HIS STORY
The Story That's Bigger Than Life
We are all looking for meaning in life. Deep down inside we all have those big questions we just can’t shake. Where did I come from? Where am I going? If there is a God, who is good and powerful, why is the world so messed up?
ABOUT US
We are members of the Coeur d Alene Seventh-day Adventist Church. We are a group of diverse people, from many different Races-White, Black, Asian, Spanish, Portuguese, Cuban . . . We also have many different Occupations-plumbers, mechanics, engineers, carpenters, architects, nurses, doctors, teachers, lawyers. . , But with all of our differences we have one central belief that brings us all together. We believe that are lives are stories and that there is One Big Story that unites us all.
And flowing from this Story we also believe that,
1. People are amazing and precious, and that includes you, whoever you are. And
2. People are desperately trying to understand what life is really all about, behind all
the joys and beyond all the hurts.
From one searching group of people to another and from a group of people who love helping others we would like to take you on a spiritual journey with the aid of some really neat, short and powerful internet videos we've found to be very enlightening for making sense out of our lives and hopefully yours too!
His Story
Each Life Is A Story
Our lives are unfolding stories, and so is yours. Events happen over time, and each of us enter into the story of life part way through. It's like a play that we're in and we've arrived at forty-five minutes late. There's no script, it's confusing, and we don't know whom we can trust. If only we had the script, the rest of the book, the “you are here” on the map. We need a Big Story that our individual stories fit into.
In Search of The Big Story
In our search for the Big Story, it would make logical sense that it would have the same theme as our story. The pages we are holding need to fit into it. If we look at our stories closely, yours and mine, I believe we find that they have two inter related themes:
1. Life is about relationships. Think about it. Look around. We all want to love and be loved. Just walk into a Hallmark store.
2. But in the middle of our quest for relationships and love, we discover that there is a battle going on between good and evil. Simply watch the news.
Throughout history, people have been looking for the Big Story—the larger story that our personal stories fit into, the story that makes sense out of good and evil and explains our desire for love. With billions of people on our planet, you would think that there would be thousands of different versions of the Big Story to choose from. But the fact is, there is only a handful of basic belief systems or world views. You either believe in the existence of God or you don't.
(If you don’t, watch the video below)
And if you do believe in the existence of a God of some kind, the immediate question is, what kind of God are we talking about? What is his character? What is His heart like? Is He an impersonal force, or a tyrant that needs to be appeased, or a controlling God that always gets His way, or is He a loving God who gives us free choice so that we can experience love as well. (watch the video below about world views)
The One True Big Story
And this is where we believe things get very exciting. We have only found one Big Story that fits the pages that we are holding. It's the only story that explains the fact that we are made for relationships, and it’s the only story that really explains the war going on between good and evil in our world.
This Big Story has a central character that embodies love and conquers evil. He was an actual historical human being who lived about 2000 years ago right here on our planet. His life, His teachings, His deeds and His death were so significant that this man split history in two (BC & AD). He made some extraordinary claims, (like being the creator of the universe and being able to bodily rise from the dead) but He also gave some very extraordinary evidence to back up those claims. (watch video below)
You may think you’ve heard His Story before, and perhaps it has left you disappointed, but we would like to share it with you again with a new twist, from a new angle, and hopefully it will come alive for you like it never has before.
His Story
The story of Jesus Christ follows the same four act storyline as our classic fairytales. 1. “Once upon a time,” things were good. 2. Then evil enters the picture. 3. A hero comes to the rescue. 4. And everyone lives “happily ever after”. The difference with the story of Jesus is that His Story claims, unlike all the others, to be true. That it is the original true fairy tale. Things were, indeed, good at the beginning of the True Story, evil did enter the world as we know all too well, a Hero did come to save us, and all will be restored to goodness in the end. Here is His Story:
Once Upon A Time
“Once upon a time” there was a Triune God—three beings existing as one by virtue of their love. The heart of God, the character of God, the very essence of God’s being was nothing but pure, unselfish, unforced, other-centered love. The love of the Triune God was so great that they were moved to share it with others. So they created beings with the same capacity for love that they enjoy, with the capacity to love God back and to love one another. All God wanted was to have a world in which everyone would always put others first, without being forced or controlled. (Watch YouTube video below)
The Entrance of Evil
Love, however, is risky business, because love, to be true, requires freedom, freedom to love or not to love. As it turns out, there was an angelic being that abused his freedom, rebelled against his creator and began living for himself. He deceived the first humans and took our planet hostage. As a result, we are born with self-centered hearts and our planet is in a battle between good and evil, between love and selfishness. Since the natural end result of self-centered living is death, God knew that we and our planet would be doomed without intervention. (Watch YouTube video below)
The Rescue
As the story goes, 2000 years ago one part of the Triune God (Jesus Christ) came to our planet, became a human being, lived a totally selfless, other-centered life, and in the greatest act of love ever demonstrated He willingly put His eternal existence at stake and died on a cross to defeat evil, win us back and save you and me. His Story claims that He rose from the dead because in Him love conquered selfishness. He then returned to heaven and has the power to change our hearts, if we are willing, so that we can be liberated from selfishness and be restored to love, other centered living, as our new way of life. (Watch YouTube video below)
Happily Ever After
And finally, according to His story, someday very soon He is coming back to take all of us who have been restored to love home with Him to live, “ happily ever after”. That happily ever after is exactly what we’ve been longing for all our lives: a world of perfect love free from all evil and pain.
