THE JOY OF FELLOWSHIP

THE JOY OF FELLOWSHIP

                Church membership in America and around many parts of the world is shrinking these days. There are many reasons for this including the seeming irrelevance of the message to the fact that many things are going on in the world and preachers are no longer addressing these issues or showing us from the Bible what they mean. For instance, Paul Begley has an online church of over 300,000 who pay their tithes there and gather in front of their TVs or computers to hear about today’s events as they apply to bible prophecy. And there are dozens of other on-line prophetic ministries with large memberships.

                Large numbers of people are looking for answers. Many sense that we are entering end time events and yet you can hardly find a church anywhere that will address the issues of our day according to Bible prophecy. To get prophetic information today you almost have to go on line or to prophetic seminars such as are being held throughout America these days. And on line you have to sort through a whole lot of crazy ideas and offshoot movements to get to the real thing.

                In 2014 the events of the blood moons stirred up my curiosity about the feasts of Israel, especially since the fall feasts have not yet been fulfilled and my discovery that end time prophecies are framed in the fall feasts, Bonnie and I began attending a Messianic congregation to gain more understanding. As fate would have it we fell in love with the people there and stayed for over 4 years until God called us to Tennessee. But he biggest lesson we learned there was the importance of vital fellowship with God’s people.  For this reason we need to rediscover the small congregations that have largely been abandoned in America

                 There is no longer a sense of prophetic destiny beyond waiting for the rapture. Today’s events are no longer being understood and taught within the framework of Bible prophecy and so today, most Christians don’t know where we came from or where we are headed. We no longer have an apocalyptic view of our destiny and purpose in the world.

                Due to a loss of prophetic destiny today many Christians flock to the mega churches where at least they can enjoy the amenities of high tech worship and good self-help advice. There is even a certain amount of disdain for Bible Prophecy as being archaic and irrelevant in today’s world and this in spite of the fact that major end time events are taking shape in the world that should have everyone on the edge of their seats.

                I know and understand the trends and problems in the Christian world today and the growing hunger for the Word of God that is no longer being filled, so I understand something of the complacency of many Christians. So few Christians really dig into the Word and with prayer seek to understand anything other than a few promises that will help them make it through the day.

                I believe with all of my heart that the Lord led Bonnie and I to the Messianic Congregation in Washington for a purpose. It wasn’t to learn the Jewish traditions per se or to begin to observe the Feast days, for indeed we left there with a greater experiential understanding of the meaning of the feasts, but with no sense of conviction that we should actually observe the feast days. For us they are types and shadows of a much greater truth and one can get caught up in the traditions without ever understanding these greater truths implied. But we greatly respect the convictions of those we came to know and love there as friends for eternity.

                The truth is God led us there to take us out of a mega church and to plant us in a small congregation where we could get to know and to love the Body of Christ and to make a difference by being there. From the very beginning the Lord told us to go there to love and to serve. In fact a person can’t really know what church is all about until one sees the church as a family or a body in which every organ and part is essential to the well-being of the family. Many have lost their  sense of purpose for belonging.

                Jesus Himself designed the church as a living organism of which He is the Head and I tend to believe that people in the mega churches have lost the point of what church is all about. Belonging to a close family within itself is part of a prophetic purpose, because it is in knowing and loving each other that we help and encourage each other and pray for each other and minister to each other in ways that will help us not only in the now, but in the apocalyptic events that are currently breaking the rest of the world apart.

                I think that many Christians in attending mega-churches for their entertainment factor have missed the whole point of church. With no sense of the body of Christ as a functioning organism in which each one of us can make a difference by operating in the gifts that Jesus has supplied to us, are going to find themselves falling away when times get tough and mega churches begin to collapse because they are more money driven and membership driven rather than Holy Spirit driven.

                I believe that Christianity needs to rediscover the small church… the tight family… the body that depends on every organ in order to survive and to grow. And we need to be restored to an understanding that when we are not contributing to the life of the family, then it suffers and gets sick just like a physical body suffers when one of its organs is not functioning properly. The difference between a tumor and an organ, is that the tumor only feeds itself at eh expenses of the Body, but an organ is vitally involved in and an integral part of the health of the Body.

                In truth Bible prophecy should not be handed down from the top. Pastors are shepherds. They care for their sheep and feed them and lead them to green pastures and beside still waters. They bring people to the feet of Jesus to the foot of the cross to an awe of the Word. After all, what good is Bible prophecy if it is not accompanied with a commensurate preparing of one’s soul for eternity?

                And while we should look for a church with strong biblical foundations and teaching, we should not really see the church as a repository of information and prophetic interpretations. The Bible tells us everything we need to know and rather than waiting for some pope or some extra-biblical “infallible” source to tell us what to believe, we are challenged in the Bible to study to show ourselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of Truth. 2 Tim. 2:15

                The truth of the matter is this: When we stand before God neither our pastor nor our denomination will be standing there with us. Each one of us must give an account to God and He is not going to ask us what our church believes, or what denomination we belong to … He is going to ask us what WE believe and if we have lived by it. And His questions are going to have a whole lot more to do with our love for God and for each other than they will have to do with either doctrine or prophetic interpretations. Jesus said that they will know we ae Christians by our love and so true Agape love must be our goal in this life.

