So Loved E-Book

John Bolin

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Discover your story in God's story.  A good story stirs the soul at the deepest level because it is a reflection of the much bigger story of God. God's story is all at once mysterious, adventurous, tragic, and wonderful. It is the most epic narrative ever told. And the author wants to invite you into it. So Loved will take you on a journey through the story of God, from creation to the early church. As a storyteller, John Bolin brings new life to both familiar and obscure stories and characters of the Bible in a way that is heartwarming, authentic, and deeply moving. Written in fifty easy-to-read episodes, the devotional-style book will resonate with believers and seekers who want to go deeper in their faith and discover how their story fits in with God's bigger story. So Loved is the perfect companion book for anyone attending The Thorn theatrical performance or for those looking to find their place in this world. In God's story and in the story He has for you, you will discover that you are So Loved.

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC

Racine, Wisconsin, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

SO LOVED

Finding Your Place in God’s Epic Story

Copyright © 2016 John Bolin

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-5203-0 (hard cover)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-5225-2 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author represented by Alive Literary Agency, 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920, www.aliveliterary.com.

Unless marked otherwise, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Cover design by Chris Garborg at garborgdesign.com

Interior design & typesetting by Kimberly Sagmiller at fudgecreative.com

Printed in China

16 17 18 19 20 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

1

STORY

Welcome to the story

2

START

The mystery of God

3

BLANK

God made you creative

4

MADE

God gave you choice

5

SAND

When God gets the glory

6

ALTARS

God wants you to seek Him

7

SILENCE

He’s there even in silence

8

TRUST

Trusting God when you don’t understand

9

BARN

God sees what you don’t see

10

LOST

When fear bears down

11

SAWDUST

Step out of the ordinary

12

WHISPER

God wants to get your attention

13

FOLLOW

Jesus is calling you

14

FISH

God made you for a purpose

15

ORDINARY

Jesus is looking for ordinary people

16

EVERYDAY

God invades our mundane moments

17

SIGHT

How God sees you

18

BETTER

Life of the world

19

LENS

How do you see Jesus?

20

CARRY

Jesus wants to carry you

21

LITTLE

With God, little becomes much

22

STORM

Jesus is there in the midst of the storm

23

TAXED

God offers you a fresh start

24

FORGIVEN

You are forgiven and loved

25

AGAIN

For God so loved you

26

PRAY

Jesus modeled prayer for you

27

FIERCE

Jesus will defend you

28

SMALL

Come to Jesus like a child

29

SLEEP

Jesus waits for you

30

FINISHED

Submit your will to God’s will

31

FIGHT

God is fighting for you

32

EAR

Jesus is there to put you back together

33

TRADED

Jesus wants you to be faithful

34

STRIPES

Jesus took the stripes for you

35

UNKOWN

Expect the unexpected

36

ROAD

Jesus never gave up on you

37

TREES

Jesus always forgives

38

HUMAN

Jesus understands

39

SUFFERING

Suffering can connect you to Jesus

40

ALONE

Jesus knows what it’s like to feel abandoned

41

DENIAL

Jesus forgives you, always

42

REGRETS

Jesus gave everything with no regrets

43

TRULY

Jesus is the Son of God

44

ALIVE

Jesus shows up when you least expect it

45

HOLES

Jesus gives you room to ask questions

46

BROKEN

God uses your brokenness for His glory

47

EYES

Jesus is there even when you can’t see Him

48

HELP

Jesus meets you where you are

49

NEXT

We need to pass it on

50

CLOSE

Where do you go from here?

DEDICATION

For my kids—five of the best chapters of my story:Harrison, Chandler, Katherine, Alison, and Tate.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

EVERY STORY HAS A CAST OF CHARACTERS, and without them, the story would never happen at all. This book has been no different. Beginning with my best friend and wife, Sarah. I am better because of her and so is this book. Thank you for enduring hours of reading and rereading and for your special contribution of the chapter Suffering. Thanks to everyone at Alive Communications for believing in this project, especially Rick Christian, who has walked with me from fly fishing to kingdom fishing. Lisa Jackson, you are an agent extraordinaire and kept me on the rails when I needed it most. Thanks to my new friends at BroadStreet Publishing. Carlton Garborg for taking a risk and David Sluka for being a champion and working ideas until they landed. Thanks also to Bill Watkins, whose editorial hand saw this over the finish line. To my friend and co-laborer at The Thorn, Andrew Harmon—thank you for helping me make every chapter better, and thank you especially for the chapter you added, Sand. Katie Schmidt, your love for words and God’s story is obvious. Thanks to the others who read this and made it better: all of our incredible Thorn Conservatory students, my staff, and my parents, Rod and Vija. Finally, a special thank-you to Tom and Lori Forster for your endless generosity and for letting me camp out in your condo to get this done. There’s something special about that place. Love to all of the cast and crew and attendees of The Thorn over all these years. Without you, there wouldn’t be a book at all.

DAY 1

STORY

WELCOME TO THE STORY

EVERYONE HAS A STORY.

But life stories are not as simple as we sometimes make them out to be. They are messy and complicated. They have layers and twists and turns that are known only by the ones who live them, and even then only up to the moment.

