Bible Stories Dvd
Hebe Zuelke
The Bible is one continuous story filled with adventure, heroes and villains, triumph and defeat, good and evil, love and jealousy, plot twists and ultimately, a happy ending. As you read each of the short Bible stories along the way, you begin to see how the Bible stories combine to form the structure of the one big story. The individual characters and their experiences of tragedy and triumph draw you into their Bible stories and help you see the overarching themes of cosmic love, judgment and redemption.
Telling stories is an effective way of communicating ideas so you remember them. Immersing yourself into the 26 Bible stories from the Old Testament and 26 from the New Testament helps you to...
On the sixth day of creation we learn that people are the apex of creation, stamped with the image of God. This is the source of human dignity, and it is why we pursue spiritual growth, so we will look more like him.
The authors of the New Testament refer to Abraham as the person with whom God made the covenant as the father of the nation of Israel. At the time God established the covenant, the man's name was Abram. God changed it later to Abraham and that's how he is referred to in subsequent references.
Moses wants to see God. Exodus 33 contains the account of how God could not let Moses see him or Moses would have died; but he does allow Moses to see the back of his glory. This is the essence of Christianity: a desire to see God. After all, God created us to have fellowship with us. We were created for community with him.
The book of Judges shows the necessity of covenant renewal, how each generation must decide for itself if it will follow God. Once the Israelites were given the Promised Land, for the most part they failed to renew the covenant and failed to receive the blessings from God. The same is true of our own families.
Solomon was the wisest of all people, and yet he died a fool because he ignored his own advice (Proverbs). It is not enough to know the truth; you have to do it. Wisdom begins with knowing that God knows best.
Habakkuk asks the question of why do the wicked appear to flourish and the righteous suffer. At the root of his question is whether or not God is righteous. Because Habakkuk asks in faith, God answers his question by telling him to wait. Eventually, the wicked are punished and the righteous are rewarded. In the meantime, the righteous person lives by their faith that God is a righteous God.
The Old Testament ends on a note of promise, that God would send Elijah to prepare the people for their coming savior, the Messiah. This Elijah turns out to be John the Baptist, who prepares the people by teaching them about repentance. Much to their surprise, the people learned that being born Jewish was of no advantage, and that they too had to learn that they have nothing of value to offer God if they are to enter his kingdom.
Jesus teaches us that prayer begins with us orienting ourselves to our heavenly father, being most concerned with his glory and the advance of his kingdom, and concludes with our admission of total dependence on him for our physical and spiritual needs. Prayer is primarily about God.
Worry carries the illusion that we have some control and that worry can accomplish something. Of course, it can do no such thing. Disciples are to have unwavering loyalty to God. As we see Gods care of his creation, we can rest assured that he will also care for us. Our focus is to be on his kingdom and his righteous; in return, he will simply give us what we need.
When Jesus calls us to follow him, as one person has said, he bids us come and die. Die to our personal ambitions, and live daily as one who has died to himself and lives for God. Only disciples are in heaven.
What is the single most important thing you can do? What is the central thing required of us by God? It is to love him him with everything we are. Our love must be emotional (not just obedience) and it must be personal (loving God and not things about him). But if we love God, we must then love our neighbor.
The death and resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of not only Jesus' life but of all history to that point. Jesus died on the cross so that we can be friends of God, and he was shown to have conquered death by his resurrection from the grave. The temple curtain, which symbolized the separation between God and people, was torn in two, from the top to the bottom, and we can now live in direct relationship with God.
The church is not a building or an activity. The church is the sum total of all true believers. Christ is the head. We are the body. We are a family. We are the temple of God, the place that he inhabits.
Paul wants the church in Philippi to understand humility. They should agree on one central focus, and that is a humility that stems from a right understanding of who you are in Christ. As an example, we look no further than Jesus, who is God, lowering himself to be human, and in return being exalted. In response, we should take great care at working out the implications of what it means to be saved.
