New Creation
Gymea/Miranda Uniting Church Young Adults Group

EVENT REPORT 2005
Date Time Location Event Home
Friday, Oct 7th 7.30pm - dinner Tim & Lyn's The Game of RISK Calendar

Friday October 7th - The Game of Risk

        Tonight  we finally got around to playing the game of Risk. We missed out last time because we were busy making pizzas and chatting lots... how terrible is that?

So, to allow us more time for the game, Lyn baked up a home-made doo-dad that had potato, corn, carrot, zucchini, onion, egg, milk and herbs and spices topped off with some cheese melted until golden brown. That was coupled with a fresh garden salad and a choice of a number of dressings. She managed to get the boys to eat and enjoy a meal with no meat in it. How impressive is that?

I don't think she will be able to get away with it again ;) 
Tonight the winner on the battlefield of Risk was the person who least liked to attack: Jo. She was the quiet achiever who surreptitiously conquered North America and kept a hold of it long enough to achieve all her missions. 

She did all this while the rest of us were busily attempting to blow each other out of the international waters...or so to speak. Poor Chris' armies were completely wiped clean in the rush. 
        

Jayson volunteered to do the devotion for tonight:

The game of risk is most often won, at least in part, by completing a mission that asks you to fill an area - fill the area of Africa for example. You cannot win the game by part filling it and saying, "I got all of Africa except Madagascar". This mission is incomplete unless you have completely filled Africa with your little soldiers, horses and canons. To claim otherwise would be to cheat yourself and those you are plying with.

If you choose to play risk you then choose to attempt to fill as much as you can of the board so that at the end you are still standing.
In a similar way when we choose Christ we choose to attempt to be filled with as much of him as we can so that at the end we are still standing.

We can be filled with the awe of God like in Matthew 9:6-8 "6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7And the man got up and went home. 8When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men".

We can be filled with compassion like in Mark 1:41-42 41Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" 42Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

We can be filled with the Holy Spirit like in Ephesians 5:18 "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."

We can be filled with joy like in Acts 16:34 "The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family."

And how do we become filled? Do we roll a die and hope for the best? Certainly not! Instead we remember Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The word of God is like a gazillion canons "rolling off" against the single soldier of our hardened hearts - God's word quite simply cannot lose the battle.

But, unlike in Risk where the challenge must be accepted, God gives us the choice to accept or not. He gives us the ability to call the battle - a battle we know full well can only result result in an overwhelming invasion of His word into our hearts. 

We become in essence a living sacrifice - laying down the single soldier guarding all that is in us in opposition to God so that God can gain complete control of our board and fill us with all that is good.

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