Pastor John,
I loved reading this random thought for the day. It reminded me of my relationship with sister Natalie. I had known her my whole life; she was there when I was born. Jesus put us together! I thank him for that. I miss her greatly. She was the friend that made me stay close to Jesus to be her friend. Our relationship was strictly Jesus; he was the common denominator. We never one time went shopping together – Not that there is anything wrong with shopping, but it was just a connection beyond this world and what people call love or friendship. If she didn’t hear from me in a day or two, she would call me and say, “What have you and Jesus been talking about?” When I needed it, she would even say, “That doesn’t sound like God.” She pushed me closer to Jesus!
We all need to have and to be that kind of friend. Paul said “She showed you how to be that kind of friend; so be it! “
Here is that Thought for Today that I read:
Love Is Not Fellowship
From a conversation with Brother Stuart
Hi Pastor John,
While I was staying at your home this weekend, I dreamed that I was visiting some saints at their home, along with a group of other saints. There was about 8 to 10 people gathered there, and we were sitting around talking about God and other things in general. Everyone there loved one another, and we had a good time. But when I left there, I felt like something was missing. Something did not feel right. I felt a little ashamed.
Then the scene changed, and I was at another saint’s home. There was about the same number of people there, but different people, and you could feel the Spirit flowing from breast to breast, one to another. It was wonderful. We were doing the same thing as was the group in the first home, and we all loved one another as in the first home, but the feelings were so strong here! Even when we did not say anything, it was there.
Then the scene changed again, and I was sitting in your office talking to you, and I was saying, “The Father loved the Son, and the Son loved the Father, and the love was going back and forth from the Son to the Father, and from the Father to the Son.” And then you said, “It takes more than just love; it takes fellowship.”
And instantly, like a light bulb going off in my mind, I knew what God was showing me in the dream. I love a lot of people and would do whatever I can for any one of them, but love does not make fellowship. That is something that is only given by God, and I can’t tell anyone how to have fellowship any more than I can tell anyone who God is and make them understand it.
Bro. Stuart
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Hi Brother Stuart.
I like the way you said it to me here in my office. “Trying to explain fellowship is like trying to explain God.” That is true.
Fellowship is when we have the same mind and share the same feelings and judgments about matters in this life. There have been people in my life whom I knew and loved for twenty or thirty years, or more; they were in prayer meetings many years; we went places and did things together; and yet, I never had fellowship with them. They never knew it, because they never knew God. Or me. Or even themselves, really.
Fellowship includes loving people, but fellowship is not love. It is more than that. It is the unity that Jesus and the Father had and that Jesus prayed we would have, in John 17. And where there is that kind of harmony among the children of God, there is peace, healing, and sound judgment for the good of the body of Christ.
Pastor John
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Jammie