Jesus is the name we honour! Jesus is the name we praise!
Majestic Name above all other names,
the highest heaven and earth proclaim - that Jesus is our God!
We will glorify, we will lift Him high, we will give Him honour and praise.
(Philip Lawson Johnston © 1991 Thank You Music.)
So, the title to our lent booklet is “God’s story / our story.” Everybody has a unique story – the story of our own life. Our story includes the things we have done, the places where we have lived our life, the experiences which have made us who we are, the people who have been most important to us. Our story doesn’t stand alone, it interconnects with lots of other people’s stories – the story of our family, our group of friends, our church.
God has a story too, the story of the living God revealing his enduring kingdom into the world. A story which shows us how life can be transformed through letting his story become our story. We see God’s story most clearly in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. So, one definition of what it means to be a Christian which you will find in the booklet is – “a Christian is someone who lives their story in the light of God’s story” and the daily devotions found in our booklet will help us to do that.
In the booklet, on Sunday it gives us an introduction to the theme of the coming week and gives us an activity for that week. Wednesday is the first devotion in the book, but on the page before that (p.7) there is an introduction and activity – it says “This week, take time to reflect on how your own story of faith began. How did God become real to you?” I want to add - you might want to turn your story into a Friday ‘Guest writer’ article.
This morning our bible reading includes the verses found on Wednesday’s page, but we are going to focus on the paragraph which comes before those verses. Paul is writing about the connection between what we believe and what we say, what is in our heart and what comes out of our mouth.
Read: Romans 10: 8-15
As Paul writes about the Word which is in our mouths and hearts, he is thinking about ‘the Word made flesh’, Jesus Christ. The words Paul then puts in our mouths in verse 9 will take many of us back to our baptism, and we know that what we declared with our mouth as we were baptised affected our hearts and strengthened our faith. But then in verse 10 Paul reverses the order and talks about what is in our heart affecting what comes out of our mouth.
Our lent booklet is going to help us explore this connection between Heart and Mouth - between what we believe and what we say, and the relationship between God’s story and our Story. The booklet talks about us living our story in the light of God’s story.
The final part of this morning bible reading the part which is printed in our lent booklets talks about people needing to hear God’s story and how that can only happen through us using our mouths to share what is in our hearts. This might make some of us panic - as words such as witnessing and evangelism come to mind. We have seen people in the city centre shouting out bible verses, we may have had people knock our door and want to engage us in conversation about the bible and we perhaps shudder at both if those images. When this booklet talks about witnessing to your faith - Evangelism – it isn’t asking you to convince people of what you believe, but it is encouraging you to know your story – and the part God’s story has in it. Here are 3 questions which will help you to recognise how God’s story has affected your story.
What particularly draw you to Jesus?
What keeps you close to Jesus?
What difference has knowing Jesus made to your life?
Over the next 7 weeks as we go through this booklet – we have an opportunity to strengthen our own faith in God and grow closer together as church as well as seeing how we can help others to come to know God’s story. Use these lyrics to lead you into a time of remembering how God’s Story become part of your story.
Shout for joy and sing your praises to the king, Lift your voice and let your hallelujahs ring;
Come before his throne to worship and adore, enter joyfully now the presence of the Lord.
You are my creator, you are my deliverer,
you are my Redeemer, you are Lord, and you are my healer.
You are my provider, you are now my shepherd, and my guide,
Jesus, Lord and King, I worship you.
(David Fellingham © 1988 ThankYou Music)