Christ’s Story in Your Life
Reading the Bible can feel a bit like a disjointed historical narrative where the pieces don’t fit together at first. Sometimes, it can even have you questioning what these parables, narratives, and family lineages have to do with your everyday life. Piece them together to see how your life is grafted onto Christ’s story and interwoven throughout the Old Testament and New Testament.
Piecing It Together
Author Rev. Dr. Adam T. Filipek gives you the key to understanding how your life story—yes, your story today—weaves together with the Bible. As you see all the threads coming together, you’ll understand that the faith and the Church are not about us as individuals. Rather, it’s forever pointing back to and revolving around the story of God’s Son and His sacrifice for humanity.
Finding Yourself in His Narrative
Start putting the Bible together chronologically. You’ll have an overview of the important stories so you can start to see yourself in the Word. Piece together the chronicle of Christ’s life and discover the real ways He is working in your day-to-day through the Gospel books.
Praise for Life in Christ
Rather than “losing the forest for the trees,” this work enables readers to glimpse the grand sweep of the greatest story ever told. They'll walk away marveling at how it centers on Jesus from the beginning and connects to us right here in our own world.
— William Weedon, assistant pastor, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hamel, Illinois
It’s a clever idea—really!—to tell God’s story from creation to the eternal joy of the resurrection, interweaving our own personal stories from Baptism through our funerals and beyond. . . . Dr. Fillipek's style is constantly speaking directly to the reader, a very inviting way to catechize those entirely new to the faith.
— Dr. Carl C. Fickenscher II, professor of pastoral ministry and missions, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana; speaker and author; editor of Concordia Pulpit Resources
With pastoral precision, Adam Filipek calls us to not abandon our first love, Christ. The reason is not found in obligation but in the delight that God deigns to to dwell with us. Life in Chirst faithfully grounds its readers in the narrative of Scripture that then flows into the ongoing life of the Church so that we might be blessed with life in Christ.
— Kevin Golden, PhD; associate professor of exegetical theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri
We must once again see that the faith is not something we simply learn, regurgitate, graduate, and move on from. . . . More profoundly and eloquently stated, the life of a Christian, indeed your life, is firmly rooted and intricately woven into the unified biblical narrative of God’s presence in the person and work of Jesus Christ, into whom you were incorporated by Baptism, with whom you abide each week in the Divine Service, and under whom you and all believers will live at the resurrection.
—from Chapter 1: The Great Disconnect
About the Author
Rev. Dr. Adam T. Filipek has been pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church and Immanuel Lutheran Church in Lidgerwood, North Dakota, since October 2016. Previously, he was pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Black Jack, Missouri, and associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Hicksville, New York. He also serves as an online adjunct professor at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
Pastor Filipek earned a bachelor of science in management information systems from Minot State University in North Dakota, a master of divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and a doctor of ministry from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His doctoral dissertation, which served as a foundation for this book, was centered around teaching and preaching the unified biblical narrative.
Pastor Filipek has been married to Becky since 2006. They have four children: David, Miriam, Jacob, and Bethany.