                God is interested in our hearts more than anything. Did we diligently seek Him? Did we learn to love Him? Did we help and love others? Did we speak the word and give our testimony? Did we use our gifts to bless others? Did we help others along the way? Were we actually a part of the body of Christ or just and onlooker?

                When faced with such questions it is going to sound mighty feeble to say that you attended a mega church for all of its perks and you remained anonymous and you came and you went without interacting with others and you essentially lived like the world all week because well  “church is church and business is business. That won’t fly with God.

                The idea that we are called to be disciples being taught directly by the Lord is largely lost. And the idea of fellowship and fidelity to your fellow family members in the Body of Christ is largely missing today as well. In truth we should probably run from big churches with all of their fancy hi tech accoutrements and we should seek membership in a solid Bible based, Spirit filled, born again church family where instead of being entertained, we can actually use our God given talents and gifts to bless and encourage those around us.

                When the Lord turned Bonnie and I around and guided us to such a place, He immediately plugged us in and put us to work in blessing those around us. He took our talents and spiritual gifts that had been languishing for many years into service and now we live with a sense that our destinies are being fulfilled according to God’s plan for us. We have become a living part of His Body and there is nothing that can compare to that sense of belonging or the love that binds us together.

                Some who are strongly denominationally oriented will argue that we belong to the wrong organization because they don’t teach this and keep that or have this certain prophetic view, but like I said, I don’t look to an organization to dictate to me what I must believe. I agree with the solid biblical foundations of my church, but beyond that, I study for myself and I seek to enter within the veil. All of us are in the process of bonding with Christ and with each other, or we are not really a part of the Body.

                Our fellowship is first of all with Jesus Christ. In this relationship I have learned that one cannot truly enter into His rest until one is truly dead. As long as flesh is in control then we have no rest, but when the Holy Spirit is in control, then we have entered into the rest. This “REST” represented by the Sabbath in the Law is something that the Law could only point forward to, but could not provide. Israel failed to enter that REST because of unbelief. It is a rest found in Christ alone.

                But each person must follow the convictions of his own heart and the results of his own study, for as Romans 14 teaches us, each person must be convinced in his own mind and that which is not of faith is sin. We need to study Romans chapter 14 very carefully in this matter. Each of us will stand before God to give an account of our lives and therefore we must own what we believe and live by it.

                Bonnie and I have learned the joy of fellowship that comes from belonging to a church family. And we have found that where doctrine is not being dictated, you have more individuals within the congregation that are studying for themselves. They know what they believe because it has come to them by revelation as they studied the Word for themselves. On the contrary in denominations where every facet of truth is interpreted and dictated… people presume to have the truth even though most of the m could never show you from scripture why they believe what they believe. We need to own what we believe… not as something imposed upon us, but something that we have discovered by divine revelation as we sought truth through diligent study and prayer.

                Take the church of the Dark Ages as an example. They set up one “infallible” Pope as the final authority and then kept the Bible away from the laity so that they could not study for themselves. Millions were burned at the stake for daring to vary even slightly from the official interpretation of the church. Thousands were hunted down and exterminated because they would not come under the dictatorship of that largely pagan religion. But did all of this dictatorship make for better Christians? No, and in fact the world descended into barbarism and ignorance and moral decay.

                The same thing is happening today in America. People flock to mega churches to be entertained even as our nation goes down the moral and spiritual drain. America’s fabric is no longer made up of thousands of small church families knitted together in love. We live today in a new kind of isolation and so the joy of fellowship has largely been lost as America fragments into hundreds of opposing factions… divided by an ever deepening hatred.

                Bonnie and I love our church… not because we are touting one denomination or another, but because we are a family. We love each other and pray for each other. We are one in the Spirit and one in the Word and we not only minister to each other but we minister to the community as well, feeding and clothing the poor and reaching out to those in need. We know that we are in the last days and that being a part of the Body of Christ is our best defense. I pray that you too have become a vital part of a church family. It’s not a matter of “My church is better than your church.” It is a matter of belonging to the Body of Christ in a way that you can become a    vital and functioning organ in the Body.

                Within the church there are people at all levels of spiritual experience and knowledge and so there is no end to the encouragement that we can give to those who are maybe behind us on the trail, as well as to be blessed by those who may be ahead of us. This is how the Body of Christ was intended to function and so I say that America’s hope today is in those small close knit families that make up the moral and spiritual fabric a blessed society.

                How about you my friend? Are your talents and spiritual gifts being used in the body of Christ or are you just an anonymous person in a large crowd? Has the Lord plugged you into a part of the body where you can actually make a difference in people’s lives? Does your church family actually miss you when you aren’t there? Do they even know? Do they lift you up when you are down and do they count on you to lift them up when they are down?

                We need to redefine what the Body of Christ is and we need to rediscover the joy of fellowship.