Earlier this year, we began a recurring series in which we will walk in the story of scripture. We began in Genesis 1-11, learning God’s intention for creation and what went wrong. In Genesis 12-50 we experience the beginning of God’s restorative plan, a plan to redeem and bless creation. (If you missed the initial series, you can catch up here.)
Week 1
In the first week of our series we explored the story of Abraham and Sarah. Using the geography of their journey as a guide, Amber Riggs invited us to consider how their journey intersects ours.
Kingdom Practices
In this series, we want to continue walking in the story throughout our everyday lives. Let’s continue to ponder the story of Abraham and Sarah through the week. Let their story walk beside ours as we take a step of faith, watch God break ground for a new garden, journey in places of disorder, encounter the deception of places that merely look like a place of blessing, live in the ‘already but not yet,’ or encounter the testing of the wilderness.
Week 2
In our second week, Bill Donahue invited us to consider how we find ourselves in the blessing stories of Isaac and Jacob, and to turn outward as we consider how we too might extend blessing to those around us.
Kingdom Practices
In this series, we want to continue walking in the story throughout our everyday lives. Let’s continue to ponder the story of Isaac and Jacob through the week. Let their story walk beside ours as we consider to whom God might be inviting us to extend a blessing this week.
Week 3
In our third week, we walked through the final movement of Genesis, the story of Jacob’s children. We noticed together how all themes of Genesis are summarized in the story of Joshua, and his story very intentionally points us forward with hopeful expectation for the coming blessing of a restored creation.
Kingdom Practices
In our time together, we paid careful attention to what theme or part of the story stood out. (Nicole’s handout was a helpful guide through the themes of Genesis.) This week, we want to continue walking in and with what stood out. We might return to the story and read the text again. We could intentionally pause for five minutes or more each to do consider why this stood out, or we might have a conversation with someone about what we noticed. But in all of our contemplation let’s ask one simple question, “God, would you speak to me in this story?”
Additional Resources
Themes in Genesis 12-50 handout
The Lost World of Genesis One by John Walton
The Lost World of Adam and Eve by John Walton
The Lost world of the Torah by John Walton
The Bible Story Handbook by John Walton and Kim Walton
Genesis 12-50 Overview a Bible Project Video
Trees of Testing and Blessing a Bible Project Podcast
Great Blessing and Great Responsibility a Bible Project Podcast
Wrestling with God a Bible Project Podcast
Son of Laughter a novelization of Jacob’s story by Frederick Buechner
If you have a story to share about how you have been encountering God in this season, we would love to hear it!
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