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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The Mystery Of Faith! - Part 2

.....We have been using our Faith more for temporal things than for Spiritual things. Like driving down the road for instance. We apply our Faith by driving within the lines laid out on the roads everyday, expecting others coming in the other direction, to do the same. We have also used it to measure our life by quality and quantity. Society, as well as the church in general, judges others in this same manner. If they are lacking something in the physical or in their possessions, they say that they are lacking Faith or that there is some kind of sin in their life. They couldn't be further from the truth. In Philippians 4: 11-13, Paul said that he knew what it was like to be abased, and abound, to be full, and to be hungry, to abound, and to suffer need. But the revelation he had after stating that was that he could do all things through Christ who strengthens him. He also learned to be content in whatever state he was currently in. For another example, just go back and read about Job, and what happened to him, and all that he went through. He may have questioned God, but he did not lack Faith.

.....Paul says to look toward the things unseen. His possessions were to get to know God, and find his purpose in life. He was referring to Relationship. A union secured by Faith, in a gift, given by God, according to His Promise, as stated in Romans 4: 13 and Romans 5: 17, "A Promise of Righteousness," being in right standing with God, through Jesus Christ.

Faith puts our trust in God and not in ourselves.

.....An example of this is our Salvation. Our Faith began with Jesus, continues with Jesus, and shall end with Jesus, who is the Alpha, and Omega, the beginning, and the end, the first, and the last.

Faith comes by way of Revelation.

.....Faith initially was designed to respond to God according to "His Divine Will and Purpose" for our life. First, to come to Christ, and second, for completing His Will in our life, establishing the order of God here on this Earth. Revelation of the Truth in us from the Holy Spirit, will always change the natural. Filling us with the fullness of God, taking us, and changing us from Glory to Glory, Ephesians 3: 17-19.

.....God wants us to live out His dream. And that is why He gives us, His children, visions. Acts 2: 17, says that God gives old men dreams, and young ones visions. An example of this is in 1 Chronicles, Chapter 17 and Chapter 22, with David and his son, Solomon, concerning the building of the temple of God. And through the Mystery of Faith, we are to pursue that unseen place in the natural, and make it manifest for all to see on this Earth, bringing Glory to God, who gave us that vision.
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Growing In Grace!

.....Jesus Christ paid a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay. The Cross truly demonstrates God's love. The Bible says: Love conquers all, and also, that Love covers a multitude of sins. God clearly demonstrated His own love for us in the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. There is no greater act of love than to give your one and only son for the world. There is no F.E.A.R. in Love. Perfect Love drives out F.E.A.R., because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in Love, (1 John 4: 18).

.....Today, we are free to grow in Love for Him by the grace, (The Unmerited Favor) He has given us, that we may serve Him with joy, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. Not presenting ourselves to an enemy whose motives and purposes are suspect at best, but to a Living God, a wise, loving, and powerful Heavenly Father, who's motives and purposes for us are founded in His perfect goodness.

.....The Law could never produce true growth in grace and actually worked against the process. 1 Corinthians 15: 56 says, " The power of sin is the Law." As long as people are kept under the Law, they are kept under the power of sin. Romans 7: 7-8 says, "I would not have known what sin was except through the Law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the Law had not said, Do Not Covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the Commandments, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the Law, sin is dead."

So, is the Law bad?

.....No, because in 1 Timothy 1: 8 it says, " The Law is good if one uses it properly." In it's proper use, God uses it as a mirror to show us the truth about ourselves, so that we will see our need for total dependency upon Jesus Christ. In it's misuse, it produces an "Outward Conformity" with an absence of Faith, Hope and Love. This results in a total lack of Christian maturity.

An example of this is a contrast between:

A City Dog, and A Country Dog.

.....I personally have had one of each, and the Lord revealed this to me through the Spirit while in my personal studies with Him. Have you ever had a dog that you kept in the house, or penned up in the backyard? What happens when there is a momentary crack in the doorway or fence? The dog takes off like a bolt of lightning! Give it a glimpse of freedom and he's gone. You end up chasing him up the street, constantly calling his name. Does he stop? No way! He would actually turn and seem to grin at you, and keeps running. The more you chase him, the faster he runs.

.....On the other hand, have you ever had or seen a country dog? Picture "Old Duke." There are no fences, but only miles of pasture and woods to run in. He can go wherever and do whatever he wants. But where is he? Right smack on the front porch of your house, sleeping, and resting contently. He is happy to hang around the house, waiting for his master to come and play or take him for a walk.

.....People are the same way. They can't stand to be in bondage! They remain in captivity if there are enough strong threats, persuasive deceptions, or peer pressure, but if you give them a crack of freedom in this situation, they are out there like a city dog.

.....This is what Christians do who have been kept penned up by legalism. Without a personal understanding of the Grace and Truth found in Jesus Christ to guide them, they see freedom only as an opportunity to indulge the flesh.

.....Christians are all too quick to condemn people who are so called, "Rebelling Against God," without first looking more closely and asking, "What are they really rebelling against?" Usually, people are actually rebelling against "Legalistic Religion," brought about by man's traditions, that has kept them in bondage, not against God Himself.

.....Do you really think the city dog is running from his master? No, he is running from the fence. He loves his master. He just hates being penned up. These kind of rebels are some of the most excited, dynamic believers, once the errors of legalism have been corrected in there lives.

Let's emphasize what God has added above and beyond the removal of the Law.

.....God's method of releasing us from the Law is by replacing it with His indwelling Life and Spirit. That is why the country dog stays near to the front door. Because he knows and loves his master, His freedom is not freedom from bondage, but freedom to be with the one he loves. In the same way, we grow to know and love Jesus Christ more intimately, and find ourselves experiencing incredible freedom, hardly ever thinking about the Law at all. The issue is not what I can or cannot do. I'm Free to know my Heavenly Father in an unhindered personal relationship. Then, through that relationship, God teaches my mind to think His thoughts. When I am wrong, He uses Grace to remind me who I really am, so that I can return to a dependancy upon Him. He doesn't just lock me back behind the fence. He is faithful even when we are not. Hebrews 13: 5 says, " He will never leave us nor forsake us." We may get deceived sometimes, or feel beaten down, but His Love and Grace continue to draw us to Himself as He continues to fulfill His Promise in Phillipians 1: 6 which says, "He who began a good work in you, will carry it out onto completion until the day of Jesus Christ. John 3: 30 says, "He must increase, and I must decrease." That is a good way to describe what growing in grace is like.

.....Through our trials, tribulations, and personal failures, we come face to face with our own inadequacy, and are forced to turn to Him for His total adequacy. He then lifts us up, and then we see that He still loves, and accepts us, even if He hates what we did. This causes us to be drawn to love Him, and to trust Him more, as we continue our walk through life.

.....In closing, I want you to know that God truly cares about you and me. There is nothing we can give Him, no service we can perform, no self discipline we can apply that He wants more than just us. He wants to reveal Himself, and His Love to us, and wants us to grow to love Him in return. This is how we grow in grace, abiding in the Truth of God's Word, especially the Truth which deals with our total acceptance, forgiveness, righteousness, and life in "The Finished Work Of The Cross." Within the Truth, we have the boldness to approach God, and get to know Him in a personal way. Through, a relationship, not religion.

We must abide in His Grace, in order to grow in His Grace.

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