The Story Chapter 2 – Casting Characters for a New Day

When you’re reading a good novel, your mind gets caught up in the plot line of the story.  In your mind you start to develop a mental picture of what the main characters look like. You imagine the male hero as tall, ruggedly handsome and the heroine as breathtakingly attractive female.   Your mind thinks of them as healthy, young and vibrant.

If the novel becomes a best seller and a movie studio wants to turn it into a movie they bring together a producer, a director and hire a casting company.  The casting company will help them fill the different parts in the script.  It is crucial to make the right call on the individuals who play the lead roles if the movie is to be a box office success.

The day has arrived when the cast for the movie’s main characters is revealed.  Producers, directors, studio executives wait breathlessly for the reveal.  Having read the script they each have in their minds the perfect look for each part.  Finally the novelist along with the casting director walk in followed by the actor and actress who will play the leading characters.   But when they turn to see who has been tapped for these most special of roles, the thud of their collective jaws hitting the majestic mahogany conference table muffles their mutual groans.

There before their wide eyes, instead of the expected vibrant, young couple with gleaming white teeth and tanned and toned bodies, stand a 75-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman.  Not what they had pictured for their production.

But that is exactly what the author of “The Story”, God does. His screenplay called for a couple to launch a new nation, one that would impact the entire world.  As He would say, a nation, through whom "all the nations of the earth would be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

Abram and Sarai stand there, adorned perhaps by dusty old robes and crowned with wispy white hair, loosely fitting skin and as befuddled as anyone else.  God chose them to begin a nation.  An unlikely pair, especially after factoring in the reality that Sarai was barren.  How could God expect to start a nation with a woman who could not bear children?

To complicate the story line, it will be 25 more years before they actually have their child of promise.  By that time Abram and Sarai will be 100 years old and 90 years old, respectively (and their names will be changed to Abraham and Sarah).  And the rest, as they say, is history.  His story.

God picks people you and I wouldn't necessarily select to take part in his story. In fact sometimes we are shocked who plays the starring roles in His stories.  Unlike the way we do business, God taps people, not merely because of their abilities, but for their availability.  God searches for people who are open to be used by Him.  Since He uses only those who are willing to be used for His purposes, there is no doubt that it is He who is orchestrating the miraculous events.  Let there be no doubt, throughout history God is the one making things happen.

That's good news, isn't it?  By the world’s standards, you may not have a great pedigree.  In academics, you may not be an honor roll student.  You may not earn a great deal of money and you may have average looks.  But, then you are sitting in a very good position to be a top pick for one of God's life changing stories.

The Story Chapter 1 - The Beginning

I enjoy watching movies and I especially like those movies that begin with action.  As a young boy what I like about the James Bond’s is that they started out with some action.  As a young adult I truly enjoyed how Indiana Jones movies started with some exciting adventure action to capture your attention.  The Star Wars and Star Trek movies follow that same format.   From the beginning of the movie to the very end you’re on the edge of your seat afraid you might miss something.  

That’s where you need to be for God’s story on the edge of your seat.  Like the movies God’s opening scene  starts with a relentless pace that doesn’t stop.  The first line reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

We learn from that line, that  the main character, the hero of the story, is not you or I.  It’s God.  The rest of divine drama,  The Story, will reveal who God is and is nature and character.  Just ten words in and there is enough action to leave you breathless.  Don’t leave your seat.  You don’t want to miss anything.  

Every movie has a central theme that permeates the whole of the story.  In God’s story one quickly realizes that for all the splash and glitzes of creation that one part of creation is more valuable, more precious than all the rest.  The most precious part of creation is Adam and Eve for Genesis 3:8 reveals that God is walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve in the "cool of the day."  God wants us to realize that in His story, He loves to be near people.  His simple vision for His creation was to spend time with them every day, to take a walk with them.  God's supreme passion is to be with us.

I know that some of you have lived your life with the idea that God is some angry,  joy-sucker who sits in the heavens and watches you, waiting for you to make a mistake so He can zap you with lighting bolts.  Or, you feel He is distant and doesn't care or has simply forgotten you.

But from the beginning God has shown us this is not the case.  He wants to be with you.  He has not forgotten you.   In fact, this might be the perfect time for you to go for a walk.

You can join us as we walk through God’s Story and learn how He loves us and cares for us.  We start January 25, 2015.  Join us on Sunday Mornings at 9:30 a.m. as we begin the journey of a lifetime.

