The hardest thing we do as a person, is to extend forgiveness to another, yet we are never more like God than when we do. Forgiveness is easy to talk about, but hard to live through, because we are often being controlled by the emotions of the situation. I was reminded today of Romans 12:17-21 as I prepared for this weeks message. I focused on verse 18, “As much as is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” We must understand that we can NOT always live at peace with people, but we can learn to allow the emotions of the events to subside as we learn to allow God to work in the lives of those who have sinned against us. We do not have to work to “get even,” and we do not have to allow their actions to control our lives. As we learn to give things over to the Lord, we find the strength to tackle life. We can know that God will deal with those who sin against us, in ways that we can not begin to understand, and while it is difficult to process, it is not impossible to … READ MORE

While the basis of fellowship is Salvation, the nature of that fellowship is sharing. In Acts 2:42, it tells us that after the church was born, the members were continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship. Then in verse 44 we are told that all who believed were together, not in a superficial way but in a profound way. They began selling their property and possessions and sharing with them all as any one might have need. It doesn’t mean that they liquidated everything and then spread it out equally, it was simply sharing to the degree that if someone else had a need, they would sell a possession in order to get what they needed to get to provide for that need. Aristides , a pagan, wrote about Christians, “When there is among them a man that is poor and needy, and if they have not an abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days, that they may supply the needy with the necessary food.” Fellowship is a continuous action based on a common life. This testimony was powerful in the lives of the communities the believers dwelt. This was not a social gospel, where … READ MORE

What is the basis of Fellowship? In 1 John chapter 1 John begins the epistle by talking about his experience with the Word of life, who is none other than Christ whom he identified as the Word in his gospel (John 1:1). He saw the life of Christ manifested (v2) proclaimed that eternal life that comes through Christ and in verse 3 he says, “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” In other words the basis of our fellowship as Christians is SALVATION!. The goal of the gospel is not just to save an individual from hell, but to put a person into a fellowship: With God, and with others. We must recognize that every true believer is in the fellowship. The objective and the proclamation of the gospel is to make a person part of an eternal partnership, shared eternal life, shared partaking of the divine nature. This is most important because it means that every believer is entitled to full participation in that fellowship. Our responsibility the, in the fellowship, extends … READ MORE