The casting agent enters the room with her top picks for the show’s leading man and lady. The new series will follow the spellbinding story of a clan that builds a powerful, world-impacting family tree. This is the pilot, and it is crucial to make the right call on the individuals who will fall in love and launch this Kennedy-like family of influence and fame.

Producers and writers alike have waited breathlessly for this moment, the moment when who they have envisioned as the leading characters will be finally realized in an actor and actress. But when they turn to see who has been tapped for these most special of roles, the thud of their collective jaws hitting the majestic mahogany conference table muffles their mutual groans.

There before their wide eyes, instead of the expected vibrant, young couple with gleaming white teeth and tanned and toned bodies, stand a 75-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman. Not what they had pictured for their production.

And yet, this is what God has chosen. His screenplay called for a couple to launch a new nation, one that would impact the entire world. As he would say, a nation through whom “all the nations of the earth would be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).

Abram and Sarai stand there, adorned perhaps by dusty old robes and crowned with wispy white hair and loosely fitting skin and as befuddled as anyone else. God chose them to begin a nation. An unlikely pair, especially after factoring in the fact that Sarai was barren. How could God expect to start a nation with a woman who could not bear children?

To complicate the story line, it will be 25 more years before they actually have their child of promise. By that time Abram and Sarai will be 100 years old and 90 years old, respectively (and their names will be changed to Abraham and Sarah). Perhaps Social Security checks will help this special couple decorate the baby’s tent and they’ll be able take naps when the baby does. And the rest, as they say, is history. His story.

God picks people you and I wouldn’t necessarily select to take part in His story. In fact sometimes we are shocked who plays the starring roles in His stories. Unlike the way we do business, He taps people, not merely because of their abilities, but for their availability. God searches for people who are open to be used by him. Since He uses only those who are willing to be used for His purposes, there is no doubt that it is He who is doing the the wonder- working. Let there be no doubt, throughout history He is the one making things happen.

That’s good news, isn’t it? In the business world, you may not have a great pedigree. In academics, you may not be a Rhodes Scholar. You may not have a lot of money and you may have average looks. But you may be sitting in a pretty good position to be a top pick for God’s work.

When I (Jerald) was a teenager, I remember reading an article about the cosmos in the National Geographic. Featured were new and stunning pictures taken by the Hubble Telescope of outer space. With powerful optics - and unaffected by the refraction of earth’s atmosphere - this satellite brought the world snapshots of ‘the great out there’ never seen or even imagined before!

One image I will never forget. It was one of those fold-out pages often featured in the magazine. This was primarily dark, yet covered with dots of varying brightness. But the background wasn’t exactly black either; rather it was grainy, like when you take a picture with a digital camera in low light.

The caption explained that each of the bright dots was in fact a galaxy with billions of stars, and each of the ‘grains’ that made up the backdrop were individual stars. To take this picture, the lens of the satellite camera had stayed open for ten day. They explained that this part of space - when observed from earth with the naked eye - would take in the amount of sky that would be covered if you held a quarter (coin) at arm’s length.

But it was the last observation that absolutely blew my mind, and is no doubt the reason I remember this with such clarity. This was a patch in outer space that was remarkable in that it appeared to be utterly black, so scientists had taken this picture in hopes of possibly finding the edge of the universe. If that doesn’t send shivers up you back, maybe you should go back and read it again!

The first line of the Story reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

Right off the bat we find the main character in the story is not you or me. It’s God. And the rest of The Story will unfold out of the nature and person of this character. Just ten words in and there is enough action to leave you breathless.

It doesn’t take long to find out what God’s great passion is. Birds? Nope. Animals? Not quite. Sun, moon or stars? Bright guess. No, in Genesis 3:8 we find that God is walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve in the “cool of the day.”

Sounds nice if you are in a hot, humid climate, doesn’t it? And yet the “cool of the day” is not the focus. God is, and he is near. He is right with Adam and Eve. And he is right here with us. His simple vision for his creation was to spend time with them every day, to take a walk with them. God’s supreme passion is to be with us.

Some of you have lived your life with the idea that God is some angry cosmic kill-joy who sits in the heavens and watches you, waiting for you to make a mistake so he can zap you. Or, you feel he is distant and doesn’t care or has simply forgotten you.

But from the beginning he has shown us this is not the case. He wants to be with you. He has not forgotten you. In fact, this might be the perfect time for you to go for a walk. Or look up at the stars.

If you think Genesis is just a band from the ‘80’s...
If you think it was Dr. Dolittle who took two of each animal into a big boat . . .
If you think an epistle is a woman married to an apostle . . .