His Story's Bottom Line
His Story is either true or it's not true. If it's not true, then it is the greatest hoax in history and we want you to know. However, if it is true—and we believe it is—then we want everyone else to know, including you. There are many reasons we believe His Story is the one great, grand true story, but here are our favorite top four compelling reasons:
1. His Story fits reality as we experience it. It’s the only belief system or worldview that has the same theme as our story, and yours too. Think about it, our lives are all about relationships, set in the midst of a great battle between good and evil. It is also the only story that answers the one big question we all have: Good God, Bad World, Why? If God is so good and strong and powerful, why is the world so messed up? (re watch digma.com/world views, YouTube elevator/good God, videos 2 & 5 on this page.)
2. We as humans would have never come up with His Story. All of our super heroes use power and violence to attempt to defeat their enemies which only leads to more violence. The idea that the King of the Universe would die on a cross, a Roman instrument of torture to defeat evil and win us back is a totally foreign and illogical concept to us.
3. His Story includes hundreds of prophecies that foretold the future with perfect accuracy. The story of Jesus makes extraordinary claims but backs up those claims with extraordinary prophetic evidence.** Christianity is the only belief system that stakes its claims in history. If Christ actually rose from the dead, then it follows logically that the rest of the claims are true as well. We're confident that if you examine the evidence for His Story, you will find it as compelling, as we have. (re watch YouTube-Elevator-The Word, video 3)
4. His Story makes amazing promises that can be claimed and tested in our personal experience. The most astounding of these promises is to experience Him living inside of us, transforming us from the inside out. We have seen Him working in our lives and in those around us. The stories are endless!
The Invitation to Live in His Story
We are excited about His Story because we have experienced the impact His love has had on our own lives. And we would like to invite you to let Him into your heart, as well. Revelation 3:20 says that He is standing at the door of your heart knocking, eager to enter if you invite Him in. He never forces Himself. True love never does. You have to open the door. Won't you invite Him in today?
The Bible tells us, that if we invite Him in and keep inviting Him in everyday, He will transform us into people that love like He loves and we will become a part of His Story for eternity!
Help for the Journey
Here are a few powerful resources I’d like to recommend as you begin living within His Story; the beautiful story of Christ:
regarded by millions of people to be the best book ever written on the story of Jesus
The Desire of Ages
By Ellen G White
Epic: The Story God is Telling
By John Eldredge
This is a great book about the relationship God wants with us and the battle going on between good and evil.
Truth Link
truthlink.org
This is a free online Bible study course that covers all the major teachings of the Bible in the context of God’s love.
Digma
digma.com
Stories that will shift your world
A Couple Other Stories Worth Reading:
More Than a Carpenter
by Josh and Sean McDowell
The story that has changed countless lives.
A Case for Christ
by Lee Strobel
A journalist’s personal investigation of the evidence for Jesus
** Imagine someone predicting that the 68th president of the United States will be born in Riverside, California. If that single prediction came true, that would be amazing enough. But what if additional predictions were added? Not only will the 68th President of the United States be born in Riverside, CA, he will begin his presidency in 2030, and then 3 ½ years into his presidency he will be assassinated, and the assassination will be carried out with a 22 caliber handgun, by one of his close political allies. Now we have moved beyond the realm of amazing into the realm of impossible. There is simply no way that all of these converging features could be foretold years in advance without foreknowledge. And yet this is precisely what the Bible does. Ty Gibson, The One (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2014) , 36.
Fellowship
If you would like to experience a warm friendly church, We would invite you to join Us at the
Coeur d' Alene Seventh day Adventist Church.
111 East Locust Avenue, Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, 83814