Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

PASTOR'S PENS 2009

January 25th "Who practices hospitality entertains God Himself." A seminary professor asked one of his students to stay in his house during vacation as a protection against burglars. Aroused in the middle of the night by a strange sound, this student groggily groped for his glasses, but he had gone to sleep with one of his arms in an awkward position, cutting off circulation to the limb. As he reached for the dresser, he encountered his own now cold and clammy hand. Still half asleep, he leaped out of bed and shouted to his wife, "There's a hand under the bed!" So she bolted out of bed and began feeling the wall for the light switch when suddenly a thought occurs to him, "Why am I only using one hand?" Even before his wife turned on the light, the embarrassing truth dawned on him. The cold hand that he had felt under the bed was his own. That seminary student never forgot that incident. In an unforgettable lesson he learned a powerful and Biblical truth, when one member loses contact with other members, it becomes cold, isolated and confusion is a direct result. How like the Body of Christ. As believers, we not only belong to each other, we need each other! The Apostle Paul uses the illustration of the body to show how members of the body of Christ relate to one another. A Body represents a functioning church. God desires that every believer function within a Body of believers, a local church. That’s why the Bible teaches that fellowship is so important. The local church is to be a place where we experience in depth relationships and life long friendships are developed. But many of us have difficulty taking those first steps. It seems that the older we become, the less risks we want to take. We get comfortable, sometimes even when we’re miserable or lonely. So why do some believers dodge fellowship like it’s an IRS audit? a) Some avoid fellowship because they foolishly don’t believe that they need it. This is so American and so unbiblical. Almost from birth in this country, we’re taught to be independent, to be self-sufficient, to not need anyone. But Scripture clearly teaches that not only do we need God, we need each other. b) Some avoid fellowship because they’ve succumbed to busyness. When you talk to some believers about a fellowship opportunity, they’ll come up with a list of things they have going on. They’re working too much, or they have a project going on, or they need some “me” or “down time”. Most of us have more on our "To Do" list than we can humanly accomplish. You’ll never join an ABF or Bible study or even go to a fellowship event...if you wait until you have time. We need to understand that fellowship is a command that must be a spiritual priority, or it will never happen. c) Some avoid fellowship because they’ve allowed their physical family to completely crowd out their spiritual family. Sometimes we become so busy with our physical family, that we nearly forget that we have a spiritual family. When our children are young, there are the obvious care-giving responsibilities. That is followed by the school and sports schedule. As they get older, it often doesn’t stop, particularly if our adult child doesn’t quite have their act together. We often feel responsible to "rescue" them. This might be financial or just taking care of their children because they’re having difficulty adjusting to that responsibility. And when it comes to grandkids, it is very tough. We love them and they’re so innocent. We often fear that they’re going to suffer if we don’t intervene because their parents (our adult children) are not the mature responsible adults that they should be. Or, we miss out on fellowship because our spouse doesn’t want to be involved. Marriage means unity but we are not joined at the hip. Most of us work and are involved in other social activities apart from our spouse. If your spouse does not want to be involved in fellowship, yet it will not cause major issues in the marriage if you are, then be involved! Why should both of you miss out on God’s best. Balancing out our time, obligations, responsibilities and preferences are never easy. None of us can do everything. Sometimes we have to make tough choices. One part of our life that is too easily jettisoned though is fellowship. Let’s be candid. American culture does not value fellowship. We value activity. We value service. We value entertainment and recreation. We value personal growth…we don’t value community or fellowship, but God does. God knows that we need to break out of our easily cocooned worlds to expand and grow. Jane and I have been married over twenty-five years. We basically know how the other thinks and we agree most of the time. After twenty-five years, we are very similar in our approach to life and values. Over the years I have seen couples and families make terrible blunders because they only sought and listened to their own counsel. Their circles and worlds were too small. In a church family, fellowship expands us. It gets us out of our comfortable little worlds. It also gives us an opportunity to fulfill those New Testament commands of "one anothers." It’s also an opportunity for us to demonstrate or (and this one can sometimes be tougher) accept hospitality or service from someone else. It is very, very rare in the Bible for God to ever command us to do something alone. Scripture is filled with "one another" commands. God created local church families so that we would have spiritual relationships that become intimate, so we could encourage one another’s spiritual growth, so that we would enjoy one another’s company and companionship. Periodically, we design fellowship activities at Grace to help you grow and break out of your own world. Our upcoming Super Bowl Parties on February 1st is just another one of these opportunities. While 100% participation will probably never happen, that’s our goal, let me encourage you to make this fellowship opportunity a priority. Fellowship is a priority in God’s Word, right from the very beginning. Genesis 2:18 records for us, "The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’." Is it a priority for you?