Zondervan Blog

Closed Door Stories: Looking Back on God's Love

 

God just closed a door. That's because (A) He loves me, (B) He doesn't love me.

 

We posed that question yesterday, and the reader response on Facebook confirmed that many of us are dealing with confusing and frustrating "closed doors." Closed doors might make some of us wonder if God is really up to something good in our lives -- maybe He's judging us, or maybe He isn't even paying attention!

My Zondervan teammates and I can relate to those struggles, and we hope to encourage you. Below you'll find a couple of our personal stories that share how God has used closed doors to reveal his faithfulness and goodness to us. We pray that you will know God's loving presence in your struggle, too.

First, if you missed the Daily Inspiration email that kicked off this conversation, here's the excerpt from Max Lucado's God's Story, Your Story.

When God locks a door, it needs to be locked. When he blocks a path, it needs to be blocked. When he stuck Paul and Silas in prison, God had a plan for the prison jailer. As Paul and Silas sang, God shook the prison. "At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose" (Acts 16:26). There God goes again, blasting open the most secure doors in town. When the jailer realized what had happened, he assumed all the prisoners had escaped. He drew his sword to take his life. When Paul told him otherwise, the jailer brought the two missionaries out and asked, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). Paul told him to believe. He did, and he and all his family were baptized. The jailer washed their wounds, and Jesus washed his sins. God shut the door of the jail cell so that he could open the heart of the jailer.     God uses closed doors to advance his cause. He closed the womb of a young Sarah so he could display his power to the elderly one. He shut the palace door on Moses the prince so he could open shackles through Moses the liberator. He marched Daniel out of Jerusalem so he could use Daniel in Babylon. And Jesus. Yes, even Jesus knew the challenge of a blocked door. When he requested a path that bypassed the cross, God said no. He said no to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane so he could say yes to us at the gates of heaven... Your blocked door doesn't mean God doesn't love you. Quite the opposite. It's proof that he does.

 

"Closed Door" Stories from the Zondervan Crew

First, Jonathan shares:

One of the first tangible "closed door" experiences in my adult life was when my wife miscarried our first child. We had been married less than a year, and it wasn't a planned pregnancy. The unexpected joy of the pregnancy was almost immediately contrasted with the shock of its loss. We were struck with life's big questions: Why does God bring these experiences into our lives? What's the purpose of pain? Why is life created, only to be snuffed out? Does God display his power over us occasionally, just to remind us who's boss? Those kinds of questions can't be answered in a day or by the sing-songy clichés of a greeting card. Through the support of others, prayer, grieving, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, we were able to find rest in the truth that God does love us and the child we never got to meet. Pain and struggle in this world are the result of sin, but God is faithful to use even those experiences to bring us closer to him. Our hope was deferred for a moment. About a year later, we welcomed our second child, James, into the world.   -Jonathan

 

Going Deeper (3 Commitments on the Way)

I've said it, and maybe you have too: "I wish the preaching would go deeper." What did we really mean?

I wondered this when I read a recent post by pastor and writer Kurt Willems (@kurtwillems). Willems knows a lot of people who have left their church because it didn't go deep enough. This is occasionally a valid reason, but Willems suspects it's more likely to be a holy-sounding excuse for leaving a church that we just don't like.

 

What does "going deeper" really look like?

To challenge our thinking about what we're looking for (and not looking for) in our faith journey, Willems quotes from writer/pastor Alan Danielson's 3-point definition of going deeper:

 

1. Going deeper into my commitment to God's Church. I can't be committed to Jesus (the head) without being committed to the church (His body)...   2. Going deeper into my commitment to the world. ...If I am to "go deeper" I must dive deeper into the muck and mire of a borken world in order to reach people...   3. Going deeper into my commitment to being mastered by Christ. I'm a work-in-progress, and the more God works on me, the more progress I realize I need...

 

Danielson offers a nice summary, "Deepening knowledge is not enough; it must accompany deepening commitments!"

Likewise in Willems' post, commenter Craig Falvo reminds us commitment becomes visible in action:  "At my last church, going deeper would mean ... getting into the Word. Lots of talk about it, little emphasis on doing."

Falvo then pleasantly surprised us by adding, "At my current church, we ... are working our way through the Bible using Zondervan's The Story.  The emphasis from preaching bleeds over into the small  groups." 

My personal opinion of The Story is that it first targets Commitment #3, by helping people encounter the Christ of Scripture. It also helps people unite as a church body (Commitment #1). Then the united body becomes better prepared to serve, to spread Christ's love and hope to the world (Commitment #2).

Which of the three commitments of going deeper do you find most difficult, and which is most energizing? Commitment to God's church, commitment to reaching our world, or commitment to being mastered by Christ?

Learn more about how The Story is taking people deep into Scripture.

