The Story

Welcome to The Story

Hello!  I want to welcome you to The Story Blog.  Through the pages of The Story you will become familar with God's story and how your story intersects with it.

As you look around this blog, you will find a variety of resources to help you on your journey.  Be sure to check out the right column where you find links to Companion Materials, resources for Beyond The Story, and your opportunity to Tell Your Story.

It is my prayer that The Story will indeed help you learn about God, but more than that, I pray that The Story will help you know God in a close and personal way.

"For my determined purpose is that I may know Him.  That I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly."  Philippians 3:10 (Amplified)

Joe LaCognata

The Story videos now online!

I'm excited to let you know that The Story videos are now online!  A channel has been created on YouTube that you can access by clicking here.  The first eight chapters have already been uploaded and the rest will follow soon.  You can subscribe to this channel which will allow you to be notified when new videos are uploaded. 

Joe LaCognata

Beyond The Story

Thank you for journeying through The Story with me.  It has been my great joy to have guided your steps during these days together.  It is my hope that you will continue to spend time with God in His Word each and every day.

During our time together you have discovered that the Bible is a book you can understand, learn from and even love.  You now have a sense of the big picture and have seen that all of God’s Word is really telling one story – The Story.  I also hope you have come to find out more about your story in the pages of the Bible.

From the beginning of The Story, we have chased after two big themes.  First, is that God is pursuing you for a personal relationship.  Second, is that God is sovereign and able to do whatever needs to be done to accomplish His purposes.  When you combine God’s relentless pursuit of us with His sovereignty means that God will do whatever it takes to gather to Himself a people fully devoted to Him.

Throughout our time, we have used this couch represented your story.  This couch traveled from one end of the county to the other.  From sheep farms in the north to an abandoned school in the south, the couch has shown that The Story is alive every day, everywhere we go.  This means that our story can be part of The Story every step along the way.

The goal from the beginning was that The Story would encourage you to have a daily and intentional time in God's Word.  As you continue your faith journey I pray that God’s Word will continue to have a place in your life.  There are a variety of ways to read the Bible.  You can find more information by looking at the Beyond the Story section of this blog.

The heart and soul behind this is my bedrock belief that God has revealed Himself to us through His Son and His Word.  I firmly believe that your life will be changed as you meet with God in the pages of the Bible.

Joe LaCognata

Context is King

The Story is an ongoing opportunity to connect with God’s Word in a daily and intentional way.  Nearly 500 people from The Springs are encountering God’s Word via The Story.  From the reports I’ve heard, God is honoring their time, opening their eyes and changing their hearts.  You can read some of these responses by visiting thestoryblog.net.

One of the most helpful aspects of The Story is that it is organized in chronological order.  That is, the stories of the Bible are placed in the order that they occurred, not the categorical order found in traditional Bibles.

The Old Testament in traditional bibles is organized into four categories: Law (Genesis-Deuteronomy), History (Joshua-Esther), Poetry (Job-Song of Solomon) and Prophets (Isaiah-Malachi).  The New Testament is also divided into four categories: Gospels (Matthew-John), History (Acts), Letters (Romans-Jude) and Prophecy (Revelation).  But The Story, and other chronological Bibles, is different.

Reading the Bible in chronological order can help you see the big picture and understand the overall message of God’s Word.  And when it comes to God’s Word, or any other work for that matter, context is king.  Without context, you are left filling in the gaps and drawing conclusions never intended.  In fact, the best question to ask when considering meaning is, “What did the original author intend for the original audience to understand?”  Not, “what does this mean to me?”  For this to happen, you need to know the context of a passage.

One part of context is answered by asking the basic questions you learned in middle school English class.  That is, you find out more about context by finding out the who, what, where, when, why and how of a passage.  A good study Bible will have some of this information in the introduction to each book.

The other part of context is answered by seeing where this passage, this chapter, even this book fits into God’s overall plan.  This is where a resource like The Story becomes so valuable.  By reading the Bible in the order that events occurred, you have the opportunity to better connect the dots of God’s Word.

The Story is only a tool, but it can help you encounter God’s Word in a daily and intentional way.

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”  2 Timothy 2:15

Joe LaCognata

My Mother Told Me So

My Mother always told me that the Bible was really the Greatest Story Ever Told, not just the title of a movie. It is a wonderful trip through the lives of Jesus and all the great people in our past that has given us salvation and hope.  I’m sorry I didn't take her more seriously because she was so correct. Now, at the age of 60, I’m getting it. I only wish that my Mother was still here so I could tell her she was so right.  She would have loved to hear that. I’m currently going through The Story in a group with a terrific leader and others. Our talks are so enlightening.  All the other views and questions are fascinating. Questions I would have never asked before.  My leader tries to answer with such care & compassion. I can't say enough about how great she is.  I’m truly thankful to all of you who made this possible.

God bless & thank you.

