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The Story, Week 25 - Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus was the epitome of an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Who really was this man? Questions abound about the true identity of this teacher from Nazareth. No doubt he was an extraordinary teacher, a charismatic leader, and an indisputable miracle-worker. But was he another prophet like Elijah? Was he another King like David? Was he another deliverer like Moses? Was he another father of a nation like Abraham? Jesus seemed to be like all these other Old Testament heroes, but there was no one category you could fit him in. He was all of the above wrapped into one plus a little something more. That little something more actually is a big something - Jesus is making a claim to be more than human. He makes claims that only God himself can make. This becomes especially clear in a discussion he has with the Jewish leaders when he makes the bold statement, "Before Abraham was born, I am." With this, Jesus is claiming not only to h...

The Story - Week 24 - No Ordinary Man Even though the Woman's Soccer team lost a heart-breaker to Japan in last week's World Cup final, soccer enthusiasts see the success of the team as a boom for soccer. No doubt more than a few young girls around the country were inspired by the team's performance and will either rededicate themselves to soccer or give soccer a try for the first time. And that gives soccer coaches and players chills thinking that more and more people will come to love the sport that has captured their hearts. For some it's not about winning or losing, it's about getting the word out about a great sport. That's how it is when you love something - you want more and more people to catch the fever! This week in The Story we have the retelling of one of Jesus' most well-known parables, The Sower and the Seed. Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven expands as people spread the seed in as many places as possible. Those whose hearts have been cap...

The Story, Week 23 - Jesus Ministry Begins This week Jesus is off and running. After thirty years of "waiting it out" Jesus gets to the work he came here to do. Several things strike me about this chapter. Preparation by temptation Jesus goes through a time of intense preparation with a 40 day fast. Jesus realizes that spiritual focus is of utmost value as he begins his ministry. It's 40 days alone with the Father, apart from physical needs, and time to deal with any doubts or fears he has had about this mission. This preparation includes a time of intense temptation from the devil. In fact, the Spirit has led him to the wilderness for this exact reason - to face temptation. Satan's goal is to derail this mission, but the temptations actually have the opposite effect. Jesus gets more focused than ever. I never thought about temptation like that before - it can either get us off track or help us dig in even deeper. For Jesus, temptation serves the latter purpose. He le...

The Story Chapter 22 - The Birth of a King So, we are now into the New Testament, but I'm seeing all sorts of references back to the Old! Imagine just jumping into the Gospels without some background to build on. It would be like jumping into a trilogy and skipping episodes one and two and starting with three. It would be like watching Rocky V without watching the previous four installments (did anyone really watch Rocky V anyway?). You could probably get some sense of the story, but you would miss out on so much! No doubt we live under the new covenant but knowledge of the old proves itself so important. Right off the bat in this opening chapter of the New Testament we see repeated quotes, references, and allusions to the Old. Case in point: John's introduction to the story of Jesus has several allusions back to Genesis 1. "In the beginning," "light," "word of God". There's no doubt that John sees the coming of Jesus as somewhat of a new g...