(-Adam Forrest, Zondervan Internet Team. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its partners and representatives. The writer's opinions are his own, and he's sharing them for information and entertainment purposes only.)

http://www.thestory.com/the-story-testimonials?cm_mmc=ZT-_-Blog-Sep11-_-Blog-_-The+Story+Testimonials

The Story CD: A Soundtrack to the Bible Story

This week The Story CD hit streets, featuring 18 new songs performed by a parade of talent that includes Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Francesca Bottiscelli, Amy Grant, and Mark Hall & Megan Garrett of Casting Crowns. (A tip for the fans: there are video interviews with the artists, including Mark Hall and others, on their experience with The Story.)

The music on The Story CD was inspired by three recent books: Randy Frazee's The Heart of the Story, Max Lucado's God's Story, Your Story, and The Story. Since reading The Story is like reading the Bible in novel form, I wonder if that makes The Story CD like the soundtrack to the Bible story? The abridged soundtrack anyway. Eighten of the major biblical characters receive their own song. You can see the track listing and sample the songs at thestorycd.com.

The lyricist Nichole Nodeman wrote the lyrics in first-person, which intrigued me. One of my favorite ways to meditate on Scripture is to put myself in the human characters' position, then ask msyself questions like, "How do I behave like this person? What does God think of this behavior? What's a better way?" This seems to fit with one of Nodeman's goals in this project, which she describes as:

...to be able to listen to these songs and feel more connected to these people that walked before us and learned lessons that we're still learning... There's such a tendency to turn them into superheroes and have these big, takeaway, moral-of-the-story moments. For me it was all about the humanity. These were broken people who were desperate and needed God. They were just like us. I really believe that, and I think sometimes we forget.

Preview the Songs
You can preview the songs at www.thestorycd.com.

Based on the samples at thestorycd.com, which song is your favorite? My personal favorite is the Apostle Paul's song, "Move in Me," performed by Jeremy Camp. It's half blues-rock stomper, half orchestral ode to joy, which makes the perfect musical mix to represent Paul's guts ... inspired by Christ's glory. The music styles of the other songs span pop, hip-hop, ballads, and rock.

 

Also of Interest: The DVD and Music Tour
The Story DVD also released this week, and you can learn more about The Story music tour that will hit 13 US cities in December 2011.

 

(-Adam Forrest, Zondervan Internet Team. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its partners and representatives. The writer's opinions are his own, and he's sharing them for information and entertainment purposes only.)

"The Story" - Connecting with the Author of Life

Yesterday a tweet from Rich Stearns (@RichStearns) of World Vision led me to daydream this conversation with Jesus:

ME: Jesus, if you were a novelist, what kind of story would you write?

JESUS: Oh, funny you should ask. I wrote this story with two of my relatives. [He winks, and hands me a book called "The Holy Bible."]

We'll return to this scene in a moment, but first I'll share the Stearns' tweet that inspired it:

 

 

Stearns calls The Story (published by Zondervan) the "narrative of God's relationship with his followers" and "a great overview of God's work." If you think this sounds like the Bible, I think you're mostly right. On the other hand, if the Bible doesn't seem like a coherent story to you, we've hit the point of my daydream.

 

Learn More

For a whole heap of reasons it can be difficult to see the overarching story that runs through Scripture. And even if we glimpse God's story, it can still be hard to see what it means for our everyday lives. I'd wager this relates to Stearns' recommendation of The Story.

The Skinny on The Story 

The Story presents God's story in one seamless narrative -- like a novel. The storyline is chronological from Genesis through Revelation, using verses from the NIV translation. Read Chapter 1 of The Story

I especially recommend The Story to you if...

• Sometimes you're unsure how Scripture relates to your own life, or...
• You love God's big story, and you're looking for a new way to engage with Scripture. Or...
• If you're curious about the Bible but find it kind of intimidating, or...
• To you the Bible feels like a puzzle, and you want to know more about how the pieces fit.

 

Beyond the Novel (The Story Music Tour and More)  

The Story is a multi-part experience that goes beyond the novel. You can learn more at www.thestory.com but I want to give you a quick heads up on the music tour. Coming later this year, it will feature music inspired by The Story and performed by Stephen Curtis Chapman, Newsboys, Francesca Battistelli, Natalie Grant, Selah, and Anthem Lights. I'm excited that Zondervan is partnering with World Vision, Proper Management, WOW, and these artists to pull this tour together!

Most of the music tour details are still under wraps, but you'll be among the first to know more if you go Like The Story Facebook Page.

 

(-Adam Forrest, Zondervan Internet Team. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its partners and representatives. The writer's opinions are his own, and he's sharing them for information and entertainment purposes only. Whatever else an opinion would "be for" Adam doesn't know, but he's just saying...)