"IT'S PRIMARY ELECTION DAY IN NEW YORK CITY AS FOUR DEMOCRATS AND TWO REPUBLICANS WANT TO BE THEIR PARTY'S NOMINEE FOR MAYOR OF GOTHAM."
"ELIZABETH DOLE WILL RUN FOR THE SENATE."
"THE BIG NEWS THAT'S OCCUPYING WASHINGTON DC AND MOST OF THE NATION IS THAT MICHAEL JORDAN IS HINTING THAT HE MAY COME OUT OF RETIREMENT AND BACK TO THE NBA."
Forty-six minutes later, a plane going 470 miles an hour crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the carnage begins, and the world changes.
The previously reported news stories didn't seem important after 8:46. The story about Michael Jordan, which, as one reporter said at 8 AM, "Is the talk of the nation," at 8:46 had less less weight than a serving of cotton candy. At 8:46 it was, "Michael Jordan? Who cares?"
At 8 AM, we were wondering, "Is Elizabeth Dole going to win the Senate seat from North Carolina?" At 8:46, we were asking, "Elizabeth Who?"
Our focus at 8 AM, September 11, 2001, was on the trivial.
Committees, both church and business, are infamous for keeping track of the minutes and wasting the hours chewing on the trivial. It has ever been thus. Back in 1957, a finance committee spent hardly any time approving the construction of a nuclear power station, then spent hours debating the construction of a bike shed. Maybe that's why one comedian said, "A committee is a group of men who individually can do nothing, but as a group decide that nothing can be done."
There is a book, a best seller that makes us take our focus off the trivial and onto THE BIG STORY.
The Bible is the Book of THE BIG STORY about the God who created us and loves us becoming Man in order to redeem us from the wreckage our guilt and our sin have done to us. The Bible is THE BIG STORY of God's moving history along: the Incarnation, the Crucifixion (the substitutionary atonement for our sins), the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the return of our Savior Jesus Christ. Add heaven and hell to the THE BIG STORY, and do we ever have a story!
Wow! No other story comes close. All other stories are pygmies compared to THE BIG STORY. All other stories are like the Michael Jordan story when it's compared to 9-11. All other stories are popcorn compared to sirloin.
I'm wondering if, when we go to church, are we hearing THE BIG STORY, our part in it, and how we can proclaim it?
I think that we've got many substitutes out there pretending to be THE BIG STORY, but they aren't. Take, for example, all the "How To" sermons. Millions of these are preached every Sunday. "How to Be a Success," "How God Wants to Promote You." "How to Manage Your Teenager." "How to Construct Lasting Friendships.""How to Build Self-Esteem." "Get Rich." Throw into all that the usual sentimental Mothers' Day sermons and the excoriating Fathers' Day sermons and we have a parade of the trivial.
Along with those sermons come the ubiquitous bullet points and outlines which are our guides to get us the success, the promotions, a docile teenager, friends, money, and the highly prized self-esteem. Can the Christian life be lived according to neat outline? If it can, why can't I find such a three, four, or five point one in the Bible?
I don't think we can or were meant to live our lives by an outline.
Let's face it: our lives aren't neat; they're messy. It's like the old saying about war: after the first shot is fired, battle plans go out the window. In life, when we take the "shots" our nice, well-formed outlines seem to be written in invisible ink. Even when our outlines are alliterated, they don't seem to be of much help when battles are raging and bullets, not bullet points, are flying. Drama disrupts the alliterative "D's."
One writer says: "I'm very burned out by filling out sermon outlines and ABC bullet points that are mostly far-fetched. I seem to always be able to figure out the sermons before they're finished (boring!) either that, or I'm so very distracted by the fact that point "B" isn't in that/those verse(s) anywhere!"
The writer is describing what Mark Twain wrote about a church service in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
In Chapter 5, he shows Tom’s faults to be those of the adults. Tom is restless and inattentive in the usual childlike manner, but he is not alone—the congregation silently snuffles toward slumber, and “many a head by and by began to nod.” The congregation is so easily distracted; this supports the idea that Tom’s lack of interest in and misunderstanding of the sermon constitute the universal response to the monotonous minister. Twain didn't mention it, but I wonder if Tom's pastor began each points with a "D."
As we read or hear THE BIG STORY, all of a sudden, it grabs us and invites us to become a part of it! Hey! That's what we're looking for--to become part of a story that's bigger than we are.
In Genesis 3:15, THE BIG STORY tells us that a Deliverer is on the way to rescue us from the wreckage of sin and the misery of our guilt. The rest of the story is how God moved history along so that the Deliverer was born into the human race! The story identifies that Deliverer as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died as your substitute, paying for all your sins and rose from the dead. He invites you to become a part of THE BIG STORY by trusting Him, who He is an what He's done, for eternal life and for the forgiveness of sin.
When you do that, "you're in!" Now you're part of THE BIG STORY, and you'll be a part of it forever.
Not only are you then a part of the BIG STORY, but you get to tell it to others so they can become a part of it too by trusting Christ.
Along with that, there's a bonus: you can meet and grow with others who are also in the story of God's grace.
________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Journal."
If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.
Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.
Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org
Also:
Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582
Committee - a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.
Fred Allen
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/committee.html#5vz2f9Fxsiobo0eY.99
Fred Allen
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/committee.html#5vz2f9Fxsiobo0eY.99
Committee - a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.
Fred Allen
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/committee.html#5vz2f9Fxsiobo0eY.99
Fred Allen
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/committee.html#5vz2f9Fxsiobo0eY.99
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