The book “Songs of the Deliverer” tells the story of Christ re-imagined in modern day. The book is a work of fiction but the stories and characters are based on the New Testament. These Reflections are written to highlight the Biblical pericopes featured in the second book of the series, Faith Wins, to be published in 2016.
Referenced in the Prologue of Faith Wins
You’ve heard a lot about him. People are talking about incredible happenings. There are things too unbelievable to say so people gather privately and speak only in whispers so they won’t be found out. But you want to know everything you can. So you make a decision.
You’re going to investigate the truth.
You explore. You ask questions. You meet family and friends. You discover sources: people, stories, artifacts. At first, it looks like an incomprehensible maze. Who could devise this? But, you keep going, you keep probing. You listen, you perceive. And then, in time, you understand. What was confusion now is clarity, what was incredulity now is belief.
This man is the Savior of the world.
You have to tell others. Everyone must know the good news. So you make a detailed account of everything you have learned and you address it to anyone who is, or wants to be, a friend of God:
“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” – (Luke 1:1– 4)
You write the book of salvation. You tell the story of a man who walked among us and who taught us to know God. A man who healed the sick with a touch of his hand. A man who was tortured because he was a threat to the authorities. A man who was killed in public humiliation. You tell the story of this man who rose from death and revealed his new life to others. You tell this story, the greatest story ever told. And then you tell more of what was to come:
“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” (Acts of the Apostles 1:1-5)
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Acts of the Apostles written by Luke. He had never met Jesus, never experienced his friendship or his healing touch. Yet, Luke became one of the preeminent spokesperson for Christianity. How? Because Luke learned everything he could about Jesus and by knowing more, came to believe in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Can you know Christ more?
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