Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The need for fellowship.

As we've moved up to Charlotte and started a new life, we really realize that community is everything.  It's fundamental to our Spiritual well being and emotional health.  We are creatures of community and we need to  be around others.  We long for companionship.  Some of us desire large groups, and some of us want nothing more than a spouse.  There are levels of connectivity, and we all want some level of it.


Our first and foremost relationship comes from YHW.  Without a  creator, we could not even feel love for other people, (1 John)   Because He loves us, we can love Him back. And because we love Him, we can love others.  You would be ok with just Jesus, but I don't think you would thrive without the community that Jesus created and calls His bride.  The need for fellowship with other saints is fundamental to the faith.  Anyone who knows anything about the Christian faith knows that we take communion. You may not know what it is or what it means, but you know the church does it.   We drink grape juice for the blood, and bread for the body of Christ, and it's call communion.  This communion is suppose to serve as a reflection to a real communion that we really already have in Christ. A fellowship of our soul and God's soul is what communion represents, and we could not have that fellowship except through the blood and the broken body of Christ.  It's a reminder. When Christ was on the earth, He said "do this in remembrance of me.".

The blood represents His gift to us, and the bread represents His Body, which was broken, but which he rebuilt using us.   He is in a physical body right now, the scripture is clear, but we are his "body" or his agent on the earth.  We need to be in communion with the blood, and the body.  We can not have just Jesus and leave the body, and we cannot  have just the body and leave Jesus.  Paul warned early Christians of this, urging them to make sure the communion was real and the the acts of taking the elements were just representations of the way they were living their lives.  We need to be living in a way where we are living as one.  One with God and one with our brothers in Christ.  He really desires our unity.  I want to share an encounter I had, but not today in this post, but maybe in the next few days.  Just understand, community and union is very important to God, and we should never tear a bridge down in the body, but try to build and work together.  If you get attacked, swallow pride and turn the other cheek.   

  But community also means accountability.  We need to be willing to be corrected, and we  need to be willing to correct each other. I really don't mind being corrected, and have a hard time standing my ground against others who are wrong, not just in my opinion, but are obviously living in error. (I'm talking about Christians who are living in the world around me, not random people.  Those, who you are in fellowship with, are the ones you have a responsibility to be corrected and correct.)   I'm getting better about calling wrong thinking wrong, even when I'm under attack, but it is not easy for me. That is one thing I do need to work on, because walking away from someone who is wrong is easy, but it's not always right.  Sometimes God wants you to bring the revelation of the right way, so someone can get off the wrong path. Sometimes loving does mean walking away, but usually I find that the right thing to do is harder.  If it's easy to walk away, I need to stay most of the time, and if it's hard to say goodbye, that the path that I need to take.   I've had to do both.  When it's hard to say good bye, and you know you have too, that means you're doing right because your love for them is so deep.  When it's hard to confront, that can mean that you love them too much to offend them, but you have to!  The psalms say "Trust the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of the enemy bring deception. "


Community is not easy, but it's worth it and it's glorious. 

2 comments:

  1. Wow, this really blesses me so much. I feel like a broken record, but seriously this is soo timely. Actually a few hours ago, I was passionately talking about fellowship in the body, accountability, and godly confrontation, along with where the Lord is taking me. haha I really am blessed by this and really appreciate your educated perspective. Holy Spirit is really using your blogs to teach me and grow me, and further what He's doing in my life. Thanks so much, again, for sharing and being a light. :)

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  2. Thanks for all the encouragement! It really means a lot to me. I was thinking about not posting anymore at the beginning but than I wanted to after reading your comments!

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