Finding Your Story in God’s Story

When I am perusing through a book store often what first catches my attention is the cover of a book or the title. If it doesn't capture my imagination I put it back and don’t buy it.  That methodology doesn't always work because I have purchased some books that weren't very good. As more and more books move to electronic formats, like Kindle, Nook, Logos or Vyrso, where there is no cover to judge the book by I have to rely on other methods to determine if I want to purchase the book.  Often I decide to read books from authors I’ve liked or I listen to the recommendations from friends or a family member.   

One day my Aunt Ethel handed me a book written by a civil war solider, actually an officer.  I looked at the book it wasn’t about history or sports as I simply judged this book by its cover. You, too might have passed on this book.  Its title is Descendants of Christian and Elizabeth (Oliver) Bosbyshell.  There were no pictures, no faces on the front cover, the title was faded and barely legible.  The cover was dark blue.   The back cover had nothing on it either.   It written by someone I had never heard of before, Oliver Bosbyshell who was a retired Major in U. S. Army. 

The irony is that this bland looking book is now a treasured gift.  I become enthralled as soon as I started glancing through its pages.

My attention was captured when I saw the names of people dear to me, Carlton Wadsworth Wilson and Magdalene Hoffman—my deceased grandparents, Joseph Wadsworth Wilson and Emma Krusen my deceased great grandparents. It included Ethel May Wilson—my aunt, Carlton Russell Wilson—my Father and Carlton Wadsworth Wilson II, my uncle, who passed away as an infant. 

This is not just any book; this is a book about my family heritage.  The stories that these names tell would probably not be of any interest to you, but they are to me.  That’s what happens when you hear part of your story.  Something that seems lifeless comes to life.  Something that looks dull becomes dynamite, firing up your heart and igniting your imagination.  You are reminded that you are part of something bigger than you are, that began before you and will continue on after you.

That is why God wants you to know his story.  It’s found in another book. He wants to take you into his house where He has framed photos of your ancestors––folks you may not know––lining the walls of his house.

Stories of a family patriarch named Abraham whose faith was as great as any.  A matriarch named Ruth with courage that would make the most hardened warrior proud.  Stories about a stubborn Jonah and his improbable fish tale, to the impetuous Peter and his big mouth, to persistent Paul and his adventures in church planting.

Yet who He wants most of all for you to meet in His story is His son. He desires for you to look long into the eyes of Jesus Christ and hear His claims that what He began in the first chapter of creation He will realize at the last chapter of the New Creation, where a perfect people can live in a perfect place with their perfect Lord.

I invite you to read His story so that you can discover your story inside God’s great story. Beginning January 25 the journey to know God’s story will start.  Get involved in The Story of God.  It will forever transform your life and your family’s life. Every day God is seeking to guide you, forming sentences that flow into paragraphs that over time write the story of your life––a life committed to knowing him better. 

Will you choose today to take your life story and make it a part of the Big Story of what God is doing on earth? 

Mentoring

Last month I shared how at every major transition point in my life, God had a mentor there to teach me, lead me through the transition.  What does a mentor do?  First the goal of Christian mentoring is to help people align their lifestyles and purposes for living in God’s will.  Our faith is a faith that has been received from past generations in order to be passed on to the next generation.  Paul wrote,  “For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, HCSB).  Our faith is an inheritance of truth that is shared, one disciple to another.  Christian Mentoring is about sharing your experience and companionship with Jesus to others in order for them to change and grow into a disciple who walks with Jesus too.  

Mentoring is about experience not expertise; insight, not information; wisdom, not explanation; self-discipline, not academic disciplines and surrender, not self  (Bandy, pg 8).  Mentoring is about surrendering yourself to the Holy Spirit’s calling on your life to help others in the journey of being a follower of Jesus.  We need to remember that every believer in Jesus is a new person transformed by God into a new person.  That new believer throws off the old master and commits to a new one, who is Jesus Christ.  God asks us to take every thought captive to obedience in Jesus.  Mentoring is the process whereby a leader who is further down the road  willingly goes back down the road to encourage and walk alongside the less mature disciples.   Their companionship and conversations helps the younger disciple learn the ways of God.  A mentor’s task is to help someone when they struggle with faith issues.  A mentor works to prevent drifting away from the faith by admonishing them to continue walking with Jesus.   A mentor speaks words of hope into the discouraged person, which strengthens them and gives them the faith to live life God’s way.  That is how you make disciples.  You learn from your mentor things about life and faith and you pass them onto those whom you mentor.  Can you help our church fulfill its vision of passing on God’s Hope to the next generation by becoming a mentor? 

To learn more read Christian Mentoring by Tom Bandy and/or Multiply by Francis Chan.