Fellowship

 "But if we walk in the light,

as he is in the light,

we have fellowship [boldness added] one with another,

and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."

-The first Epistle of John

 1 John 1:7

If you're like me, you've probably heard some phrases and words of which you have no clue what they mean. You may even say them, and never even think twice about it.

Being raised in a Christian home, I not only heard the word fellowship many times, but said it many times, as my church is named Christ Fellowship Church of Aurora. (CFCAurora.org if you'd like to get some of our amazing sermons. )

So, you may ask: "What exactly is fellowship?"

I'm glad you asked. ;)

At first glance most people including myself thought of things like socializing, talking, conversing, and discussing.

According to Dr. Jerry Benjamin, who preached a powerful sermon at our church Oct 21 there's a difference between socializing and fellowship.

Socializing is: Sharing common interests

Fellowship is: Sharing the Lord in common.

The Greek word for fellowship is koinōnia 

And you can check it out here.

Also, my Recommendation of the Week

is a website i just found called http://greattreasures.org/. Good site for Greek words.

Essentially, it means communion, communication or distribution, or participation.

Apparently the word koinōnia is used 20 times in the Bible, which I found out from that site. :)

I believe that Christian fellowship is nearly gone in our day and age.
It's hard to imagine what it would look like if that was what Christians were doing whenever they saw each other.

Just sharing testimonies of the Lord, sharing each others burdens through prayer.
Whether it's sharing what God has done in your life recently,
Sharing how awesome His Word, His Biblical principles, His love, His truth, and His Spirit are.
Or asking questions and learning about God's ways from those more experienced in certain areas. 

If we're walking with in the light as God is, we will have fellowship with each other.
Let's make sure that we keep on learning from the godly examples that are around us, encouraging the ones who look up to us, and being an example of all believers in word, conversation, charity, spirit, faith and purity.

Testimony
It was incredible last Sunday to share tracts, Bibles, and the gospel in Naperville with a group from our congregation, and then to share TONS of stories afterwards of what God did in 45 minutes.
Praise the Lord that my group was able to talk to about 7 people with various ages, backgrounds, and religions, but they each got the Word of God. :) Plus we handed out many more tracts for those who didn't have time to talk.
Looking forward to next time too, and hopefully you all can come too!

"Iron sharpeneth iron,

so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."

-Proverbs 27:17

I thank God for all of you.
Praise the Lord for fellowship!

Times may be getting a lot tougher for us Christians very soon, as of yesterday, but what's great about the tribulations that are coming is not only do we have the Lord on our side, but tribulations result in more courage. I pray we continue to impact our country one person at a time for God's glory. :)

God bless you all this week!
With the love of Christ,
Landon