Every person you see—at the grocery store, at the movies, driving in their cars on the freeway and fiddling with their radios or cell phones—every one of them has a story that is unlike anyone else’s. They have their own childhood memories, their own dreams, and their own fears. Each story has a different beginning and a different middle and will have a different ending. Ironically, as varied as the details are, story is one of the few things we all have in common.

As someone who earns his living as a storyteller, I think about this a lot.

Have you ever noticed that some movies stick with you long after the film is over, gnawing at some deep part of you, as if the movie had been made just for you, to tell you something?

Good stories do that. They create worlds that in many ways reflect our own. I think that’s part of the reason some movies and books and plays haunt us while others are simply entertainment. A good story stirs the soul at the deepest level because it’s a picture of the human experience and a reflection of the much bigger story of God.

The story of God goes back to the beginning of time and weaves its way through history, pausing at the climactic moment of Jesus’ death and resurrection and then continuing on to this moment as you read these words. The story of God is all at once mysterious, adventurous, tragic, and wonderful. It is the most epic narrative ever told.

And the Author wants to invite you into it.

When Jesus stood at the Sea of Galilee with one of His top recruits, a gnarly fisherman named Peter, He invited Peter into His story by simply saying, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:18–20 ESV). Jesus didn’t ask Peter to recite a pledge or change anything about himself. He didn’t have him sign a waiver or learn a secret handshake or throw away his Bob Dylan albums. He simply asked Peter to go along with Him, to join His story. Peter didn’t need to think about it for very long. I imagine that he sort of shrugged his shoulders and said, “OK, I’m in.”

That was Peter’s big conversion. That moment when he decided to follow Jesus, to step out of a boat and into the story of God that was already happening around him. From that time on, Peter’s story was interwoven with Jesus’ story. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was beautiful.

I think sometimes we overcomplicate what it means to follow Jesus. Now, that’s not to say that following Jesus is simple or trite or comfortable. Far from it. But I love the idea of stepping into God’s story. For me, that’s a lot better than stepping into the stuff of religion.

I’m not a theologian. I’m a storyteller. Twenty years ago, while I was working as a youth pastor, I created an “illustrated sermon” as a way to show high school students that Jesus so loved them that He was willing to give His life for them so that they could truly live. It was basically a passion play on steroids. That illustrated sermon became known as “The Thorn,” and the title has stuck for the past two decades as I’ve taken that story across the world.

If you’ve seen “The Thorn,” this book will help you dig deeper into the pages of the story of God. If you haven’t seen “The Thorn,” this book will allow you to find yourself in the middle of God’s epic story.

In these pages, I share stories from the pages of the Bible and from chapters of my own life. Some are adventurous, some are hilarious, and some are tragic. I hope you’ll see, through this cast of characters, some threads of your own story.

As we begin this adventure together, take a few moments and consider your own story. Where are you in your life story? Are you just beginning? Somewhere in the middle? Are you close to the end, determined to finish well? Do you know how your story fits into the bigger story of God?

Wherever you are in life, please pray this prayer with me:

Lord, thank You for the story of my life.

Thank You for the twists and turns.

Give me eyes to see how my story fits into Your story.

Speak to my heart. Open my eyes.

Show me Your way. I’m ready.

DAY 2

START

THE MYSTERY OF GOD

IN THE BEGINNING …

That’s where the story of God, like all stories, starts. With a blank page, an empty space, a blinking cursor. Before anything was written or shaped or formed or created, there was a void—if you can really call it that—filled with only one thing: God.

Somehow, His presence was always here, even before there were planets and stars and trees and hummingbirds. We don’t understand how that’s even possible. We can’t imagine how anything was always here. I mean, everything has a beginning, right?

If you bake a Texas sheet cake, you have the ingredients to start with. If you plant a garden, you have seeds. Want to make a car? Start with the raw materials. But God was just there, and then somehow the stuff of the universe was suddenly there too. But how?

The origin of the universe has baffled even the brightest minds in history. From Ptolemy to Collins to Hawking, theories of how everything came into existence are as varied as they are debated. Ultimately, we can only guess at exactly how God started it all. Beyond the imagery in Genesis chapter 1 of breath and voice and light, much about the existence of God and the beginnings of His universe remains a mystery.

The very idea of a mystery is uncomfortable and strange, yet at the same time alluring, drawing us in because it represents things that exist outside the fringes of our understanding, beyond our own imagining.

The famous movie director J. J. Abrams once gave a TED talk in which he placed a small box on a chair. The box was a child’s magic kit that had the words “Mystery Box” written on it. As a boy, Abrams had asked for a magic kit for Christmas, and his parents bought him the Mystery Box, filled with surprise magic tricks.

But Abrams was so fascinated with the idea of the Mystery Box that he decided not to open it. He never did open it. During his talk, it was still wrapped in plastic. Abrams said that not knowing what was in the box made it more compelling. And that’s what inspired him to tell great stories all these years. Basically, he concludes that what you don’t know and what you can’t see is a big part of what makes a story worth telling.

