"The StoryChanger" (David Murray)

TITLE: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story by Inviting Us into His
AUTHOR: David Murray
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishers, 2022, (128 pages).
 

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

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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.