Telling the Greatest Story

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, we see that the believers at Corinth were described in a unique way:
2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.

So, you have the capabiilty to be a living letter, written by the hand of God.   Our lives tell a story:  of God's salvation expressed in our lives through Jesus Christ; of the handiwork of God, who has Himself declared that we are His workmanship; of the very love of Christ, as we allow Him to live through us as we die to self daily.   So, what are people reading when they look at us?   I hope that the story I am telling, not only through my words, but the way that I live, is the story of grace and peace through Christ.      Lord, tell Your story and reflect Your glory through my life - be glorified in me today!!
In 2nd Timothy 3, the apostle Paul writes to Timothy about the sufficiency of Scripture:
(15) you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

There's a buzz about "The Bible" - the book remains the best-selling book of all time, but there's also "The Bible": the miniseries.   It's slated to debut on the History Channel this weekend, and by the accounts I'm reading, it's apparently quite compelling.

It's the work of successful reality show producer Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, who's been on this program before.   According to AssistNews.net, this project was two years in the making and the Burnetts consider this "by far the most important project we've ever undertaken" and sought to paint "the grand narrative of God's love for all of us," from Genesis to Revelation. 

"The Bible is a sacred text that continues to challenge and inspire," notes Burnett. "We … are deeply humbled to be given this once in a generation opportunity to breathe new visual life into the Bible's profound stories. The Bible gives meaning and purpose to billions of people around the world, and sparks the curiosity of millions more."


There's also a simulcast this weekend for churches and small groups featuring Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren, who's been a vocal supporter of the project, along with Burnett and Downey.   It starts at 11:30am Central Time, and you can learn more at www.incastevents.com.

And, a family of Christians who own a large company based in Oklahoma is planning to help people experience the Bible in an interactive way when they open a Bible museum in Washington, DC.   The president of Hobby Lobby, Steve Green, tells Baptist Press that they plan to open a museum showcasing many of the 40,000 Bible artifacts in The Green Collection secured by the family's company over the past three years. The museum and accompanying research center will be housed in 400,000-500,000 square feet renovated from two office buildings two blocks from the Air and Space Museum and a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The yet-unnamed museum could open as early as the fall of 2016.


Of course, as you know,  Hobby Lobby has been pushed to the front lines of a monumental battle over religious liberty in refusing to pay for free contraception and abortion drugs in its corporate health care plan, which could result in the company paying heavy fines.


But, Green is resolute.  He often says, "God's up to something."

"We're just along for the ride."

The Green Collection has become the world's largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts since Green's first purchase in November 2009.


"We didn't buy them because we're collectors; we bought them because we wanted to tell the Bible story," Green said, reflecting a sense of ministry from more than 25 years of placing God first in the family business.

"The material we have to make a museum with trumps any museum that's there [in D.C.]," Green said. "Our story is the most incredible story to be told."   The museum features fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, a private collection of Jewish scrolls, including Torahs, the largest portion of Scripture in the closest form of Aramaic that Jesus would have spoken, a third-century fragment from the book of Romans, a copy of Wycliffe's New Testament, a large portion of a Gutenberg Bible, a large fragment of a Tyndale New Testament and a sizable collection from the original printing of the 1611 King James Bible.

Green said the museum in Washington will have three sections with state-of-the-art museum technology -- the history, the impact and the message of Bible.

The Bible's message, as the museum will express it, involves the "story line that this book tells ... that God did create man, He gave us choice, we walked away from Him and were in need of a Savior, and He sent His own Son to pay the price for our sin.


"You don't have to believe it," Green said, "but that's its story."

It's especially a story for people "who have never understood, read, known what the Bible says. They may have it on their shelf but they've never read it. We want them to go away from this section saying, 'Oh, so that's what the Bible is all about.'"

2 families, 2 ways of expressing Biblical truth - Burnett and Downey on a cable television channel, the Greens through a museum of Biblical artifacts.   And, it is hoped that these, and so many more ways to relate the greatest story ever told will pierce hearts and bring people to a knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.   You may not be a film producer or a corporate leader, but you have ways to express God's Word, too - first and foremost, it's in the way you live your life...if you are living by the Book, then you give a testimony to the presence of God within you.    If you believe that the word of God is alive and that Christ is sufficient, then your live will reflect a sense of utter dependence on the God through whom you can do all things, because He strengthens you.