The House Church Questions for this week are taken from The Daily Office Week 4 / Day 2 - Midday / Evening

I encourage you as a group to follow this simple format, and see what emerges.

As you know, this text is where Geff Harada is teaching from so it makes sense to follow this particular reading, since it coincides with his teaching as well as with our EHS teaching series.

Here we go.

Silence, Stillness and Centering Before God (2-3 minutes)

Scripture Reading - Genesis 22:9-12

Discuss Geff Harada's message of Hope. What "Word" did the Spirit give you on Sunday?

Devotional

Walls occur through a crisis that turns our world upside down. They are not simply one-time events that we pass through and get beyond. They appear to be something we return to as part of our on-going relationship with God.

We see this in Abraham, waiting at the Wall for twenty-five years for the birth of his first child with his wife, Sarah. Ten to thirteen years later, God led him again to another Wall - the separation from Ishmael, his eldest son born through Sarah's maid-servant, Hagar. He encounters a third Wall a few years later when God mysteriously commands him to sacrifice his long awaited, beloved son - Isaac - on the altar.

He appears to have gone through the Wall numerous times in his journey with God. Why?

"Unintentionally and unknowingly we fall back into imperfections...bad habits are like living roots that return. These roots must be dug away and cleared from the garden of our soul...this requires the direct intervention of God." - Saint John of the Cross

Questions to Consider

1) Do you relate to Abraham's story? Has God ever revealed "imperfections" in your heart through a time of waiting at the Wall (or what Geff Harada called "the Uncomfortable Middle")?

2) Has God ever asked you to let go of something that you were hanging onto? Try to think of letting go as an exchange, because God wants to give us something good in exchange for the thing we are holding onto (i.e. futility for hope)? How did that go?

3) Are you currently holding onto anything that God is asking you to let go of? Remember, He doesn't need you to let go. He knows you need to let go in order for you to be more complete and whole.

4) What things or people might you be rooting or basing your identity in that God may want to dig up so that your identity might be replanted in Him?

Share / Pray for one another.

Closing Prayer

Abba Father, I open my clenched fists to surrender everything you have given to me. Re-establish my identity in you - not in my family, my friends, my accomplishments, or what others think of me. Cleanse the things in me that are not conformed to your will. By faith I unite my will to yours so that the likeness of Jesus Christ may be formed in me. In Jesus' name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)