Heilsgeschichte

Good morning!  Today is the third day of our fifth week, reading the Bible through together in a year.  Today's scriptures are Exodus 7-9; Ephesians 1; Psalm 105.


If I were to say

Heilsgeschichte,

You'd probably respond with 

Gesundheit!

But I wouldn't be sneezing--I'd be talking about Psalm 105.  

Heilsgeschichte is a German word that means "salvation history."  In the Old Testament, we see this and other catalogs of all the wondrous events that God did on behalf of the Jewish people.  God called Abraham out of the pagan lands, made a covenant with him and promised his descendants a homeland.  God rescued them from famine by sending them to Joseph's Egypt.  God rescued them from bondage four hundred years later by sending them a deliverer.  God blessed Moses with the ability to lead them through the desert for forty years until they reached the Promised Land.  The story goes on and on...

This kind of story can be comforting when you're experiencing trouble, because you can look back into the past and see how God was faithful to you before.  And if God was faithful to you then, God will be faithful in the future.

Heilsgeschichte is a good way of giving your testimony of how God saved you, too.  All it means is that you tell your story...where you came from, how God saved you, where you are now, and where you're going, according to the Lord's blessing.   

Heilsgeschichte is a common way of preaching in the New Testament.  But you'd better watch out--In the New Testament (Acts 7), Stephen only gets started telling the salvation history of the Jewish people when they begin to stone him.  This kind of story can challenge listeners, because it holds them accountable before God.  It shows that God has been active all along, to bring them to this very moment of decision.  It allows you to give a clear invitation to people, to receive the Lord as their Savior and begin to tell their own salvation history to others.

I hope that you'll work on telling people your own salvation history.  If you do it well, then maybe after you're Heilsgeschichte, they'll say, "God bless you!"