{"id":5906,"date":"2021-08-25T11:47:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T17:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theclarion.org\/?p=5906"},"modified":"2021-08-25T11:49:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T17:49:38","slug":"thoughts-from-the-bible-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/?p=5906","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from The Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

What A Fellowship. . .<\/strong>
\nby Terrt Broome<\/em><\/p>\n

These are the first words of an old hymn that we don\u2019t sing so much anymore, but one which portrays the great joy a Christian can have when in a rightful relationship with the Lord. I remember them well from when I was a child singing to the top of my lungs:\u201cWhat a fellowship, what a joy divine,
\nLeaning on the everlasting arms;
\nWhat a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
\nLeaning on the everlasting arms; This song depicts our fellowship with the Lord, and the peace that comes from having Him so near. It\u2019s easy for us to see how that the fellowship described by song is about relationship. It certainly is far more than going to a meal together, or standing and visiting in the foyer. It\u2019s a relationship in which I know the Lord and He knows me and we walk together in one accord. I serve Him and He cares and provides for me because we are in this wonderful relationship.<\/p>\n

Now broaden the thought for a moment. John tells us in 1 John 1: 3, 6, 7 \u201cThat which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ . . . If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. . . But if we walk in the light as He is in the Light we have fellowship one with another . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes it seems we limit fellowship to something we do after a worship service, or on a special night of the week in a meal or fun time together. Indeed, these times are fellowship, but there\u2019s so much more to the word. Koinonia, signifies things we have in common, mutual caring and sharing. It\u2019s rendered as \u201ccommunion\u201d and \u201cfellowship\u201d in the Scriptures. It\u2019s the word used to describe our participation in the Lord\u2019s supper (1 Corinthians 10:16). It\u2019s also the word used to describe our walk together. Fellowship is all about the total relationship in which we as the body of Christ are involved with one another.
\nThe Apostle Paul saw the privilege of being with fellow Christians as an opportunity to \u201cimpart some spiritual gift\u201d and that \u201cwe may be mutually encouraged by each other\u2019s faith, both yours and mine\u201d (Romans 1:11-12).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important for Christians to come to see our need for one another in the whole scheme of things. God didn\u2019t write a \u201cgo it alone\u201d plan. Fellowship is an indispensable part of what the Christian faith is about and what it can do to enrich our lives. The mutual encouragement we gain is of great value in helping the saved to stay saved. If we today are only interested in our private relationship with God, we can\u2019t bring to the body of His Son the encouragement that is so badly needed, nor do we receive the same. We need to recover the biblical viewpoint about our life together in order to see what kind of fellowship God calls us to be.
\nThe author can be reached for comments at 256-574-2489.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What A Fellowship. . . by Terrt Broome These are the first words of an old hymn that we don\u2019t sing so much anymore, but one which portrays the great joy a Christian can have when in a rightful relationship with the Lord. I remember them well from when I was a child singing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5906"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5911,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions\/5911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}