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Our Stories and God's Story

Worldview as story

We often think about questions like:

Who am I?

Where am I?

What's the problem?

What's the solution?

What is going to provide for our true rest?

All worldviews are telling a story - the nature of reality.

All worldviews are ultimately about salvation, even if they don't use that vocabulary - redemptive stories. For example, we often look into created thing for our rest or peace. Looking for rest but in the WRONG places. We try to get the good needs of our heart met through things that don't glorify God and don't satisfy us at all (Laurie Krieg).

What about the Biblical story - How do we understand our place in the story?

We see at the beginning in Genesis 1-11 that God creates but we rebel...All God created is actually good! We rebel - not willing to be in His image, good steward, we want to be God himself that we have our say, things in our control. Serpent tempted us by saying, 'Is God really have your best interest in His mind?' God established His people Israel and from Israel to the whole world...But God's people fail, committed idolatry and fail to reflect the true characters of God...But God didn't abandon us, God saves us through His son Jesus, the Messiah. God then renews His people by the holy spirit and the church. So, how do we embrace and embody God's story in this world we live in??

We all have our ways searching for REST and ways to fulfil our deepest needs.

The story of 'individualism' prefers to rest in the real me and live out the real me, each individual gets to define it themselves and 'you define you', so salvation seems 'authentic' in individualism. They love to yell out, 'be free from people who are trying to define you' and in regarding to sexuality issue, they will tell you 'no one can tell me who I am.'

How about the story of 'Romance', it rests in romantic love - the impact of that is 'marriage' seems to be the salvation of our emotional and romantic connection. Back in pre-industrial time, marriage is key component to household economics in which family working together in a household and during industrial revolution, kids and family are mostly consumers not producers anymore. Working therefore primarily for 'money' not just provide for substance. 'Home' becomes a place of consumption. Production is something we do at work for somebody else now. So we see the concept of 'Marriage' started to shift that marriage is just for love, not a matter of expectation, routine and everyday practicalities. Very much contrast to the sacrificial love (self-giving) in marriage.

The story of 'Naturalism' - resting in technology. There is no supernatural, everything is just matter of motion, no God because it's all about physical. Towards our attitude about 'sex' and 'our bodies', it has no meaning, it's just a physical act, you get to decide what to do with your own bodies. View ourselves as 'matter' - for example, medical technology which we can use to reduce human suffering. We see salvation in mastering nature or mastering our bodies. There's a danger when we rely too much on medical technology in our world to become the ultimate goal we're striving for (trying to overcome physical limits and blocking out the spiritual reality). For example, in American culture, suffering is to be avoided, but in the Bible's teaching, as we walk with Jesus, life will present difficulty, we might even suffer for Gospel's sake. We are to walk through it with hope and grace, with God in that. With the help of medical technology, we even use it to make alteration to the body, for examples, contraception, sterilisation and abortion, assisted reproductive technologies, hormone replacement therapies, gender reassignment surgeries. The Bible reminds us that, our bodies belong to God and we are not our own...

Let's turn to God's Story - The story of Creation

In Genesis 1-2, it tells us the pattern it should be...In Leviticus 18, it outlines the baseline for sexual ethics that it has a sharp contrast with Gentile (Egypt/Canaan) sex ethics. Male and Female are both made in the Image of God; they are both relational and they are both called to have dominion (as God's stewarts in relationship to Creation);they are to be pro-create in their role regarding in relationship; they are also co-independent that they both need to work together in order to fulfil what God's tasks are for them.

Our 'marriage' - let Scriptures define it for us ....Genesis 2:19, Woman is part of man (they are physically linked), Genesis 2:23, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And that is why, Genesis 2:24, Marriage...male and female ....man leaves his biological family and be united with his wife. Marriage, therefore is one flesh union of TWO sexually different persons.

More will be coming up soon...

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