A daily Devotional & Scripture Reading will be made available each weekday over the next 8 Weeks for SRC’s new message series, The Story of You. Printed copies of the Devotional will be available at each location (Fairmont / Bridgeport). However, if you would like to receive an automatic email every weekday morning throughout the series, feel free to follow the blog (enter your email address on the right side of this page to follow).
A Brief Introduction to the Devotional:
Let me share a confession: I’m not as much of a reader as I sometimes make myself out to be. While I read the Scriptures regularly, I need to be pretty intentional with my time if I am to read on a regular basis. But every once in a while, I hit a season in which I can’t read enough. Fiction. Non-fiction. Memoirs. Anything. I’ll devour a book in a week and then move onto the next.
This summer happened to be one of those seasons. I found myself reading through a series of books with the typical plot line: Good vs. Evil. There were good characters, and there were evil characters. Crazy, huh? But despite the typical storyline, I fell in love with the characters and consumed the entire series not once, but twice.
At one point, one of the main characters needed to share with his friends and family everything he had been through. In other words, he needed to share his story. The problem was, he didn’t want to talk about it. He had some really challenging and painful experiences, many of which were a result of his own poor decision-making. But in order for the others to fully understand and offer him the help he needed, he had to share his story.
As he told his story, the author Andrew Peterson writes, “…telling the story hurt and helped all at once. Already he could see ways the story had changed him and would go on changing him.”
The quote has tremendous truth. We all have a story. We all have made decisions that have led to challenging and painful experiences. We all need to know our story. We can all benefit from sharing that same story.
This 8-Week message series has been designed with two things in mind:
First, what is it that God says about who we are? What story has He written to us, for us, and within us?
Second, What does it look like for us to live out that story?
Those who are connected to a Community Group will have the opportunity to process through and share your story with others in your Group. My encouragement to you is to take advantage of an additional booklet we have available titled Knowing and Sharing Your Story. Walking through this process will take time, but like the character in the quote I referenced above, you will likely discover how much your story has changed you and will go on changing you.
For those not connected to a Community Group, my encouragement to you would be to focus on this Devotional & Scripture Reading Guide. And if you’d like, you may also take advantage of the additional booklet we have available at SRC titled Knowing and Sharing Your Story, then take intentional opportunities to share your story with others.
~Pastor Justin
south ridge blog 