People love adventure stories: stories of good versus evil, of heroes and villains, and of conflict and resolution. In some ways, many of us dream of having the sorts of adventures we read or hear about as children. Though each story is different, serving its own purpose, each is created by a person, one who might be recognized and long remembered for his/her accomplishment. Within each narrative, characters perform certain actions as events unfold, but the author controls the story. So what if I said we are part of a story? If you think about it, life could be considered one giant story written by God, and when the story is over, He will be remembered, glorified in fact. Keep reading, and I’ll explain what I mean.
Off the top of your head, how many authors can you name who used the landscape of adventure for their portraits and are considered by many to possess good quality or excellence in their field? Perhaps J. K. Rowling, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, or George Lucas, just to name a few. Granted, they have their critics, detractors, or people who just don’t care for their work, just as we all have in whatever we do, but no one can deny they have the ability to grip readers and pull them into a world that is imaginary but at the same time can seem very real. To the reader, this world within the story exists within its own reality, constrained by its own rules and restrictions, troubled with conflict. Characters are created with their own personalities and quirks, stories are told, evil is eventually defeated, and who is remembered for all of this? The author. To those who finish a well-told story, they are rewarded with such satisfaction of having known what happens and how it ended, but something greater happens beyond that. More than just enjoying a story being told, readers often remember who wrote the story, the author’s name becomes a part of human history, and s/he is then recognized for outstanding work. Why shouldn’t they want or accept what they earned, even if recognition might not have been the purpose in creating the stories.
It should be noted that an essence of good storytelling requires some sort of conflict that is ultimately resolved, but a good author will not interrupt a story’s flow just to accomplish this. While characters’ actions move a story along, they must behave within certain parameters or be considered “out of character,” which can ruin the story. Yet if you think more closely about the concept of a story itself, you have to ask some philosophical questions. Do authors ultimately control stories in which characters take on lives of their own? In a story of good versus evil, if clearly-defined heroes and villains are known by the readers, is the author berated for creating such characters? When there is long-lasting conflict within a story that is ultimately resolved with the death of the villain and the end of terror that plagued the other characters, is the author blamed for including or allowing evil within the story? Though negative elements are part of a story, is the author’s ability to tell a story condemned for poor quality work by including them? Or is the writer more likely to be praised for creating something compelling, designing a work of art in which readers invested a lot of time and energy following to its conclusion? While the answers may be obvious, consider that there might be something deeper.
What am I getting at with all this? The Bible, our lives, and God’s glory. From Genesis to Revelation, we read a story. A story of God’s love and faithfulness. A story of how He created a perfect world, yet evil entered the picture, ruined everything, and continues to exist for millennia, but in the end, everything will be resolved, and the Author will have recognition. Now the characters within a normal story live their lives and make their choices, for good or for bad, in order to move the story along, all completely unaware of the author’s involvement, that s/he is really the one in control of everything. The characters are unable to interact with the author; that author doesn’t even cross their minds, as any interruption by the author to the story’s continuity would lessen its quality. But we exist in a different kind of story; it’s a story in which the Author is not visibly seen, yet the characters are allowed to know of His existence and even interact with Him, often pleading for such interruptions that would make other narratives become lesser quality. Sometimes we often wonder how things in our own lives will turn out okay; we may not like that problems occur, people die, or even that suffering exists, but we are part of God’s story, and that’s a story with a different purpose.
The purpose of human history is to bring glory to God, yet with all the evil that exists, we sometimes wonder how that can be accomplished. How will the fact that evil exists in the first place ultimately glorify God? With all the bad stuff that happens to us personally, how is everything going to work out for good in the end? Even more theologically, how do we rectify God’s sovereignty with human freedom of choice, while maintaining our sanity? If God is ultimately in control, do we really make choices? If we’re able to make choices freely, is God really in control? And if He is in control and evil exists, is God responsible for evil?
If you think about God as an author, you can begin to understand a dichotomy that often puzzles many people. As an author, God is writing a story, a story in which He created characters who essentially took on lives of their own. The characters (that’s us) live our lives and make our choices, for good or for bad. In some ways, those choices advance the plot of this narrative we call “life,” but it is really God, the one who is ultimately in control of the story, who is moving everything along. We don’t know the outcome of everything, but He does. The Bible tells us how the story ends, and while we know that all evil and suffering will eventually cease to exist, what then will be the result? When all this life is said and done, God will not be condemned for all the evil that ever existed, as many are want to blame Him for; on the contrary, just as other authors are noted for their skillful writing, He will one day be praised for His excellence, His ability to tell a compelling story.
Maybe you’ve never thought of it this way before. Authors create compelling stories filled with good and evil, and those authors are often remembered, maybe even revered, for doing so. They aren’t chastised for the bad that was included in the story but are recognized for the quality of their work, and although the characters still possess a freedom of sort, the author really controls the story. In much the same way, God too is an author, and He’s writing this story in which we exist and freely move. We may not understand how everything fits together, but in the end God will receive the glory. That’s what it’s all about anyway.
