17 months
Last Tuesday was a monumental day in our church Connect Group. We meet every week where we share life, eat, drink, laugh, cry, pray, and study the Bible together.
We also enjoy social events. This year’s highlights include 10 pin bowling and crazy golf, in the rain! At Christmas we always share a meal and play party games. It’s a great group of people, who really do support one another.
So what about last Tuesday? Well, after 17 months we came to the end of studying the book of Genesis! I asked people to share what had stood out to them.
One by one, members shared, some through tears, of what God had shown them. It was so moving. As we listened, some themes emerged:
God created the entire universe and yet knows and cares for individuals.
He works through people who do not have it all together, who may even behave in ways that are not right.
He is faithful and patient and will fulfil His purpose in His timing, so we have to trust Him.
The last part of Genesis focuses on the story of Joseph. The favourite child of Jacob, who, as a teenager, saw a vision of his brothers bowing before him.
He shared it with them and they hated him, wanting to kill him. Instead they sold him as a slave and in Egypt. Through a series of events Joseph became the Prime Minister, overseeing food collection and distribution during a severe famine.
Many years later, Joseph and his brothers were reunited, but after the death of their father, they feared that Joseph would seek his revenge for how they treated him. However Joseph said to them…
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Joseph trusted in God all his life, through it’s up’s and down’s, and He saw God fulfil His promise in His timescale.
Our group loved studying Genesis together, let me encourage you to take a look at it and see what God reveals to you…
God bless you :)
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader