Category: Kingdom Community

Fellowship and koinonia

speak the truth in love

The Words Of Jesus Produce Growth

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“Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:15-16 NIV). The words of Jesus produce growth. It is an amazing truth that we are actually part of the body of Jesus Christ, the Saviour. He is the head, the one who is in charge, and we are all parts of him, people who he is coordinating all around the world as one whole. But the main point today is that it is from Jesus and the words of Jesus that growth comes. Our connection to Christ is the channel of our spiritual growth. And, dare we say, if our connection is weak our spiritual growth will be Continue Reading →

teamwork harmony people

How To Get Along With Difficult People

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If we want to live in full harmony with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, then it is essential that we learn to die to self in every way. If we don’t learn to do this, then we will not be able to love and get along with difficult people. It is not easy to live in oneness with others and to steer away from complaining and grudges. We will be blessed if we learn to live in peace until we die, for Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matt. 5:8 (ESV) Even when we have to work through a disagreement we can learn to do it peacefully and “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). In order to get along with difficult people we should think of ourselves as pilgrims on this earth. We are just traveling through this place so Continue Reading →

orchestra

What Is Biblical Fellowship? Everyone Contributes!

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If we ask ourselves the question “what does scripture say should happen when believers gather together” (i.e. the weekly service) we might be surprised. One thing that dominates the various passages (Rom. 12:6-10; I Cor. 11:17-24;I Cor. 14:26-33; Gal. 6:2; Eph. 5:19-21; Col. 3:16; Heb. 10:24-25; James 5:14-16) is that there should be the mutual exercise of gifts to edify one another. This may not seem radical at first, but it is rare and it is biblical fellowship. How many Sunday services have you been to where many different people exercise gifts to edify others in a mutual way? Usually the preacher does nearly all the ministry. Preaching is important but is this biblical fellowship? It is true that the worship time is a time when people other than the pastor exercise their gifts. But where are the different people exercising the various gifts in Romans 12 (e.g., exhorting, teaching, Continue Reading →

union marriage

The Wonder Of Our Future Oneness With God

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Last week we looked at the scriptural progression of vision, Christformation and “spiritual marriage” or oneness with God. This week we look at what our oneness with God will look like. We know that we will not be one essence with God – we are only created beings and God is uncreated. We also know that we don’t know a lot about the details of our final destiny. I John 3:2 explains that what we will be has not yet been revealed. With these thoughts in mind we can reflect on some of what we do know. Reflecting on the marriage analogy used in Ephesians 5 and Revelation 19 and 21 we understand that whatever our relationship to God will be, it will be an intimate one, for this is one of the essential features of marriage. We also understand that we will enjoy affectionate feelings for one another, analogous to Continue Reading →

humility, shame

Self-Rejection Keeps You From Connecting With Others

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Shame can be described as a sense of embarrassment, dishonor, disgrace or inadequacy. These feelings come from something you did or thought that contradicts what you believe to be good or valuable (this is essentially guilt which is a precursor to shame). Just the fact that we fall short of our own standards of good produces shame in all of us. We want to hide our weakness from others because we want them to value us. This is why it is normal for people to display their best self to others, which probably helps society stay civilized. But we also naturally display a false self in many situations, which keeps us from truly connecting with others. We use our false self to cover up our shame, for example, pretending that we have our life all together when actually we are broken or struggling. It takes time, but we need to Continue Reading →