Notes of Faith September 29, 2025
Knowing God's Story and Making It Known
In the beginning, God... — Genesis 1:1
Ultimately, every one of us yearns to know about our existence. Don’t you?
Who am I? How did all this get going? What is my purpose? Why do I love life so much though it often hurts so bad? Why does it feel like something big is missing? What’s next?
Speaking directly to these deep and important questions, God has provided a grand, sweeping saga, an epic tale that reveals the true, behind-the-curtain explanation of your beautiful life and the lives of those around you.
In the Bible, God tells us what on earth is going on. He explains history. He has given us an engaging, page-turning, no-holds-barred account. From the beginning, to the middle, to the end and beyond, it’s the story of you, me, and everybody else.
And if we let it, God’s story will captivate us.
The rugged subplots filled with thrills and tragedies, the rolling scenes of despair and hope, even the moody characters who emerge and disappear draw us in with delight and confusion. At every turn, God’s story invites us to stop, sit, think. Get lost in wonder.
It is no accident that God created us to love stories. They are the international language of the soul. Our hearts perk up at the sound of “Once upon a time...” And His story is better than any fairy tale or fable. It not only engages and entertains, but it also enlightens and explains human existence. That’s the best of stories. God’s epic deals with the big stuff of life like no other. Why human existence? Why such joy and pain? Why conflict and death? Why fear and hope and faith and love? Why Jesus? What happened? What’s to come?
No, God’s story doesn’t satisfy all our curiosities, but it gives us His framework to navigate life well in obedient faith. God wants that because He wants to walk out your story with you in His history toward eternity. But He walks with those who look to Him through a life of faith. And so, His desire is that you “watch your life and doctrine closely” (1 Timothy 4:16). Doing so is like an invitation extended to Him to meet you in the twists and turns of your life every day.
Those of us who are Christians are God’s storytellers in each generation. We proclaim the greatest story: God’s gospel. This can only be achieved if we know it — really know it. Not the cherry-picking version that suits our desires. Not the manipulative version that only listens to God selectively in bits and pieces. He reveals His will through story as we listen to Him tell it in the Book of Wisdom—the Scriptures. We listen, we learn, we grow, and we pass on what we hear from Him. And so, it is essential that we regularly invite Him into our day to truly listen.
Yes, God wants to be invited into your personal story within His history every day — invite Him in!
The Christian faith is decreasing in influence in society, but in many ways it’s because of Christians. And at times it seems this downward trajectory is irreversible. We’ve been in this situation many times before — times when it looked as if the faith was fading away — but it didn’t (and it will not). God’s people got back on track through His Word. God resurrects what’s dead when His people align life to His story and let Him into their part within it.
God wants to be invited into your personal story within His history every day — invite Him in!
Today we need more people like the heroes we meet in the pages of the Bible: master theologians like our Isaiah, straight shooters like Obadiah, weeping preachers like Jeremiah, men and women with hearts like David and Ruth committed to God. We are the current generation of a long seed within humanity called to witness to God. Thanks to Jesus, our nemesis the Snake-Satan is defeated, but he is yet to be removed. As he spreads his false gospel, so Christians must spread God’s good news with urgency. That takes dedication, discipline, and devotion. It means knowing God’s story to tell.
Our Master longs for (and deserves) our attention and devotion. Listening to His story daily shapes our lives and benefits those around us too. There is a well-known parable of ducks that uses a little humor to nudge Christians away from indifference in our calling as God’s storytellers.i
In the land of ducks, the Christian ducks would waddle out of their homes, waddle down Main Street, and waddle into church every Sunday. They would waddle to their pews to sing songs and listen to the duck choir. The duck pastor would then waddle to the pulpit and preach with passion from the duck Bible: “Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fence can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds.” All the parishioner ducks nodded and shouted “Amen! We can fly! Amen!” Then, the pastor duck closed his Bible, dismissed the duck congregation, and they all just waddled back home.
The point of this tale is powerful: Christian ducks shouldn’t waddle about when they’ve learned to fly. And Christians shouldn’t be silent with God’s story when they’ve heard it from God. We are God’s storytellers. It’s up to us to tell it.
Gracious God, thank you for giving us the greatest story ever told. Draw me nearer, I pray, to know your heart, to walk with You, and to serve as Your storyteller for all who yearn for meaning, hope, and healing. Amen.
Excerpted from The Story of God and Us by Jonathan Murphy, copyright Jonathan Murphy.
I have more than one reason to shout “Go Ducks”! This Christian duck story is the more important one, for it involves the eternal destiny of souls. May we take the story given us by God and fly with confidence in His grace and mercy to a world desperately in need of salvation and true healing of heart and mind.
Pastor Dale