In the prior two posts, we’ve reflected on The Greatest Story Ever Told – salvation history. The story of God’s rescue operation for humankind. But we stopped at the Prologue, i.e., life on this earth and the transition towards an entirely different dimension of living. As Paul Harvey famously said on his syndicated ABC radio show: “And now, the rest of the story”.
Every time we recite the Apostles Creed, we say that we believe “in life everlasting”. Well, do you really? In the Nicene Creed we profess to “look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” Are you truly looking forward to that?
The Greatest Story Ever Told (continued from prior post)
Every day of our lives, we can now choose to live the life of Jesus or to live for ourselves. We can choose things that meet our desires for pleasure, power, or possessions – but bring us no closer to the purpose for which we were created. We can choose people to meet our needs and wants for attention, affection, or adulation; but they will inevitably fall short of our expectations, frequently disappoint us, and predictably hurt us time and again. Only a daily relationship with God himself can fill the void at the core of our being: to be loved and to love.
This 1949 classic by Gulton Oursler recounting the life of Christ was an instant bestseller and has been read by millions. Salvation history is literally His-story. I learned about it in the Baltimore Catechism under the tutelage of the Ursuline Sisters during my elementary school years in Cleveland, Ohio. But knowing about someone is quite different from knowing someone from personal encounters. From a lifetime of personal encounters, I share my understanding of His-story, i.e., my statement of faith. It is the greatest story ever told to me.
The Greatest Story Ever Told – Part One AUDIO
We were created to be in a relationship with unconditional love. Jesus came into this world to reveal to us that the unconditional, uninterrupted, unending love for which we were created – is God. One of his closest disciples passed this revelation on to us in one of his letters, inspired by the Holy Spirit (1 John 4: 16b). “God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God and God lives in him (JB). “ “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (RSV).” “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God, and God in him. (NAB)” The translations of “live”, “abide”, and “remain” convey the essence of this love: we need it to have life (live), without interruption (abide), and to have it forever (remain). Just as all creation needs a certain environment in order to grow and be sustained (a combination of air, water, light, and nutrition), human beings need to be in the presence of unconditional love in order to grow, mature, and attain the fullness of the purpose for which we were created – perfect intimacy, unity, and harmony with unconditional, uninterrupted, unending love.
