Experiencing Life Together! (In Christ)

Each one of you is part of the Body of Christ, and you were chosen to live together in peace.
Colossians 3:15

How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God's people to live together in harmony! Psalm 133:1

.....Life is meant to be shared. God intends for us to experience life together. The bible calls this shared experience fellowship. The true meaning of fellowship includes unselfish loving, honest sharing, practical serving, sacrificial giving, sympathetic comforting, and all the other "one another" commands found in the New Testament.

.....Authentic fellowship is not superficial, surface-level chit-chat. It is genuine, heart-to-heart, sometimes gut-level, sharing. It happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives. They share their hurts, reveal their feelings, confess their failures, disclose their doubts, admit their fears, acknowledge their weaknesses, and ask for help and prayer.

.....People wear masks today. They keep their guard up, and act as if everything is rosy in their lives. These attitudes are the death of real fellowship. It is only as we become open about our lives that we can experience real fellowship with God and others.

.....The Bible says, "If we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other... If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves.

.....The world thinks intimacy occurs in the dark, but God says it happens in the light. Darkness is used to hide our hurts, faults, fears, failures, and flaws. But in the light, we bring them all out into the open and admit who we really are. This requires two things, courage and humility. It means facing our fears of exposure, rejection, and being hurt again.

So why would anyone take such a risk today?

Because it is the only way to grow spiritually and be emotionally healthy.

.....The Bible says, "Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed."

.....We can only grow by taking risks, and the most difficult risk of all is to be honest with ourselves, God, and others. Nothing ventured, is nothing gained.

.....In real fellowship, we also experience mutuality. The art of giving and receiving, or depending on each other. Mutuality is the heart of fellowship. It includes the aspects of building reciprocal relationships, sharing responsibilities, and helping each other. The Bible is very clear on this subject, commanding us (over 50 times) in the areas of mutual accountability, encouragement, serving, and honoring. We are not responsible for everyone in the Body of Christ, but we are responsible to them. God expects us always to do whatever we can to help them. See a need, meet it.

.....In real fellowship, we also experience sympathy. Sympathy, or as some call empathy, is entering in and sharing the pain of others. Sympathy says, "I understand what you are going through, and what you feel is neither strange or crazy." The Bible says that we as Holy people are to be sympathetic, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Sympathy meets two fundamental human needs: the need to be understood, and the need to have your feelings validated. Every time you understand and affirm someone's feelings, you build a new level of fellowship with that person. This increases your level of intimacy (IN-TO-ME-SEE) with them. It is in the times of deep crisis, grief, and doubt, that we need each other most. When circumstances crush us to the point that we find our faith in question, that is when we need believing friends the most. Friends who have faith in God for us, and to help pull us through. The Body of Christ is real and tangible for us today, even when God may seem distant in our lives, or our circumstances.

.....And the last thing I wish to share with you concerning real fellowship, is experiencing mercy and forgiveness. Fellowship is a place of grace, where mistakes are not rubbed in, but rubbed out. Fellowship happens when mercy wins over justice.

.....We all need grace and mercy today, because we all stumble and fall, and require help getting back on track. We need to offer that same mercy and grace to each other, and be willing to receive it from each other as well. God says, "When people sin, you should forgive and comfort them, so that they won't give up in despair."

.....You can't have fellowship without forgiveness, because bitterness and resentment always destroys it. Because we are all imperfect people who still sin, or miss the mark today, we will inevitably hurt each other when we are together for a long enough time, either intentionally, or sometimes unintentionally, but either way, it will take a massive amount of grace and mercy to maintain any fellowship throughout its lifetime.

.....The Bible says, " You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others." God's mercy is the key and the motivation for showing mercy to others. We will never be asked to forgive someone else more than God has already forgiven us.

.....Many people today are reluctant to show mercy and grace because they do not truly understand the difference between trust and forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past. Trust has to do with future behavior.

.....Forgiveness must be immediate, whether or not a person asks for it. Trust must be built over time. Trust requires a track record. If someone hurts you repeatedly, you are not expected to trust them immediately, and you are not expected to continue allowing them to hurt you. They must prove they have changed over time. The best place to restore trust is within the supportive context of a small group that offers both encouragement and accountability.

.....I hope and pray that after you read this, you step out in faith and use this message as a tool to guide yourself into a deeper aspect of fellowship, experiencing it, with God and others in the near future as you apply it in your own life and journey today, and forever.
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