Something Clicked

So, my friend Mark Nelson says, almost every time he preaches, the Bible is "one big story of God putting his family back together."  I believe this to be VERY true!  However, honestly, the phrase has seemed to be a little cliche until last night at overflow.

First, I have to go back a few weeks when I was teaching from John 3 about the late night encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus about 'rebirth'.  As I was concluding the talk God was teaching ME.  As I shared about how we had to understand things about chapters 1 and 2 in order to fully understand chapter 3, He began to open my eyes to some amazing things.  Then, last night, as I was teaching from John 6 about Jesus feeding the 5,000, he opened my eyes again.  As we examined verse 35, Jesus says, "I am the Bread of Life!  Anyone who comes after me will never be hungry again, and anyone who believes in me will never thirst again."  We CANNOT understand this without knowing and understanding the conversation he has with the Samaritan woman at the well in chapter 4 about giving water that will cause her to never thirst again.  And you CANNOT understand any of it without understanding 'rebirth'.

SO HERE'S THE DEAL, but get this, it is something I have known to be true for a long time, but today I sense that I KNOW it for the first time.  The Bible, God's Word, is not a bunch of random stories.  Although, that is so often how we have been taught and how we understand it.  It isn't this cool thing Jesus did at the wedding at Canna, then this cool thing when he fed 5,000 people, then the resurrection story, and don't forget the Day of Pentecost, or Paul's conversion, or the worship songs of David, or the story of Moses and the Israelites wandering in the desert.  First, John is ONE story; one story that parallels three other stories of Jesus.  But get this, John (and the other three gospels) are just a small part of a much bigger story.  And here's the kicker, IT IS ALL ONE STORY, "the story of God bringing his family back together."  It's not cliche at all.  It is fact.  We have to have all of it in order to properly understand any of it.

Thank you God for such an awesome story that is still unfolding today.  Thank you Mark for allowing me to see it in a creative way.  Check out Mark's blog and the church where he teaches at www.crossingsknoxville.com