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I sat in on a home-group recently. It was a mixture of Christ followers. Some knew Christ for many, many years, others, mature adults, were relatively new to the journey. They found it difficult to find books chapters and verses in the bible but glowed with a desire to learn more. But they all knew God was real and that he was faithful, that God loved them dearly and died on the Cross for
them.

We opened the bible together. The new to faith, glowing Christ followers debated who would get to read out loud first. They shared how they so wanted to read aloud but never had the strength or confidence as a child. We read from 1 Thessalonians 2.

The study and the conversations went in several directions, but developed into a heated exchange between two of the group, a new to faith person and a veteran of the faith. What each person said was completely correct, but they misunderstood each other, because they could not see past their own opinions.

But the heated exchange was not the interesting part of the evening, what totally took me by surprise was what happened when the debate was brought to a halt by the leader, when he directed the group back to the bible and then to prayer.

It went something like this……
Debating person #1……. Dear Heavenly Father, please forgive me for my attitude and opinion. I am wrong in my thoughts and need your forgiveness……..
Debating person #2…….. Dear Father, would you please forgive me too, I’m also wrong in my attitude, I need your forgiveness.

The prayer time continued in gratitude and praise for God’s forgiveness. The two individuals continued to ask forgiveness of each other. It was obviously awkward for them both, but they broke through that by exposing themselves before God.

They took the vital step of forgiveness and it didn’t stop there, they took an extra step, together, they agreed to hold each other accountable in future.

The whole incident left me feeling ambushed by Grace! I said wow! What has just happened, what have I just been privileged to be part of? I think it might have been an experience of true spiritual community, a place were God was allowed to melt their hearts and step into a place of peace and honour. Each had totally humbled themselves before the Almighty and in so doing had blown away any opportunity for the wicked one to take control of them.

It was pure joy to see God at work freely!
Elain Magowan
Home Group Coordinator.
Roleystone Community Church