Exodus through Ruth continue the narrative as God takes slaves from Egypt and brings them back to the land of promise and establishes them as a nation he wants to care for again demonstrating God’s faithfulness in the midst of human unfaithfulness.
Genesis and Job begin the Old Testament story, one with the origins of the creation, its downfall and how God begins to make himself known to people in darkness, and the other as a counterpoint to the mistaken idea that we deserve our sufferings.
As we get to know the Jesus of Scripture and how the early believers processed that life in their own journey then we can go back to the Old Testament and see it as the story of God coming to rescue a world from the darkness of sin.
After the fourth session Wayne engaged the audience in a dialog about the material already presented.
Finally John’s three letters and his Revelation provide the last words in the New Testament narrative, both a celebration of his love and our assurance that all of history will culminate in his victory.
Paul’s later letters – 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus– along with Peter’s two letters and Jude’s dealt with false teachers, suffering, and how to stay faithful to the Truth even when others begin to go astray.
As their individual journeys began to play out in church communities Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Hebrews were written to help them learn how to live more deeply in God’s life as well as to see the church take shape among them.
After the fourth session Wayne engaged the audience in a dialog about the material already presented.
As the believers walked out their newfound relationship with Jesus, issues emerged that required greater clarity. James, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and Romans were among the first letters written to help people learn how to follow him.
The truth Scripture describes is not always a linear set of propositions, but an unveiling of two or more seemingly contradictory revelations. The truth is found as both are held in tension inside a relationship with Jesus.