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HOME GROUP
Wild Horses couldn’t have dragged me into a church! After all I had graduated from church having been baptized and confirmed and I didn’t need the church anymore. I was a truly confirmed sinner and the people in the church I grew up in were no better or worse than me.
I came home that evening to be informed by my darling wife, who had already threatened to leave me on numerous occasions, “We are going to a Home Bible Group tonight.” That’s good darling, I hope you enjoy yourself.” Was my reply. “No! I said we!” “That will be the day hell freezes over.” After all I had heard about hell.
This argument continued through supper and right up until we closed the door heading to the next door house for this bible study. I was dressed for a church service complete with a dreaded tie. I have always preferred to dress for comfort but my religious background told me you dress up to go to a church service.
When we arrived we were warmly greeted by the home group. What a motley crew and what’s more they weren’t even properly dressed, no ties! Right on time the group leader started by welcoming us as visitors and said, “ I’m glad our visitors have come but I think that we should have a questions and answers time and not continue with our study on Prophecy.”
It sure was an eye-opener to me. They fired questions at this man which he answered direct from the Bible. Some one would say something like, “Why do you claim that everyone is a sinner? Aren’t some worse than others?” He would answer, “Turn to Romans Chapter 3 and then point to the verses that confirmed that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that there is none righteous not even one.” Showing clearly that God has judged us all to be sinners. I sat there that night thinking, “At Sunday School I won the Bible prize every year for attendance and learning but I never knew that the Bible could give practical answers to every question.
After some time of this the leader asked us to bow our heads in prayer and made an appeal for all those who had never accepted Christ into their lives to do so tonight. In hindsight I know that God the Holy Spirit was working in that meeting but at the time I began a struggle in my mind with whether or not I should respond. I made excuses of what I thought the outcome would be. I argued that my wife would leave me once and for all if I responded. I tried to tell myself I was alright, after all I was confirmed and I had been baptized. All this was to no avail and finally I surrendered and gave my life to Christ.
My wife did so at the same moment and the leader took us through to another room and explained what we were doing. Being ‘Born Again’ is not just making a decision or commitment but a supernatural experience in which God gives us the ability and authority to become children of God. He gives us a new heart and makes us new creatures and so more than fifty years later we are still God’s children.
You may ask me, “What is the value of a home group?” I will answer, “Much in every way for it is there that God works with His people to bring others into the reconciliation He accomplished on the cross.”
Even if you hate religion and shun church do visit a home group of Christians it can change your life. I could tell you more of other lives that have been changed and bodies healed in answer to the prayers of a home group but those are other stories.
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