full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tom Honey: Why would God create a tsunami?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So the first big qtiouesn is about control. Does God have a plan for each of us? Is God in cntoorl? Does God order each mneomt? Does the wind and the waves obey Him? From time to time, one heras Christians telling the sotry of how God organized things for them, so that everything wkoerd out all right — some difficulty overcome, some illness cured, some tboulre averted, a parking space found at a crucial time. I can rmeemebr someone saying this to me, with her eyes shining with enthusiasm at this wonderful confirmation of her faith and the goodness of God.

But if God can or will do these things — intervene to change the flow of events — then surely he could have stopped the tsunami. Do we have a local God who can do little things like parking spaces, but not big things like 500 mile-per-hour waves? That's just not acceptable to intelligent Christians, and we must acknowledge it. Either God is responsible for the tnmusai, or God is not in control.

Open Cloze


So the first big ________ is about control. Does God have a plan for each of us? Is God in _______? Does God order each ______? Does the wind and the waves obey Him? From time to time, one _____ Christians telling the _____ of how God organized things for them, so that everything ______ out all right — some difficulty overcome, some illness cured, some _______ averted, a parking space found at a crucial time. I can ________ someone saying this to me, with her eyes shining with enthusiasm at this wonderful confirmation of her faith and the goodness of God.

But if God can or will do these things — intervene to change the flow of events — then surely he could have stopped the tsunami. Do we have a local God who can do little things like parking spaces, but not big things like 500 mile-per-hour waves? That's just not acceptable to intelligent Christians, and we must acknowledge it. Either God is responsible for the _______, or God is not in control.

Solution


  1. remember
  2. trouble
  3. question
  4. worked
  5. control
  6. moment
  7. tsunami
  8. hears
  9. story

Original Text


So the first big question is about control. Does God have a plan for each of us? Is God in control? Does God order each moment? Does the wind and the waves obey Him? From time to time, one hears Christians telling the story of how God organized things for them, so that everything worked out all right — some difficulty overcome, some illness cured, some trouble averted, a parking space found at a crucial time. I can remember someone saying this to me, with her eyes shining with enthusiasm at this wonderful confirmation of her faith and the goodness of God.

But if God can or will do these things — intervene to change the flow of events — then surely he could have stopped the tsunami. Do we have a local God who can do little things like parking spaces, but not big things like 500 mile-per-hour waves? That's just not acceptable to intelligent Christians, and we must acknowledge it. Either God is responsible for the tsunami, or God is not in control.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
man built 2
waves obey 2
natural world 2


Important Words


  1. acceptable
  2. acknowledge
  3. averted
  4. big
  5. change
  6. christians
  7. confirmation
  8. control
  9. crucial
  10. cured
  11. difficulty
  12. enthusiasm
  13. events
  14. eyes
  15. faith
  16. flow
  17. god
  18. goodness
  19. hears
  20. illness
  21. intelligent
  22. intervene
  23. local
  24. moment
  25. obey
  26. order
  27. organized
  28. overcome
  29. parking
  30. plan
  31. question
  32. remember
  33. responsible
  34. shining
  35. space
  36. spaces
  37. stopped
  38. story
  39. surely
  40. telling
  41. time
  42. trouble
  43. tsunami
  44. waves
  45. wind
  46. wonderful
  47. worked