived and breathed on this world in order to gain ultimate control over sin and death, our two greatest enemies. When you see God’s greatness in the cross, you can let go of trying to control your world and rest in His grace and love at what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Christianity’s message is “Jesus did it, so I don’t have to do anything.” God is great, so we don’t have to be in control.

I love the fact that our children are listening to the New Testament with us through this summer. It reminds of Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way that he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This summer is a great opportunity to begin instilling lifetime principles and a lifetime love of the Scriptures in your children. Mark is a wonderful gospel to start with if you haven’t begun yet because it is so full of action.

One observation I’ve had so far this week that I had not seen in only reading the Scriptures is the intensity at which Jesus had in speaking to the Pharisees at the end of Matthew. He was passionate for the real truth of who God is to reach the people, and this passion caused him to be harsh to those who confused the truth with lies and traditions. Jesus had a holy anger about him that would not compromise the truth of who God is to those who truly love him. I pray that we will have that same passion.

Jesus fulfilled over 300 Messianic prophesies from the Old Testament. These prophesies were not a few days, years, or months old either. All of them were centuries old; the very least was four centuries old. Matthew knows this and attempts to show his Jewish readers how Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, spoken of in the Old Testament; despite the fact that Jesus did not come as a conquering Messiah as many expected and hoped he would, but he came as the suffering servant of Isaiah to redeem the world back to God.

The Jews had not heard from God for 400 years. (If that were to happen today we would go all the way back to 1610, the year of the founding of Jamestown, the Americas first European colony!) And when God finally speaks, he cries as a babe in a manger in a small Mid Eastern town; however, the Father knew, and all of his plans for the Son came to be as they had been planned since before the foundation of the world.

Now to us who are awaiting our Savior to come, we only have to open the pages of history and the Bible to know that just as the Father planned the coming of the Son once, He has surely stated that Jesus will come again. However, beyond Jesus’ earthly return which is our hope, God has also said that He knows each of us closely and has laid out all of our days before we live the first one. The God who had the same power to fulfill over 300 Messianic prophesies in a few years in the life of Jesus now holds your life in His hands. He counts the hairs on your head and the moments in your life. The question now becomes, “Do you acknowledge his grace, mercy, love, and power in your life?” Do you see how God guides you to live each day? It is not to much for the God of the universe, who holds the world together, to hold you together for His glory. Just as the Father brought about the life of the Son so many years ago, God still continues to guide the world for His glory and the good of His people. I leave you with excerpts from Psalm 33:

By the word of the LORD the
heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For He spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
The LORD looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
He who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in His holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

Here are a few ways that we are trying to raise obedient children:

1. We are confident in our God-given parental authority.

God has set parents in place as the authority figures in the lives of children. Hebrews 12 speaks of how discipline is actually a privilege of being a son. Don’t fear that your child will resent your discipline. On the contrary, they will soon realise that it is a sign of your love for them.

2. We never count to three.

The counting-to-three routine undermines your authority and places your child in the driving seat. You are training them that, essentially, obedience is a negotiation and they can determine the timing of their obedience. Train them to think, “I must obey straight away.”

3. We model it ourselves to authority figures in our lives.

Several times a year there is a clash between what my “boss” is asking me to do and what my family and I would like to do. I always seize these opportunities to explain to my boys that I must obey my boss straight away and with a good attitude, and that although I would much rather spend Saturday morning with them, I must obey my “boss” and go to that meeting.

4. We try not to exasperate our children (Eph. 6:4).

Avoid petty rules. Pick your battles. Be merciful and compassionate. When you are in the wrong, say a sincere “sorry” to them. Also, make sure that you are giving them sufficient attention so that they are not compelled to rebel just to get some time and attention from you.

5. We use appropriate forms of punishment.

We discipline mostly for three D’s: disobedience, disrespect, and destruction (of property or your brother’s nose). Punishment must be proportional to the offense and also proportional to the child’s stage of life. If it is not then you will find that you exasperate a growing child. Also, the mode of punishment must be what will best help the child. Different parents have more “faith” in some forms of punishment than others, and different children respond differently to different forms of punishment. I acknowledge and respect that, although we have had continued success with the primary biblical form of disciplining children with a wooden spoon on their chubby bottoms.

6. We are convinced that it really is worth the effort.

The joy of parenting increases dramatically when you have obedient children, and most importantly, you are equipping your children with the vital life-skill of obedience, which will stand them in good stead in their obedience to God, life, at school, and in the workplace.

Mark Driscoll in Doctrine, pg. 72