Seeing Ourselves in the Story

I have about 6 books I am reading at the same time...well, not exactly at the same time but you know what I mean. One of those is called, Velvet Elvis written by Rob Bell. As you may know, I started a new series this past Sunday on Baptism and why it is important to our faith. We asked a few questions such as "What is God like? What is sin and where does it come from?" We looked at the creation story and the fall of Adam and Eve because they chose poorly and ate from the wrong tree.

We know the story well, sometimes too well - meaning that we forget to apply it to ourselves; that we are not that much different from Adam and Eve. Here is what Rob Bell says: "Is the greatest truth about Adam and Eve that it happened or that it happens? This story is true for us because it is our story. We have all taken the fruit. We have all crossed boundaries. We have all made decisions to do things our way and then looked back and said to ourselves, What was I thinking? The fruit looked so good to Adam and Eve for those brief moments, but the consequences were with them for the rest of their lives. Their story is our story. We see ourselves in them. The story is true for us because it happened and because it happens. It is an accurate description of how life is."

I hope that we can begin to see ourselves as we listen again to the story of the Bible. It will be a fast series (only 4 weeks), but maybe God is preparing our hearts to enter more fully into the story since I will preach a year-long series on the Bible starting January 1, 2012.