Every Story Whispers His Name - Intro

Full Disclosure Statement: I make NO money on the following endorsement:

Go purchase “The Jesus Storybook Bible” by Sally Lloyd-Jones.  (Amazon.com  or Christian Book Distributors)  Find an excuse to read it to children.  Give it away as a gift.  Use it in classes you teach.  Most of all though, take the time to read it yourself.

I’m reading it one chapter per week to my entire congregation during the Worship Service!  Sort of an odd twist on the “Lessons” of liturgical churches.  And each week, I intend to post some reflections on the chapter I’ve just read to Christ Covenant.

Throughout my ministry, I’ve been one to encourage, support, cajole, and demonstrate the practice of daily Bible reading.  Over the past several years though, I’ve grown increasingly aware that not only do people need to read the Bible, they need to read it with a particular perspective.  Painful as it sounds, you may be better off not reading the Bible if when you read it, you read it like the Pharisees did.  Jesus said pretty clearly that they missed the point.  So why even do it if you miss the point?

The solution of course is to keep – or start – reading, but to read the Bible differently than the Pharisees.  Not to be trite, but I’ve been trying to read it with the perspective of Jesus, and that is where “The Jesus Storybook Bible” has been very, very helpful.

Read Luke 24: 13-35.  It’s the story of Jesus, shortly after He was raised from the dead, meeting up with some friends walking from Jerusalem to the nearby town of Emmaus.  They get about 3-4 hours of post-resurrection Bible study with Jesus as they walk.  Luke sums it up in this way: And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. V 27

Jesus was helping them see that the Old Testament stories that they were so familiar with were actually speaking about Him.  They had to see those stories with different eyes, even after having been with Jesus and having heard His teaching before.  The earliest believers often spoke clearly about how Jesus was the one that Moses, Isaiah, the Prophets, indeed all of the Scriptures spoke of. (Ponder John 1:45, 5:46, 12:41 and Acts 10:43)  Like those earliest believers, I want to announce that the point of all the Scriptures - every story - is Jesus and His Gospel.

By contrast, I see that for years I preached sermons that in some way made the message of the Bible about me and you:  Don’t behave badly!  Do behave kindly!  Here is how to view the world!  And on and on an on.  Of course, I would tell people that we are all saved by grace through faith in the atoning death of Jesus for our sins.  Unfortunately, once we got that straightened out, life became all about figuring out what to do or say or feel or think.

Don’t get me wrong.  I was a fine, upstanding evangelical from the very beginning.  Three churches grew significantly.  People came to faith.  Others grew in faith, started praying more, caring for the poor, learning to pray, loving their families and all such good things.  In the midst of it, the Heavenly Father graciously managed to genuinely reach people and transform lives.

But I also found myself secretly tired and discouraged.  Occasionally (I hope only occasionally) proud and judgmental.  Always busy and working hard in the midst of it all.  Now I wish I had known to teach these wonderful people to read the Bible with eyes that see every story as being about Jesus and His gospel.  “Reading with eyes of grace” I now call it.  I see now that not only am I saved by grace through faith, but that every step of my life is to be lived by grace through faith.  In truth, I had fallen into the same problem that the Galatians had: Having begun in grace, I had fallen into performance.  And I suspect I’m not the only evangelical in the United States to have done this.  No wonder Martin Luther would say that we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves every day. 

Sally Lloyd-Jones helps us “read with eyes of grace” because she knows that every story whispers His name.  Her writing helps us hear the whisper.  She acknowledges what I also hear in the stories: the preaching of Tim Keller!  But like her, I too have heard more clearly the Gospel of Grace through Dr. Keller’s preaching.

Of course, the Jesus Storybook Bible is written for children.  But maybe that is where I need to go back and hear these stories for my own adult life.  Jesus did mention children as prime examples of humble faith. (Matthew 18:1-4)

So buy the book!  Read it!  Come worship with us at Christ Covenant and you can hear it read!  Follow my further comments on this blog.  May the Father renew our eyes and ears to see and hear the One of whom each story speaks.