Terry G. Carter & Preben Vang

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Finding Your Place in God’s Story

Making Connections: Finding Your Place in God’s Story

© 2015 by Terry G. Carter & Preben Vang

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

LexhamPress.com

First edition by Weaver Book Company

All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at permissions@lexhampress.com.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All sidebars and illustrations, including maps and charts, are copyright © by B & H Publishing Group. Used by permission. Chart “Abrahamic Covenant vs. Mosaic Covenant” prepared by J. Daniel Hays. Used by permission.

Print ISBN 9781683591986

Digital ISBN 9781683591993

Cover design: Frank Gutbrod

Editorial, design, and production:

{In a Word} www.inawordbooks.com

/edited by Rebekah Matt/

Contents

Preface

Background to the Bible Story

The Bible Story: An Overview

Episode 1 Creation

Episode 2 The Plan of Redemption

Episode 3 The Forming of a Nation: God’s People and the Law

Episode 4 The Promised Land and Sin’s Power

Episode 5 Israel Gets a King

Episode 6 Rebellion, Judgment, and Future Hope

Episode 7 Captivity and Return

The Story to This Point

Episode 8 Unto Us a Child Is Born

Episode 9 The Ministry of Jesus

Episode 10 “A Prophet Must Die in Jerusalem”

Episode 11 The Grave Could Not Hold Him

Episode 12 This Gospel Shall Be for All People

Episode 13 Church Growth and Church Struggles

Episode 14 Looking for a City

Conclusion

Preface

Terry G. Carter

I am a great fan of the timeless Arthur Conan Doyle character, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes possesses marvelous gifts of deduction, which he uses to interpret apparently random clues. With some help from his insightful sidekick, Dr. John Watson, he solves seemingly impossible cases. To a novice sleuth, these apparently unconnected pieces of information paint a confused picture. Many people struggle with putting pieces together to make one complete story. We need a Sherlock Holmes to help us.

In our churches we often expect members to take all the pieces of the larger story of redemption and put them all together. Preachers and teachers often preach series or individual sermons on biblical books and passages in a fashion that may seem random to the congregant. Members gain solid information about the parts of the story that are beneficial. Unfortunately, we have developed a church membership that possesses information about things found in the biblical story but really does not see the whole story or understand its meaning. They grasp that the Bible consists of sixty-six books all placed together to make up one book, but fail to perceive that all these books combined tell one overarching story of redemption. ...