On Friends and Fellows

Lately I've been discovering the difference between hanging out and fellowship... and what a difference it is. I just wonder how much time we Christians spend together just goofing off and talking about the same stuff everyone else is talking about.

Doesn't the Way, the path marked out for us, the Cultural Mandate, the Great commission, our sin, our Savior, our soul, our personal relationship with our father, our corporate relationship with him, our common brother/sisterhood in Christ garner enough to talk about?

Can't you just imagine where our souls would be if we were "fellowshiping" regularly? What if we were bringing the gospel, bringing Scripture to bear on our problems, on our jobs, on our families and relationships? Think of the healing, the deep fellowship with God, the deep understanding of his love, and the confidence of faith we would have. It would really make us new people.

I recognize that a small part of fellowship is just goofing off with one another, but it appears that we have taken that small chunk and let it become the whole. What percentage of my time with fellow Christians is in prayer, in studying the Word, in bringing the Christian worldview to bear on the issues of our day, in applying Scripture to our lives? It's gross!

In my life, it seems like I need to demarcate when is "Christian" time and when is "live lukewarm" time. Many are perfectly ok with this sacred/secular split in their lives. I can't do that.

God, would you set me free to be a whole person- a single personality? Help me to follow you in this area. The gospel gives me confidence in cutting against the grain- I'm already accepted in the eyes of you, my Father, so if people see me as strange so be it. Instead of my own feeble love, help me point people to Christ- to the cross. Instead of my own advice which seems so damn smart to me sometimes, help me point people to Scripture. Forgive me for my failing to obey in this way. Lord, help me to be receptive to your Spirit as I try to engage in real fellowship.

Nancy Pearcey is on fire

"It is a common assumption that, in order to survive, churches must accommodate to the age. But in fact, the opposite is true: In every historical period, the religious groups that grow most rapidly are those that set believers at odds with the surrounding culture. As a general principle, the higher a group's tension with mainstream society, the higher its growth rate."
Nancey Pearcey, Total Truth, p. 261.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
(from Psalm 73:23)

Nevertheless:
This verse begins where it should: with the gospel. Read what precedes verse 23. The writer was being terrible, a brute towards God. Ignorant and foolish. What would we expect on this man from a righteous and just God? God's wrath? At the very least, God just leaving him to your own devices? No. In spite of all that, (Nevertheless), God remains with him and 100% for him. Why? Because Christ absorbed God's wrath for us, we get God.

I:
Me!. Not you, the world, my city, my church, my family, my friends, "Christians", or Billy Graham. God is here right now, 1am Saturday morning. What's more is that he was there this week as I struggled through a dark, difficult, lonely week. Check your calendar- whatever events have have happened or will happen, whether you like it or not, God exercises his omnipresence and is now with you. As you read this, he reads with you- and smiles.

am:
Isn't the crux of it? Is God really with me? Isn't he off doing more important things? But it doesn't feel like he's here. I can't see him. But things are going wrong. I keep sinning- he's probably left me by now. But my world is caving in... No matter what it looks like. The writer here affirms the truth that changes any situation: "I am with you, God."

continually:
What happens when something goes wrong between a husband and a wife? "I'm going to leave now"? "I'm going to go somewhere for a few weeks"? Is your relationship on the line if you screw up? No. How you'll work things out may be unclear, but the endpoint is crystal. If you're my wife this will be understood: "I'm not going anywhere. I will always be with you no matter what. We will figure this out." What a truth: that our maker has walked the aisle with you and me. I am his and he is mine. What? And get this, we are the ones who deserve to be left. Nevertheless, he says, "I am continually with you and I'll be with you until forever."

with:
What does it mean for God to be with us? Does it just mean relating in some sort of God-creature sense? Some sort of, "I'll be observing you from heaven?". When God says he is with us, he means something far deeper than just standing beside us. He is with us in a way that 2 grieving parents who have lost a child are with each other- with a tenderness that only comes through deep common understanding.

You're lonely? His whole life was spent with people who were nothing like him. He was betrayed by someone close to him. He knows in the depth of his soul the pang of loneliness. Maybe you're doing great- you've been hanging out with your friends. He did that too! He went on a 3-year roadtrip with a bunch of buddies, enjoying all the joy and laughter that human relationships afford. Wherever you are, he's been there himself. When the writer says he is with God, realize all that this means.

you:
The best part. It's not just that you're not alone- that you're with "someone". No one can say, "Oh, I know God's with me but...". You are forgetting who you are dealing with. How mind-bending to say "I am with God"? Who are we talking about? Turn to Isaiah 6 if you're not boggled by just the thought of God being with you. When Isaiah, the most righteous, upright man in Israel takes one peek at this God, he's done. "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” His robe fills the temple. This holy, awesome being that strikes fear into all who catch distant glimpse of him... is with you. Crazy.

The Brothers Karamazov

How deeply resonating/convicting. I read this book last summer but it took a post by Justin Taylor to remind me of this passage.

“I love mankind,” he said, “but I am amazed at myself: the more I love mankind in general, the less I love people in particular, that is, individually, as separate persons. In my dreams,” he said, “I often went so far to think passionately of serving mankind, and, it may be, would really have gone to the cross for people if it were somehow suddenly necessary, and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone even for two days, this I know from experience. As soon as someone is there, close to me, his personality oppresses my self-esteem and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours I can begin to hate even the best of men: one because he takes too long eating his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps blowing his nose. I become the enemy of people the moment they touch me,” he said. “On the other hand, it has always happened that the more I hate people individually, the more ardent becomes my love for humanity as a whole.”

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Politics

This sums up much of my thinking on politics.

Just for a moment

The feelings, thoughts, and memories, that storm my mind tonight
All shrink into the pink and blue of fading, gentle light

Quick Question

Ok, think about all the letters that Paul writes. Within all those letters, think about all the exhortations he gives- love one another, humble yourselves, give generously, etc. My question is this- and think right away, don't just answer.

Why does it seem relatively rare for Paul to exhort members of his churches to evangelize?