Castleberry, Robert (Stormy)

I have a passion now to go beyond our community and spread God’s word to churches that might have a need for a supply preacher on a short time basis or just to hear a different voice proclaiming the word of God.

I have been in very deep Bible study since 2017 and have felt a calling to share God’s Word with others. I feel that we are never too old to do the Lord’s work and any life that we can inspire is a life saved for His glory.

Why do you like to read the Bible? If your like me, you read the Bible because it is a fascinating book, filled with gripping stories and challenging exhortations. We read it because it is an important book dealing with big issues of life – God, eternal life, death, love, sin, and morals.

People read it because they believe that in the Bible God speaks to them through written words, that He encourages us, He lifts our spirits, He comforts us, He guides us, He builds us up, He gives us hope, and His words bring us closer to the living Father.

Some parts of the Bible are easy to understand, but much of it is not. Most Christians, however, desire to understand all of God’s Word, not just the easy portions. Many of us want to be able to dig deeper into that Word. We want to see more and understand more of the biblical text. We want to know that we understand the Biblical text correctly. That is, we want to be confident that we can pull the actual truth out of a text and not just develop an arbitrary, fanciful, or incorrect interpretation.

I took a class several years ago that has grabbed me by the ear’s, and it introduced me to a new way of studying the Bible that has taken over me. I just cannot but it or the Bible down. I look at the Bible now and I see it in a new light. I look at the Bible bookcase of all the different genre’s of Law, History, Poetry, Prophets, Gospels, Epistles, Acts and Revelation in a completely different way.

We can identify with the character in the story, their personalities, choices, accomplishments, struggles. We begin to see our reflection in some of the characters, and we want to find our own answers through what happens to them. We need to know at some deep level how the story ends, and we also have a built-in longing for it to turn out well. (That’s why those “to be continued” episodes can drive us crazy). Also, stories paint a holistic picture of life in all its complexity, emotion and drama, and good stories do honestly. Another reason we like stories is that they appeal to all people – young and old, the well-educated and uneducated, rich and poor. People of all cultures are drawn to stories.

I have come to realize that the Bible is about God’s Story of our salvation, comprised of 66 different books and over 400 separate stories put together by the churches founding fathers to explain His Story that lays out a vision for the whole world in delivering His message and His people to His kingdom.

The single most common type of literature in the Bible is narratives.

In fact, over 40% of the OT is narratives – and the OT itself constitutes three quarters of the bulk of the Bible.

The following OT books are largely or entirely composed of narrative material: Genesis, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jonah, and Haggai. The purpose of these stories or narratives is theological – that is, God is using them to teach us theology. Instead of God telling us how to live or not to live, He uses these narratives or stories to show us how to live or how not to live by the actions of His characters.

Were all familiar with narratives in the Bible such as; Adam & Eve, David & Goliath, Sampson & Delilah, Daniel & the lion’s den, Jonah and the whale, Job’s Trials, and Moses crossing the Red sea.

I can mention these names and you automatically draw pictures into your minds from stories since childhood. All these narratives have a part in explaining God’s Story.

There is more than reading the Bible from cover to cover. Learn to read God’s stories in depth and find out the message the author was really trying to convey to you.