. . . you may need to know more of The Story.

You may be a bit intimidated by the Bible. You’re not alone; many people are. And no wonder, its pages mention odd names like Jehoshaphat and Nebuchadnezzar. It contains accounts from places you probably never heard of, like Sinai and Samaria. And it seems to be made up of a lot of different, seemingly unrelated stories. But it really is one big, exciting story.

You can see it easily if you open your Bible to the beginning and then flip all the way to the end.

The first words found in Genesis 1:1 read: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Then, if you turn all the way to the back of the book, Revelation 21:1, you find, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away . . .”

In the beginning God is creating the heavens and the earth. At the end he is creating a new heaven and a new earth. So the big question is this: “What on earth happened between the beginning and the end of the Bible?” If you can answer that question you will have uncovered the one seamless story of God.

Why not read God’s story with your family this year? Studies indicate if the extent of your child’s exposure to things of the faith is a only weekly visit to church or Sunday School, the likelihood is very great that when she graduates and leaves home her relationship with the Lord will turn cold.

However, if you as a parent engage your children in the experience of reading and discussing the Bible, chances go up astronomically that they will remain strong in their faith after leaving home. You don’t have to be an expert or have all the answers. You just have to be willing to experience it with them.

Get involved in The Story of God. It will forever transform your life and your family’s life. Every day God is seeking to guide you, forming sentences that flow into paragraphs that over time write the chapter of your life––a life committed to knowing him better.

This Sunday many stepped up to say they would commit to making The Story a priority this year. How about you? Will you choose today to take your life chapter and make it a part of the Big Story of what God is doing on earth?

More to The Story: Introduction one

If you simply judge books by their covers, you might pass this book by. Its title is Ozark Childhood: Stories from a Simpler Time and Place. There are a few faces on the front that are surely unfamiliar to you and an author whose name you would not recognize. On the back cover is a picture of the author who, with his white beard, might remind you of Santa Claus.

And maybe he is. You see, this book of mine is a valued gift. I was hooked as soon as I started reading the “Acknowledgements” page. (Don’t laugh. Some people read the obituaries in newspapers; I read the Acknowledgement pages in books.)

I was hooked when I saw the names of people dear to me. Raymond and Gladys Elkins—my deceased grandparents. Betty Elkins Brown—my mother. Bill Elkins—my uncle who has also passed away. Sara, my aunt. Dave and Jody, my cousins. And the author, David Elkins, my uncle.

This is not just any book; this is a book about my family tree. The stories would probably not be of any interest to you, but they are to me. That’s what happens when you hear part of your story. Something that seems lifeless comes to life. Something that looks dull becomes dynamite, firing up your heart and igniting your imagination. You are reminded that you are part of something bigger than you are, that began before you and will continue on after you.

That is why God wants you to know his story. It’s found in another book. He wants to take you into his house where he has framed photos of your ancestors––folks you may not know––lining the walls of his house.

Stories of a family patriarch named Abraham whose faith was as great as any. A matriarch named Ruth with courage that would make the most hardened warrior proud. A stubborn Jonah and his improbable fish tale. Impetuous Peter and his big mouth. Persistent Paul and his adventures in preaching.

Yet who he wants most of all for you to meet in his story is his son. He desires for you to look long into the eyes of Jesus Christ and hear his claims that what he began in the first chapter of creation he will realize at the last chapter of the New Creation, where a perfect people can live in a perfect place with their perfect Lord.

The perfect place is on the Storyboard. The question is, “Are you?” You can be there when you find your place in His Story.

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of or salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts… Psalm 95:1-2; 6-8

There’s a beautiful progression there that brings us into the immediate presence of God. It starts with loud and jubilant praise and thanksgiving: “Let us sing for joy to the LORD, let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.” God encourages us to express freely our praises, our thanksgiving. But then as we go further it says, “Let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” Praise and thanksgiving lead us on to worship. Worship is not so much an utterance as it is an attitude. It’s bowing down, it’s kneeling, it’s submitting ourselves to God. And when we come into that attitude of worship, then we qualify to hear God’s voice.

And so the psalmist says, “Today, if you hear his voice.” Alas, there are so many Christians and churchgoers who hardly know what it is to hear God’s voice, and yet that’s the key to all success in the spiritual life – is hearing God’s voice. And if we’ll follow the pathway of praise and thanksgiving leading us to worship, bringing us to an attitude where we can hear God’s voice, then we have the key to measureless blessings.

- Derek Prince