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Origin Stories

What is the big story of God all about and how do all these things we read across the Old and New Testament link together? More importantly, what does it all mean for us today as we seek to follow Jesus? All around us we are inundated with an abundance of opinions, influences and beliefs; they are at our very fingertips and changeable in an instant. It’s more important than ever to know what you put the weight of your life on. Over this year we want to go on a journey through the whole of Scripture, asking questions together of how we live in the light of this big story and what our place in it is.

  • The Call of Abraham

    Scripture:
    Genesis 12:1-9
    Speaker:
    Don Palmer
    ,
    Date:
    3rd Sep 2023

    Abraham, the father of the faith, received a call to go to an unknown place, and he said yes. He followed the call of God even though he didn’t know where it would lead or what it would lead to. Abraham started a trend among the people of God that extended right through to the disciples and to us - we are a people who go, we are a people who follow. We don’t just go anywhere, and we don’t just follow anyone, so what does it mean to follow the call of God, to go to the people and places he is leading us to even when we don’t have the whole story?

  • God’s Covenant with Abraham

    Scripture:
    Genesis 15:1-6
    Speaker:
    Andy Harding
    ,
    Date:
    10th Sep 2023

    What does it mean when God makes a promise? God made a pretty big promise to Abraham and maybe the more surprising thing is that Abraham believed God even though the circumstances around him would’ve told him otherwise. This covenant sets up something important for us; we are people living under a promise and we can trust that God fulfills his promises to us. How can we find a renewal of that faith and trust in our own lives?

  • The Cost for Abraham

    Scripture:
    Genesis 22:1-19
    Speaker:
    Don Palmer
    ,
    Date:
    17th Sep 2023

    The story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac is far from palatable in any kind of modern society (or even not so modern!). This is not a felt-board story. Perhaps we misunderstand the principle that God was setting out through this story. Child-sacrifice was not new, it was not an uncommon practice to sacrifice your child to a god or a deity. When God asks Abraham to do this, he is testing his faith and devotion but most importantly he is setting up a (very dramatic!) way to say in the Jewish faith, this abhorrent practice has no place. God is always setting up a different story than the one in the world around us. We get to live in that different story every day as we follow Jesus.