Christians are people of the book. We believe that all of Scripture came from the very mouth of God. It is true in all it affirms and authoritative over our lives. The challenge is to come to the point where you really believe this.
1 Peter asks one of the fundamental question of life is, how can an all-powerful, all-good God allow pain and suffering. It helps us grapple with this question by pointing our attention to the realities of our lives, especially the fact that we are exiles on earth and our true home is heaven. We are to recognize in the midst of suffering that God is still at work for our good.
The letter we call 1 John is primarily about love. We have been loved by God, and so we should love others as well. Love is not some simplistic emotion but it involves action: God loved us and therefore sent his Son. Love is the giving of oneself for the benefit of the other.
At that moment, I realized that the word story no longer means what story used to mean. Ken Ham, apologist and founder of Answers in Genesis often points out that story now means fairy tale or fiction.
The point is that the word story no longer means a true historical account, a true narrative, or a record/statement of actual events of the past. If you want to use story to mean an actual historical event, then you need to explain it each time you do, which defeats the purpose of even using the word!
The relevance of this discussion should be obvious. The Bible records actual events as true history (e.g., Psalm 119:160; John 17:17). If we continue using the word story regarding biblical accounts, then many listeners or readers will automatically think the Bible is nothing but a collection of fictional events.
I also use words and phrases like biblical history, true history, narrative, events of the past, record of events, chronological account, biblical records, past events, chronicle, history, and so on. If or when I do use story (yep, sometimes it slips out!), I caveat it and make sure the reader or audience knows what I mean each and every time.
To Christians who are teaching or witnessing, I humbly suggest being mindful of this when speaking in Sunday Schools, youth programs, out on the street, seminars, or even the pulpit. And when drawing analogies from stories (I really do mean stories this time!), like fictional movies, be sure to clarify the difference. Writers of VBS, Sunday School curriculum, Christian school textbooks, Christian films and documentaries, Christian newsletters and books, and so on, please be mindful of this as well. As Christians in unity, we want people to understand that the historical accounts in the Bible are true, and therefore, the message of the Gospel, founded in that same history, is also true.
May our God remind you, over and over, that you are made with care, an image bearer invited to make your mark on this world. May our God encourage you as you help the kids in your life discover the same.
One thing that comes with getting to write a book is a necessary focus book-ward and a pause on making other kinds of things. This is A-OK, and understandable, but for a long time I\u2019ve been pretty clear within myself: what I enjoy most and think I\u2019m most helpful with is doing good theological and interpretive work in ways that kids really \u2018get\u2019.
As we make our way through the stories in the Bible, one of my main goals is to help you see how those individual stories fit into the big narrative arc they\u2019re a part of. I think the Bible is consistent throughout in its picture of who God is, and what God is up to in the world.
That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the dream. But packed within that simple sentence are a host of beautiful implications. Because God\u2019s character is beautiful, and it\u2019s complex. The dream means creation is supposed to be full of life and joy and vibrance. It needs to be characterized by justice and peace and love. It should be good, very good, which is, of course, how it\u2019s described in Genesis.
First, God is endlessly creative and loves diversity, and creation itself is intended to reflect those realities. Creatures are repeatedly told to fill the earth, and the earth itself is invited to bring forth all kinds of life. This is, incidentally, one reason I find evolution a perfect fit for what God is up to \u2013 you could not come up with a better way to maximize the diversity and abundance of life.
Second, Genesis 1-2 is the story of a God who shares power and wants to partner with humans to achieve the dream. From Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, to Israel, to Jesus and the Church, the consistent theme is that God does not just make things happen, but invites humans to be God\u2019s representatives (bear God\u2019s image) on earth. This desire for partnership is not some strange quirk, nor is it a way for God to stack the deck against Themself so as to make the dream a real challenge. This is central to who God is. Achieving the dream without partnering to do it would be an oxymoron.
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