The very nature of a mystery begs questions. Who did it? Why is it there? How did it get there? What is it for? Why has it done what it’s done? Will it change? How will it change? Does it matter to me? Do I matter to it?

The beginning of God’s story is filled with mystery and unanswered questions. That’s part of what makes it so amazing. So often, I think we try to over-explain God, especially in His beginnings. In the process, we sometimes frown on those who question or challenge or wonder about God. And then, thinking we are defending God, we declare what’s in the box at the top of our lungs. But the truth is, God has designed the box so that we can never fully open it. At least not in this life.

But maybe God actually wants us to ask questions and not try to answer them all. Maybe He wants us to tumble the box around, to poke at it, to wonder what might be inside. Maybe, instead of pronouncing to the world what we are certain is in the box, we should admit we’re not exactly sure … but that we are confident that it’s amazing and loving and special and important. That it really is a mystery of faith.

And then maybe, just maybe, the world around us will stop moaning about our dogma and soapboxes and begin to look at God with the sort of fascination a child has when he sees an unopened gift under the Christmas tree. And who knows? The God who somehow started it all from nothing might allow us to tear a corner off the box and get a glimpse inside.

Imagine that!

In what ways is God a mystery to you?

Remember, God doesn’t get upset when we ask questions.

He loves it. It’s OK to wonder, to ponder, to contemplate.

What are some of the questions you have

that you wish could be answered?

DAY 3

BLANK

GOD MADE YOU CREATIVE

YOU ARE MORE CREATIVE THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.

Most of us have learned to ignore our creative nature and don’t believe that we’re particularly creative. But the Bible says that every one of us was created in His image. And that word image means a lot more than looks. In fact, a better word would be likeness. That means that the same stuff that makes God who He is also makes us who we are. If you look around, I think you will agree that God is a pretty amazing artist. And He put that same “artisan soul,” as Erwin McMannus calls it, in each of us.

The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 1 that God created the heavens and the earth. It doesn’t tell us exactly how He did it (remember, He likes mystery), and this has caused more than a little consternation and bickering and doubt ever since. We do have some hints about how He did it—His voice, His breath, mud, light, and love—but not a whole lot else.

Author Sidney Sheldon said, “A blank page is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.”1 As a writer, I can tell you that’s the truth! If you’ve ever had to do a creative writing assignment and stared at a blinking cursor, you know what I’m talking about. Making something from nothing is hard.

Have you ever had one of those nights when you discover that your child has a major art project due the next morning and you’re just now hearing about it? A while back, this happened with my son Chandler. He had to create a deep-sea creature out of papier-mâché. I had to run to the hobby store before it closed to buy a few bits and pieces of stuff he’d asked for. Then his mom and I sat at the kitchen table with Chandler, staring at a pile of newspaper and other crafty junk, wondering how in the world he was going to pull this off.

I watched as he worked like a mad scientist, bending coat hangers and mixing newspaper with water and flour and somehow turning the news section of the Gazette into a gulper eel. The thing had spines and fins and haunting eyes and glowing teeth. Honestly, it was pretty amazing. It hung from the ceiling of the art teacher’s room for the remainder of the school year.

The mess on our kitchen table was overwhelming to me and my wife, but not to our son. He saw something we didn’t see. The creative gift in him was able to shape and mold what others would throw away and turn it into something beautiful. That’s what God does for us. That’s also what God wants to do through us.

It’s easy for us to bury or ignore the creative nudge that God wants to give us, but it’s so much better to let Him work in us in ways we never expected. After all, if God can see what others can’t, you can too.

He can give you ideas to reignite your marriage.

He can give you new ways to parent.

He can help you find brand-new solutions at work.

Maybe God wants to create a new business or novel or screenplay or way of helping the poor. Maybe He wants to ignite your artisan soul to develop a cure for a disease or paint a thing of beauty that points people to Him. Who’s to say?

He is.

In what ways do you see the creative in your life?

In what ways do you hope that God

will show up in new and innovative ways?

Today, watch for opportunities for

God’s creativity to collide with your life.

Ask Him to show you something new,

to spark ideas in you, to breathe His ingenuity

into your work, your family, and your life.

1Sidney Sheldon, If Tomorrow Comes (New York: Warner Books, 1984).

DAY 4

MADE

GOD GAVE YOU CHOICE

MY SIX-YEAR-OLD, TATE, IS A LITTLE AFRAID of the dark, so my wife and I put a few pictures on his wall that he and his siblings had painted one year at church for Easter. The paintings were all of crosses and empty tombs. We thought they’d make him feel safer.

One night, as I was lying in bed with Tate, singing him to sleep, he looked up at me and asked, “Daddy, why did Jesus have to die?”

His question surprised me. But after a moment of reflection, I answered, “Because people made some wrong choices.”

A long pause. “Why did God give people choices if He knew we were going to make the wrong ones?”

I thought about that for a bit. “Because that’s how God would know if we really loved Him.”

To tell my son the story of God as it pertains to choices, I had to go back in time. Back to the very beginning of time.

Blank stillness. Absolute void. Nothing except for Him. Except for Love.