Epic: The Story God Is Telling and the Role That Is Yours to Play by John Eldredge

I read "Epic" last March and it really encouraged me to put my hope in Jesus Christ alone - something I have been taught for years, but somehow allowed my heart to forget.

Direct quote from Epic...

“Something stronger than Fate has chosen you. Evil will hunt you. And so a Fellowship must protect you. And you will need yours (Christian friends). You must cling to those you have, you must search wide and far for those you do not yet have. You must not go alone. From the beginning, right there in Eden, the Enemy’s strategy has relied upon a simple aim: Divide, and conquer. Get them isolated, and take them out."

The devil wants to get us down and consumed in our troubles, he doesn't want us to share our trials with fellow believers, he wants us to think our issues, problems, and trials, etc. are unique. Satan wants God’s children to have no hope. He wants us to think that our time on earth is all life has to offer. He wants us to look at lives of people who look good (and appear to have it all together) and then tell us it’s out of grasp for us. This life is temporary... God's gift of eternity with HIM IS within our grasp ONLY because its a gift from GOD. Put your hope in Jesus the author and finisher/perfecter of your faith!

Satan doesn't want us to realize that this life is but a fraction of eternity to come. He wants us to think this life is all we get. People give up and commit suicide because they have lost their hope in this world. Our HOPE is in CHRIST JESUS ALONE! There is an enormous battle waging for our souls - Satan and his demons are fighting us and trying to discourage us... We have to keep our HOPE in JESUS through it all - no matter how long or how hard... Hope in JESUS!

God's Word says...

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:1-11

When I was in college, my Sunday school teacher, Clara Schuster, had our class sing the first verse and chorus of "The Solid Rock" each Sunday before we left her class. There words are...

The Solid Rock for the tune see - or click here

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Chorus:
On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand; All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.

Chorus

His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Chorus

When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

Chorus

In, Epic John Eldredge tells us to remember three things...

* First, things are not what they seem.

* Second, we are at war.

* Third, you have a crucial role to play.

We have much to learn as we prepare ourselves for our ultimate role in eternity.

For more on Epic check out the web page