Gail Powell

A Gentle Rain

If you are journeying through The Story at the pace set up from the beginning, you should be about one-third of the way through the entire book or about half-way through the Old Testament.  In fact, right now you should be reading about King David.

I understand that you may be ahead or behind this target, but that is not what is most important.  What IS important is to be consistent in spending time in God’s Word.  That is why we talk about DAILY spending time in the Bible.  Being in God’s Word is not a speed reading project.  The goal is not to read as much as you can in a short amount of time.  Nor was the Bible intended to be only a reference book that is consulted from time to time.  We have the privilege of gradually and deliberately reading across the pages of the Bible allowing God to teach us more and more about Himself.

As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, he shared with them the nature of the relationship between husbands and wives.  He talked about this in terms of the relationship between Christ and the church.  In the midst of this passage, Paul speaks of Christ cleansing the church, “by the washing with water through the word.” (see Ephesians 5:25-27)

What I picture here is God’s Word as a gentle rain deeply nourishing our hearts.  Not a flood, not a deluge, just a soft shower.  It’s the difference between a Florida afternoon thunderstorm and the gentle rains I remember in Illinois.  The idea here is a consistent flow from God rather than a flood from time to time.

Reading through The Story is a tool to help you connect with God.  I pray that you will be willing to invest the time needed to meet with Him daily.

Joe LaCognata

First Day

After weeks of me begging my husband Michael if I could purchase a copy of The Story, he finally broke down this past Sunday.  I'm currently a student, so clearly there are a ton of other books I should be reading, but I couldn't help but wonder what this book was all about.  Last night I opened it, and found myself excited about entering time at the beginning.  I made it through the first two chapters, and I'm loving it.  I'm starting to get to places where I don't know the characters, so it's as if I'm meeting these people for the first time.

Now much of a bible reader, carrying around the same cliches The Story hopes to eliminate.  I'm really hoping that by reading this book I'll be drawn to find the story in the Bible.  Small steps can lead you to great places.

Pray for me.

Jeny Yourgal

Amazing

In our first group on The Story one of the many things we discussed was how amazing and creative our Lord is.  The first thing that came to mind was the hurricanes we have been following in the news.  They have devastated Haiti, Cuba, New Orleans, and Texas is right in the path. They are so devastating and yet even in my own life I have witnessed how God can use such devastation for good and His own will and glory. Even hurricanes are His creative way to carry out His perfect plan and that is amazing to me.

Andrea Hare

Chapter 1 - Day 1

I started reading The Story in my quiet time today.  I routinely play golf on Mondays so after praying the prayer in the study guide:  “Help me to see Your hand in everything around me.  Help me to marvel at Your beauty and reflect on Your wisdom,” I headed out determined to do just that.  Making the effort to really pay attention to my outdoor surroundings – even the things I normally might take for granted like how the sun felt on my body or how bushy that squirrel’s tail was – was a wonderful worship experience. Today, I even admired the Love Bugs!

I did have a couple of observations in the first day’s reading and would love to hear comments. 

Did anyone else make note of the wording of this sentence: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness…’”?  That just sort of jumped out at me: that God is a Triune God. And, even though the three distinct persons of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- have not yet been formally introduced to us, they are certainly present in this recount of Creation.

I also was curious about the fact that the author’s account of God’s creation of human beings – male and female – is mentioned first on page 2 (Genesis 1:27) but then the writer seems to circle back and start all over in more detail on page 3 (Genesis 2:7:-25).  Do you think there is a reason for this or is it just the author’s way of telling the story?

Veda Eddy

Starting The Story

I have an exciting story to share about my first experience with 'The Story'.  Exciting because I know that it wasn't coincidence what happened.

Tim and I bought our The Story and The Story for Kids books this Sunday, as well as the study guide to go with.  First, I must say that I am SUPER excited about the family one because of the awesome family togetherness the activities provide.  We do a lot as a family already, but we are at a loss for ideas sometimes, and the ones I have looked at are so great.

Okay, on to my exciting story.  I decided to start my journey through The Story this morning.  I've been getting up at 6am on weekdays to have some quiet time before getting the kids up at 6:15am.  However, this morning I woke before my alarm went off (which isn't real odd, but it is rare that I will drag myself out of bed earlier than I have to).  So I got up and grabbed the books and the Bible and headed to the kitchen.  I got my coffee made and sat down to start my first day.  I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't get through it before I had to wake the kids, and once I do (have to wake the kids) it is hours before I can sit back down on my own to finish.  But I was determined to do all the reading the study guide suggested (the Bible verses as well).  And do you know that I finished at exactly 6:15.  I was so amazed because that is just like God to get me up in just enough time to do day one.

I have since done three more studies – always waking up earlier than usual and always getting done before waking the kids.  I love this study so far, it really does make it easier to actually have a daily devotional instead of just flipping open somewhere and making up some reason why this must apply to you. Thank you to everyone who put so much heart and sweat into this study.  You are all so wonderful!  God Bless!

Tarrah Ringer