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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: THE WHOLE WORLD IN GOD’S HANDS (not the song) (05/28/15)
The well attended weekly men’s and lady’s combined bible studies were by no means dull or boring but Stanley and his wife Sonja were concerned that it was becoming a ritual that felt comfortable and besides, the suppers were a real treat.

They had attempted to inject new challenges and perspectives but the lively debates of recent times seemed to have diminished and the group’s spiritual growth had stalled, almost to the extent that biblical truth was becoming a burden treated with casual indifference, as if threatening their church culture and traditions.

Having discussed their concerns with the group it was obvious that a time of coming before the Lord was required and as they had all agreed, their next meeting had been set aside for a time of pressing into His presence through prayer expecting guidance, revelation and discernment for a refreshing that was obviously required and in fact yearned for by all.

As the group was made up of seven couples their meetings were held in their homes on a rotation basis and all pitched in for the suppers.

Coincidently, or by design, their next meeting was to be held at the home of Colin and Wendy who had only recently been born again and were hungry for God’s word but had also felt somewhat detached from the direction their study group had taken.

It was a cold winter night but Colin had the wood heater glowing and the group soon settled into a time of fellowship, prayer and worship with the emphasis being on the direction of their study group with an awareness of God’s prompting, inspiration and engagement, as Sonja had pleaded, “let this be a time to respond to the Holy Spirit’s guidance”.

After half an hour and during a period of quietness and shared stillness Colin broke the silence and asked if he could share what was on his heart.

This was all rather new to him but he was stepping out in faith as he firmly believed that through his born again spirit he was one with Christ.

As he hesitated Stanley encouraged him to continue.

Colin opened his bible to Isaiah 40:12-31, explaining how God has the ability to exercise total power and total control of nations and individuals.

Colin continued, “As you can see from verse 19, considering the greatness of God that was described in the previous verses, how could we ever create anything that would resemble God with our limited understanding? Any attempt to do so is futile and shows our ignorance of how great and awesome He really is”.

Colin looked up and seeing a puzzled look on the faces in front of him continued.

“Throughout the rest of this chapter, Isaiah shows the foolishness of anyone who makes a graven image. It is weird to suggest that the Creator can be represented by anything that He made. It’s ludicrous to think that He who holds the universe in the palm of His hand, Isaiah 40:12, can be reduced to an image. Those who worship idols are totally ignorant of the true greatness and majesty of God. My question as a brand new believer is this: is it possible that we as a group have made our church culture and traditions more important than God’s word which clearly states that the whole world is in God’s hands and that by definition we should only trust Him and His word. Are we prepared to let God hold our worlds in the palm of His hand giving Him permission to be God, He is the author of our lives breaking down all barriers, such as the ones we have encountered as a group?”

There was a prolonged silence, concerned that he may have offended in some way, Colin looked to Wendy for support but her eyes were closed.

Stanley slowly rose to his feet and with an apologetic sigh asked them all to join hands as he prayed.
“Father God we thank you for Colin and your revelation through him, we confess our neglect of the absolute truth of your word and we collectively desire to be wrapped in the cloak of your righteousness, our Lord and our God”.

Their supper took on a new meaning as they continued to meditate on what had transpired. As a group they knew they had been challenged to re-focus, knowing that God was indeed in control and the only demand on them was to believe and appropriate His promises.
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This article has been read 621 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
06/07/15
I enjoyed your message in this piece. After having the same minister for 18 years, and the one before for 25 years, the church was devastated to learn he was being transferred. Once I removed my emotions, I could acknowledge that the church needs "fresh blood." Your piece reminded me to keep my focus on God, not the minister.

Be careful with your punctuation. You have quite a few run-on and complicated sentence. This line is complex, passive, and hard to understand (I changed the punctuation to how I might edit to show you what I mean): The well-attended weekly men’s and lady’s combined Bible studies were by no means dull or boring, but Stanley and his wife Sonja were concerned that it was becoming a ritual that felt comfortable, and besides, the suppers were a real treat.
You could tighten it up and make it an active sentence like this: Stanley and his wife Sonja worried that their weekly Bible study was turning into nothing more than a good meal and comfortable rituals.

I liked the Bible verses you selected. They really fit well with your message. It's amazing how God plans for us. Like Collin reviving the group and how much has to go into it. Not only did someone have to start the study, but then it had to become routine, someone had to be brave enough to mention it, Collin had to hear about the group, find a way to attend, know his Bible, and be brave enough to question. I'm sure I'm leaving things out too. It's too complex to be a coincidence. You did a nice job of showing how God truly loves us and works things out way before we even know there is a problem.
Joanne Sher 
06/10/15
Great points here - and I enjoyed the wisdom of the new believer especially.

This might be a personal opinion, but I think this would resonate more with the reader if you made the language a bit less formal - to get us more engaged in the story.