Word of Life, from the beginning
We have heard Him
We have seen Him
We looked and we touched
Life manifested to us from the Father
What we witnessed, we proclaim
We fellowship with the Father
And His Son Jesus Christ
This is our joy. This is our message.
God is light, possessing no darkness.
If we say we have fellowship yet walk in darkness,
We live a lie, not truth
But if we walk in the Light, we have fellowship
And Christ’s blood cleanses our sins.
If we say we don’t sin
We live, though deceived
But sin when confessed
His forgiveness receives
If we say we don’t sin
We call God a liar
His word is not in us.
Little children, don’t sin
That’s why I write
But if you do sin
Your Advocate is Christ
For us and the world
Sin is why He died
If we obey Him
We know Him.
If we say we know Him
But do not follow Him,
Do we really know Him?
When we keep His word,
God’s love is perfected
But when we don’t listen,
His word’s misdirected.
To walk as He walked
This commandment’s not new
Though you heard it before
Yet I rewrite it to you
A new command I also write
To hate your brother
Is darkness, not light
To walk with hate
Is to walk without sight
I write to you, children
Your sins are forgiven
And you know the Father
I write to you, fathers
You know Him
Who is from the beginning
I write to you, young men
You overcame the evil one
You are strong
God’s word is in you.
To love the world,
Its lusts, which are passing,
Is to hate the Father
The One who is lasting
You know the truth
It’s to you I write
You believe Jesus
Is He who is Christ
Those who deny this
Deny Father and Son
And are not anointed
By the Holy One
Now this is a promise
We have in Christ
We’ll not end in death
But from the grave rise
For God grants His child
Eternal life
This is a promise
That you can receive
For you are His child
If Him you believe
How great is God’s love
To be called His child
Yet the world does not know us
For it did not know Him
Abide in Christ
Then when He appears
Your confidence assured
You’ll have nothing to fear
Though we know not what we’ll be
When Jesus we see
We know we’ll be like Him
He is our surety.
In this we hope
And live with purity
Sin and lawlessness
Are one and the same
Yet conquering sin
Is why Jesus came
Sin is of the devil
So don’t live as he
Righteousness is of God
So live righteously
This is how a child is known
Which father he has
Whose seed has been sown
The seed of God results in what’s right
Love for one’s brother
Love for each other
Look at Cain
His brother he killed
The reason because Cain was e-vil
Don’t be surprised
By the world and its hate
Give me a moment
I’ll elaborate
Death and life are mutually exclusive
Hate is of death
Life is of love
Hate is from below
Life is from above
What does it mean?
Perhaps you might ask
Let me illustrate
With one simple task:
You can help someone out,
A brother in need,
Yet choose to ignore him
That’s living selfishly
Love not in word only
But also in deed
Love is best expressed
When sacrificial, you see.
In this assurance
Our hearts can confide
By this we can know
It’s in Christ we abide
This is confirmed
By His Spirit inside.
Now not every spirit
Represents Jesus Christ
Don’t follow the false ones
His humanity they deny
They are of the world
They follow a lie
Love is of God
Let’s love each other so
That we demonstrate love
Of the God that we know
His Son’s death on the cross
How His love He did show.
No one’s seen God
That much is true
But of this we testify
And pass on to you
Jesus is God’s Son
Who came in the flesh
This is a truth
His children confess
By this you can know
Your love is sincere
When you live in the world
Yet without fear
Of the day of judgment
As it draws near
Love casts out fear
And God first loved you
Because of God’s love
You can love too
Now if you say you love God
Whom you’ve not seen
But then hate your brother
How can this be
When love’s a commandment
God gave unto thee?
Christ is of God
His life He did give
In order to show us
How we ought to live
The world full of fear
Cannot know love
When it denies
The One from above
This is the world
That Christ overcame
If you believe Him
You’re promised the same.
Both water and Spirit
And also the blood
Testify that Jesus
Is man, yet He’s God
The Spirit is truth
And so cannot lie
This is the message
That He testifies
These three witnesses
They all agree
Christ put on flesh
Yet is still deity
God’s Son is the one
Who grants victory
These things I have written
To you who believe
And know eternal life
Is what you receive
Since we’re God’s children
He hears our prayers
He gives what we need
And that shows He cares
So if you have a request
He wants you to share
If you see a brother
Who’s caught in sin
Pray that God will grant
Victory to him
There is a sin
Which leads not to death
But sin at its core
Is unrighteousness
Those born of God
Cannot keep sinning
For God who is holy
Is the one who is winning
And He is the one
In whom we’re depending
He’s also the one
Who gives understanding
Here’s one last thing
That I wish to convey
It’s by Christ’s death
Sin’s washed away
So follow the truth
Not that which is false
It wasn’t the idols
That died on the cross.
Edward Antonym 