Youth Story

Jacob had made a mess of things. He was a deceiver. That’s what his name meant. He came out of the womb grabbing his twin brother’s ankle, trying to be first. He was competitive and tricky from day one. All this scheming took him to the desert, the dry place. But in the middle of the desert was a well. A resting place. An oasis. And even better, there was a woman, Rachel. He thought she was beautiful. So, in the desert, a man and a woman found each other at the well. It was a place of refreshment, hope, and life. God called Jacob and Rachel to continue the covenant. To bring the river of life into the world. Jacob would know God’s blessing, and he would offer it to others. But he would also continue to make a mess of things. It’s just the way people roll. Jesus changes things. In John 4, we see that Jesus arrived at what many scholars believe is the same well, the well of Jacob. It’s a familiar story to many. A woman came to draw water and Jesus began a conversation with her. Here Jesu...

WEEK 1 This is the detailed story of the Eternal God’s singular work in creating all that exists. On the day the heavens and earth were created, there were no plants or vegetation to cover the earth. The fields were barren and empty, because the Eternal God had not sent the rains to nourish the soil or anyone to tend it. In those days, a mist rose up from the ground to blanket the earth, and its vapors irrigated the land. One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul. The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed the man whom He had sculpted there. In this garden, He made the ground pregnant with life—bursting forth with nourishing food and luxuriant beauty. He created trees, and in the center of this garden of delights stood the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A...