Every year, STP has a theme that we use to study the Bible to understand more of who God is and who we are. Usually we choose a book of the Bible and formulate the theme around the main point of that book.
This year, we did things a little differently.
Instead of selecting one specific book, we’re studying the whole Bible.
Well, not quite all of it. Our theme this summer is “Revealed,” and we’re studying mini-themes, traced through scripture, that show how the Lord revealed Himself to us. We’ll be looking at themes like the Lamb, the Suffering Servant, and the King.
Our theme verse is Psalm 98:2, “The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.”
It’s exciting that we’re going to be able to get a bigger glimpse into the redemptive thread God has woven through history and a deeper look into who He is. God reveals Himself in so many different ways that it would be almost impossible to cover them all in one summer, but studying the whole of Scripture gives us the chance to understand Him in a new and more holistic way.
What we want this summer
As I said, the goal of our theme is for us to be able to see more of Christ. But practically, how do we do we know if we’ve gotten to know Him better? Paul Poteat, director of Campus Outreach Minneapolis, and this summer’s project director, laid out three categories and some specifics of what he hopes we’ll get out of this summer of learning.
More of God
We're aiming to become more enchanted with God in all of His attributes and at the same time see Him as a total reality.
More of ourselves
This summer, we want to become disenchanted with our own goodness and our identities. We can’t come to a point of seeing our need for the cross until we recognize the depth of our own sinfulness.
More of Jesus
The more we learn about God’s holiness and our own sinfulness, the larger and more important the Gospel has to become in our lives; it can’t really happen any other way.
Ultimately, it’s God who is going to do the revealing and transforming work in our lives this summer. And that’s the beauty of it all, like Psalm 98 said: God saves and He didn’t make it hard to figure out how to find Him. He’s revealed himself all around us and we get a front row seat to see who He is.