The Hero of the Bible
I just finished (for the first time but not the last) the most life-changing book I have ever read. The hero of the story is the most incredible person who ever walked the earth. God is the hero of the Bible. Lori Salierno (of Celebrate Life International) said God was:
Adam’s redeemer
Eve’s tree of life
Abel’s vindication
Noah’s ark
Abraham’s sacrifice
Isaac’s hope
Judah’s shiloh
Gideon’s captain
Mose’s rock
Joshua’s courage
Deborah’s zeal
Samson’s strength
Elijah’s fire
Samuel’s Ebenezer
Isaiah’s Prince of Peace
Jeremiah’s balm
Hosea’s love
Micah’s mercy
Amos’ justice
David’s music
Solomon’s wisdom
Reading the Bible cleared up many of the misconceptions I had about God’s character, integrity, and how He operates in our lives. How can you know a person without learning about their history—it’s the same with God! All of the misconceptions about God that we learn through our culture (especially movies that misinterpret or fictionalize the Bible), and even from the limited perspective of simple Bible stories taught in Sunday school. I started out by reading the New Testament. It was an incredible awakening to the fact that I had been living and believing in a relationship with God based on the Old Testament instead the new covenant of grace by faith and not by works. Then I move onto the Old Testament and found out how God really is the hero of the story and the Rock of every well-known name in the Bible. I learned how the Israelites didn’t have it made once they reached the promise land—they had to destroy the people that lived in it first. And a thousand years later they still didn’t have it made when God brought them out of exile from Babylon—they had to face enemy nations as they rebuilt God’s temple, their city, and the walls of Jerusalem. I learned how even God’s chosen people, in the face of impossible circumstances, had to always move forward trusting in Him.
