Friday, May 1, 2009

Fellowship - Please Read

Refer to http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=935 for the entire article

What is Fellowship?
Fellowship is first and foremost a relationship, rather than an activity

True fellowship involves getting together for spiritual purposes: for sharing needs, for prayer, for discussing and sharing the Word to encourage, comfort, and edify one another.

What do we do there?
Acts 2:42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.Central to these believers’ fellowship was the teaching of the apostles. Being devoted to our relationship, partnership, companionship, and stewardship depends on our devotion to Scripture.

What brings us together in Fellowship?
A common relationship that we all have together in Christ (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 1:3)

How devoted should we be?
Luke tells us these early Christians devoted themselves to fellowship. They just didn’t have fellowship; they devoted themselves to it.

Why Fellowship?
Because the Day of Jesus’ 2nd coming is approaching and we want to make sure that we are ready.

Hebrews 10:24-26 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,

What does it mean to fellowship with God?
Listen. Trust. Obey. John 14:21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

J. I. Packer:We should not … think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. We should recognize rather that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity; for God has made us in such a way that our fellowship with himself is fed by our fellowship with fellow-Christians, and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment.

Why don’t we get it?
The first force is relativism. Relativism maintains there are no absolutes of truth, of good and evil, or of values and priorities. It is just as Isaiah warned Israel: Isaiah 5:20-21: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And clever in their own sight!

The second force is privatization. Describing this force, Peterson says:The second force, privatization, accommodates relativism. It says, ‘What I believe and do is my private business. Since it doesn’t really matter if you believe in God and I believe in Mother earth (pantheism, another influence), let’s agree to keep our beliefs to ourselves.’ The church is no longer able to function as a public conscience; its role has been reduced to serving the private spheres of its members. (emphasis mine)

The third force is individualism. When the third force, individualism—which is at the very core of American culture—is mixed with relativism and privatization, the cocktail becomes deadly. A way of life emerges in which self is at the center. The all-consuming pursuit of self-fulfillment that characterizes this brand of individualism inevitably leaves wreckage in its wake. (emphasis mine)

Wii

Labels: Fellowship