When our lives connect with God, we experience a new contentment with life. Heaven has begun on earth. What story do you want?

There is nothing better than a good story to give us hope, change of heart, or to even unite people together. Jesus story is such a story. Each chapter sets up the story of the Jesus. Who He is, why he came, and what He did. Jesus story makes sense to us when we see his story reflected in our story. Many times we can get this backwards. Our story is never His story.

The author did a fantastic job in pulling you in the story of Jesus. Reflecting his own story and how that it affects every aspect of our being. How our believe system changes when we know the story and what happens in the end. Using Solomon has an example, we can see the differences in his story. We can probably see that in our own lives. When we have connected with God and others and when we have isolated ourselves.

A great reminder of the joy of my salvation!

A special thank you to Crossway Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

In the book The Storychanger, author David Murray, writes that everyone has a story. And no matter what we have done or been through, the creator of our lives wants to change our story into His planned story for our lives. Murray writes: “The devil is attempting to ruin your story with the same tactics he used to ruin the world’s story. He doubts God’s Story, distorts God’s Story, and denies God’s Story. So how should we respond? We should identify the devil as our greatest enemy, who is out to destroy us with false stories.” This was a good book but the author seemed to rabble at times. I would recommend this book. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What is the gospel about? The story of the gospel can sometimes be described in terms of these words: Creation, Fall, Israel, Redemption, Jesus, Cross, Resurrection, Church, and New Creation. These are theological milestones according to many Bible scholars. Unfortunately, for laypersons, these words alone might not communicate much meaning to how these come together as one big story. Enters David Murray with a creative way to pull these themes together under the "story-changer" motif. Basically, the story of the good news according to the Bible can be told through a series of interconnected stories. In particular, he shows us how God redeems humankind from their follies, historical, contemporary, and future follies. We learn of how God helps rewrite our stories for the better. Starting off with the famous declaration in Ecclesiastes that everything is meaningless, we are reminded that without God, everything indeed is and will be meaningless. The First Story is about the events in Genesis where God created everything great until sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Calling Satan the "Story-shredder," we get a picture of how evil could be. Humans try all they can to try to write their own stories. All, if not most, fail to tell it adequately. Showing us why we need a Story-Changer, Murray devotes the book to help us see the importance and significance of letting Jesus help us re-write our stories. We have a new story to write and to tell. Thanks to Jesus of course.

This "StoryChanger" manner of retelling the story of the gospel is a creative one. What I like is how the author is able to condense the key themes of the Bible into a storytelling framework. He uses familiar publishing examples to show us the challenges of writing and getting our own stories recognized. Showing us how sin shreds apart our stories and prevents them from being written, the only way we can actually get "published" is with the help of God. More than that, we have a powerful co-author, editor, foreword writer, proofreader, literary agent, and companion in God. The Bible is the Story of stories, and we are part of that whole narrative. The overriding message is that without God, we cannot be at our best. With God, all things are possible. I love the way Murray summarizes each of the 66 books of the Bible that "endorses Jesus" such as Jesus as "Creator" in Genesis, to Jesus as "Ultimate winner" in Revelation. Each of these endorsements summarizes each book with the main theme. In a way, it encourages readers to summarize their own lives with a theme as well.

The downside of a book like this is an oversimplification. This is always a risk for anyone who wants to condense the Bible into smaller bit-size offerings. This calls for an adjustment of expectations. While the Bible is indeed the Story of all stories, it takes a while for us to understand the contexts, the texts, as well as the subtexts of the Old and New Testaments. Like the Walk-Through-the-Bible series, this book is essentially about walking through each story on the surface. There's not much diving into the book at all. The way to use this book is to see it as a way to catch a birdseye view of the Bible. As long as we set expectations appropriately, we can use this book well and understand the Bible better. Of course, in a world of short-texts and brief twitter bursts, this book offers us much more than just short quips. It helps us bring together the different parts of the Bible as one big story.

Having said that, I believe the strength of this book is its invitation for readers to see their own stories in the light of God's big story. If readers can do that, they will be on their way to writing not only their original stories, they can write about their redemption and restoration from the eyes of God the Restorer, the Redeemer, and the Rescuer.

This will be a good book for teachers to summarize the Bible for laypeople.

David Murray (PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is the senior pastor of First Byron Christian Reformed Church. He is also a counselor, a regular speaker at conferences, and the author of Reset and Exploring the Bible. David has taught Old Testament, counseling, and pastoral theology at various seminaries.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

The StoryChanger
How God Rewrites Our Story by Inviting Us into His
by David Murray
Pub Date 14 Jun 2022
Crossway
Christian


I am reviewing a copy of The Story Changer through Crossway and Netgalley:


The introduction in The StoryChanger drew me in with these questions, If life is a story, is your life a good read? Is it a feel good story or a tear jerker?

No wonder I was drawn in, these are questions I ask an author, but have I really applied that to my faith?

Of course I had to read on.


And then David Murray goes on to remind us that we can’t go forward until we go backwards. We can’t write a new story until we’ve read the old one.


Ouch, that can be painful at times can’t it?


But if we write our stories, they end up being tragic, if God writes our story they are full of Grace and Mercy, and meaning.


We all want to live a meaningful life, at least I know I do.


We were once like God, because we were created in his image, until Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Sin, and death, and pain entered our lives then. But Jesus came to save us.




Without Villains, there are no stories. Satan is the villain in the world’s story, and he wants to be the villain in our story.



It is estimated that eighty one percent of Americans feel they have a book in them and should write it. Of those who start to write 97 percent never complete the manuscript. And less than twenty percent of the books submitted to publishers are published and those that are only around 250 copies are sold.


But where as we are failed authors, of our own stories, the good news is if we give Jesus the pen he will write us a beautiful story.



There’s hope though because we can change our story with God’s story.




The story of the Bible is the story of I’s becoming U’s, why because I is the most dangerous letter in the alphabet. Instead of our stories becoming all about ourselves, it becomes all about others.




And I like the idea of others being written into my stories.


The Bible too Is the story of I’s becoming U’s.




If you’re looking for the reminder that our story is better told when God holds the pen, I’d highly recommend The Story Changer.



Are you ready to let God control the pen, that’s writing the story of your life?


I give The StoryChanger five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

The Story Changer by David Murray

We can't go forward until we go backward. We need to accept our stories need to be changed and admit where our stories need to be changed. We have all probably heard those sentiments before, but the challenge that David Murray puts before the reader is this : come to Jesus, to journey with Jesus, so that the reader's journey can also become a life transformed by the Story Changer.

I am a man in my mid 60s, living alone, and living with disabilities. Going backward to go forward makes sense to me. There is much grief in the past :the loss of relationships, the impediment of health issues, the fragility of life itself. This book challenged me to remain on the journey to being authentic, to be honest about my past, giving me hope for my future.

The journey of authenticity is ”messy”; The first chapter is aptly entitled Our Messy Lives. But having made the discoveries of what the Story Changer can do, the last chapter of the book is appropriately called The Storytellers. We are invited into the company of people that Jesus has loved and is transforming, to raise our voices to the Story Changer, celebrating his work of patient loving in our lives.

For giving a new perspective of life, thumbs up. For giving encouragement, thumbs up. For embracing the reader with empathy, thumbs up. For sharing the struggles of life as it is, thumbs up. For offering a beacon of hope, thumbs up. I guess that makes it a 5-star review.

What I also enjoyed about this book is brief and to-the-point. Thanks David Murray.