The Old Testament Story

Pastor Josh has invited me to join as a guest writer here for Red Door Church blog and I am grateful for the opportunity. It’s been years since I visited the Red Door Church – I was a pastor in Maine then. Now my family is back in Charlotte, NC, where I went to seminary with Pastor Josh. But even without being physically there, my wife and I have prayed for the Moore family and your church many times over the years and distance is no trouble for our Father.

I love the Old Testament! There is such a wealth of material there – it’s almost three times the size of the New Testament! God had so many amazing things to His people and to show them. I also appreciate that I’m not as familiar with it. I find I have to work harder to stay focused when I’m reading, say, John for the 50th time versus reading 2 Chronicles which I just don’t know as well.

I encourage Christians to read the OT, but most don’t know where to start. They are familiar with Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, and David & Goliath … and then it gets sketchy. But to learn the whole OT is daunting. It’s 929 chapters! Where do we even begin?

That’s the goal of this series. I want to try to introduce the Old Testament by looking at 20-25 key chapters. That’s about 2% of Old Testament, but by looking at these key chapters we can make huge headway in understanding the basic message of the Old Testament. If you understand the big picture, it makes understanding the individual pieces so much easier. I hope that as we make our way through this, you will come to love the Old Testament more also!

Below is my plan. It’s subject to change. Ideally we’ll turn each of these into a link as they are written.