Rhythms of Grace预览

Have you ever read a story from the Bible and wondered, “What does this have to do with Jesus?” or “How does this story even fit into the rest of the Bible?” You are not alone in wondering these things. Reading the Bible can be confusing and even weird sometimes. From the book of Leviticus which consists of all the old covenant laws, to the prophecies of Revelation that have yet to be fulfilled, reading the Bible can be…difficult. Are we even allowed to admit that? The answer is yes. Ask your parents, leaders, and friends. They all most likely have a time or a story from scripture that they did not understand. That is why, this week we will be looking at different stories from God’s Word that point back to Jesus and how the Bible is actually one big story that has Jesus in every detail.

The books about Jesus, specifically, can only be found in the New Testament - in the first four books known as the Gospels. These four books are accounts of Jesus’s story written by four different people and each book has a different perspective on the life and ministry of Jesus. Although, if you flip back to the Old Testament you can read about several prophets who, hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth, give details about how The Messiah will come into the world and what He will do when He arrives.

The Gospels can be easier to understand than other parts of the Bible, unlike a lot of stories, and even books that we find in the Old Testament. The Garden of Eden; The story of David and Goliath; The Passover lamb. What do these Old Testament stories tell us about Jesus? How do they even point to Him if they took place hundreds of years before Jesus was born?

When we seek understanding through the Holy Spirit, study God’s words through commentaries, and ask leaders in our lives about something in the Bible that we do not understand, we can learn that even the parts of God’s Word that may make no sense to us actually has a part in the larger story that points to Jesus.

This week, our prayer is that God will provide you with an understanding of His intentionality and His plan to send His Son since the beginning of creation. The Bible is full of the evidence of God’s faithfulness and we hope that throughout this week, there will be times of reflection and growth in your relationship with God.