During the Christmas holiday, I have been reading the Bible study resource The Whole Story in Five Acts that has recently become available on the Wycliffe Bible Translators UK website.
When we invited Stafford Carson, the then Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, to the Wycliffe office in Belfast on 28 April 2010, I was hoping that the visit would give Stafford a greater insight into what Wycliffe Bible Translators was all about.
He immediately caught on to our Wycliffe UK message… as he wrote on his blog
What made my visit to Wycliffe Bible Translators so energising and interesting was the way the Wycliffe members understand the Bible as story. Their strap line is “The Bible: the Story everybody needs”, and they are enthusiastic about bringing that story to everyone.
What I had not anticipated was that Stafford would give us an idea that has led to one of Wycliffe UK’s Biblefresh resources – The Whole Story in Five Acts. During our conversation, Stafford asked if we could produce a series of sermon outlines focussing on key Bible stories and giving Bible translation examples from around the world.
Wycliffe Bible Translators have prepared the Bible study resource “The Whole Story in Five Acts” for use by church small groups or as a suggestion for a sermon series. It tells the whole Story of the Bible in five parts, and includes stories from the world of Bible Translation to illustrate each section.
The Bible is a remarkable book. If you open a Bible at random you could come across poetry, proverbs, history, love-songs, architectural details or a national legal code. This amazing collection of literature was drawn together by numerous authors over a period of hundreds of years, yet amazingly – miraculously, even – it still tells one consistent story.
This story is not like any other story you are likely to come across. The Bible story claims to be the ultimate story which explains why the universe exists, why the world is the way it is and where the whole of creation is heading. It is a story that makes a claim on your life: which says that you were created for a purpose and which tells you what that purpose is.
Overview:
- Act 1: Creation – Genesis 1-3
- Act 2: Israel – Genesis 12-Malachi 4
- Act 3: Incarnation and Redemption – The Gospels
- Act 4: The Church – Acts and 2000 years of history
- Act 5: The Future – Revelation
The series has been written by Wycliffe UK Director Eddie Arthur and he comments on it on his blog.
I like Stafford’s summary of the Bible – again from his blog…
In the Bible, God is telling the world a story. It is a story that begins in eternity past and stretches into eternity future. It came to a great climax two thousand years ago when God entered into his creation in a new way.
And that is what we have just been celebrating this Christmas time. And Stafford concludes…
By telling this great Story in a language that people can understand, Wycliffe Bible Translators are not only contributing to the advancement of Christ’s kingdom across the world, but they are also reminding us, who have had a copy of the Story Book in our native language for many centuries, that we still need to hear the Story and find our place in it.
And that is pure Biblefresh!
You can download The Whole Story in Five Acts from the Wycliffe UK website
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