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The Story - Week 3 I love the story of Joseph. It all ends so wonderfully. Joseph ends up with the last laugh! His dreams of grandeur come true. His father's preferential treatment is validated. The expression, "All's well that ends well" never depicted a story so fittingly. I love the story, at least I love the ending. The process is not so endearing. Joseph was sold off by his brothers, forgotten by his jail-mate, and falsely accused by his boss's wife. He found himself in pits and prisons. His coat of many colors was torn and bathed in blood. For a good portion of his life he lived without the support of family. For all he knew his family had just let him go without any effort to find him. He lived in a foreign land where his dreams of success must have been fading fast. Yet Joseph somehow kept those dreams alive and perhaps it was those dreams that kept HIM alive! When we stop envisioning a better future then our present is bound to be full of angui...

Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. - Galatians 3:7, 9 In chapter two of The Story we are introduced to one of the most influential characters of the entire Bible- Abraham. God chooses this one man through whom he will build a nation that will forever have a special place in God's dealings with human beings. It is through Abraham that the Jewish race will descend and eventually give us the Messiah, Jesus himself. As Abraham is referenced in the New Testament it is most often in conjunction with some instruction on faith. Abraham is the "father of the faithful," the example of what it means to follow God without question (or at least with just a few), the man who stands as a model to us all. And by all, I mean not only Jews but all who believe, Jew and non-Jew alike. In fact, Paul even makes the case that all of us who believe are children of Abraham and benefacto...

Chapter One - Creation Creation has always been intriguing to me, especially the vastness of it all. I remember as a young child lying out on the grass on a warm summer's day looking up at the sky wondering how far it went and then wondering if it ended then what was after that. I couldn’t imagine a universe contained, but I also couldn't imagine a universe eternal! Even now as I look up into a star-filled evening sky it amazes me - the distances and sizes just boggle my mind. I figure there must be something behind it all! Recently I've also been amazed by the variety of creation. All the different types of animals out there, each one with its own distinctive look. I'm no scientist, but I hear the naturalistic explanation of life and it just doesn’t seem to account for so much variety. If life happened by some accident then there must have been a lot of different accidents to produce all these different kinds of life. I figure there must be something behind it ...