Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 1 – Prelude
Let the confusion begin.
[Bible references: Psalm 139; Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 2:10]
Many of us don’t want the story of our life to end where we currently are because we want our lives to be more than the mess we are or the mess we see. We have a sense that “this is not the way things should be,” something is not right either about ourselves or our bodies or our minds or our situation or the world around us. At some level we are discontented, dissatisfied, and restless.
A few thousand years ago, someone began writing a story, a different story than the others in circulation at the time. Those other stories were about gods who, except for being immortal, acted just like the humans with all their faults and shortcomings. And those stories headed nowhere. Nothing got better.[1]
But this new story was not about many gods but one God. This new story explained that even though there is a mess now, things had been originally good, and there is a plan to make things good once more. Intriguingly, although the story was begun by one human author, other authors would continue the story. These different authors spoke different languages and lived at various times over the course of 1500 years. What held the story of all these different authors all together was the Divine Author whose Spirit was breathed into each human author. What began as a set of writings by one human author, eventually became a book, a literary masterpiece with common themes, but using complex literary devices and different genres. These writings, all linked together with direct quotes or allusions creating webs of intertextual references, created one long, complex story of a God who has remained faithful despite our distracted and discontented ways.
These texts were sometimes about events before the writers lived, sometimes about events witnessed by the different writers or sometimes prophetic judgments about the immediate or far-off future.[2] These prophecies revealed God’s co-authorship when the events that were foretold made no sense at the time they were written, but became clear only later, either after later writers clarified those prophecies or after the prophecies were actually fulfilled.
[1] Ouro, Robert. “Similarities and Differences between the Old Testament and the Ancient Near Eastern Texts” Andrew University Seminary Studies, Vol 49, No. 1, 5-32 digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3125&context=auss
[2] Bible Project. “Ancient Jewish Meditation Literature” Bible Project bibleproject.com/explore/video/bible-jewish-meditation-literature-h2r/
Reflections
Think about the Life Map you made in the previous section. What questions emerge from your story?
Take time to share your story with others. As you listen to each other’s story, what themes do you see in each other’s lives?
Share the impressions you have of the Bible and of Christianity. What questions do you have? Do you see how your story fits into God’s story?
Observe
Read Psalm 139. Think about the comprehensiveness with which the Creator knew you even before He created you and even before time and how He is intimate with you during each moment of the day. What kind of confidence does that give you?
Dancing In The Kingdom 